Dear friends in Christ, grace and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  Amen.

As I was rummaging through our collection of Christmas books, I came across a little volume called Kneeling at Bethlehem by American poet Ann Weems. I would like to share with you a few lines from her poem,  “This year will be different.”

“Who among us does not have dreams that this year will be different?

Who among us does not intend to go peacefully, leisurely, carefully toward Bethlehem?

This year we intend to follow the Star instead of the crowd.  But, of course, we always do intend the best.  (And sometimes, best intentions tend do get the best of us!)

This year, when we find ourselves off the path again (and we invariably will!),

Let’s not add yet another stress to our Advent days, that of “trying to do Christmas correctly”!

Instead, let’s approach the birth of our Lord with joyful abandon!

I wish that we could all approach Christmas with such joyful abandon like children. We should smile, loudly, when children write their messages to St. Nick, “Dear Santa, last Christmas I asked you for a baby sister.  This year I want you to take her back.”  We may even chuckle when after the holidays our children are still a bit confused about the real meaning of Christmas.  Amidst all the presents, even in a pastor’s home, two boys could be overheard whispering, “I sure hope Joseph and Mary have another baby next year.”  To be sure, the days of December are a time of preparation for Christmas and a time to enjoy the childlike innocence of this world.  As Charles Dickens, the author of A Christmas Carol wrote, “It is good to be children sometimes, and never better than at Christmas when its mighty Founder was a child himself.”  But there is more to Christmas to playful laughter. There is a hope and promise in the midst of the most unpredictable, unfathomable and uncertain times that a conquering Savior has come.

The story of Jesus’ triumphal entry into the city of Jerusalem on Palm Sunday often takes listeners by surprise when they hear it read on the First Sunday of Advent. There is something strange about the waving of palm branches in late autumn, and the shouting of hosannas, God save us, in a cold winter breeze, which seems out of step with our expectations for the birth of Christ child in Bethlehem on Christmas Eve. Unfortunately, the cry of hosanna for a Savior is often what is overlooked in this season

The late Luther Seminary Professor Emeritus Wendell Frerichs captured this irony in a small devotional book entitled “Jesus Saves.” Frerichs described a whimsical moment on a cross country journey along a road with steep cliffs.  “We came around the corner in our camper bus and there it was.  Quite a distance up the sheer rock cliff were the crudely painted words, ‘Jesus Saves.’  Though it was long ago that we saw the sign, I’ve thought about it often since that time.  What was the fellow like who painted it?  I guess I don’t know many people like him- someone who would risk his or her neck to tell motorists that Jesus saves.  How many of us would do it?”

But then Professor Frerichs added. “I looked up at it a second time, scarcely able to believe my eyes.  Apparently a second amateur painter had also scaled the cliff.  Next to the words the first Christian brother had painted up there, were two more words put up by some kind of joker.  It read, it really did, ‘Jesus saves green stamps.’  Yes, it is a dated reference for sure. The present generation has little understanding of saving Green Stamps, Christmas Seals or Gold Bond Stamps.  The message however is clear. For many Christians today – the true message of the Advent season is jumbled.

We know the message that Jesus Saves is the heart of the Christmas gospel and that we are waiting to receive him. Yes, we trust that he saves us from our sins, and by his death and resurrection, that he gives us the promise of a better Christmas present by far, the gift of eternal life with him. But like the second painter on the cliff side who trivializes the majestic word by adding- Jesus Saves Green Stamps, Black Friday Savings, Cyber Mondays deals- the message is lost. Like the crowds, we cry out, “Lord save, us, please,” unaware, that Jesus truly can save.

My friends, on this First Sunday of Advent, Jesus is waiting again to enter into your life- if you will have him.  And more importantly, he has come to save you so that you need not fear your past, your present, not your future.  For Jesus saves- that is our hope. In the darkest time of the year, when the world’s future seems most uncertain, and peace among the nations, seems fragile and untenable, it is a glorious reminder of how our God still enters the world he created to save and restore it.  The world may be filled with zealous conquerors  inviting your loyalty, praise and adoration. Many are men and women who show no regard for those with whom they differ or disagree.  They see the world as nothing more than a reward for their conquest, and their neighbors as a spoil of war.  Such tyrants will come and go.  But there is a true king who conquers all, who brings wholeness, and justice and peace to the world, and his kingdom has no end. This king is Jesus Christ.

As we begin Advent again, consider this question again. “Who among us does not have dreams that this year will be different?”  Dear friends, lift up your heads, ye might gates and let the true king enter in. Amen.

May the peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.  Amen.