(Luke 21:28).

We live in between the first coming of Jesus Christ and his second coming, and most of us feel a lot better about the first one. Christmas is about a baby, after all, and that makes everything easier. We know about babies, and so we know how to tame Christmas; to enjoy Christmas, and pay our respects to the Lord Jesus, whose birthday we celebrate.

But Advent isn't just to prepare to celebrate Christmas. It's about remembering and preparing for that Second Coming. And we can't tame that! But the second coming is something else. Worse still: the Bible describes the return of our Lord in literature that is hard to interpret. The literature is apocalyptic -- which means it�s an unveiling of the world that lies behind this world. It�s a revelation that tells about the transition from this age to the next.

But the transition is rough. It�s so full of emergency. According to the gospel scenario, everything breaks loose at the return of Jesus Christ. Nations go to war, and civilians run for cover. There�s blood in the streets and famine in the fields. The earth shakes and the sea roars. There are signs in the sky above, panic on the earth beneath, stars falling, people dying of fright -- it�s a whole drum roll of disaster.

And then, in the midst of all the confusion, people will see "the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory." He�s the incoming Lord. He�s the oncoming Lord. He�s got power to judge and power to save, and when he comes the second time he will be too big to miss. At the end he�s "God without disguise," as C. S. Lewis once wrote -- God without disguise who comes at us so unmistakably that he will "strike either irresistible love or irresistible horror into every creature."

It�s the climax of the human drama. Christ coming to finish what he started. Christ coming to gather his saints and vindicate his martyrs. In this event -- we Christians confess -- in this climactic event all the hopes and fears of all the years come together one last time.

So why do we find the second coming so difficult? ; why feel so uneasy?

So: mainstream Christians hold a kind of interim faith, a common-sense Christianity that stays fairly close to the ground. We have church and sacraments, after all; scripture and prayer .

But: Watch! says Jesus. Be alert! Jesus says. His return is the coming of the kingdom of God. It�s the coming of justice in the earth. When the signs appear, says Jesus to a temple-full of listeners, don�t give up! When these things begin to take place, stand up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.

According to scripture, the person who wants redemption wants the kingdom of God whether she knows it or not. And the coming of the kingdom depends on the coming of the King, the one who will return with power and with great glory. However we are to understand this apocalyptic event, whatever form it takes, the second coming of Jesus Christ means to a Christian that God�s righteousness will at last fill the earth.

When all is well with us, Be on guard, says Jesus.. Be on guard against that fatal absorption with yourself! Take care! Stay alert! "Stand up and raise your heads because the kingdom is coming."

Jesus� words are an antidote to our sloth. Could justice, God's justice, God's Kingdom really come to the earth? Could all the petty squabbles- and the bigger ones too, come to an end? Could Palestinian and Jew look into each other�s eyes and see a brother? Could some of us who struggle with addictions or with diseases that trap us -- could we be liberated by God and start to walk tall in the kingdom of God? Could Jesus Christ appear among us in some way that our poverty-stricken minds can never imagine in a scenario that would simply erase our smug confidence about where the lines of reality are drawn?

If we believe in the kingdom of God we will pray, and we will hope for those without much hope left. And one more thing, one more tough thing. We will work in the same direction as we hope. The hardest part is simple faithfulness in our work and in our attitudes -- the kind of faithfulness that shows we are being drawn forward by the hope of the kingdom of God.

Two last quick points:

-I believe we see the signs of the End in events of my lifetime. Now there are those who try and �name the day�. They are wrong. They distract us. What is our response?

-So: secondly: we pray Thy Kingdom come. We live as members of that Kingdom: its ushering in is God�s work.

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