Advent Conspiracy: Worship Fully

**This post is part of a series of posts interacting with Advent Conspiracy: Can Christmas Still Change the World?**

Each year Advent brings another opportunity to worship Jesus in the miracle of his Incarnation, when God revealed himself to people in a new way.  Nearly every character who encounters the infant King in the Advent story has the same response: worship.  Their worship sprang from deep places of the heart that were touched for the first time by God-in -the-flesh.  Such worship challenges old beliefs about God and what it means to be present with him. (Advent Conspiracy, 35)

For most all of us, Christmas (and the season leading up to it called "Advent") is almost singularly focused on one thing: the birth of Jesus (unless you're a bit geeky about church tradition and the Christian calendar -  but I'm in a small group there).  Rightly, we wrap a lot of meaning up in with baby Jesus in his swaddling clothes, among which are the following:

• He's the Savior of the world (says Mary's song in Luke 1, and the big verse from John 3);
• He's the one who will switch everything around, making the last first and the first last (Mary's song again);
• He's God in flesh (John 1) - which means God is with us and we can see God with our eyes, sort of.

I've found Advent Conspiracy challenging because it has basically led me to question for myself: "Okay, if I believe all this about Jesus, then how does everything I typically do to celebrate Advent and Christmas fit with it?"  Said in a different way for all of us, "Do the things you do to celebrate Advent and Christmas, the things you busy yourself with now, do they correspond (do they fit) with what you believe about Jesus?"

I don't think there can be much finger-pointing here.  We as individuals and families (and maybe as friends or groups of families), we'll have to determine this for ourselves.  It may mean we have to take a hard look in the mirror.  It may mean we have to rethink our budgets or Christmas lists, or even our gift lists.

What it will definitely mean is that we will worship.  The Christmas story, when we truly focus on it, impels us to worship God - a God who would take on flesh in order to draw all Creation to Godself.  Mary worshipped when she found out she was pregnant and what that would mean.  Joseph worshipped (well...sort of...after he almost ditched Mary).  The shepherds and angels worshipped in the fields and surrounding the birthplace.  And eventually, the Magi (wisemen/three kings) worshipped Jesus and brought him kingly gifts.  And in order to worship fully, we may need to make some new priorities - for our time, our money, and our schedules.