This past Sunday, as we slowly emerged from our food comas and tried to forget what happened in the Swamp on Saturday, we celebrated the beginning of a new church year. There was no big ball drop, and we didn’t invite Dick Clark, Ryan Seacrest, and the NewKidsOnTheBlock/BackstreetBoys Reunion Band to host and perform on Sunday—but it was New Year’s nonetheless.

The church marks its calendar in such a way that doesn’t begin the year with the triumphant Christmas Day, but rather with a season of waiting and anticipating. In his devotional book on Advent, United Methodist pastor Adam Hamilton shares:

“Advent is the way the church prepares for Christmas. Since sometime in the late fifth or early sixth century, this season has been a time to recall the meaning of Christmas. The word Advent is from the Latin adventus, and it means “coming.” Christians use this opportunity both to recall Jesus’ coming to the earth as a babe in Bethlehem and to prepare themselves for his promised return to earth.”

It is a timeless season in which we acknowledge the past, the present, the future, and the way in which God has been, is, and will be present and active in all of them. There is something profound about starting with waiting and preparation rather than a big party.

As guest preacher Rev. Rwth Ashton shared on Sunday, the first theme of Advent, and perhaps the most critical, is hope. Hope is found in the waiting and preparation, not the possessing or the present celebration.

Christmas has truly become a season for our world as well, starting earlier every year. Yet our time is not about products, presents, and perfection. Our time is about presence, preparation, and (p)reflection (it almost worked perfectly…).

The Scriptures we looked at this week, especially the ones from Isaiah, remind us that we look forward to the incarnation—God becoming human. The infinite becoming finite for us. The perfect bearing the consequences of imperfection for us. The Light coming into the darkness we so willingly create and embrace.

As this semester winds down, exams approach, and you finally head home to be with your friends and families, perhaps you can remember that it is a new year. Instead of making self-focused resolutions in January, maybe we can make God-focused resolutions now as we wait and prepare for the advent of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.