Dear friends, Saturday I put up some lights, the day after my family and I went to see the very funny new Christmas movie called "Elf" and heard these familiar words:

Oh! You better watch out, You better not cry,
You better not pout, I'm telling you why: Santa Claus is coming to town!
 
He's making a list, Checking it twice,
Gonna find out who's naughty or nice. Santa Claus is coming to town!
 
He sees you when you are sleeping, He knows when you're awake.
He knows if you've been bad or good, So be good for goodness sake!
 
Oh! You better watch out, You better not cry,
You better not pout, I'm telling you why: Santa Claus is coming to town!

          You may be wondering why I'd mention this in church, considering my "subdued" attitude towards old St. Nick.  But this very secular song may just capture some of the spirit of the Advent season that we begin today.  The song speaks about the coming of an important person who knows all about us, someone who is good and wants us to be good also.  It has way too much works righteousness, but a pastor once said all we have to do is to substitute the name of Jesus for the name of Santa Claus, and we have the essence of Advent.  I hope that's not stretching it a bit far, though it is rather coincidental about the qualities we've attributed to St. Nick.

          Today we'll also consider the theme of Jeremiah, "Repent to get ready for the coming of the Messiah."  The four week period before Christmas is the time that the Church sets aside to celebrate Advent.  "Advent", of course, means "coming."  Christ came into the world in Bethlehem 2000 years ago.  Christ will one day come again in the final judgment.  And so long as we're alive, there's a spiritual coming again of Christ into our hearts as we hear His Word and the Holy Spirit makes our faith grow.

          Advent helps us celebrate the annual celebration of His First Coming, but it also helps us be ready for the Second Coming.  We spend these four weeks reliving the anticipation of that first Christmas, and at the same looking forward to the Second Coming of Christ in the heavens.  Hear again those words from Jeremiah:

          "The days are coming when I will fulfill the gracious promise I made to the house of Israel and to the house of Judah.  In those days and at that time I will make a righteous Branch sprout from David's line; he will do what is just and right in the land.  In those days Judah will be saved and Jerusalem will live in safety.  This is the name by which it will be called: The LORD Our Righteousness."  Jeremiah the prophet was looking ahead to the first Advent.

          Jeremiah was one of the most colorful and dramatic prophets in the Old Testament.  He was called by God to preach the Word during the darkest days of the history of Israel, the last forty years of the Southern Kingdom of Judah.  Two dates to keep in mind are 722 and 587.  In 722 BC, the Northern Kingdom of Israel fell to the Assyrians.  In 587 BC, the Southern Kingdom of Judah fell to the Babylonians.

          Jeremiah was God's spokesman those last 40 years from 626 to 585 BC.  He had the difficult challenge of delivering God's warning and judgment to the people who wouldn't listen.  He began his ministry during the good times of the King Josiah.  Josiah restored temple worship and reading the Torah, the book of Mosaic law.  He called the people to a renewal of their covenant with God.  Josiah re-instituted observing the Passover, which had not been observed for several hundred years.

          2 Kings 23 gives us an impressive list things Josiah did to make things right with God.  He abolished Baal worship, temple prostitution and child sacrifice to the pagan god Molech.  But all Josiah did didn't last.  The Israelites had practiced syncretism for too long.  For too many generations had they combined Judaism and paganism, keeping whatever parts of it seemed to go together and tossing the rest.

          God's people fell into the trap of overlooking little differences and tolerating big and little changes, no matter how evil they were.  Jeremiah knew this and called them to repent of their ways and return to worshipping the true God.  But their ears were stopped up.  They were filled with the music of selfishness.  The tragedy was not so much their sins, but that they did not heed the prophet's call.

          In some ways we people of God also forget what we're here for.  We, too, mix seemingly harmless legends with the Real Story, confusing nostalgia and Gospel, mixing theology with holiday sweetness, forgetting the Christ came to forgive sin, not to overlook it.  In the cloud of activity and cuteness that's soon to come upon us, it will be easy to forget the reason for the season, the coming of the Savior Jesus.  But Jeremiah won't let us do that.

          In 1986 author Michael Martin published a story in Christian Century magazine on the secularization of Christmas.  He wondered what most people really knew about Christmas if all they heard was what the secular society had made it to be.  In a little humor, he suggested the story of Christmas might come across this way:

          "Once upon a time, a decree went out from Caesar in August that everyone should be taxed tp reduce the deficit.  Joseph and Mary traveled to Bethlehem.  Mary rode on a donkey named Rudolph, who was embarrassed to be seen carrying an unwed mother so his nose glowed red.  Upon arriving at Bethlehem, they could not find a place to stay.  (It was, after all, the Christmas season, and there were tourists everywhere.)  As they knocked at the door of the last inn in town, the innkeeper pushed back the shutter and threw up the sash.  His figure appeared so nimble and quick, they knew in a moment his name must be Nick!

          "Meanwhile in a field nearby, seven dwarf shepherds were startled to hear a group of angels singing Handel's Messiah.  At the end of the concert they were told to stand up and go to Bethlehem.  So off they marched to the beat of the little drummer boy.  When they arrived at the stable, they met Joseph, Mary, the child, and a fat little man named Round John Virgin."

          It's not hard to mix up the true meaning of Christmas with popular ideas.  Author Martin lists three mistaken concepts which are, "Santa Christ," "Sweet Baby Jesus," and "Mercantile Messiah."  "Santa Christ" is the jolly god who lives far, far away, and is mentioned once a year.  Mature people know he doesn't really exist, but it is a good excuse to go shopping!  I wonder what Jeremiah would say?

          The "Sweet Baby Jesus" celebrates a lovable infant in his crib, smiling and cooing.  He makes no demands on anyone; he just lies there looking sweet.  He spends most of the year in the closet with all the other Christmas stuff, but once a year, we get him out and say, "What a sweet baby!"  The "Mercantile Messiah" says that Christmas is all about giving.  "So let us sell you something that you can give it to somebody," say all the stores.  But what would Jeremiah say?

          None of these us tell the truth about God.  They don't call for sacrifice or faith, but they do make Christmas meaningless.  The real message of Christmas is about God's love for sinful people.  It's about His forgiveness for people who have forgotten Him.  The baby came to die on a cross, not lay in a cradle.  And He rose again, too.

          When we look carefully at our practices surrounding Christmas, we see that we're not much different than the people of the Southern Kingdom.  We too have imported foreign gods and strange theologies, mixing them up so much we can't tell what's God and what's just human.

          But Advent is here again.  Jeremiah proclaimed judgment, righteousness and hope.  He said the Messiah will come and, "He will do what is just and right in the land."  The people of Jeremiah's time needed to repent, and so do we.  The Righteous Branch has come to forgive us our sins.  The coming of the Messiah will be costly, but not for gaily wrapped gifts, just a tiny baby wrapped in swaddling clothes.  Following Him carries the cost of discipleship.  It requires we give up empty ways and follow God.  Let us leave our shallowness for the depth of God's love.  Advent is a time for repentance and waiting for Christ.  "Even so,come, Lord Jesus." (Rev. 22:20)   Amen

Copyright © 2003 by Pastor Bob Tasler.  All rights reserved.