A World of Slogans

We live in world marked by its desire to market catchy, memorable slogans.  Certainly some will stand the test of time like Nike's "Just Do It" or the Marine's "The Few, The Proud, The Marines."  When one asks you to name these marketing schemes, it isn't often that you meet someone that doesn't know them.

This idea of marketability has transcended into much of our lives- 'If it isn't memorable then it is forgettable' I was once told.  We see it in acronyms like KISS (Keep it simple stupid), in prayers (God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can and the wisdom to know the difference), and in quotable statements like "A child will be born to us..."

In this season of Advent, we are invited to pause, to wait, to ponder the interaction of God and humanity.  We are invited to the ancient testimony of the simplicity of the story of a young family's journey and birth of their firstborn.  We are invited to enter the peace of a silent night as the Incarnate One lays in the manger, fast asleep.

And we don't just observe, we receive an invitation...invited to be a part of the story, to be intimately involved in the story!  This baby isn't just a joy to his parents, but to the entire cosmos! And much later, this child tells a parable about a Great Banquet in which all are invited and there is enough for each one!  "For God's ways are not our ways" Isaiah reminds us.

This season, we are invited to feast at this banquet once more.  Yet a part of the story that we may miss is that it isn't just our banquet, it is the banquet of all.  Are you making space for the 'others' at the table?  Are you passing the goodness of this table to those on your right and on your left? 

Are you willing to spend less this year on gifts and decorations and all that stuff that is marketed to us deemed the 'important' part of the season and instead give what you didn't spend away?  Are you willing to help provide the most basic thing- water- to another that they may have life? 

Perhaps the marketing slogan we need to have echoing in our minds this season is this-
        "Less is More!"

For certainly this is the very essence of our Christmas story, isn't it?