‘Some assembly required’ applies to life lessons, too “
Human beings, vegetables, or cosmic dust, we all dance to a mysterious tune intoned in the distance by an invisible prayer” – Albert Einstein One of the memories I have of my kids growing up is the look on their faces on Christmas morning. That look of wonder and glee at opening their presents as wrapping paper went flying around the room like a whirling dervish, with the cat chasing the ribbon and the dog finding the most inconvenient place to lay down.
More often than not each of them would get distracted and want to tear open the box to get to the whatever was inside. “Not yet!” we’d have to say. “Finish unwrapping everything, then we can open boxes.” As parents, we were worried about losing one the pieces or something getting scooped up with the wrapping paper and thrown out, yet before too long, everything was unwrapped and we could begin the arduous process of opening boxes, untwisting ties, cutting plastic clips, tearing our way through adult proof cellophane and moving to the next step of Christmas morning... assembling the items while (mostly) following the instructions.
It seems one of the little pieces of information that we rarely acknowledge is that Advent and Christmas both have the warning label, “some assembly required.” Even after all the decorations are up, gifts sent and ordered online, food cooked, baking done and lights hung – there is still assembly required.
Davey Barry notes that, “All of us are born with a set of instinctive fears – of falling, of the dark, of lobsters, of falling on lobsters in the dark, of speaking before a Rotary Club, and of the words “some assembly required.”
For people of faith this shouldn’t come as a particular surprise and doesn’t need to be something that we’re afraid of. The whole experience of Advent is deeply rooted in a period of waiting that acknowledges that our living faith and sense of discipleship is always in the process of being assembled. Each Sunday of Advent with its focus on hope, peace, joy and love cause us to remember that simply receiving them, freely and without reservation through God’s grace, isn’t the end, but only the begging. They all have some assembly required. Receiving them is one thing. Assembling them within our lives with their complex set of social interactions and community relationships – that’s something completely different. Sometimes we get it right. Sometimes the instructions don’t seem to make any sense. Sometimes when we think we’re all done we find a piece that we missed and we must take everything apart and start all over again. Life is like that. Faith is like that. There’s always some assembly required.
Thankfully, the scriptures are full of people just like us. They get some things right, make lots of mistakes, understand what’s being asked of them and then completely mess it up. In other words, they’re works in progress just like us. The amazing thing for me is that in the midst of it all the Christ assures us that we are not alone. The apostle Paul preaches that nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ. The New Creed of The United Church of Canada professes “we are not alone.” Yes, there is some assembly required, yet we do that in the presence of the Christ and in the context of inclusive fellowship amid sacred community.
As the Advent season nears its end and the Christmas seasons looms ahead, may we not fear the words “some assembly required” and instead enter that experience of being reshaped and remade this Advent and Christmas season with the hope that is ours in Christ. May each of us own the parts of us that are still being assembled and find support for that process within the incarnation of the holy mystery that is God. May these two seasons remind us that even in the darkness and uncertainty of life Christ is there to help us assemble the pieces and that together, in community, even the most challenging parts of life can be assembled.