"Jesus Christ Is Coming To Town"

It's a song many know by heart. For most people, this song captures the essence of what preparing for Christmas is about. The song speaks about the coming of an important person, a person who knows all about us, a person who is kind and generous and who expects us to be the same. It has been suggested that all we have to do to make this song appropriate for church is to substitute the name of Jesus for the name of Santa Claus and we have the essence of preparing for Christmas. But if being “nice” and “good” is all what Christmas is about, then I’m afraid we have missed the real meaning of Christmas.

The four weeks before Christmas is the time that the Church calls “Advent.” The word "advent" means "coming." Jesus Christ came into the world in the little town of Bethlehem 2000 years ago. Advent is the time we prepare for the coming of Christ at Christmas. We spend these four weeks preparing ourselves, reliving the anticipation of that first Christmas, and also looking forward to the time when Christ will return in glory to raise up all how have died and to judge all mankind. This is what we are preparing for during Advent.

But how do we prepare ourselves properly? To help us answer that question, we need to understand why it is necessary for us to be prepared. We need to prepare ourselves, because in our natural condition, we are not ready to receive Christ. In ourselves, we don’t have the righteousness or goodness God expects of us. We have failed to fear and love God as we should and to love our neighbour as we love ourselves. We heard the admonition about Santa: "He's making a list, checking it twice, gonna find out who's naughty and nice… He knows if you've been bad or good, so be good for goodness sake!" Unfortunately this admonition does not help us one bit, because no matter how hard we try, we will fall short of our own good intentions.

Getting ready for Christmas is not about putting on a nice face and behaving extra good for the next four weeks. It is not about “creating” a warm, fuzzy Christmas atmosphere. The first thing we must get into our heads is that being ready for Christmas is not so much about what we have to do, because we inevitably get it wrong. Rather, getting ready for Christmas is about getting to know the One whose birthday we are about to celebrate. We must remember that Jesus was not born on Christmas that we might be entertained. He came because without Him we would be lost forever and without any real hope or joy in this life.

To prepare for Christmas, we must keep our focus on Jesus and what He does for us. This is what the prophet Jeremiah did for His people who had also become hopelessly lost in their sins and were about to experience God’s judgment. To them God offers His wonderful promise of a Saviour who will restore them. This is the promise we heard:

"The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will fulfill the promise I made to the house of Israel and the house of Judah. In those days and at that time, I will cause a righteous Branch to spring up for David; and he shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. In those days Judah will be saved and Jerusalem will live in safety. And this is the name by which it will be called, "The Lord is our righteousness" (Jeremiah 33:14-16).

Jesus came on Christmas so that he could offer His life as a sacrifice for our sins and that we might receive His goodness and perfection. Jeremiah calls Jesus “The LORD Our Righteousness.” Jesus is righteous because He is true God, holy and perfect, as well as true man, sinless and without moral fault in His humanity. Because He became a real human being and was without sin, He was able to offer His life as a sacrifice for our sins. Because Jesus was also true God, the value of His sacrifice and perfection is limitless and extends to all people. In this way He “executed justice and righteousness in the land."

On the one hand he satisfied God’s justice in making payment for our sins. On the other hand He fulfilled the righteousness that was lacking on our part. In preparing for Christmas, we must first recognize that Christmas is primarily about what God does for us. It is not within our own power or ability to become righteous in any sense that is acceptable before God.

Let me then give you three things to keep in mind as we prepare for Christmas. The first is that we must wait. Before we act and busy ourselves, we must wait and listen to God. Preparing for Christmas means to stop our running around and to shut our mouths for a while to foster a hunger and desire for the Word of God.

Secondly, hearing God’s Word leads us repentance, to admit that we have fallen short of the holiness that we have been called to in our Baptism. The closer we come to God the more we realize how our lives are out of line with God’s will and fail to honour Him. That is why preparing for Christmas involves repentance.

The third important thing to keep in mind is that hearing God’s Word leads us to faith, to believe the good news and to trust God’s promise to forgive us; to really believe that we are His beloved child whom He promises to take care of.

Three things to keep in mind: As we wait and open ourselves to God’s Word, God works a desire within us for a closer fellowship with Him. This leads us to an attitude of repentance and to a living faith in His promises. That is what preparing for Christmas is about.

It really should take a load off of our shoulders to know that there is nothing we can or need to do to make Christmas more meaningful. God has done it all! But it really is not easy for us to just wait and trust God to fulfill His promises. It is not easy to admit our faults to each other and to change our habits that keep Jesus locked away in the closet of our lives.

For we like to believe that we are in control of our lives (at least we adults!). But in reality, we have very little control. That is why as you prepare to celebrate Christmas, remember that it is about Jesus. He is coming to town and is willing to come and stay with you and your family so that you may have true peace and joy, not just for Christmas, but for always.

In closing, I have changed the words of the Santa Claus song a bit to reflect a truer, though still imperfect, rendition of what it means to prepare for Christmas: