Preparing for Christmas – What Does This Mean?

In the United States, December is a very busy month. Christians are preparing for Christmas, Jews are preparing for Hannukah, some African Americans celebrate a fairly recent holiday called Kwanzaa. Our businesses begin already before Halloween to prepare brightly colored lights and Christmas trees, music and sales for the gifts people will buy and parties people will host. Crafters begin even earlier — the care that knitting, crocheting, sewing, making of candles, clay creations and other items take quite a bit of time and love to make.

For the church, it is a season of preparation, too! On the surface, there are the additional services and special music to prepare. Pastors take special care to craft a sermon that will bring the Good News of Great Joy to what has been delicately called the semi-annual worshippers. Yet the real preparation is not for the celebration. The real preparation is for Christ to come.

Advent is about the three ways that Jesus comes to us. Everyone remembers the first time he came — as a baby in Bethlehem. The Second Coming is when he comes at the end of time. The third way is the one most people miss — Jesus comes to us everyday in various ways. He is always with us, until the end of time itself. He comes to us every time we read his word or hear it preached. He comes when we gather in worship, especially when the pastor speaks his forgiveness to us. He is really present, coming to us in bread and wine, where he gives us his body and blood in the Lord’s Supper.

So, how do we prepare for these comings? With the faith he has given to us as a gift, we turn from our sins to do his will (that’s what the Hebrew word for repent means). We completely change our minds (that’s what the Greek word for repent means, from giving in to our sinful ways of thinking to keeping God’s law and doing his will. Alone, these are impossible for us. But with God’s help, the help of our brothers and sisters in Christ and the gifts of his Word and Sacraments, we can change are hearts and minds to serve him.