Company is Coming

By Mike Glenn

I didn't grow up in a liturgical church and as a result, I was in seminary before I was introduced to the Christian year. The small Baptist churches I grew up in started preaching about Christmas the Sunday after Thanksgiving and we started with the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem. Imagine my confusion when I encountered Advent and realized liturgical churches didn't preach the Christmas story until December 25. Advent, the four weeks before Christmas, was a time of preparation. Those of us who tried to introduce the Advent calendar for our Baptist congregations were left bewildered when Advent would start on Thanksgiving Sunday. Most of us would end up trying to squish both sermons together like a leftover Thanksgiving Christmas sandwich.

Not only did Advent not bring up Christmas in December, but the first Sunday of Advent wasn't about the birth of Jesus, but about the Second Coming. Understand, I had grown up in Alabama during the Cold War. Second coming sermons were preached at least every other week, but never at Christmas. Every month or so, another anti-Christ would be introduced into our discussions. We became very creative in finding ways to come up with 666 from people's names. Still preaching the Second Coming in December was a little weird to us. Christmas is about angels and Mary, wise men and shepherds and a baby in a manger. The sky splitting arrival of Jesus to claim His church didn't seem to fit in the middle of Santa Claus and Baby Jesus.

Finally, a Presbyterian friend of mine, who was also raised in Alabama like me, helped me understand the Advent message. When I told him I didn't understand the season of Advent, he laughed and said to me, "Yes, you do, Mike. All Advent says is 'company's coming.'" And you know what? I got that. In the south, every home and business have its version of "company is coming." One summer, I worked in a cotton mill. When we showed up for our shift, if the floor boss yelled out, "Company's coming!" we initiated a well-planned and often rehearsed plan to clean the mill for our visitors. The "company" were the mill owners from New York who were coming through town on an inspection tour. When company owners came through, we cleaned the first three looms on every row so the plant would look good as they walked through.

My mother had the same call. If I came home from school and my mother said, "Company's coming," my brother and I had specific things to do to prepare our home to receive guests. Garbage cans were emptied, the guest bathroom was cleaned, and our bedrooms had to be presentable from the bedroom door. If my mother ended up giving a tour of our house, our bedrooms had to look good from the doorway as our guests would walk by.

And now, on this first Sunday of Advent, the prophets yell to the church, "Company's coming!"

And we all know what should be done. We know what needs to be cleaned up. We know what needs to be discarded. We know what needs to be put away. Yet, for some reason, we won't do any of it. We'll put it off until next year. After all, there's no need to try and change our life during the holidays. Life is too crazy during Christmas. We'll just make any needed actions a New Year's resolution.

Another year will come, and another year will go and still nothing will change. I'm reminded of everyone else who was in Bethlehem when Christ was born. They missed the most amazing thing that had ever happened in the world -- God coming to us in the birth of Jesus. They had the same prophets we do. They knew company was coming. They just didn't do anything about it.

No one thought He would come today.

We never do.

Company comes...

and we're going to be at the mall.