Grace be unto you, and peace, from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

           Text: St. Luke 21:25-36, but especially these words –

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. Men will faint with terror, apprehensive of what is coming on the world, for the heavenly bodies will be shaken. At that time they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. When these things begin to take place, stand up and lift up your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Dear Friends in Christ Jesus:

This is a day when many shake their heads and wonder what the world is coming to – and others lift their heads and wonder at the One who comes. The one is fear – the other faith. Newscasts that describe the crises and convulsions of the world play havoc with the dreams of social planners and the best laid schemes to heal a sick society. But they affirm for others that the kingdom and the power and the glory will not be ushered in by our development to higher and more noble and more human creatures, but by intervention from the other side. The one is fear – the other faith.

When these things begin to happen – things like war and hatreds, pestilence and famine, violence and vengeance, hearts will fail with fear for what is happening on the earth and from the depths cry out – “What can we do?” But other hearts look up and other heads are raised to see what God is doing and to know that victory, His victory, is just around the corner. The one is fear – the other faith. Some see the end as an annihilation in a nuclear destruction, or in a human race that chokes to death on fumes of progress, or in a collision of the planets. Some see it in the freezing of the world because the sun is burning out, or in the boiling of the world because the sun moves in too close. Others see it in the coming of the Son of man with power and great glory, bringing our redemption. The one is fear – the other faith.

The words of the Apostles’ Creed – “From thence He will come to judge the living and the dead” – some dismiss it as a myth, or refer to it as the frightful prospect of a day when all must stand before a God who knows too much. But there are those for whom those words of the Creed call for celebration – the celebration of the day when what is hidden now will be revealed and faith permitted to see the full reality of what it has believed. The one is fear – the other faith.

Suddenly it’s Advent once again, and suddenly it will be Advent in the final sense when He who came and He who comes will come again. What are we to make of this – we with our alternating practice of belief and unbelief, obedience and disobedience, fear and faith? We can tolerate the festival we celebrate almost a month from now as long as we can make it over in our image and get rid of Him again when He disturbs us. We rather like the theme of love He brings to us as He comes now in Word and Sacrament.

But this – what do we do with this – that He will come again in power and great glory, that the world we know today will end, and that the history we are making will be laid to rest in history that He is making? Is a word like this designed to shape us up in the panic of a world gone mad before we get caught unprepared? Isn’t there a harshness in these words of Jesus quite unlike the meek, mild, and tender Jesus we have known?  Does He speak to fear or does He speak to faith? Advent calls God’s people to repentance. the only preparation for His coming that can be acceptable to Him. The broken and contrite heart – our Lord will not despise. But Advent is a many-splendored season, and each of them a splendor of His Gospel, calling us from fear to faith, from unbelief to trust, and from despair to hope.

Be sure of this – that Jesus Christ is speaking here to us, and He is speaking to our fear and to our faith. We can’t dismiss His word as easily as we might like, reading this as though He had in mind the day Jerusalem would be destroyed and not one stone left standing on another. That happened many years ago. Or reading it as though it were a long way off, a day set far enough into the distant future so that we still can crowd into life whatever we had planned. That’s fine! People ought to have their dreams and make their plans and set their goals.

We cannot be through with this that easily and Christ won’t be through with us that easily. He won’t be content until He calls us from our fear to faith – the faith that lives and acts today because it is faith that’s sure about tomorrow. Is there anything in the words of Christ here to call us from fear to faith? This is true, that if our faith is merely in the future, some unknown day ahead when everything will be all right and when the promises for better things ahead are all fulfilled and when the human race finally breaks through and achieves its goal of a perfect world, well, then, there is little in the words of Jesus that will support that kind of faith.

And this is true – that if our hope for something better in the future is invested in us to free us from our problems and ills so that we can be more human and create a world of brotherly love, then Jesus’ words provide little help and no hope. In fact, I have to admit that I find the prospect frightening, this prospect that our Lord places before us in the text today - “On the earth, nations will be in anguish and perplexity…men will faint in terror, apprehensive of what is coming on the world, for the heavenly bodies will be shaken.”

I find it frightening that all of these demonic powers stalk the earth and wreak havoc in the horrors of our inhumanity, our wars, our crimes against others, our addictions also, as each of us exalts himself or herself as god. When these things begin to happen, – these desperate, distressing things, and when I too must find myself with nerves upset, my spirit standing at the brink of despair, when everything goes wrong and all of my foundations crumble, when every light goes out and I am sitting in the dark alone – what will I do then?

Shall I abandon hope? Forsake the faith? Surrender to my fears? Jesus isn’t threatening us with possibilities of what might be. He is simply realistic, telling us not what might be but what will be, and then says – “Be always on the watch, and pray that you may be able to escape all that is about to happen” – not by going around, but going through, and then to stand before the Son of man.

That’s the key that turns everything around from fear to faith. When the Son of man comes in power and great glory, the word might be – “Look out!”  But for a child of God, a child of faith, the word is not “look out”, it is instead “look up!” It is Jesus’ call from fear to faith, telling us to stand up, and to hope again – “…because your redemption is drawing near.” Yes, many shake their heads and wonder what the world is coming to, but others lift their heads and wonder at the One who comes. The one is fear, the other faith.

And who is this Son of man who comes? He is the Son of God, and that says more than we can ever fully grasp. Jesus Christ took on our flesh. He Himself has been through the tribulation, and He suffered it all for us. But when these things began to happen, when He journeyed to Jerusalem to be delivered into the hands of wicked, men, His mission neared completion. He accomplished our salvation, atoned for all our guilt, purchased our forgiveness, crushed the power of death, and assures us of our redemption. He is the Son of man in whom we have been brought from death to life, and in whom we know the joy of guilt removed and sin forgiven.

The Son of man has never lost control. He never will. And He want us to know that as He calls us from fear to faith – that the time will come, in fact it already has, when everything will speak against our faith, when all the evidence will question us – “So where is your God now?” The time will come, in fact already has, when fear will grip the world to choke off all these myths about a God who steers the course of history to its goal.

But faith must answer – “Where is my God? He is today right where He has always been. And He is there where He will be when I come home – right by my side.” So when these things begin to happen, then look up, lift up your heads for your redemption is drawing near. That means the kingdom of God is breaking through. It means – victory!

From fear to faith, and this is the faith – the certainty that at the end though heaven and earth may pass away, our Lord never will. Where else, then, can we find our refuge but in Him. Where else can we find hope if not in Him who alone has mercy that endures forever. Where else is there an escape from all these things that will take place if heaven and earth must pass away and only He remains? Who else can take and claim the top priority in our lives today? The only thing we need to fear is faithlessness. For where there is no faith – there can only be fear.

When all these things begin to happen, look around. The scene is hopeless, isn’t it? When these things begin to happen – look within you. The scene is even more distressing. All self-trust is shattered. When these things begin to happen, then look out! That useless also, for we can’t maneuver out of them. When these things begin to happen, then look up, lift up your heads, for your redemption is drawing near. “These things” are not a reason to give in or give up and say – “I’m beaten” – and surrender to the world. “These things” are the reason to give out – to give out with all that we are and all that we have of what the grace of God has made of us and given us – to speak of the joy we know in Him who is the Lord of all – to call the world from fear to faith. And don’t you think – it’s time for that? Amen.

The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Amen.