The Last Christmas

The message given in the Sunday night worship service in the Gettysburg United Methodist church on November 28, 2021.  The Bible verses used are Luke 21:7-36.

            It’s the first Sunday of Advent.  The time in which we await the coming of Christ.

            Christmas, these days, is a big deal.  The Hallmark Channel started showing Christmas movies nonstop in the last week of October.  Satellite radio started playing Christmas music about that same time.  And of course, some of the stores started putting up their Christmas displays even earlier than that.

            Now, I’m not saying that any of these things are the true meaning of Christmas.  What I’m saying, though, is that these days, it’s not possible to have Christmas sneak up on you.  It’s not possible to not be aware that Christmas is coming.  Even people who don’t believe in Christ, even people who could not care less about Christmas, have to be aware of it.  No matter how big of a Grinch you try to be, you still cannot avoid knowing that Christmas is coming.

            The reason I bring that up, though, is that it’s such a stark contrast to the first Christmas.  Almost no one knew the first Christmas was coming then.  Mary knew.  Joseph knew.  Elizabeth, Mary’s cousin, knew.  The wise men knew.  Herod knew, when the wise men told him, although he did not understand what it meant.  At the last minute, the shepherds knew.  But that’s it.  No one else knew that first Christmas was coming.

            Now, in saying that, I want to make clear what I mean.  There were a lot of people who knew Christmas would come someday.  They did not necessarily call it “Christmas”, of course.  But there were lots of Old Testament prophecies that said the Messiah would come.  Someday.  At some point.  Who knew when.  But other than those I listed, no one had any idea that the Messiah was coming right then.  That night.  Even people like the innkeeper did not know the Messiah was coming.  They knew a baby was going to be born, but so what?  I mean, yeah, most people like babies, but they had no reason to think this baby was different from any other baby.

            In fact, it would be thirty years before people actually realized that there had been that first Christmas.  Thirty years before people knew that the Messiah had come.  And of course, even then, a lot of people did not understand, and did not believe.  Think of how sad that would be.  The Old Testament prophecies had been made hundreds of years before.  People had been waiting for it their whole lives, for generations.  And then, when it came, they missed it.  What a sad thing, when you think about it.

            In our reading for tonight, Jesus talks about the last Christmas, the time He will come again.  That’s a prophecy that’s two thousand years old, now.  We know Jesus is coming again.  Someday.  At some point.  Who knows when.  And it may well be that only a few people, if any, will know Jesus is coming right then.  That night.  Or that day.  Maybe it will be just like the first Christmas, when hardly anybody knew Jesus was coming.

            Now, there is one thing that will be different.  When Jesus comes again, it will not be thirty years before anyone finds out.  Jesus says people will “see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.”  There’s going to be no mistaking it when Jesus comes.  It won’t matter where we are or what we’re doing.  If we’re asleep, we’ll wake up.  If we’re inside or outside, in town or in the country, whether it’s night or day, winter or summer, we’re going to know that Jesus has come again when he comes.

            A lot of people will be caught by surprise when Jesus comes.  But you know, Jesus does not want to catch us by surprise.  And so He gives some clues, some things to look for.

            First, He says, be careful who you follow.  There will be false prophets, false Saviors.  But then, Jesus starts talking about all the bad things that are going to happen before He comes again.

            And it’s going to be very bad.  Nation will rise against nation.  Kingdom will rise against kingdom.  There will be earthquakes.  Famines.  Pestilences, which is a word for epidemic diseases.  Fearful events.  Great signs from heaven.

            They will seize Jesus’ followers and persecute them.  They’ll put them in prison and haul them up before the authorities.  Jesus’ followers will be betrayed by relatives and friends.  Some of them will even be put to death.

            There will be signs in the moon and stars.  Nations will be in anguish and perplexity at the roaring and tossing of the sea.  The heavenly bodies will be shaken.  All of these things will be signs of that last Christmas, that time when Jesus is coming again.

            Well, those are some words that’ll get us into the Christmas spirit, right?  They’re not making Hallmark Channel movies about that stuff, are they?

            I don’t mean to come across like Scrooge.  I like the Christmas season, too.  But I think we’ve overly romanticized it.  We’ve trivialized it.  We’ve turned Christmas into a nice, soft, warm, fuzzy feeling.  There’s nothing wrong with nice, soft, warm, fuzzy feelings, but nice, soft, warm, fuzzy feelings don’t last.  They come, and then they fade away.  Christmas is so much more than fuzzy feelings.  Christmas is so much more serious than fuzzy feelings.

            We’re talking about the birth of the Savior of the world here.  We’re talking about the start of a chain of events that would end up with that Savior being arrested, and beaten, and mocked, and scorned, and abandoned.  And eventually, killed.  All for us.  All so we could have the chance for salvation and eternal life, through our faith in Him.  That is so much more than a warm, fuzzy feeling.

            And as we’ve seen, the last Christmas, when Jesus comes again, will not have anything at all to do with soft, warm, fuzzy feelings.  There are going to be some terrible, awful, horrible things that happen before He comes.  We just went through the list.

            Some would say that those things are happening now, right before our eyes.  And I cannot say they’re wrong.  Wars.  Earthquakes.  Famines.  Pandemics.  Persecution of Christians.  A lot of that stuff Jesus talked about is happening.  

Now, of course, this is not the first time since Jesus went back to heaven that some of this stuff has happened.  So I’m not saying the second coming of Christ is imminent.  But I’m also not not saying that.  That’s the tricky bit about looking for these signs that Jesus talked about--our human tendencies get in the way of seeing them clearly.  We human beings tend to see what we want to see and believe what we want to believe.  If we want to see signs that Jesus is coming again, if we want to believe his return will be soon, then we’ll see those signs, whether they’re there or not.  Many, many people have, over the centuries.  And on the other hand, if we don’t want to see signs Jesus is coming again, if we don’t want to believe his return will be soon, then we won’t see those signs, even if they’re actually there.

So what do we do?  Well, I’ll tell you what I think we should do.  If we know the last Christmas, the time when Jesus comes again, will happen sometime, and we don’t know when the time will be, the only logical thing to do is to be ready all the time.  Keep our focus.  Don’t be distracted by the things of the world.  Be prepared.

That’s what Jesus said to do, too.  He said, “Be careful, or your hearts will be weighed down with carousing, drunkenness, and the anxieties of life, and that day will close on you like a trap...Be always on the watch, therefore, 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.”

Very few people knew when the first Christmas was going to come.  That was not because they were bad people or anything--that was by design.  God could’ve announced the first Christmas with bells and whistles and let everyone know about it.  It was God’s will that the Savior would be born quietly, that He would get the chance to grow and mature, and that it would only be later that everyone knew what had happened on that first Christmas.

It may be that very few people will know when the last Christmas is going to come.  But when it comes, everyone will know.  Jesus’ second coming to earth will not be quiet.  It will be announced with the blare of trumpets, with the sight of Jesus coming on a cloud in his full glory.  A sight we cannot even really imagine.

We’ve been waiting for that day for two thousand years.  Let’s make sure we don’t miss out on it.  Let’s not be distracted.  Let’s not let the anxieties of life keep us from being ready.  I don’t know when that last Christmas will come, but I know it will come.  Let’s be ready for it, and let’s celebrate that last Christmas with our Savior, Jesus Christ.