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Growing up in my family meant a steady flow of house guests throughout the year. While it was mostly old friends and relatives, even the occasional exchange student, college student on a choir tour, or backpacking scout leader from New Zealand might come to stay. When we got news that someone was passing through, my siblings and I would have our marching orders.

Each of us had a room to clean and other tasks to do, sheets to wash, beds to make and so on. The thought was that our cleaning, work, and preparation formed a love language wherein our hospitality communicated to our guests exactly how much we valued them and welcomed them. It was often imperfectly carried out (enthusiasm does not necessarily translate to skill) but generally appreciated. Some of our favorite memories are from our guests, both expected and unexpected.

This comes to mind reflecting on our Gospel from Matthew for this Sunday, the first Sunday of Advent. Once again, we find ourselves in a season of preparation: For Christ coming at Christmas, Christ coming at the end of all things and Christ coming to meet us in our daily lives. The first two weeks of Advent typically focus on Christ coming at the last judgement and end of our lives, if not the end of our world.

As such, in our Gospel today, we’re exhorted to be prepared. It will happen at a moment we do not expect, but it will happen sooner than we generally imagine. Life, after all, moves quickly. We’re admonished to stay awake, otherwise it might pass us by.

Thus, Advent is a season of preparing for Christ as an expected, imminent, but still not-schedule-bound guest. We get the choice for how we receive him into our heart and home. One might suggest it would be better to do so with hospitality than with a grudge. Guests are more fun when welcome and cherished, the disposition to welcome them lies entirely within our control. So, necessarily, we can ask: How shall we prepare to welcome the Lord? What should we do to stay awake and keep watch?

As with any guest, it’s always good to tidy up a bit, to reduce the piles of clutter that inevitably accumulate, restore some semblance of order, and to clean house. On this score, we look to our lives, daily schedules, and souls as if they were a home. Advent therefore means taking brief stock of where our lives and schedules are cluttered with needless things and setting them to rights. Jesus our guest cannot sit in a chair covered in books or odds and ends. Nor can he speak to our hearts if we crowd him out with noise.

Where might we cut back the clutter this Advent to make a seat for Jesus in our heart and some space for him to talk? Things like fasting from needless media (social or otherwise) as well as the news cycle would be generally helpful. So too is reclaiming some of that scroll-time on the internet for prayer and spiritual reading, silence being key to hearing the Lord’s voice.

Likewise, guests feel welcome when we make small efforts to prepare activities they’d enjoy, such as a football game, a concert or a hike. What might we schedule this Advent to do with Christ?

Perhaps some small act of service to the poor? And above all, we should clean house and scour away the grime of sin: Make time for a good confession between now and Christmas. It’s a sign of welcome and love for the Lord.

The truth of Advent and our Gospel is that the “unexpected” aspect of Christ’s coming need not translate as “unpleasant” or “unfortunate.” It can be transformed to joy by cultivating hospitality and some small preparations that, if we’re honest, would be good for our lives as well. As we enter a season renowned for joviality and hospitality, we should remember to prepare to welcome Christ each day, in the Word and sacrament, and in the love we show our neighbor and the poor who bear his image. This Advent, we ask for the grace to be awake and hospitable, preparing to welcome Christ as a guest daily so that we are ready to meet him not only at Christmas, but whenever and wherever else he arrives.