Be sure and practice the songs on the cassette tape that we handed out last week during Sunday school.  Most of
you know "Away in a Manager," "O Little Town of Bethlehem," and "Joy to the World."

The central song for this year's pageant, "The Man Comes Round," is new to everyone.  Listen carefully to the
words.  It is our final song as Mary and Joseph and the whole cast stands arm-and-arm on stage in the front of the
sanctuary.  An acoustic guitar, a steel guitar and drums will accompany you.

Some of your parents have asked why we are singing the new Johnny Cash song at our Christmas Pageant.
Frankly, I think it's a perfect Christmas song.  "The Man Comes Around" is the first song on Cash's new CD called
"American IV: The Man Comes Around."

Remember what we have learned about Advent.  Advent means coming.  In the four Sundays of Advent that
proceed Christmas, we celebrate two comings  -- Jesus' first coming as a baby and his imminent return at the end of
the age.

The new Cash song talks the second coming.  The tune is Cash's harrowing take on Judgment Day.  When baby
Jesus returns as King of Kings and Lord of Lords, there will be a Judgment Day.

Children, listen carefully to the self-penned title track of the new CD.  We're too far north of Nashville to get the
beat perfect, but consider Cash's deep, pensive voice, the gritty country-folk sound and his poignant rewriting of
Scripture.

            Incidentally, the song was inspired by a bizarre dream Cash had while in England seven years ago, in which
he visits Buckingham Palace and has the Queen refer to him as a "thorn tree in a whirlwind." Let's review the words
from the 70-year-old known as the man in black:

            "There's a man goin' around taking names; and he decides who to free and who to blame; Everybody won't
be treated all the same; There will be a golden ladder reaching down when the man comes around.

            "Hear the trumpets, hear the pipers; one hundred million angels singing; multitudes are marching to the big
kettle drum; voices calling, voices crying; some are born and some are dying; it's Alpha and Omega's kingdom
come.  And the whirlwind is in the thorn tree.  The virgins are all trimming their wicks.  Then the father hen will call
the chickens home.  The wise men will bow down before the throne, and at his feet will cast their golden crowns --
when the man comes around."

            The man coming around is Jesus himself.  Oh yes, he is taking names.  Every human in the whole universe is
known to him -- those dead, those alive and those yet to born.  One day the books will be opened.  Indeed, it is
appointed unto all humans to die once, and then, as the book of Hebrews says, comes the judgment.  Does this
Christmas story scare you, children?

            Those virgins trimming their wicks are equally vital to the Christmas Pageant.  Their story is found in
Matthew chapter 25.  In that chapter Jesus tells what we refer to as the Parable of the 10 virgins.  The parable
underscores the importance of being ready for the return of Jesus Christ, even if he delays longer than we expect.

            As your youth pastor, I am obligated to tell you, even as we prepare for the Christmas Pageant, that you,
my young friends, are responsible for your spiritual condition.  This Advent season is not pretend.

In the Christmas Pageant, we act out the Christmas story.  It's a lot of fun.  But in truth, God himself truly did invade
this planet.  In your wildest imagination, could you ever have conceived of such a scenario?  That baby was God.
And the man who comes around also is God.  History will be consummated.  Time will end.  We will outlive this
earth.

Children, does this cause your skin to tingle?  When you stand on the stage next Sunday evening and sing "The Man
Comes Around," you are reminding your smiling parents and your fawning grandparents that there's much more to
Christmas than the birth of baby Jesus.

The "man going 'round taking names" is the supreme, sovereign God of the universe. Nothing is outside of his
knowledge, and nothing will sabotage his Second Coming.  Get ready, children.  Christmas is coming!

Don Follis is an Urbana minister.  Reprinted with permission from the
Champaign-Urbana News-Gazette, copyright 2002.