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Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
So what are we doing here on a perfectly good New Year’s Eve? Aren’t there better things to do on such a night? There must be a party somewhere to go to. Or go down to Lady Bird Lake for the concert and the fireworks. Or at least be home getting ready to watch New Year’s Rockin’ Eve with Ryan Seacrest, counting down with great expectation, that big silver ball in Times Square. There’s football on too right now.
Well, for followers of Jesus, there is no better place to be on New Year’s Eve than here in church. There’s no better place to be to celebrate the many gifts that God has given you in this past year, and there’s no better place to be to look forward to the new year with great expectation of what God can and will do for you in it. If nothing else, being here tonight has helped you learn that there’s a section of hymns in our hymnal for New Year’s. But there’s also a section of hymns for end times. You may have noticed that the hymn that we just sang was from that section on the end times.
And that’s why I requested it for tonight, because to sing about the end times and the great expectations that we can have concerning the end times. Now I suspect for many people, New Year’s Eve just isn’t a big deal. They don’t have many expectations about it. I’m one of them. It never really has been for me. One of the few expectations I have for New Year’s Eve is that I’m going to get woken up at some time during the night by noise. For many, New Year’s Eve just isn’t highly anticipated. Right?
And I think it’s the same for people concerning the end times. In many Christian circles, sadly Lutherans especially, it’s not talked about a lot. The end times aren’t emphasized or talked about much. And what we mean by the end times or the second coming of Christ, it’s not emphasized much. In fact, Marcia catches me, my wife catches me on this a lot. Because I’m apt to say something like, well, we’re all going to die someday, right? And she replies, no, not unless Jesus comes back first. She gets me every time with that.
It’s true. We don’t think about the end times much. It’s not anticipated. After all, it doesn’t seem like the greatest thing to talk about. It has a lot of negative connotations about it. Even the names, the last days, the end times, the end of the world. None of those sound too promising, do they? And the movies that come out about the end times—2012, The Day After Tomorrow, I Am Legend, After Earth, Oblivion, the show The Walking Dead, The Omega Man. Now there’s an oldie but a goodie. All of them depict doom and gloom at the end of the world.
Or worse, another film, Judgment Day. The frightening day of Jesus coming back to separate the sheep from the goats and give everyone their due. No wonder the end times aren’t highly anticipated or talked about much. There’s no great expectations for it. I did see a good bumper sticker one day, though. This was great. The bumper sticker said, “Jesus is coming. Quick, everybody look busy.”
Well, tonight I want to encourage you to have great expectations, not only of the new year, but also about the return of Jesus. Great expectations about the end times. About Jesus’ return. And it’s the end times and his return that Jesus is talking about in the gospel reading from Luke that we just heard. Jesus paints a picture of a master of a household returning from a wedding banquet at an unexpected time. And like the servants in the story, we can be waiting with great expectation and not fear of the return of the master because he’s bringing great things.
For followers of Jesus, he’s not coming back with punishment. Jesus is coming back with great things that we can expect and anticipate. For the servants in the reading, the master comes back with a feast. He comes from a feast and he comes back with that feast and he sets a table for his servants and he gathers them around it and he shows them their places there, and then he puts on the clothes of a servant and he serves them. Jesus is coming back to serve us.
And that should be expected and not even a surprise because serving us is what he did the first time Jesus came here. Serving us by giving us his life. Being crucified on a cross to take the penalty of our sin and forgiving us. He served us by dying for us and rising again to take us to that heavenly feast. And he sets a table for us there. And he has us gather around it and shows us our places there. And he’ll serve us, giving us eternal life and glorified bodies and souls. Free from evil. Free from sin and pain and sickness and suffering and tears and all of the ill effects of our bodies here on earth.
When it comes to the end times and the last day, that’s what we can expect. We can have great expectations about the return of Christ, our master. He’s our master, but he’s also our waiter. He’s our master, but at the heavenly feast, he’s our waiter, our servant. So I think we can say in great expectation of Jesus’ return, we can say that we wait for him to wait on us and serve us his heavenly feast to take us from this oftentimes woeful world into his heavenly kingdom and his heavenly feast with eternal life.
And we have a preview of this feast. A foretaste of the feast to come, if you will. And yes, I mean the Lord’s Supper. The Lord’s Supper. Because that’s what it is. It’s a feast. It’s just a bit of bread and wine, but it’s a feast. It’s a feast of God’s grace given to us in Christ’s body and blood, in the bread and wine. And he gathers us here tonight and shows us our places at the table and serves us. Jesus serves us his grace for the forgiveness of our sins. Serving us by giving us what he’s already given to us, his body and his blood, given and shed for the forgiveness of our sins.
So we can have great expectations of the feast to come, but also in the foretaste of the feast to come here. Here. We can have great expectations about Christ’s work among us now, forgiving our sins and giving us hope and comfort. We can have great expectations now and not just in the future. And boy, do we need it now sometimes, huh? We need some great expectations with the way that things can be in this world and the way things can be in our lives.
I know, life can be rough. Expectations going into a new year can be pretty grim. Sometimes it seems like things are completely falling apart in this world and in your life. Right now, you may be dealing with all kinds of troubles. Worries about career, finances, your health, relationships, stress about terrorism and violence in the world. Or maybe it’s your own sins—things that you’ve done or didn’t do that are causing you guilt or shame that you’re dragging with you into this new year. If so, if you’re dealing with any of these things or even something I didn’t mention, there’s good news.
There’s good reason for you to have great expectations for this new year. Because he is with you. Jesus is with you, giving you right now a feast of his love and grace and forgiveness and comfort for you. He’s promised it. He doesn’t want you to have to go through this life alone. Go into a new year with baggage from the past of this year, or whatever problems you’re dealing with. He’s promised this to you. And you get those benefits in the Lord’s Supper, each time you hear God’s word.
And in your confession, when God’s word of forgiveness is proclaimed to you, you can expect that. God promises it. In giving Jesus to you, he’s opened up the door of heaven and all of the heavenly feast is there for you. He’s promised it. In this new year, and when Jesus comes again, whatever you’re dealing with in your life and going into this new year, there’s encouragement also by Paul in the readings from Romans tonight, from the epistle reading. He says, problems in life, tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, or nakedness, danger, sword, or anything else, they will not separate you from the love of Christ.
And a good way to be reminded about this, about the great expectations we can have for this new year, but also for the coming of Christ, his return, is in the creed. In both the Apostles’ and the Nicene Creed, actually, they’re worded a little differently. And it kind of happens at the end of the second article, and I think we don’t pay much attention to it. Unfortunately, we oftentimes don’t emphasize the end times or the second coming. But there it is. When we believe about Jesus Christ, we believe that he will come again with glory. Glory.
To judge both the living and the dead, whose kingdom will have no end. And it’s similar in the Apostles’ Creed, but there’s a great reminder every time you confess this, that he’s coming again with glory, and with good gifts, and with a feast. And you can have comfort in that, knowing that when that day comes, it is full of glory for us, and full of goodness, and glory—a heavenly feast.
So each time you confess the creed, maybe that can give you great expectations of this event to happen. Despite any of the problems that you’re having in life, you can have great expectations. Great expectations because into this new year, whatever you’re dealing with, Jesus is with you. And someday he’s coming back for you, to take you into his heavenly feast.
Yeah, Jesus is coming. Everybody look busy? No. He’s coming when we don’t expect it, so let’s be expecting it. As you go into this new year, let’s live in great expectation of Christ coming again. And let that give you hope in whatever you’re dealing with, whatever is happening in the world. And have joy in that. Don’t be thinking about death. Again, I always say, well, we’re all going to die someday. No. No. Jesus is coming again. Let’s look for that. I tell people, don’t be concerned about looking for a hole in the ground. Be looking for a crack in the sky. Be looking with great expectation at Jesus’ return.
And now let’s celebrate with great expectation the foretaste of the feast to come. Amen.