Just like everyone else, I would bet we have all started celebrating Christmas. At our Advent service, I admitted I sang Christmas songs with the Seniors on Tuesday and the midweek classes on Wednesday. None of them were Christmas carols or hymns, but they were definitely Christmas songs. So, everyone everywhere seems to be getting into the Christmas spirit and then we come to church. Listen to these readings. Where are the shepherds? Mary and Joseph? The angels? The wisemen?

Last week, we seemed pretty confused with the triumphal entry into Jerusalem, marking the end of Jesus' last week before He would go to the cross and pay the price for all men's sins. What does that have to do with Christmas? Maybe we thought we could excuse it, because it was the first Sunday of Advent, and it was a slow start. Of course, the Triumphal entry tells us why the Lord became flesh in the first place, why He came as a tiny child, all so He could suffer and die. He enters Jerusalem and our world for the same reason--so He can die. That was last week. Perhaps you hoped it would sound more like Christmas this week. Instead, it sounds even further from that. It's talking about the end of the world. You expect something upbeat and then you get this.
(How to hear it)
And yet this is upbeat. It is incredibly upbeat and it is meant to be. It won't be though, if we listen to this like the rest of the world. Our text tells us how people will react, fainting with fear and foreboding of what is coming on the world. They are frightened by what they see and experience, and the strange thing is that they do not take it as signs of the end. I suppose if they did they would be even more frightened. But that's the world's attitude. That's people who don't know God's grace and mercy in Christ. These are people who fear death and the end of time because their eternity is uncertain for them.

Not so for you. You are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, called out of darkness into His marvelous light. You have been called to be His own before time even began and then sealed into His family at your baptism. You are not the rest of the world. So, rather than reacting with fear and terror with these signs, these signs are actually to comfort you. I'm eager to tell you why.
(The excitement of Advent)
But first, I have to say, I used to think when the season of Advent came, we had to try to act like we were like the Old-Testament people looking forward to the coming of the Messiah. It's like, "I know. Jesus has already come. We know the whole story, but just try to pretend like you don't know. Try to act like you are hearing for the first time that Messiah is coming and will be here in just a couple weeks. Act like someone would who has been waiting for the Messiah all his life and whose ancestors have been waiting for thousands of years. Act excited just like you know they were."

We don't have to do that. It would be nice, it's true, if we could re-enact their excitement. This would give us some sense of what they felt, but we don't have to do that. We don't, because we have something even more exciting. Way more exciting.

We are just like those Old-Testament people. They were waiting for the Messiah. So are we. But for us, it will be even better. They knew the Messiah would be born, and that it would be in Bethlehem. They knew He would set the people free, and establish the kingdom of David as the highest kingdom. They knew He would establish an era of peace from their enemies. He would come to His throne, and a new rule would begin. It would be just as they dreamed. He would come to power and there would be justice in the land. They were eager for the day He was to be born.

We realize now their dreams weren't big enough. They didn't grasp all the Messiah would do. It wasn't just an era; it was an eternity. It wasn't just peace against their enemies because they were subdued; it was peace because they were completely removed; it was even complete peace with God. They wouldn't just live a long time; they would live forever. It wasn't just with the people who were living at the time, but with all the people who had ever lived and believed in the mercy of God. And once He comes, that is the Messiah we wait for, the One who has already been here, the One on whom we will look and see He has been pierced, once He comes, we won't have to wait for Him to grow up. He will come again with a triumphant shout and establish His kingdom.

Even now, I kind of used the terms the Israelites would have used. Although the terms were expanded to describe what it will be like when Jesus returns, it's the way they would have talked about the Messiah. It's not the way we would think and talk. As a result, we still may not see what they would have been excited about.

The Bible's descriptions are better than I could do, but here's my feeble attempt to try to put it in our language, our terms. When Jesus comes, life will be perfect, just like it was before sin was in the world. In other words, heaven. When Jesus comes He brings heaven. But what is that like? Usually we describe it by saying what it won't have, the absence of things we know on earth, and that make life miserable. Consider how it is when they describe it. There will be no more sorrow or death, pain or frustration. See? What it won't have. What will it have? It's hard to say.

I suppose, even though we really don't know, we all have some picture. I heard this in a country song just recently. Kenny Chesney sings it in a Reggae style or what you would hear if you were in the Caribbean Islands. The line changes each time but the part that doesn't change goes like this, "Everybody want to go to heaven, but nobody want to go now."

Alright. Everyone has a picture of what heaven is like. They like it, whether it really gets to what it would be like or not. This is what Jesus' return will bring. In fact, what is better is that His return will bring us this, without even needing to die. The singer says no one wants to go now because nobody really wants to die, but there will be no need to die. His return will bring heaven, without dying. No wonder Luke writes in today's text, "When these things begin to take place, straighten up and raise your heads."

Let's go back to what it won't have or what we won't have to endure when He returns. I want to speak to you as Christians again, and not as part of this world. When we say everybody wants to go to heaven, we are obviously talking about those who aren't Christian also. Everyone would prefer heaven over hell, Kenny even says so, but unfortunately many of them don't know how heaven has been secured for them.

For you, though, His return is a great thing because you know He is coming back for you. He has won heaven for you. You know because you are His, His return can be only good for you, because you know Jesus perfect life and His death have secured it for you.

But where the prospect of this is frightening for them, it is extremely encouraging for you because you know it will be the end of what you know all too well, especially as a Christian. The struggle with sin is a terrible one for Christians and when Jesus returns it will end. That's what our hymn was singing about.

No one, who is a Christian, wants to sin. If you are a Christian, you are not comfortable with sin. It doesn't mean you don't do it, but you are aware of it when you do, and you struggle against it. If you don't, that is, you just say, "Well, this is the way I am," then you might want to ask yourself if you really are a Christian.

But for those who are Christian, the New Man placed in you at your baptism, struggles mightily against the Old Man. That is, Christ in you, given to you in your baptism struggles against your sinful nature. It is an awful struggle. Sometimes, you are more aware of it at other times, but no one who would call himself a Christian just lives with it.

You know what sin does. It makes your life more difficult, because sinning is never God's will. It hurts us in our bodies. Worse yet, it hurts other people. When we sin, we hurt other people--things we say, things we do. We are called to serve them, but we don't serve them very well, if we are hurting them. But worse yet, it hurts our relationship with our Father. David had said, "Against you, you only have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight." We bring Him dishonor, the One who loves us so completely that He paid the price He did, and when we press on, pushing our own will, we act like what He did was no big deal. We insult our Father.

But the real battle takes place in our mind. We see all too clearly what we are. Even if we don't act on our sin, that is, actually carrying it out, hurting ourself or someone else, we see how powerful is the desire to do it. Even if we don't do it, we feel this strong pull, and feel helpless against it. We recognize that our natural impulse is to sin. We see that it is true, we are by nature sinful and unclean.

We also see it in our attitude. We can be pretty defensive about what we know is wrong. If someone points out our sin, how do we react? Do we feel gratitude that someone cared enough to risk our anger and defensiveness to point out what we were trying to hide from or do we let them know we are angry and show that defensiveness? Do we try to justify our sin, and at the same time know we are wrong to do that? This is the struggle we endure on the level of our mind, and it's hardly a pleasant one.

We also see how we are tempted to not do the things we know we should. We realize how it would be for someone else if we were to do a loving act, but find our selfishness blocking us.

We also realize how the Lord offers us so much for this battle and we still struggle with wanting what He offers.

I would think you are already aware of all this, but to say it out loud, is to help you to come to grips with it a little better.

What about what He gives us so we can live as Christians? Here, in the Divine Service, He gives us His body and blood. Do we hunger for it, or do we simply go through the motions because it is here? What about the word of forgiveness? Is this the sweetest thing we have ever heard, or do we just figure this is part of the service, and someone figured it was a good idea that it was there?

You are seeing the struggle. We know how it ought to be, but it's not that way. We know what we should want to want, but we don't. Our sin goes so, so deep.

Perhaps we think we would be happier if I didn't bring these things up. If we just continued in our misunderstanding, our convenient peace we have made with our sin, we might think everything will be fine. But it's not. And it shows, most particularly when we start to see the signs of the end.

If we are frightened by them, if they make us scared, because it is signaling the end of the world, then we would benefit from checking our hearts. Is this struggle I have described one you feel? If not, then look at your attitude toward sin. But if you see that sin is not something you can live with, something that actually makes your life stressful and even miserable, then His return is good news.

If this struggle does describe yours, then as I would usually say, you are in the right place. You are here in the Divine Service. Here forgiveness is given to you. It is given to you in His Word as it is spoken, where Jesus Himself brings to you what He had gained at the cross. It is given in His Supper where He does the same, and where He connects with you in a way you will find in no other place.

Does it make the struggle go away? No, we will constantly find ourselves engaged in the struggle until the end, but we will have the assurance of knowing what is so visible to us is not seen by our Lord, because He has chosen to cover it with Christ's righteousness, and to even call us holy because of Christ. This is given to us to help us endure the struggle and not give up.

Therefore, watch for these signs. He is coming and hopefully it is soon. That's what these signs tell us. When He comes, these struggles we know all too well, because they are always with us, will be over. How can these signs--which actually scare everyone else--not be signs for our comfort?

AMEN