Saint Luke's Lutheran Church

Well, it's official. We are officially into the holiday season. So you will begin to see more and more Christmas lights and decorations displayed in our neighborhoods, not just in the malls. For some of us, this week begins the round of the Christmas parties and programs. And yesterday kicked off a shopping season in which Americans will spend an average of $900 per person, with total holiday sales exceeding $80 billion dollars.

Some of you may know that I am one of the world's great anti-shoppers. I avoid shopping with the same passion that some in my family pursue it. About the only stores that I can enter without elevating my blood pressure are stores that sell lumber and hardware and tools.

Then last Friday, for the first time in my life, I went shopping the day after Thanksgiving. For as much as I detest shopping, I love saving money. And Menards had some early shopper specials I just could not resist. After all, I said to myself, it's Menards. It's not Target or Wal-Mart or Yonkers - all those crazy crowds of shoppers will be at the discount and department stores. Boy was I mistaken. My first clue was the quarter mile long string of cars heading for the parking lot. Before I knew it, I was part of that line and ended up circled the parking lot like a jet in a holding pattern over O'Hare Airport. I finally found someone leaving and squeezed my car into a space so small I would never have considered using on any other day. Then I walked into the store and looked at lines that went down every aisle from the front of the store to the back. My first instinct was to bolt, but I had already invested too much time and travel to go away empty handed.

In spite of the message from the marketplace, we know that Christmas is not really about shopping - it's about the birth of Jesus, the Son of God who came to bring peace on earth and joy for all people. Nonetheless, how easy it is for that peace and joy to get lost in the shuffle. It is almost impossible not to get caught up in the hustle and bustle of the holidays. It is almost impossible not to give in to the commercialization of Christmas. It is almost impossible not to get overwhelmed by putting up decorations, sending out Christmas cards, picking out just the right gift for everyone on your list, giving or going to all the Christmas parties and dinners and programs.

At this time of year, church should be one place where this peace and joy remain untarnished. Here in this sanctuary we should be shielded from the pressures and the anxieties of this season and of life itself. But today, on the First Sunday of Advent we come to church and hear Jesus say, "There will be signs in the sun, moon, and stars…People will faint from fear and foreboding of what is coming upon the world, for the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory."

This is scary stuff. This is the kind of message that you don't want your young children to hear because it could give them nightmares. What kind of Gospel lesson is this - just when it's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas?

This is a Gospel for Advent. Advent, which means coming, is the time when the church focuses on the coming of Christ. But Christ's coming is not just past - it is also future. Advent is a time to prepare not just for a celebration of Christmas, but also for the Second Coming. Advent is a time not only to put up decorations and send cards and buy presents; it is a time to remind us to lift up our heads, to be careful, to watch out, and to pray that we may escape what is about to happen.

That all sounds pretty scary. But Jesus did not speak these words to frighten us. Jesus spoke these words to give us hope. "Lift up your heads," he says, "because your redemption is drawing near." Yes, the world as we know it will be shaken to its very foundations, but we will be able to stand. Yes, heaven and earth will pass away, but God will make a new heaven and a new earth. These are words of hope. Jesus spoke about the End because it will also be a Beginning - the beginning of a new age, marked by enduring peace and unfettered joy, a new age ushered in by the coming of the Son of Man with power and great glory.

So Advent is the season of hope. And if there is anything that our world needs today it is hope. Woody Allen is not my favorite theologian, but he does capture the spirit of our age when he says, "More than any other time in history, mankind faces a crossroads. One path leads to despair and utter hopelessness; the other to total extinction. Let us pray we have the wisdom to choose correctly."

A few years ago, Rush Limbaugh was blasting the current generation of young adults as a bunch of whiners because they are constantly moaning about how difficult life is for them when, compared to their grandparent's generation, they have it pretty easy. Then a 23-year old caller came on the air to say that in spite of hardships created for his grandparents' generation by The Great Depression and World War II, he believed that his generation faced even greater hardship.

"And what exactly would that be?" Limbaugh asked.

"The loss of hope," the caller replied. He went on to say that today's young adults had stopped believing that things were going to get better. They were not expecting a brighter future. They had given up hope.

Our Gospel lesson for today assures us that we do not need to give up hope. As Carl Henry once said, "Jesus planted the only durable rumor of hope amid the widespread despair of a hopeless world." That hope continues to live, because it is based upon the death and resurrection of Jesus - the one event in all of history that offers true peace and true joy to all people. That hope continues to live because it is based upon a word of Jesus which will never pass away - the promise that he will come again. And when he does, peace and joy will be finally and fully ours.

In March of 1991, the first President Bush gave a speech in which he spoke about a new world order. Ever since then politicians and world leaders have promised us a new world order. This promise continues to ring rather hollow on the lips of those who think that a new world order can be ushered in using old world tactics. Today Jesus calls us to look for peace and security, not in military and monetary might, but in the promises of God and the coming Kingdom. Today Jesus calls us to find our joy not in the pleasures and excesses of an affluent and material world, but in the love of God. Today Jesus calls us to find our hope not in human structures or efforts, but in divine intervention - the first intervention coming when Jesus was born in Bethlehem, and the second coming when he returns on the Last Day.

Does this mean that we simply sit around waiting for Christ to come again? Does this mean that we can leave it all up to God and go on our merry way? Of course not! This hope is a call to action. This hope says that it is possible to do something important. This hope says that it is possible for us to truly make a difference. Yes, the world as we know it will come to an end, but there are things that will endure, things that will carry over into the new world, into the very Kingdom of God.

Those who learn how to practice the Four Keys of Child in Our Hands (and if you don't know what those keys are, David Anderson is going to lay those out for us next weekend), those who touch the lives of others with God's love and care through holiday baskets or Leonard Terrace or Habitat for Humanity, those who share their faith and hope with those who do not know Jesus Christ - these are people who leave a legacy that will last - that will last not just for a life time, but for an eternity.

So lift up your heads, be careful, watch, and pray - not in fear, but in hope for your salvation is drawing near. Amen.