God comes to us. This is a reversal of how we normally think about things. We normally think that it is our business to get to God; it’s our responsibility to climb Jacob’s ladder, to clamber into heaven. That, in fact, is the basic doctrine of every other religion in the world: we people are about the business of getting into heaven by our own efforts. Against this Christianity says, “No, God comes to you.”

Now that God comes to us is not yet good news. God could show up to wreak havoc. “The Lord is coming” was terrible news for Pharaoh. It was disastrous news for Noah’s neighbors, for the Canaanites living in the Promised Land, for the people selling stuff in the temple when Jesus came.

Advent is the season for meditating on the great good news that our Lord Jesus comes to us. This His coming is our great joy.

Last week, the first week of Advent and of the Church Year we heard the Triumphal Entry of Jesus, and considered especially what it means that Jesus continues to come to us in humility to bless us. Next week and the week after, the last two Sundays of Advent, we will hear the preaching of John the Baptist and consider how it was that Jesus came the first time in our flesh and blood to save us.

Today is the preaching of the Second Coming of Jesus, the signs in the sun and moon and stars, distress of nations, “people fainting with fear and with foreboding of what is coming on the world.” Jesus’ teaching about that great last day is that it will be a terrible day, the moon turned red, the stars falling from the sky, the entire earth shaken, the graves opening up and all flesh raised, and the most frightful of all is that this last day is the judgment day, the day that humanity is held to account.

The coming of Jesus is not always good news.

But Jesus is telling us these things, prophesying these things, promising these things for us, for our benefit, so that this last day is not a surprise, but that we would be ready, and that we would greet that day with joy. “Lift up your head,” says Jesus, “because your redemption draws near.” Not your destruction, your judgment, your horror, “your redemption.”

When we are ready the coming of our Jesus is our greatest and most wonderful hope. But, to be ready means two things. One the one hand we have to be ready for Jesus to come back now, today, at any moment. On the other hand, we have to be ready for Jesus not to come back today, in fact, it might be generations.

“The Bridegroom was delayed,” and “that day comes suddenly like a trap.”

The Christian is packed and ready to go. The Christian is settled in for the long haul. The Christian has their bags zipped up while they plant a tree or a vineyard. We think of the resurrection and we think of our great-great grandchildren.

Now, how can this be? How can we be ready and patient? How can we live like there is no tomorrow and, as the same time, live like tomorrows will keep coming?

Jesus tells us (Luke 21:36): “Stay awake at all times.” Stay awake.

Jesus is not telling us that we shouldn’t have beds and close our eyes at night. He’s not telling us that it is a sin to fall asleep in the sermon, although that is a little closer. Being awake and alert for the end of the world has to do with our repentance, our prayers, and our vocation. “Stay awake at all times, praying that you may have strength to escape all the things that are going to take place, and to stand before the Son of Man,” (Luke 21:36).

First, to be awake is to repent of your sins. To know that you have broken God’s commands and deserved His wrath, and to know that Jesus has suffered this wrath for you. Contrition and faith, sorrow and trust, these are the two parts of repentance, and this is readiness for Christ as He comes to us today, and when He comes at the end.

Second, to be awake is to pray. Prayer is the first fruit of faith, to see our weakness and death, and to cry out for help. To hear the promise of Christ and thank God for His kindness and undeserved love. And to pray for help, for the world, for the people around us, for our family and friends, that they would have the readiness of repentance, this is what it means to be awake and ready.

Third, to be awake is to live in our vocation, to love our neighbors in the station where God has placed us. We might think that if Jesus might come back tomorrow then our family and our work is not that important, but this is not true. We know that the Lord has put us here, that He has given us our family and vocation and the offices that we hold, and that He has given us the command to love and serve and die there.

So we repent, and pray, and love our neighbor, and we are ready, ready for now and ready to wait. We are awake.

The devil, though, is always trying to put us to sleep, singing us spiritual lullabies.

Normally we think of the devil’s temptation as this allurement towards forbidden things, and this is certainly true. Just as the devil worked to make the forbidden fruit look desirable to Eve, he works to make the things forbidden to us look pleasing. Lust is the most obvious of these things, where the person not your spouse becomes desirable to you, but the devil can do this trick with all of the commandments. With the Fourth Commandment (Honor your father and your mother) it seems better to the children to have the respect of their friends more than the respect of their parents. We grown ups despise the authority over us and want to be our own boss. According to the Fifth Commandment (You shall not murder) we put our own needs or comfort over the needs of our neighbor. According to the Seventh Commandment (You shall not steal) we want the money and the stuff that isn’t ours. According to the Eighth Commandment (You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor) we want our reputation to be better than our neighbors. The Ninth and Tenth Commandments (You shall not covet) are exactly about this desire for the thing that God has not given.

There is, then, with the devil’s temptation, a war for our desiring, for our wanting. The devil is always tempting us to desire the things that God has not given us.

But there is a flip side to this temptation, one which we often ignore, and which is a bit subtle. While the devil tempts us to want the things that God hasn’t given, he also tempts us to despise and be bored with the things that God has given.

While the devil tempts married people with someone other than their spouse, he comes around and tempts the spouse to be bored with their husband or wife. The new toy wrapped up on the shelf is just the thing I’ve always wanted, that I have to have, while the same toy at home in the closet is old hat. The devil makes the grass over there look greener while he makes the grass right here look browner. The thing that you are not supposed to have looks great, but at the same time the devil makes what you do have look worse, dull, grey, tired, boring. You know what I’m talking about; this is how the devil works.

And it is especially with the things of God, the first table of the Commandments, that the devil tempts us to boredom. The Third Commandment (Remember the Sabbath Day by keeping it holy) gives us the great gift of God’s Word. “Delight yourself in the law of the Lord,” the Scriptures say over and over again. Did you hear it? “Delight.” We are supposed to have this godly longing and desire to hear God’s Word, but the devil tempts us with boredom. “I’ve heard that before. Same old stuff.” No! There is a surprise on every page, in every word. The Scriptures might be a lot of things, but one thing they are not is boring .It is impossible, because here is God doing something completely unexpected, taking your flesh and your blood so that He could pile on your sin and suffer and die for you, and give you new life. There is, in fact, nothing more exciting than this.

And the devil tempts us to become bored in our prayers, cold, neglectful. This is the temptation against the Second Commandment (You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God). We all know this temptation as well, and it extends to the First Commandment, that God is our God. It is stunning that before us is the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, the crafter of the cosmos and our great God and Savior, speaking and listening and working and doing, and this seems boring to us. It must be the devil’s work.

But Jesus cuts through this temptation, this film of vice, with His shout, “Wake up!” Look and the beauty and wonder of what is right in front of you. The Lord have given you clothing and shoes, food and drink, house and home, your family, your life, your work, and more. He has given you His Son, His blood, His living and dying and rising for you and your life. He has given you His Word, your baptism, His Son’s body and blood, His name, access to Himself in prayer, and He has lavished you with His promises, day after day, forgiving you your sins, and soon coming back for you.  

In this faith we are awake, and we are ready, and we pray, “Come Lord Jesus!” Amen.

The peace of God which passes all understanding guard your heart and mind through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.