Have you ever felt like you were in the wrong place at the wrong time? Or ever thought you knew where you were, but weren’t sure how you got there? Maybe you feel that way today. Everything seems a little out of whack.

After all, it’s November. It’s the First Sunday of Advent. We are supposed to be getting ready for Christ’s coming at Christmas. We are supposed to be headed to Bethlehem, to the manger, surrounded by animals. Instead, our Gospel reading takes us to Jerusalem, with Jesus riding on a donkey.

It’s only November, but the Christmas decorations are already up. Santa has already appeared at the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade. Christmas lights are even popping up. The Christmas party for my former place of employment is a week from tomorrow. I already ordered and received my Christmas cards. They will be in the mail pretty soon. I am even trying to think about Christmas presents.

As strange as it seems, the traditional Gospel for the first Sunday in Advent is the same as that of Palm Sunday – Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem. It seems wrong. It seems out of place. I know last week I talked a lot about being prepared for Christ’s coming at the end of time. I also talked about preparing our hearts for the coming of the Christ Child.

As we get ready to hear the stories of Mary riding a donkey into Bethlehem, we are saddled with a story about Jesus riding a donkey into Jerusalem. In Advent, we should be moving toward a celebration of our Lord’s birth in Bethlehem, and instead we hear a story about our Lord moving toward his death in Jerusalem. Instead of going to the theatre to see the latest Christmas movie, it seems like we’ve gone to see a prequel to The Passion of the Christ.

But maybe there’s something we can learn – something that, like Mary, we can take with us and ponder in our hearts. We need to keep that picture of Jesus riding into Jerusalem on a donkey in our heads. It was for that reason that our Lord came down from heaven. For that reason the Son of God became the Son of Mary. The story that we hear today is the story that gives Christmas its meaning and lasting value.

Indeed, Christmas seems for so many people to be a day about nothing. In our society Christmas has become a secular, worldly affair. We celebrate Christmas and we even fight for the right to say "Merry Christmas" at places like Wal-Mart, but we rarely talk about why Christmas is merry. The absence of Christ has for many, left a big hole, an emptiness that needs to be filled. And people try to fill that hole with man-made traditions, songs and stories.

Rather than tell the story of Christ, the world tells countless other stories, stories about snowmen, a grinch, reindeer, and Santa Claus. The world has its own songs as well; songs about Santa, chestnuts, trees, and bells.

Sure, those stories are entertaining. Some of the songs touch our hearts. But if that’s all there is to Christmas, then we don’t really have all that much to celebrate. It’s almost no wonder that Christmas has a tendency to fall flat, even for us Christians.

Each Christmas we sing about angels bending near the earth to touch their harps of gold and declaring "Peace on earth, goodwill to all." But what did the angels mean by singing "Peace on earth?" I don’t know about you, but for the last two thousand years, there has been nothing but war and rumors of war. I don’t see much peace on earth, or for that matter, much goodwill to men, in spite of all our prayers and desires for world peace.

And the angels told the shepherds not to be afraid. We live in an age of anxiety. Some may have friends or relatives serving in our military, in less than friendly places. We worry about the economy, if you believe in global warming, then you worry about global warming, and terrorism. What if Iran and North Korea actually manage to build a nuclear bomb? What if they use it?

A while back, Stephen Hawking said the human race should already be planning for life on another planet in preparation for the time when our own planet becomes uninhabitable. Peace on earth? I don’t think so.

And so when peace on earth seems to be a pipe dream, we try to attain it on a smaller scale, at home with family and friends. But even at home there is not always peace. Christmas is great, but

then comes the bills, the anxiety over work issues, the kids’ struggles at school, the loss of a loved one, a broken relationship. There’s a lot of strife and sadness, and truth be told, some of this sadness is of our own making, the bad choices we’ve made, the people we’ve hurt, relationships we’ve damaged.

So, where can we find peace? Nowhere other than in the Christ Child. Not some Christ-Child statue, but in the child that was born to die. A real-world Savior for a world with real problems. The Babe of Bethlehem who would set his sights on Jerusalem. The One whose birth was lit by a star and whose death would be met with darkness.

At our Lord’s birth the angels sang, "Peace on earth, goodwill to all." But there is still another song to sing, and we sing it as Jesus rides a donkey into Jerusalem; "Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!"

Peace in heaven? What do they mean by that? There’s always peace in heaven. Heaven is where the angels ride on clouds and strum their golden harps. Heaven is where we escape the evil of this world. Actually, there’s a little more to it. Peace in heaven is not just a description; it’s good news. There’s peace in heaven because God is at peace with us.

Of course the concept of God being at peace with us begs the question; "How could God be at peace with us?" How could he be at peace with a world that is constantly at war? How could he be at peace with a world that disregards him, ignores him, disregards his will, and takes his blessings for granted? How can he be at peace with a world that has taken the celebration of his birth and turned it into just another excuse to eat, drink, and be merry? How could God be at peace with me, a sinner?

If we are to recover Christmas, we must first recover Advent. Advent is a season of preparation – not simply of our homes, meals and presents. It’s a time of preparation for our hearts. A time of assessment and acknowledgment and a time to recognize why our Lord came in the first place. A time to recognize why that infant child, born to be a king, would one day receive a crown of thorns.

Most of all, it’s a time of repentance. A time to look at our lives and turn away from sin. A time to look at our hopes and dreams. What are you looking forward to? What are you planning for? Are your hearts set on the things of this world? What are your goals? Are they the goals that God would have for you?

The season of Advent is one of assessment. It's a time to remember that the things of this world are already passing away. It’s a time to set our hearts on things above. It’s a time to look at the child who came to die.

And so we sing, "Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord." And we recognize that he came to die for our sins. We remember that we have been baptized into the name of the Lord. Returning to our baptisms, we renounce again the devil, and all his works and all his ways.

We don’t simply cry out against the evils of this world, but we repent of the evils in our own hearts. We recognize the troubles we have caused, the damage we have done, the friends we have hurt and the responsibilities we have not met.

Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, and we who also bear his name and take up our crosses and follow him.

Yes, Advent is a time for repentance, a time of sadness over sin. But it’s also a time of hope. You see, we sinners have a Savior. Maybe the end is near. But it doesn’t matter because in Christ there is a new beginning. If we have made a mess with our lives, Christ has come to make things right. And he will come again.

For the world, Christmas is a big game of pretend – a game of creating an idyllic world that doesn’t really exist, looking for a peace that doesn’t exist. But for us, Christmas is life itself. So in this season of Advent, let us prepare our hearts once more for the Lord’s coming.

Let us cast away the works of darkness and be adorned with every good work and with acts of charity and generosity. Let us forgive as we have been forgiven. And let us embrace the child who came to embrace us. And let us offer up our lives as gifts to the One who came to offer up his life as his gift of salvation for us all. Amen.