Christmas Is Coming!

What was your first clue this year that Christmas is coming?

Pop into Walmart a week or so before Halloween and discover a bunch of strategically placed Christmas decorations?

Or maybe you have children at home, and they let you know?

I don’t get to stores much, so I don’t think that’s where I got my first reminder. If I recall correctly, I was watching a football game on the Saturday after Halloween and a Christmas commercial came on. “Already?” I blurted out. Then I checked myself and was surprised I hadn’t seen some sign earlier.

As I said, I don’t go shopping much, nor do I watch much TV, so the commercial bombardment has relatively little impact on me.

Yet it is inescapable!

Where I most noticed the perpetual reminder that Christmas is coming is in my inboxes. Like many, I suppose, I have several of them for different purposes. Doesn’t matter the purpose, though; beginning more than a week before Thanksgiving, the email barrage begins!

First, it’s all about Black Friday.

Anyone who sells anything has hopped on the Black Friday bandwagon advertising incredible deals on their stuff—but you have to act fast! The deals will end by midnight on Sunday after Thanksgiving! So for the next several days, like you, I got email after email from the same vendors hyping their deals, warning me not to miss out. After all, Christmas is coming!

Then, of course, some decide they didn’t sell enough that weekend, so “the Black Friday deals are extended another 48 hours!”

Black Friday comes and goes, and while those deals are still going on, another round hits the inboxes touting super Cyber Monday deals! Gotta get the deals while they’re hot; after all, Christmas is coming! Get those things you want now, before it’s too late!

On Tuesday and Wednesday, emails announce the Cyber Monday deals have been extended for a few more hours! Don’t miss out!

Since I’m a pastor, non-profits and a wide variety of Christian organizations seek Christmas donations on “Giving Tuesday.” It’s not Christmas yet, but Christmas is coming, and these deserving groups remind me of their need, encouraging me to give a Christmas gift to help in their vital ministry.

So, doesn’t matter who you are, how isolated you may be from brick and mortar stores, you will somehow be reminded that Christmas is coming and you need to let go of your hard-earned cash or the celebration will be terribly disappointing for someone!

Now lest you think I’m the ugly green guy from a Dr. Seuss story, I’m really not. Ugly maybe, but not the green guy. I enjoy giving gifts to those I love and to worthwhile organizations/ministries. But with all the buying-stuff hype, it’s so easy to be distracted from what Christmas is all about.

To counter this tendency, I responded to an advertisement from a Christian bookseller I received in early November. A new book by Crossway publishers just became available to help keep the focus where it belongs during the Christmas season. O Come, O Come Emmanuel by Jonathan Gibson piqued my interest. It’s subtitled, “A Liturgy for Daily Worship from Advent to Epiphany.” I perused the online sample and decided to get a copy.

And I’m glad I did!

My copy sits on a table next to a recliner in the living room. Every morning since November 28, I make my way to the coffee pot (set the night before to brew at 5:25), pour myself a steaming cup, find the recliner, and begin the day’s “liturgy.”

[Incidentally, I used to have this nasty habit of turning on my phone first thing—opening up all my inboxes to see what important emails arrived overnight (None. Ever.)…checking the weather…sometimes even perusing Facebook. What a waste of time, and a good way to get my mind filled with the useless, needless, trivial, etc. A couple of months ago, I started implementing a truly helpful hack. Leave it off! I don’t even look at the phone until the end of what I’m about to describe. Give it a try—I dare you!]

Here’s a sample of what takes place over the next 30 minutes [From O Come, O Come Emmanuel by Jonathan Gibson, pp. 51-59]:

November 29

Meditation

Reflect on the words about the incarnation of the Lord Jesus:

“What we have said will be clearer once we understand that the role of Mediator was no ordinary one, in the sense that his task was to so restore us to God’s grace as to make us, the children of men, children of God, and to make us who were heirs of hell, heirs of the heavenly kingdom. Who could have accomplished that except the Son of God who was made Son of Man, who so took our condition upon himself that he transferred his to us, and who made what was his by nature ours by grace? So we are confident that we are children of God, having this as our guarantee, that God’s natural Son took his body from ours, flesh of our flesh and bone of our bone, that he might be united to us. What was ours he took into his own person so that what was his should belong to us, and thus that, in common with us he might be both Son of God and Son of man. That is why we have hope that the heavenly inheritance is ours, because only God’s Son to whom it was wholly due has adopted us as his brothers. Now if we are brothers, we are co-heirs with him.”  — John Calvin

Call to Worship

Hear God call you to worship through His word:

“For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works.” — Titus 2:11-14

Adoration

Say or sing this praise to God:

The advent of our King
our prayers must now employ,
and we must hymns of welcome sing
in strains of holy joy.

The everlasting Son
incarnate deigns to be;
himself a servant’s form puts on
to set his servants free.

Daughter of Zion, rise
to meet thy lowly King,
nor let thy faithless heart despise
the peace he comes to bring.

As Judge, on clouds of light,
he soon will come again,
and all his scattered saints unite
with him in heaven to reign.

Before the dawning day
let sin’s dark deeds be gone;
the old man all be put away,
the new man all put on.

All glory to the Son
who comes to set us free,
with Father, Spirit, ever One,
through all eternity.

Reading of the Law

Hear God’s law as His will for your life:

“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.” — Deuteronomy 6:4-9

Confession of Sin

Confess your sins to God:

“O Lord, in whose hands are life and death, by whose power I am sustained, and by whose mercy I am spared—look down upon me in pity. Forgive me that I have until now so much neglected the duty which you have assigned to me, and suffered the days and hours of which I must give account to pass away without any endeavor to accomplish your will. Make me to remember, O God, that every day is your gift, and ought to be used according to your command. Grant me, therefore, so to repent of my negligence, that I may obtain mercy from you, and pass the time which you shall yet allow me in diligent performance of your commands, through Jesus Christ. Amen.”  — Samuel Johnson

Assurance of Pardon

Receive these words of comfort from God:

“The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin….” — Exodus 34:6-7a

Nicene Creed

Confess what you believe about the Christian faith:

“We believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, of all things visible and invisible.

“And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of His Father before all worlds; God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God; begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father, by whom all things were made; Who, for us men and for our salvation, came down from heaven, and was incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the virgin Mary, and was made man; and was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate; He suffered and was buried; and the third day He rose again, according to the Scriptures; and ascended into heaven, and is seated at the right hand of the Father; and He shall come again, with glory, to judge both the living and the dead; Whose kingdom shall have no end.

“And we believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord and Giver of Life; who proceeds from the Father and the Son; who with the Father and the Son together is worshiped and glorified; who spoke by the prophets. And we believe in one holy [universal] and apostolic church. We acknowledge one baptism for the remission of sins; and we look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come. Amen.”

Praise

Say or sing this praise to God:

“Glory be to the Father,
            and to the Son,
            and to the Holy Spirit:

“As it was in the beginning,
            is now and ever shall be,
            world without end. Amen.”   — Gloria Patri

Catechism

Receive this instruction from the Heidelberg Catechism:

Q. 14   Can another creature—any at all—pay this debt for us?

A.    No. To begin with, God will punish any other creature for what a human is guilty of. Furthermore, no mere creature can bear the weight of God’s eternal wrath against sin and deliver others from it.

Prayer for Illumination

As you read His word, as God to enlighten your mind and heart:

“Heavenly Father, may you grant us to comprehend your holy Word according to your divine will, that we may learn from it to put all our confidence in you alone, and withdraw it from all other creatures; moreover, that also our old man with all his lusts may be crucified more and more each day, and that we may offer ourselves to you as a living sacrifice, to the glory of your holy name and to the edification of our neighbor, through our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. — Zacharius Ursinus

Scripture Reading

Read this portion of God’s Word: Genesis 22:1-19

[Here is where I also read the day’s scripture readings from my annual Bible reading plan]

Praise

Say this praise to God:

Prayer of Intercession

As you make your requests to God, pray this prayer:

               A prayer asking God to hear and accomplish His work in me.

Offer personal, church, and world petitions.

The Lord’s Prayer

Benediction

Receive by faith this blessing from God:

“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.” — Romans 15:13

Postlude

In closing, say or sing this praise to God:

“His Name for ever shall endure,
               last like the sun it shall;
Men shall be blessed in Him, and blessed
               all nations shall Him call.

“Now blessèd be the Lord, our God,
               the God of Israel,
For He alone does wondrous works,
               in glory that excel.

“And blessèd be His glorious Name
               to all eternity;

The whole earth let His glory fill.
               Amen, so let it be.”  — Based on Psalm 72:17-19

And that’s it. But that’s enough to orient my heart toward what Christmas is really all about and to put all the other seasonal hype into perspective. Whether or not you follow such a structured regimen, I do trust as “Christmas is coming” you can keep in mind why Christmas came!

Have a blessed Christmas season!