Luke 3

7 John said to the crowds coming out to be baptized by him, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? 8 Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. And do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham. 9 The ax is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.”
10 “What should we do then?” the crowd asked.
11 John answered, “Anyone who has two shirts should share with the one who has none, and anyone who has food should do the same.”
12 Even tax collectors came to be baptized. “Teacher,” they asked, “what should we do?”
13 “Don’t collect any more than you are required to,” he told them.
14 Then some soldiers asked him, “And what should we do?”
He replied, “Don’t extort money and don’t accuse people falsely—be content with your pay.”
15 The people were waiting expectantly and were all wondering in their hearts if John might possibly be the Messiah. 16 John answered them all, “I baptize you with water. But one who is more powerful than I will come, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. 17 His winnowing fork is in his hand to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn, but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.” 18 And with many other words John exhorted the people and proclaimed the good news to them.

 

When you hear the word “repentance” what comes to mind, sorrow or happiness?  When you repent to the Lord or to someone you have wronged, are you sad or joyful?  A Christian hears the word repentance and knows that it is a good and godly thing, yet overall it probably conjures up a sad feeling.  After all, Scripture says, “Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret.”  But today in the Gospel, John the Baptizer teaches that repentance leads to a deep and pervasive joy.  The kind of joy that is so powerful and overwhelming that it will literally change the way a person thinks and acts, because that is what the word means, “a change of mind.”

You might think that it seems like an odd topic to cover less than ten days before Christmas, but brothers and sisters, this is exactly what we need in preparation for Christ’s coming.  Repentance was also needed while John the Baptizer is preparing people for Jesus to begin his public ministry.  That is the summary that we are given from Luke.  He is “preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.”  Maybe some were just intrigued by the weirdo out in the desert, but the main idea God’s trying to get across with the prophet, John, is forgiveness of sins.

It’s a little harsh to hear John call the crowds a “brood of vipers,” but sometimes people need to be jolted out of their spiritual laziness and snoozing.  On the one hand, these crowds were lulled to sleep by their religious leaders’ false teachings, and on the other hand their own sinful thoughts and attitudes were putting them on a dangerous path away from God.  Either way, the idea that people could escape, or be saved, from God’s wrath while continuing to cling to some of their culturally acceptable sins was counterproductive and destructive to their faith.

Another thing that was not going to help these people was their genetics.  You can just hear some of them retorting John, “We have Abraham as our father,” as if Abraham was the Savior.  John’s message was that a connection to a past believer will not do any good for their eternity.  But that was the thinking of so many back then.  John was preaching and teaching that the only thing that matters is faith.  Where people believe in God’s promised salvation and live in that faith, there is true joy – the kind of joy that produces fruit.

It’s not like people in John’s day are the only ones that need this message.  We need it, too, because so often we are looking for joy in all the wrong ways.  Sure sometimes we are clinging to the joy of salvation that comes through Christ, but there are plenty of times where we find “joy” that comes from gratifying our sinful flesh.  But you can’t have both.  Life doesn’t work that way.  You can’t enjoy eating all the calories you want and also enjoy good health.  Pizza, candy, burgers, donuts, and chips don’t help you get or stay healthy.  You can’t be a lazy pile and expect to be excellent at something.  If you want to be a great athlete, musician, dancer, or chef, you have to get off your butt, sacrificing that lazy leisure time, and work hard over and over again at developing and improving those skills.

Certain joys just cannot coexist within a person.  The joy of salvation does not coexist with the things the delight our sinful nature.  If a person pursues whatever joy their sinful flesh desires, thinking that an outward show of religiousness like attending worship or praying every day would also allow them to enjoy heaven, then they are just like those people going out to see John.  They are listening to and a part of the vipers.

This vipers bite us, too.  Do you ever use the one or two hours you spend here to excuse the other 166 or 167 hours of the week?  Do you ever think the 3% or 10% or even 20% of your income given back to the Lord can somehow negate the materialism and greed that is evident in the way we think about and use the other 80%, 90%, or 97% or our money?  Do you ever think that because you have your name on the rolls of a WELS church that you can escape the coming day of the Lord, forgetting that God could raise WELSers up out of the stones?  How much of our life is about desperately wanting and then enjoying God’s forgiveness so that we can rejoice in his gift of eternal life?  And then how much or our life is about wanting to know about God’s forgiveness of sins so that we can continue in those comfortable and familiar sins?

If there is any viper’s poison in us, we need what the Baptizer is saying.  We need to hear the truth that, “The ax is already at the root of the trees.”  There are, right now – that’s the word John uses – individuals who are religious and attend church that a just and holy God is ready to burn.

So, how’s that for joyful?  If you want the kind of joy that God has accomplished for you – eternal joy, joy this life could never bring – it is impossible without God leading you to see the seriousness and ugliness of sin.  A person is not seeing the seriousness of sin if they come to church and takes the Lord’s Supper to salve their conscience over the fact that they intend to go straight back to their familiar sins.

There is a time when sorrow is healthy for us.  The Bible calls it godly sorrow.  This is not the kind of sorry that is bummed and frustrated after being caught in sin or a sorry that comes from negative consequences for sin.  That’s a selfish and worldly kind of sorry that is only looking at myself.  Godly sorrow is acknowledging that I have offended my Creator, my Father.   Godly sorrow is acknowledging that I have made myself detestable to God and worthy of damnation.  That’s healthy sorrow.

If you do not acknowledge guilt and sin, you cannot possibly have joy.  When you try to hide guilt and coverup sin, when you pursue the “joys” of sinful desire, what you have is a futile attempt to distract yourself from the Judge who is coming.  You have some excitement and maybe an adrenaline rush, but you do not have joy.

To have real joy – the kind of joy that God give, the kind of joy that comes from repentance – it must be connected to God’s good news.  And that is also what John gave to the people.  John didn’t tell them to repent more frequently and more sincerely.  He told them of the one who was infinitely great and more powerful.  He pointed to the Messiah, who would baptize with the Holy Spirit and with fire. John didn’t want any credit or glory.  He was just a servant.  Jesus was the master, the Lord, God himself.  Luke writes, “With many other words John exhorted the people and preached the good news to them.”

And what exactly is that good news about Jesus?  Well, it certainly is not a message of how you need to clean up your life.  It is not a message of how you need to be more genuine and honorable.  It is not a message of how you need to bring joy back into your life.  It’s the message of how Jesus does that for you.

We’re reading kid’s Christmas books at our house for bedtime lately.  And one book kind of caught Mandy’s and my attention, “The Little Crooked Christmas Tree.”  It’s a cute story about one tree that was supposed to be a nice Christmas tree, but got crooked and misshapen.  I think of my life, and it looks pretty crooked and messed up.  It’s not the picture of health and vitality.  How about yours?  How healthy is it?  How tall?  How appealing?  Now, what if Jesus was a tree, too.  How majestic is that tree?  How straight and healthy and tall?  How green and full and fruitful?  Considering John describes fruitfulness in terms of generosity, kindness, and compassion, the Jesus-tree would be unlike any other in how amazing it is.  Yet, when God looked at our crooked and sickly tree, when he picked up his ax and walked determinedly toward us, Jesus begged, “No, Father! Not them!  Cut me down.”  On the tree of the cross that is exactly what God did to his own Son.  The amazing, thick, full, fruitful tree was cut down.  The sickly, crooked ones were spared.  That would be a sad story, except for the fact that Jesus’ tree came back to life even stronger and more beautiful than before.  When that fact is given and proclaimed to you – that God loves you, God wanted you, God chose you, God was willing to pay any price to have you for eternity with him – how does it affect you?  How can it not comfort and lift you up?  It boosts us up from the dingy depths.  It straightens us up.  It fixes what it broken. It gives us unequaled brilliance and joy.

And a tree that is healthy like that will be unbelievably fruitful.  John’s encouragement does not call for any activity of heroic proportions.  He does not say that the necessary fruit is to be a missionary in a foreign country or sell everything you have to support the poor and the work of the Church.  We simply have a new goal, a new purpose, to reflect Christ in our lives and in our dealings with other people.  We now live for him who died and rose for us.  We struggle through pain and hardship with the strength of Christ that he gave to us when we were baptized into the name of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  We use the good news that causes great joy not on a once a year or once a week basis, but on an every day basis and for everyone basis.  This is the fruitful life of a believer.  This is the joyful life that we have now, and God will make perfect forever in heaven.

I started the sermon with a question about repentance.  Did you say it was sad and sorrowful?  If you did, that’s not entirely wrong, but it also is not entirely right.  The kind of repentance that God works in his people will always conclude with joy, because godly sorrow turns you and changes your mind away from sin, away from how bad your tree looks and points you to the only place where forgiveness is given.  It points you to a different tree, one that is unmistakably and infinitely greater.  It points you to the tree where Christ died.  It points you to the tree that made the first bed our Savior ever had.  It points you to the Son of God and his restoring, refreshing, renewing, revitalizing love.  You have that joy right now and forever in him.  To God be the Glory!  Amen.

 

 

PEACE REQUIRES PREPARATION

Malachi 3

1 “I will send my messenger, who will prepare the way before me. Then suddenly the Lord you are seeking will come to his temple; the messenger of the covenant, whom you desire, will come,” says the LORD Almighty.
2 But who can endure the day of his coming? Who can stand when he appears? For he will be like a refiner’s fire or a launderer’s soap. 3 He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver; he will purify the Levites and refine them like gold and silver. Then the LORD will have men who will bring offerings in righteousness, 4 and the offerings of Judah and Jerusalem will be acceptable to the LORD, as in days gone by, as in former years.

 

My dad used to say, “Prior planning prevents poor performance.”  When things are planned out, when preparation is made, then the nerves go down a bit and the execution is at a good level.  Just think of a kid who is taking a biology semester exam.   That’s kind of one of those times when you need to be prepared.  You need to make sure you have your biology notes, because the history ones won’t help you much.  And you need to give those notes a little more than a glance.  You need to get in their and work at it, maybe even for a few nights if you want to be to prevent a poor performance.

I remember being in this exact situation at Martin Luther College my sophomore year.  Science classes weren’t really a forte of mine in school.  So in order to avoid squelch the nerves, in order to avoid a poor performance, I studied multiple nights.  I wasn’t totally calm going in or coming out of that final exam but studying sure helped.  I can’t remember what my grade was, but I remember being at peace with it.

Malachi is describing for us something that has a little more weight than a biology final.  In Malachi 3, he’s talking about the coming of Christ.  He asks, “Who can endure the day of his coming?”  The reason he asks is because the people of Judah have become pretty indifferent.  This is the time after they returned from exile.  There had been a positive spiritual resurgence when those, who were captive in Babylon, were allowed to go back home to Judah.  They rebuilt the temple, rebuilt the city, rebuilt the walls, and that also rebuilt their foundation on God’s promises. But the pattern that existed for the Jewish people in the Old Testament cropped up again to the point where the people were questioning the Lord.  Think of that!  The people got lazy about worship and faith and they figured one of the reasons was God’s fault.

Maybe you notice the same kind of thing going on now.  People are waiting for the Lord in their own ways, not his, if they are paying attention to him at all.  Even among us, from time to time, we question God’s power and love.  If we are his children, then why do we have to face struggle and pain?  Why can’t we have what we want all the time?

That is ultimately what the people of Judah are asking for.  That’s the implication when Malachi says, “The Lord you are seeking will come to his temple; the messenger of the covenant, whom you desire, will come.”  We get caught up looking for God to be what we want him to be.  We want the comfort and the easy life.  It’s this kind of selfishness that often looks at Jesus to be a soda machine, giving me what I want when I want it, instead of looking at Jesus as the Savior from sin and death that I need.

Jesus’ work was not to give Judah what they wanted or to dispense to us every last wish and desire we have.  He is the messenger of the covenant, a covenant that God made to forgive sins and bring deliverance to people who do not deserve it.  His job was to save us.  I like the picture that God paints through the prophet Malachi.  Jesus is described as a refiner or launderer.  Those two metaphors are a lot more useful to us than a soda machine, dispensing what we want.

Jesus is the refiner, purifying us by his death. He has burned off every impurity from our record.  It cost us nothing; Jesus did it all to bring us as pure and righteous children to his Father.  But that doesn’t mean our lives are going to be easy.  Jesus is the purifier and refiner of our lives.  That means he is going to use some heat to melt off what is not of value to our faith.

The same thing is true with the metaphor of the launderer.  Jesus has washed us clean.  He has removed every stain with his blood to present us as holy and spotless to God.  But that doesn’t mean we are off the hook, that we can live in any way that makes us happy.  We are the dirty laundry that Jesus scrubs and cleans.  He uses his Word as powerful soap and applies it to our lives so that stains will not seep into our lives.  A dirty, filthy faith is, again, of far less value than a cleansed faith.

This is not a pain-free process as Jesus works on the faith that he purchased for us.  The law drives us to our knees in sorrow and the inability to cleanse ourselves. Self-righteousness is burnt up by the law’s perfect standard.  Pride is washed away in the law’s holy demands.  As Jesus works on us he will also pinpoint things we love but hinder our relationship with him, and he will work to remove those things from us.  Jesus can even use the hardships of living in a broken world to work for our good.  Weakness forces us to rely on his strength.  Sorrow forces us to the eternal comfort only Jesus provides.  We have the kind of Savior who allows and even brings the painful fires needed to purge our faith of impurities so that we can avoid the far greater, far more painful, eternal fire of hell.  God loves us enough to prepare us the right way for the Last Day, so that we can be at peace.

Think of it this way: is a parent helping their child by neglecting discipline?  A parent might be able to convince themselves that discipline is cruel and that they love their children too much to put them through any kind of pain or discomfort.  But in avoiding that little bit of pain, parents like that open their children up to much greater pain.  They will grow up to think there are not punishments, that “I get to do whatever I want,” that “the world revolves around me.”  God loves us too much to leave us spoiled and unprepared for Jesus’ return.

However, God does not save us from destruction just to keep us from the destruction.  He saves us and purifies us to be who he created us to be.  He keeps us safe and prepares us properly for Christ’s coming so that we can glorify him with each other and help others prepare as well.

Notice who is brought up in this section; it’s the Levites.  When the Promised Land was divided up for the 12 tribes of Israel, the Levites didn’t get a section of land.  They were the ones who served at the temple; that was their place among God’s people.  They were the priests and leaders of worship.  So God specifically includes them to show us that there are not levels for those who need purification.  You don’t have the pastors and religious scholars up here.  You don’t have church councilmen and board members here.  You don’t have Sunday School teachers and choir members here.  You don’t have ushers and other weekly attenders here.  You don’t have those who can’t seem to make worship the priority every week here.  You don’t have the delinquent list members here.  And you don’t have the rest of the pagans and unbelievers here.  No.  Everybody has the same need to be cleansed and purified by Jesus.

And when Jesus cleans you up and purifies you from all the things that have no value to your spiritual life, then it doesn’t matter who you are, you get to serve the Lord with thankfulness and joy.  To think that there are only certain types of believers that can serve God in the church or help out with ministry is not only ludicrous, it’s a destructive lie that comes from our sinful flesh, from the world around us, and from the devil, himself.

If Christ died for you, if he came back from the dead to give you eternal life, if he washed you in baptism and strengthens you with his Word and sacrament, if he cleans you and purifies you so that you can serve him even better, then I sure hope you notice what you are going to do.  You are going to serve the Lord in all sorts of ways.

One of those ways that God mentions through the prophet Malachi is offerings.  Without people who believe in the Lord, where would the support for ministry be?  But God has brought us into his family, where we live in thanksgiving.  We live with joy for the home we have in heaven.  We see things better.  Jesus continues his work as the refiner and launderer so that we will continue to serve him with thankfulness.  We do it now to a degree, but imagine what it will be like when we can give the Lord our best in the perfect glory of heaven.

Peace comes from the kind of preparation that Malachi is talking about.  People about 400 years after Malachi needed peace, and that’s when God sent them John the Baptist.  Even thought his message was somewhat striking, it was exactly the kind of preparation the people needed.  Mountains of pride and self-righteousness needed to be leveled.  Valleys of despair and self-loathing needed to be filled in.  Blockades that people had erected to the clear gospel had to be removed.

The same things are true today.  Maybe we don’t have a guy like John the Baptist wearing camel’s hair and eating locusts as our guest preacher during Advent, but in a pastor, God gives people a servant to help with preparations.  But just like it wasn’t about John back then, it still isn’t about the pastor today.  God’s message has always been about the messenger of the covenant, that second messenger who not only proclaims peace but then goes out and accomplishes peace for us, Jesus Christ our Savior.

For now, with such joy and excitement, we are in a time similar to getting ready for a Christmas party.  You know it will be fun and joyous, and you are looking forward to it eagerly, but before that party comes there are hours and hours of planning and preparations.  Sometimes we think that this life is the main event for us.  But it’s not.  The party comes later.  Now is the time for the hard work that prepares us for the party.  We have peace and comfort now because Jesus did the hard work for us when he came the first time and purchased it for us with his holy precious blood and innocent suffering and death.  We are on God’s side and he will never declare war on us.  We have peace to live as children of God.  We have peace as Jesus refines us and washes us to make us even better at our service of thankfulness to him.  We are at peace because God is doing so much to prepare us for Jesus to come back and take all his people to heaven.  So, in peace we pray, “Come, Lord Jesus, and take us home.”  Amen.

Hope Outdoes Optimism

12.2.18 Advent 1

Luke 21:25-36

25 “There will be signs in the sun, moon and stars. On the earth, nations will be in anguish and perplexity at the roaring and tossing of the sea. 26 People will faint from terror, apprehensive of what is coming on the world, for the heavenly bodies will be shaken. 27 At that time they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. 28 When these things begin to take place, stand up and lift up your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.”
29 He told them this parable: “Look at the fig tree and all the trees. 30 When they sprout leaves, you can see for yourselves and know that summer is near. 31 Even so, when you see these things happening, you know that the kingdom of God is near.
32 “Truly I tell you, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened. 33 Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.
34 “Be careful, or your hearts will be weighed down with carousing, drunkenness and the anxieties of life, and that day will close on you suddenly like a trap. 35 For it will come on all those who live on the face of the whole earth. 36 Be always on the watch, and pray that you may be able to escape all that is about to happen, and that you may be able to stand before the Son of Man.”

 

 

Which one is a stronger description: you are a hopeful person, or you are an optimistic person;  “I hope it doesn’t snow today,” or “I am optimistic it will not snow today”?  The ideas are certainly similar – both are looking for a favorable future, both are on the positive side of the spectrum – but there is a difference. Doesn’t the one who says, “I am an optimistic person,” or “I am optimistic it won’t snow today,” convey a bit more confidence?

The way these two words are used nowadays optimism is an ongoing trait, which describes how you carry yourself.  It tells someone how you are going to react in most if not all situations.  An optimistic person is always going to have a glint in their eye and a bounce in their step.  But the way we use hope makes it seem a little less confident, a little less cheerful.  The person who says, “I hope it doesn’t snow today” is almost telling us, “but it probably will, if not today then soon.”

In Scripture, “hope” is actually more certain and more confident than that, because of what it is connected to.  It’s not a whimsical wish for something good to happen – possibly, potentially, maybe.  Hope is connected to the promises of God, promises that the holy and perfect God can never break.  And so we have a lot more that optimism for our future.  We have hope – certain hope, confident hope – because our hope is connected to the promises of God.

And one of Jesus’ promises is that he is coming back.  That’s what Jesus is referring to in this section from Luke 21.  Like I said at the beginning of the service today, Advent points us to the coming of Christ.  It’s is going to happen, and it’s going to happen soon.  Now, I’m not making any predictions, that would be utter foolishness because Jesus has not told us when he is coming back.  But he has told us the kind of things, or signs, that will be happening before he comes back.  Earlier in this chapter he speaks of some: “Nations will rise against nation, kingdom against kingdom.  There will be great earthquakes, famines, and pestilences in various places, and fearful events and great signs from heaven.”  Does that sound like the kind of stuff we experience now?  And then, we hear what Jesus tells us in the reading for today: “There will be signs in the sun, moon and stars. On the earth, nations will be in anguish and perplexity at the roaring and tossing of the sea. People will faint from terror, apprehensive of what is coming on the world, for the heavenly bodies will be shaken.  And then Jesus tells this little parable about trees. “When they sprout leaves, you can see for yourselves and know that summer is near.”

When you look around at our world right now, what season does it look like to you?  Doesn’t it sound a lot like Jesus’ return is not too far off?  Doesn’t it sound like it’s a good time be ready for him?

But how many of us are living that way?  How many of us are standing up above all the negative voices?  How many of us are lifting our heads away from all the carousing, drunkenness, and the anxieties of life that Jesus mentions?  How many of us are readying ourselves for Christ and always on the watch for him?

Or do you have one (or a few) of those long lists.  You know the ones.  They’re all the things that you need to do to get ready for Christmas celebrations.  They’re all the people you need to buy for.  They’re all the cards you need to send.  They’re all the gifts you need to get.  They’re all the things at work.  On and on they go.   All the over-indulgence in this world, is that going to help you?  Do you really think happiness can be found and kept when it’s all about gratifying all my desires and finishing off all my lists, or when it’s time spent drowning all the stress and sorrows away?

When all these things are happening around you, when they are even happening in your life, do you know where that leads?  Jesus says, “Your hearts are weighed down…and [you are stuck in a trap].”  Boy, I look around at our world and I see people who are trying to balance a lot.  Some of the things may even be good things, helpful things, but the things of this world, the anxieties of this life are a weight that is too heavy to handle.  I fail to keep my head constantly up to listen to Christ, my Lord, and look for his coming.  Other voices become noisier and draw my gaze.  Hardships that are intended to get my eyes off myself and off of this world and direct me to full reliance on Jesus become overwhelming and weigh me down.  How about you?

Jesus says that it’s going to be like that all the way up to his return.  “Truly I tell you, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened.”  What he’s saying is that the type of people who are distracted and weighed down will always be around.  The type of people who reject Jesus and yearn for the desires of their own making will always fill this world until he comes back.

Hearing these kinds of promises, you can help but ask, “How am I supposed to be filled with hope, how am I supposed to be confident and ready, when there is so much going on to crush my God-given hope?”

Well, Jesus has a promise for you who are weighed down.  Jesus has a promise for you who are troubled and hurting.  Jesus has a promise for you and you and every single person who is looking for hope. “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.”

When you are feeling lost and alone, this is what Jesus says: “I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me and I lay down my life for the sheep…only to take it up again.”  You have a shepherd who knows you, knows how to find you, knows how to rescue you, knows how to make you safe for eternity.

When you are struggling in the storm, this is what Jesus says: “Take courage!  It is I. Don’t be afraid.”  And to the storm: “Quiet! Be still!” and the storm has to listen.

When you are in the darkness of despair and depression, this is what Jesus says: “I am the light of the world.  Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”

When you are stuck, when you are negative, when you have nowhere to turn, no fix that works, when you are at a loss thinking your situation is absolutely impossible, this is what Jesus says: “With man this is impossible, but not with God; all things are possible with God.”

When death is closing in on you and you know that you won’t get better, this is what Jesus says: “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die.

Should I keep going?  None of these promises, not one of the passages inspired and written by our God in the Bible will ever be broken.  You have that promise from your Lord and Savior.

Well, maybe just one more.  You know all those sins that haunt you?  You know all the stories that you have about carousing and drunkenness and when anxiety won you over and weighed your heart down?  Jesus had something to say about all those sins and the payment that God demands for each and every one of your sins and mine.  Jesus had a final word about the task of accomplishing our forgiveness and making the payment once for all.  He said, “It is finished.”  Yeah, those words will never pass away.

These promises from Jesus give us real hope, not the possibly, potentially, maybe kind of hope, but the God-given, certain, sure, confident hope that can never be undone.  That’s what Christ has given us.

The line between those who have this hope from Jesus and those who do not is enormous.  Jesus describes what the difference will be when he returns.  For those who don’t have his kind of hope, they will faint from terror.  They will be in anguish and perplexity at what is happening, having no clue what to do to escape it.  Those who don’t faint will look for a place to hide to no avail.  But to those who have hope from Jesus, those who believe in his promises? Different story!  Jesus says, “When you see these things happening, you know that the kingdom of God is near.  Believers do not hide.  We stand up and lift our heads without fear because our redemption is drawing near.  The Savior who promises to prepare a place for us in his heavenly home is making good on that promise, so we rejoice and will forever in heaven.

With that kind of hope we have a new attitude and a new mission.  “Be careful,” Jesus says.  Literally, “watch yourselves.”  Know what you are up against.  Acknowledge the temptations that the devil uses, which ones are especially hard for you, and flee from them.  Flee from evil and run back to the promises of your Savior in his Word and sacrament.  Keep the things that sustain your faith close to you.

“Be always on the watch,” Jesus says.  Literally, “don’t sleep.”  Be like a guard on the night watch, like Ben Stiller in those Night at the Museum movies.  Don’t let anything from the passing days and years lull you to sleep.  Stay active. Be a part of the God’s mission team to reach more for Christ.  Get involved.

“Pray,” he says.  What a gift we have to talk to the Lord of heaven and earth! Be bold with God.  Present your requests in faith and trust his answers because he will give you everything you need so that on the Last Day “you may be able to stand before the Son of Man” in joy and praise for all that he has done for you.

When he comes again, Jesus will not be little, tiny, helpless baby.  He will not even be meek and humbled as he suffered and died.  “The Son of Man will come in a cloud with power and great glory.” What a day that will be.  But it’s not here yet.  We live in this in between time, after Christ came as the baby of Bethlehem but before Christ returns as the great and glorious Judge.  That means there is suffering, there is pain, and there is strife, even for and sometimes especially for believers.  But with the promises of God we are able to endure, to persevere, to patiently wait, to live joyously, to carry out the mission God has given us.  God has given us something more that optimism.  We have his hope.  Amen.