America's Season of Santa, during the month of December, and the Church's Season of Advent, during the four Sundays before Christmas Day, do not go together very well. For example, last Friday, while visiting at Harborview in downtown Morehead City, I heard from a radio a recording of Bruce Springsteen singing "Santa Is Coming to Town." Springsteen's song does not go very well with the Church's "Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus."

We can sense that tension, between Santa and Advent, again this morning in the Scripture Lessons. December delights and John the Baptist do not go together very well.

WHAT IS GOING ON WITH GOD AND WITH GOD'S PEOPLE?

According to today's Scripture Lessons, what is God up to right now, right here?

God is waiting to bring the Kingdom and the King in glory into this world. But before God brings down the Kingdom and the King in victory, God waits for the repentance of all. But as God waits, challenges unfold: the broken-down, defeated evil one attacks the Church from the outside, and the unfaithful attack the Church on the inside.

According to the Scripture Lessons, what else is going on? God issues calls, to the People of God, to repent.

God sends John the Baptist. And John calls for the people to repent. John the Baptist is out there calling on the people of Judea and Jerusalem to repent. He calls the People of God -- not the unbelievers, not the heathens -- to repent, to turn around, to turn from their sin and toward God.

John the Baptist's call, to the People of God, for repentance is very much in line with Jesus' ministry and with Peter's ministry.

During the time of His public ministry, Jesus said: "But if that wicked servant says to himself, 'My master is delayed,' and begins to beat his fellow servants, and eats and drinks with the drunken, the master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he does not know, and will punish him..." (Matthew 24:48-51a) It should be noted that the "wicked servant" is a chosen one, a member of the People of God. Though a part of God's chosen community, the "wicked servant" goes wrong, goes bad, goes off the rails. Again, the message is: God's People need to repent.

A generation or two after Jesus' ministry, Peter writes: "For the time has come for judgment to begin with the household of God (that is, the Church)..." (I Peter 4:17a) Once again, this is a call to repent, and it is issued to God's People.

So, John the Baptist, Jesus, and Peter -- in that historical order -- call the People of God (first the Jewish community and then the Christian community) to repent.

GETTING READY: REPENTING AND OBEYING

According to II Peter 3, all this wild, crazy, cosmic stuff is coming. The suddenness. The heavens vanishing. The loud noise. The fire. That Day is coming. So how do we get ready? Repent. God gives us time and "space for repentance," according to John Wesley. Repentance is not just saying we are sorry. It is turning toward God and a new way of living for Him.

Verses 11-12 are interesting: "Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of persons ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be kindled and dissolved, and the elements will melt with fire!" (emphasis added) This sentence ends with an exclamation point. It does not end with a question mark. The issue is "...what sort of persons ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness..." (v. 1b) Before That Day, we ought to be very holy people and very godly people.

Also, notice 4:14: "[B]e zealous to be found by him without spot or blemish, and at peace" Before That Day, we ought to be zealous -- that is, eager, hard-working, committed. Before That Day, we ought to live rightly, to live righteously. Before That Day, we ought to be righteous now, in preparation for the righteousness to come.

Here Peter sets the record straight against some who got all caught up in St. Paul's theological minutiae that suggested the Christian faith is mainly about theological learning and trusting. According to Peter, the Christian faith is not only about knowing and trusting Jesus Christ, but also about obeying Him.

WHAT ABOUT US?

St. Peter's United Methodist Church fits into this Biblical Big Picture. God waits for the repentance of all, so St. Peter's Church is to be an example of repentance. But while God waits, the Church, and St. Peter's United Methodist Church in particular, are attacked from the outside. Unbelievers at the Church's doors are pounding hard to challenge the Church. Also, the Church catholic and our congregation have challengers and challenges from within.

In these dramatic circumstances, one of the most devastating things we can do is simply not show up for the Service of Worship. The Service of Worship includes: Sunday morning services at 8:30 and 11:00, and Wednesday evening service at 6:00.

God loves us. God wants to encounter us in the Service of Worship. God wants to speak to us during the Service of Worship. God wants to shed His grace upon us during the Service of Worship. God wants to teach us to sacrifice in the Service of Worship. All of this is God loving us.

If we blow off the Service of Worship, we snub God, we turn away from God's love.

"Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy." (Exodus 20:8) Through the ages, the Church has understood that worship is an obligation, not an option. Attendance at worship is not based on how we feel. Attendance at worship is not based on how much we like or dislike the pastor. Attendance at worship is not based on how much we like or dislike The Choir, The Bell Choir, or anything else. We are obligated to attend the worship service.

I tell you this because I, as the pastor of this congregation, love you as the Church. If I did not love you, I would let this go.

We have turned the obligation of worship-service attendance into a matter of consumption. That is, we attend worship if and only if we think we will get something from it. But in the Service of Worship, we learn to give to God. However, in American Christianity today, we believe that in the Service of Worship, we get what we want.

St. Peter's United Methodist Church is a busy congregation. We have many things going on. Sometimes I get the impression that we choose between the worship service and other church activities. Again, we make the worship service a matter of consumer's choice. But that is against God's love. That is against God's law. That is against God's covenant with us. For worship is the first and essential thing we do in response to the love of God. Nothing takes the place of the worship service. Nothing takes the place of Word and Sacrament. Worship is never to be treated like an option that we can set aside without a care.

The reasons given for missing worship are many. We take trips on Sunday. We work in the church kitchen or in the kitchen at home. We are not feeling especially well. We have family or friends visiting. We were up too late on Saturday night. Our children are resistant in getting to the church and difficult when they are here. The television preacher really speaks to us. We regularly repeat these reasons. Sometimes I feel like people are their most creative in trying to dream up reasons to be away from the Service of Worship. But these reasons are nothing but excuses. For to miss worship is wrong. To miss worship is a sin, a serious sin, a breaking of The Ten Commandments, a breaking of the Great Commandment to love God and neighbor.

On my recent trip to Pennsylvania and New York, I stopped in southern New Jersey to attend the Service of Worship at the first church I happened onto. It was a small, friendly Baptist congregation. I was thankful to join the church’s worship of God.

I will never forget Paige’s last Christmas Eve Service of Worship. She had just come home from receiving a bone-marrow transplant at Duke Medical Center. She had gone through much pain, untold suffering. But on Christmas Eve 2003, there she was: in the Sound Room of St. Peter’s Church’s sanctuary, waiting to go forward for Holy Communion. If Paige could attend worship after a month-long hospitalization, we can attend worship when it is a bit inconvenient or uncomfortable.

DURING THIS ADVENT

St. Peter's United Methodist Church, God expects more of us. God wants us to be faithful to His Church, to St. Peter's United Methodist Church.

During this Advent, let us repent of our sins. Remember how we have been casual about worship-service attendance. Remember that this is serious sin. Forgiven by God, and because of God's grace, let us do better.

"[T]he kingdom of God is at hand; repent, and believe in the gospel." (Mark 1:15) It is time to get ready for the Kingdom. It is time to get ready for the King, for Christ. It is time to get ready for Christmas.