This morning's gospel lesson has some scary things in it. It is a prophecy of the final judgment of the nations.

"When the Son of man finally arrives, blazing in beauty and all his angels with him, he will take his place on his glorious throne. Then all the nations will be arranged before him and he will sort the people out, much as a shepherd sorts out sheep and goats.

Then the King will say to those on his right, enter you who are blessed. Take what is coming to you in this kingdom. It has been ready for you since the world's foundation. For you helped me when I needed help, even when you didn't recognize me.

But to those on his left the King will turn away and say, "Get out, worthless goats! You are good for nothing but the fires of hell. For you did not help me when I needed help." Christ is coming again. With Christ's return will be a judgment on all people. The judgment means separation, separation of people based on a standard, God's standard. This passage seems to be telling us that we will be allowed to enter kingdom of God based on how we act - whether we have helped the lowly and the dispossessed.

Notice, in this list of how to behave there is no mention of a profession of faith or a personal relationship with Christ. In fact, the sheep do not even recognize Christ when they help him.

Now, this does not sound like anything I had ever preached before. So there is probably more to the passage than meets the eye.

Let us keep this passage within the context of the whole gospel. This particular passage is very heavy in its emphasis on action; however, there are many other passages that balance this one. There are many other passages that emphasize the importance of a personal relationship with Christ.

One of the points of this passage is to remind us that purely personal piety is not all that Christ calls for and expects. Being Christian is more than sitting in a room and praying. There must be some action that comes out of the prayer. This passage is a reminder that our actions are a reflection of the kind of relationship we have with Jesus. Our actions are a result of our faith. Actions are important.

It was a daunting task for young girls, many of them from wealthy families. They had to tend the loathsome sores of people whose fingers and feet had been rotted away by leprosy. Sometimes they had to beg for money, food, or medicine. But Mother Teresa inspired them with her own courage and this passage from Matthew 25 that was the basis of all her work:

"... for I was hungry and you gave me good, I was thirsty and you gave me drink. I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me. Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers and sisters, you did it to me."

In every person they met, Mother Teresa explained to the girls, they should see Christ, even if he was in distressing disguise.

While one could argue about Mother Theresa's politics, her faith in and relationship with Jesus is indisputable. Her work was her response to her relationship with Jesus. She saw Jesus in the lowly.

This is the good news that Christ is in the lowly. The face of Christ is in the hungry, the thirsty, in the stranger, the naked, the sick and the imprisoned. That means that when you are in your lowest moment, Christ is right there with you. We are never alone. We live in God's world. During our lowest times Christ is right there suffering with us. Christ is in us and we are in Christ. We become the face of Christ for others.

Several years ago, my husband and I were in Cambridge, England. We went on a tour of a few of the many historical churches in that city. The tour began at a round church near the city centre. The round church was a beautiful and small church that had quite a history. It had been modeled after a church crusaders had seen in Jerusalem. When the crusaders returned to England they built this church that resembled the round church they had seen in the Holy Land.

During World War 11 a bomb landed on a building next tot he church. The church had been sparred of major damage, except for its windows. At the front of the church there had been a large stain glass window now gone, a causality of the war. After the war, church members worked hard to replace the windows. And when it came to replacing the large window at the front of the church, parishioners decided that the picture in that window should reflect the kind of struggle the Second World War brought to the people.

England had survived World War 11, but not easily. And in the struggle for survival, many people asked the question, where is God? In all this suffering, where is God? The question was asked in many places - in Germany, in Russian, in Italy and in England. Where is God? The question was asked in the concentration camps, in the trenches, and in bombed out city streets. Where is God in all this suffering?

So, today if you go to that round church in Cambridge, England, you will find in that large, stained-glass window in the front of the church, a picture of the suffering Jesus on the cross. For God is right here suffering with us. Our suffering is God's suffering. Our pain is God's pain. Jesus Christ knows all about suffering, he suffered on the cross. The living Christ, continues to know about suffering, he is suffering with us.

In our lowest moments, Christ is with us. "For as you do it to the least of these, you do it to me." We are not alone. Thanks be to God. Amen.

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Please keep your Bibles open. I'd like to go through this passage a little bit and it will help to keep the passage in front of us. The gospel lesson for this morning is a difficult passage. What do you think this passage is about?

The whole 13th chapter in Mark is rather confusing. One reason the chapter is confusing is because the teachings in this chapter come from different times and settings. Jesus didn't preach this whole chapter in any one given time, rather this section is a collection of his teachings on one subject: the future.

The section that we read this morning can be divided into three paragraphs and if you look at the passage in your pew Bible you can see the paragraphs (24-27; 28-31 and 32-37).

The first paragraph in this passage is filled with images from the End Times or the Apocalypse and the Second Coming of Christ. We know that Jesus is speaking about the End Times because of the language and images from the Old Testament.

The third paragraph teaches us that the time of final judgment is unknown and that it is important to be prepared for the final judgment.

However, the second section is different from the first and the third paragraphs. The middle paragraph is about the imminent destruction of Jerusalem. It is sandwiched in between the two teachings of the return of Christ.

The piece of information should help us clear up a few things, especially since Jesus describes the Second Coming in the first paragraph and then describes the signs of the coming crisis and destruction in the second, so it is a bit confusing.

"But in those days, after that suffering," the passage begins, "The Sun will fade out, the moon will cloud over. Stars will fall out of the sky, cosmic will powers tremble." And then the Son of Man will come in all his glory and power. The Son of Man will dispatch the angels. They will pull in the chosen from the four winds, from pole to pole.

Does anyone here have an emotional reaction to this part of the passage? Does anyone get excited when you read about all the things that will happen when Christ returns?

There are two ways of understanding the Second Coming and the Kingdom of God. One is that there the world will end with Christ return, we will all be judged, there will be a battle between good and evil and those who are judged to be righteous will be with Jesus in the Kingdom. Then history will be finished and God's Kingdom and work will be complete.

The other way of understanding the Second Coming of Christ and the Kingdom of God is that all this will happen to us when we die. It is when we die that our world ends, we will meet Christ and be judged and be permitted to enter God's Kingdom in heaven.

These are both valid ways of understanding the Kingdom of God. Both require waiting and preparation.

A little girl tells a story about owling with her dad. It is a frosty winter night and she holds her woolly mitten over her mouth to keep her words inside. You must be very quiet when owling, she knows.

Her dad calls to the owl. "Too-who, too-wit, too-whoo." There is no answer. They walk on through the forest in silence. Once again, Dad calls, "Too-whoo, too-wit, too-whoo." This time the owl answers back. They talk, Dad and the owl. Then the owl descends, in silence, to sit on a tree branch above their heads. Dad shines the flashlight, and for one minute, three minutes, maybe 100 minutes, they stare at each other, the little girl and the owl.

Owling is like that, the little girl knows. You have to quiet and patient and on the look-out or you'll miss the owl. You need hope, because if you didn't have hope you wouldn't be looking, or waiting, or quiet and you'd miss the owl when it came. You'd miss Christ when he comes.

The coming of the return of Jesus was good news to first century Jews who lived during tough and difficult times. The Jews were oppressed by the Romans. They were waiting for the end of the world and they were waiting for a Messiah to set them free from all that oppressed them, all that kept them down and made their life so difficult.

The coming of the Son of Man and all his glory, the coming of the Kingdom of God on earth as it is in heaven, the destruction of evil and the triumph of good, gives hope to all oppressed people. It is good news for all people who have difficult lives - those who are very sick, those who are very poor and can't keep their head above water, those who have to deal with crime and violence at their doorsteps every day.

And when I say this, I think about people in the nursing homes and hospital in St. Paul who suffer with pain of their illnesses. I think of people in St. Paul who cry and mourn the death of a long time friend, a loved father, a loved mother or a child. I think of people in the inner cities in the United States where people live in very dangerous neighbourhoods. I think of people in far away countries - Afghanistan (where women have lost their rights and are killed for exposing any part of their bodies), Columbia (where they have bullet proof roofs) and Sierra Leon (the poorest country in the world).

And when I think of the pain of the world, starting with St. Paul and moving out to the whole world, I realize that the coming Kingdom of God - the kingdom where there is no evil, no hate, no suffering, no pain, but love and justice and peace and health and wholeness - I realize that the promise of the return of our Lord Jesus Christ and the kingdom of God he brings, gives a great many people hope.

Hope in the Second Coming of Christ means that Christians have in someone, not just in "things". Christians do not simply hope for life, joy, freedom, justice and peace in the abstract. We hope in the coming of Jesus Christ, in whom all good things have their basis and meaning. Christian hope has a face and that face is Jesus Christ. Christians hope not simply to survive, but to be part of something greater - to be a part of God's Kingdom and all the goodness that comes with it.

Hope in the Second Coming of Jesus Christ is not blind hope in an unknown Christ. On this First Sunday of Advent we await the birth of Jesus, the Christ child. But everyday, we await the return of that same man. We await this man who healed the sick and befriended and loved sinners and the poor. We wait for this man whom we know suffered and died on the cross and then was resurrected. We do not hope for the coming of a Lord who is now absent and entirely unknown.

Darien was down on his luck. He drank so much that, at first, his wife and child sacrificed things like vacations, new clothes or a new bicycle. Then he drank so much that they went without proper food. And then they left. He lost his apartment, his job, his family. Desperate he came to the church looking for something. What he got was a listening ear and a connection with AA. He got an AA buddy who worked with him to stop drinking. At any time of day he could call his friend who would help him, talk him through the desire to drink.

For anyone who is a member of Alcoholics Anonymous, Christ is present in the person one calls for help. Christ's presence is real, incarnate in us as others help us and as we help others.

On this first Sunday of Advent we wait. We wait for Jesus who has come and is coming again. We wait patiently, quietly, on the look out. May we all take time this Advent season to watch and wait for the arrival of our Lord, in whom lies our hope of a world of peace and love and justice. Amen.

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If you knew that the world would end in January 1, 2000, what would you do? If you knew that Christ was coming next month would you do anything different? Would you change your behaviour? Would you do anything to get ready, to prepare for the end of the world?

Financially, it's a no-brainer - You would probably close down your RRSPs, cash in your savings, and maybe take a trip.

Spiritually is another matter. If you knew the world would end in January 1, 2000 how would you prepare spiritually?

First, let's just clear up one thing - no one knows when the world will end. (We covered that last week.) No one knows the hour or the day or the time. And, as we talked about last week, one way the world can end is when our world ends - when we died. And so, I could walk out on the street today and get hit by a car and that would be the end of my world. So, knowing that our world could end at any minute - are we ready? Are we prepared?

Over six years ago, I had preached my first sermon. I was so excited, I bounced home from the church and phoned my parents and my grandparents. My grandmother asked me to mail a copy of the sermon to her and my Grandfather. I had preached the sermon on July 1. I am a procrastinator and didn't get around to posting it right away. Then, at the end of July, while on vacation, I got word that my Grandfather had died in his sleep. I never did get that sermon in the mail.

Many, many people have stories like mine - stories of unfinished business with someone who has died suddenly. If you were to died tomorrow, if your world ended tomorrow, would you be ready, would be prepared or would you have unfinished business?

When I worked as a chaplain in a neighbourhood hospital in Toronto, I met a woman who was dying of cancer. She was a single woman and the only child in her family. Her parents had already died and so she was alone in the world, with only a few close friends around her. She had not written out a will and so in her weaken condition and from her hospital bed she desperately and frantically was organizing her affairs and writing a will so that the government wouldn't get her entire estate. She had not prepared. She was not ready for the end of her world.

This morning's scripture tells us:

See, I am sending my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way; the voice of one crying out in the wilderness: 'Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight,'

Jesus' cousin, John was a strange man - eccentric, to say the least. This man coloured outside of the lines. Scripture describes him beautifully: a gruff, abrupt, tell-it-like he-sees it kind of guy. He wore camel's hair clothes and lived off the land, in the desert, where it was difficult and dangerous to live. Even to travel outside of the towns and cities was seen as strange behaviour.

John was only a few months older than Jesus but had started his ministry before Jesus began his. He was known as John, the Baptizer.

He was a strange man, but people listened to him. He was charismatic and dynamic and people came from all over to hear him preach, to repent their sins and be baptized by him.

John had his own, strong understanding of how one was to prepare for the coming of the Lord. "Repent!" he said. "Say you are sorry for the wrongs you have done and change your life. Repent, be sorry and truly mean it."

According to John the Baptizer we should prepare for the coming of the Lord, the coming of Jesus, by repenting and receiving the forgiveness of sins.

Repentance is an inward turning around, a 180 degree turn around, a change of heart, an adjustment on one's course of life that is both preparation for and integral to one's life in Christ.

The word repentance comes from the word penitence, which means having sorrow for one's sins or faults. Re-pentance means that, in addition to sorrow, there is a resolve for change. Repentance is a process that is transformative because in our regret for what has been and in saying sorry for what has gone wrong, we vow to change and in so doing are transformed. We give up a piece of who we are and become something different, something that reflects our relationship with God and Jesus.

How can we show or demonstrate repentance?

Jesus tells us to pray, in the Lord's Prayer, "Forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who sin against us." It takes regret and sorrow to admit our sins and ask forgiveness from God (penitence). But it takes something else entirely to forgive others. It takes a willingness to change (repentance). A willingness to feel love and mercy towards others rather than holding on to our old grudges. It means we have to soften our hard hearts, and let go of our judgmental thoughts and attitudes.

My husband had a conversation with a woman once, about a Canadian who had been imprisoned and tortured abroad. Chris explained to the woman that totalitarian governments, quite unlike our democratic government, make rules in order to ensure their own power stays secure. They make people obey their rules out of fear, by using imprisonment and torture. The women replied, "Torture smorture! If you know what the rules are, you shouldn't break them, and you deserve what you get."

When we repent, we are asking not to be punished for breaking the rules. For us not to become hypocrites, we must also be willing to forgive others when we think they have done broken the rules. When we think they have done something wrong.

John the Baptizer preached that when we repent, we become different people. His baptism symbolized this transformation. John was the messenger who came before Jesus. He helped people become ready for the coming of Jesus. John prepared the way, prepared others for Jesus' ministry.

We are people who live in the in-between. We live after Jesus' birth, life, death and resurrection. (The first Christmas and the first Easter.) And we live in the hope of Christ's return. Every Christmas we celebrate Christ's coming into the world. We celebrate God with us, Emmanuel. So, what difference does Jesus' coming make in our lives?

Pastor and author Nancy Hardy writes of having a favorite aunt named Dotty. When she was young, Aunt Dotty would come to visit on birthdays and holidays, swooping into the family's humdrum life like a swirl of fireworks. She always brought presents and told the children funny stories, and then, with a flourish, would get on the train and leave.

One summer, Aunt Dotty came for a whole month. What a difference it made! She still brought the presents and told her stories. But this time they had time to tell her their stories too. They could talk to her about things that really mattered: what delighted them, the slights that hurt and what hopes they had for the future. It was a magical summer. The spirit of her presence and the memories of those long walks and earnest conversations stayed with them for a long time.

The people of Mary and Joseph's time took it for granted that God made the occasional visit to earth to see how things were going. What was new about the promise of the gospel was that God came to stay. Like the time Auntie Dotty came to live with Nancy and her family for a whole month, it meant that God chose, as God still chooses, to listen to our stories and to share our joys and sorrows. And that makes all the difference.

Prepare for the coming of our Lord, God with us, Emmanuel. This advent season there is much to prepare - Christmas cakes must be baked, the house must be decorated, the tree must be trimmed. But this season is also a reminder for us to be spiritually prepared for Christ's coming. We can be ready for Jesus to enter our lives by taking stock of our lives, by asking for forgiveness for the wrongs we have done and by opening our hearts to forgive others. Then when all the preparations are done we can truly celebrate Christmas. We can celebrate Christmas of the kind of intimidate relationship with God one develops with such preparation. Celebrate the relationship that is possible because of Jesus' presence in our world. Amen.

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