Advent demands of us a time of intentional spiritual discipline so that we can prepare for a guest who arrives in guises we don't recognize and telling wondrous stories we don't always understand. For to invite someone to the intimacy of your home, making each room of your heart available for visiting and residence, is an exercise in vulnerability that we seldom recognize until we are caught off guard by the guest who doesn't show up in exactly the mood we would have preferred.

Advent asks us to prepare for the unanticipated, to open ourselves to the possibilities of surprise, to make ourselves vulnerable to the party turning out differently than we'd planned. Just as we clean up for company, and on Sunday mornings put on our best clothes while putting forward our best efforts, in Advent we're called to prepare not just for holiday cheer but also for God to be newly birthed again at the very center of our lives.

Paul, in his letter to the Thessalonian Christians, calls this preparation the strengthening of our hearts in holiness. Notice, however, that Paul does not demand that the Christians at Thessalonica be holy; rather, Paul prays that God will strengthen their hearts in holiness. Paul knows that this is precisely why they all need each other, for holiness isn't a spiritual state we arrive at, but a journey on which we embark together in community. Holiness, Paul knows, is something that describes God, not ourselves; but to be ourselves, Paul recognizes, we are called as God's people to journey towards God together, learning as we go "to increase and abound in love for one another and for all."

During Advent one of the surprising themes in our lectionary readings is the return of Christ at the end of time, the greatest surprise perhaps being that the one who ushers in God's reign is none other than the child from Bethlehem, the lamb who now lies down with the lion. Advent gives us pause to remember that Christ's presence in our midst is always known in the lives around us of those who are most vulnerable to harm, who are so weighed down by "the worries of this life" that their only hope is that love may so abound among God's people that they will be remembered in their distress, and offered bread and not a stone to eat.

Advent One this year falls two days after we have remembered those who have died from HIV/AIDS. Louie Stewart has done an exceptional job of including on our web site gallery the pictures of friends and loved ones that the St. Thomas' community wants to remember in particular. It reminded me of what Andrew Sullivan - commentator, former editor of The New Republic, a practicing Roman Catholic, and himself HIV-positive - writes of AIDS in his book entitled Love Undetectable.