It's good to be back!  Carol and I had such a wonderful trip.  The Caribbean weather was perfect, the food was delicious and the cruise restful.  We visited the two Bahamian islands and shared the "Sovereign of the Seas" with 2200 other cruisers and a staff of 800.  We were kept busy with many choices of events, and when I could think of nothing else to do, I sat and watched the people.  And what an assortment of people go on a cruise!  All shapes and sizes, nationalities and ages, in all manner of dress, at all hours of the day.  People are so different - no two are alike and they all seem to wear whatever they felt like.  Sometimes I saw more of some people than I cared to, but others were a pleasure to watch!  And I brought back the one thing that proves we really were there - an island shirt!  Now Carol can find me in a crowd of thousands.  Colors like this just shout your presence.  "Look at me, I'm here!"

          But it was a hard landing to come back to this Colorado snow and chill, and also to the beginning of Advent.  Today is the first Sunday of the new Church Year - happy new year!  The Church Year is divided into two halves:  the Lord's Half Year which deals with the life of Jesus, and the Church's Half Year which emphasizes the teachings of Jesus.  Today we begin anew once again to tell the story of our Savior Jesus.

          Advent is a season of watching and waiting, something we Americans have never done very well.  Advent comes from Latin words meaning "to approach" or "to come."  This time of year we remember our Lord's two advents, when He came the first Christmas, and when He will come again in glory and judgment.  Today we're living between the two.  We remember well His first advent, the babe born in Bethlehem's stable.  But Scriptures tell us the baby didn't stay little.  He grew to manhood, completed the work of salvation for all people, and then returned to heaven until the day of His second advent, on Judgment Day.

          Many people today are confused about the significance of Christmas.  Contrary to what we read in the ads, it's not the most important festival of the Church.  That's Easter, the festival celebrating His resurrection.  Early Christians immediately celebrated His resurrection, first by selecting Sunday as their day of worship and later by an annual Resurrection Day festival.  But it wasn't until the Fourth Century that the church selected December 25 to remember His nativity.  At the same time they chose January 6 as Epiphany Day, the festival of lights to commemorate the Wise Men's visit to the holy family.

          You see, everyone has a birth, but only Jesus had a resurrection re-birth.  It's good to give Him a birthday party, but merely believing He was born gets us nowhere.  Believing He is God's Son and that He rose from the dead for the sins of the world -- that's what counts!  Christmas is a joyful season, but it doesn't hold a candle to the eternal significance of Easter.

          As we live between the two advents, and as the coming days pass, we'll be thinking about His coming into the world.  Our Sunday services will center on certain words - Watch, Prepare, Rejoice and Behold.  Our Wednesday services will deal with people of the first Advent - Zechariah the Priest, Joseph the step-father, and the Innkeeper.  I pray all our worship services will help us be ready for His second coming by faith, ready for a day known only to the Father.

          But waiting is so hard for us!  Waiting drains you.  You and I can't hold our anticipation level high for long.  As a child asks on a long road trip, "Are we there yet?" so we often ask, "How long, O Lord?"  Watching and waiting can wear a person out.  Yet our Lord tells us, "Watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come."

          Every week when we worship on the first day of the week, we recall His Resurrection.  Then once a year we make a big celebration with all the festivities of Easter.  Add to that our annual remembrance of His birth at Christmas, and every year we have the chance to be rejuvenated by holy praise and joy.  Without those great reminders of God's presence in history, life would be dull and drab.  Imagine a winter without Christmas or a spring without Easter!  What great blessings God gives us in these two special seasons of holy joy.

          Do you know how our weekdays got their names?  They were first named by the Romans in honor of their gods.  Our present English names for days of the week come from the Saxons who conquered England and named the days of the week after their gods.  And so we have Sunday = Sun's day, Monday = Moon's day, Wednesday = Woden's day (important god to them), Thursday = Thor's day (another big one) , Friday = Frigga's day (wife of Woden), Saturday = Saturn's day.  That leaves only Tuesday, and legend says that day was named after the daughter of Woden and Frigga - her name was "Toots" - so we have Tuesday.  And if you believe that, I have some great land to sell you in Florida.  No, Tuesday wasn't named after Toots but after Tiw, a Saxon harvest god.  But I like the legend better.

          We all know it's really hard to wait--wait for a call from the doctor, wait for test results, wait for that new job opening, or wait for your day in court.  Parents spend a great deal of time waiting for their child to walk and talk, and then they wait for them to sit down and be quiet.  Sometimes you wait for that certain phone call, the one promised that never comes.  Ever noticed how often people are in meetings when you call?  I can't recall the number of times I've called a local government agency and been told that person is in a meeting.  I really think there are only two kinds of government workers - those in meetings and those taking messages for those in meetings.

          Today's Bible verse comes from a time when Jesus was talking with His disciples.  They were taking a city tour of Jerusalem and those twelve Galilean country boys were impressed with the grandeur of the buildings, sort of like a midwesterner's first visit to New York City.  I never saw the World Trade Center in person, but I visited Times Square 35 years ago and nearly fell over trying to see all the way up to the top of the skyscrapers.

          It was like that with the Disciples.  They were bowled over with the height and size and beauty of those impressive buildings.  The pinnacle of the Temple was thirty stories high!  The size of the stones in the temple foundation was simply staggering - one of them still in place today measures 32 feet long, ten feet high and eight feet thick - and weighs over 200 tons!

          But as they marveled, Jesus brought them back to reality.  He said all they saw would be torn down - not one stone would be left standing.  I doubt they believed it would happen, but forty years later, His words came true, as they always do.  After the Roman soliders invaded Jerusalem, they spent nearly a full year tearing apart all the buildings and burning the city.  The Jews thought it could never happen, but God's Word always comes true.

          But He wouldn't tell them when it would happen, just to be prepared when it did.  He said, "Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come."  Over the centuries false prophets have tried to foretell when the world would end, but it never has.  I'm told there was a little-known book a few years back entitled, 88 Reasons Why the World Will End in 1988.  It sold well enough that the publishers planned a reprinting in 1989!  I wonder how well the second edition sold...

          But waiting for Christ's return doesn't mean watching the clock.  Nowhere in Holy Scripture does God tell us to sit around and wait, but to serve Him with all our heart while we wait.  In the 1987 NCAA basketball Regional Finals, LSU was leading Indiana by eight points with a few minutes left in the game.  Despite their superiority, LSU began playing a different ball game.  It became apparent LSU was watching the clock rather than playing the game.  As a result of their shift in focus, Indiana closed the gap, won the game by a point, and eventually went on to win the NCAA championship.  God does not want us wasting time watching the clock.  He wants us to be involved in service to Him and our fellow people.

          Right now we're all waiting for something -- for a phone call, a letter, an Email, a job, a good relationship or even maybe for this sermon to end so you can go home and watch the Broncos.  But just remember, you and I don't have to wait for eternity.  Heaven starts the moment we believe.  In John 6:47 Jesus said, "He who believes HAS eternal life", not "will have eternal life" or "hopes to have eternal life " but HAS eternal life.  The benefits of heaven are ours right now, because of Jesus and His love for us.  Heaven is His to give, and He gives it to all who trust Him.

          All of us will one day come to the end of the road, the time when life has run out.  Will we be ready for the Lord because we've been faithful in our wait?  Or will we have grown tired of watching or gotten side-tracked by the excitement of human passion or the cares of our everyday life?  Don't become a clock watcher - serve the Lord with gladness!  Don't get pulled away by the temptations of life - stay faithful to Jesus!  He's promised we won't be tempted beyond our ability to bear it.  He also said, "He who endures unto the end shall be saved." (Matthew 24:13).  May we all be among those who hear Jesus tell us, "Well done, faithful servant.  Enter into the kingdom prepared for you." (Matthew 25:41)   Amen

Copyright © 2001 by Pastor Bob Tasler.  All rights reserved.