A.J. Gordon was the great Baptist pastor of the Clarendon Church in Boston, Massachusetts. One day he met a young boy in front of the sanctuary carrying a rusty cage in which several birds fluttered nervously. Gordon inquired, "Son, where did you get those birds?" The boy replied, "I trapped them out in the field." "What are you going to do with them?" "I'm going to play with them, and then I guess I'll just feed them to an old cat we have at home." When Gordon offered to buy them, the lad exclaimed, "Mister, you don't want them, they're just little old wild birds and can't sing very well." Gordon replied, "I'll give you $2 for the cage and the birds." "Okay, it's a deal, but you're making a bad bargain." The exchange was made and the boy went away whistling, happy with his shiny coins. Gordon walked around to the back of the church property, opened the door of the small wire coop, and let the struggling creatures soar into the blue. The next Sunday he took the empty cage into the pulpit and used it to illustrate his sermon about Christ's coming to seek and to save the lost -- paying for them with His own precious blood. "That boy told me the birds were not songsters," said Gordon, "but when I released them and they winged their way heavenward, it seemed to me they were singing, 'Redeemed, redeemed, redeemed!'"

This is Advent. And the message of these times is the song of those wild birds. It's the song sung in every carol this season: Redeemed! It’s the meaning behind every gift given under the tree: Redeemed! It's the Word the shepherds heard: Redeemed! It's the assurance Mary received: Redeemed! It's the star the Wisemen followed: Redeemed! [Depending on your style you might omit the repetition of "Redeemed" at the end of each sentence but allowing it at the end of this paragraph.] You and I have been trapped by sin, but Christ has purchased our pardon. He who has this hope in his heart will sing, and you know the song: "Redeemed, redeemed, redeemed!"

Will YOU hear the song this season? Will YOU see the signs this Christmas. You can. If you will stand up and lift up your heads, it is all around. Don't you know that...

I

First our redemption is written in the heavens. Paul exclaimed that God can be known and mankind ought to have a conscience just based on creation alone because God and his goodness are evident there. But Jesus explains one day there will be signs in the sun, moon and stars that his coming, our redemption, is drawing near. Would like to understand more what Jesus meant by these words. It is hard for us to understand Jesus' delay in his coming. God's time clock is certainly out of sync with ours as Little Jimmy learned one day as he was laying on a hill in the middle of a meadow on a warm spring day. Puffy white clouds rolled by and he pondered their shape. Soon, he began to think about God.

"God? Are you really there?" Jimmy said out loud.

To his astonishment a voice came from the clouds. "Yes, Jimmy? What can I do for you?"

Seizing the opportunity, Jimmy asked, "God? What is a million years like to you?"

Knowing that Jimmy could not understand the concept of infinity, God responded in a manner to which Jimmy could relate. "A million years to me, Jimmy, is like a minute."

"Oh," said Jimmy. "Well, then, what's a million dollars like to you?" "A million dollars to me, Jimmy, is like a penny."

"Wow!" remarked Jimmy, getting an idea. "You're so generous... can I have one of your pennies?"

God replied, "Sure thing, Jimmy! Just a minute."

Little Jimmy wasn't ready for that response was he? He may be waiting a while for that Penney the same way the church has been waiting for it’s penny, our redemption. My friends you may be saved but this is only the beginnings of salvation that will occur at Christ’s coming. Jesus told his generation to watch. Watch for his return. Why then 2000 years? It is a question that has plagued theologians throughout the centuries. Why the delay?

I don’t know. One answer is that our time is not God’s time. Our life span fits in eternity but eternity does not fit in our life span and so, we wait and we watch.

II

We watch the heavens because there will be signs of our redemption and secondly we watch on earth. It too is witness of our redemption. Look at the fig tree and all the tress, Jesus told his disciples. When they sprout leaves, you can see for yourselves and know that summer is near. Even so when you see these things happening… What things is Jesus talking about? What are the sprouting leaves that we are to be watching for? He seems to be saying when nature and the world is in chaos then the end is near.

But let me ask you. When has the world not been in chaos? Chaos is not the sign. Some want to point to progress, as if it is a sign. But when has there not been progress. It is not a sign. So what is the sign? It’s hard to say.

Martin Luther the protestant reformer of the 1500’s in his sermon on Luke 21 thought that the signs on earth were pointing to Christ's immediate coming. Here is a direct quote:

I will permit anyone to deny me the right to believe that the last day is near at hand. These words and signs of Christ compel me to believe that such is the case. For the history of the centuries that have passed since the birth of Christ nowhere reveals conditions like those of the present. There has never been such building and planting in the world. There has never been such gluttonous and varied eating and drinking as now. Wearing apparel has reached its limit in costliness. Who has ever heard of such commerce as now encircles the earth? There have arisen all kinds of art and sculpture, embroidery and engraving, the like of which has not been seen during the whole Christian era.

In addition men are so delving into the mysteries of things that today a boy of twenty knows more than twenty doctors formerly knew. There is such a knowledge of languages and all manner of wisdom that it must be confessed, the world has reached such great heights in the things that pertain to the body, or as Christ calls them, "cares of life", eating, drinking, building, planting, buying, selling, marrying and giving in marriage, that every one must see and say either ruin or a change must come. There was never such keenness, understanding and judgment among Christians in bodily and temporal things as now - I forbear to speak of the new inventions, printing, fire-arms, and other implements of war...This compels me to believe that Christ will soon come to judgment...it must soon break in upon them (Martin Luther, Sermon on Luke 21:25-36: THE SIGNS OF THE DAY OF JUDGMENT).

As great and as keen a mind as he had and he felt the world has reached its limits on building, manufacturing, and inventions. So what is this sign if it is not these things? Here is what I think. I think when the signs are here it will not take a theologian to interpret them. Every layman. Every laywoman will know. You won’t need a PhD in New Testament Literature to conclude the end is near. On that day, stand up, lift up your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.

III

But let me tell you the Good News. Sings of our redemption may be written in the heavens one day and witnessed on earth but those signs are secondary because as Christmas tells us our redemption is wrapped in our hearts.

If you want sings of his coming look here. If you want the assurance of your redemption you might look up but don’t forget to look in. It is wrapped like no other gift under the tree of your heart.

Jesus warned his disciple to be careful with their hearts. Don’t let them, he said, get weighed down with the anxieties of life or you will get snared in a trap and you’ll miss your redemption. Be watchful, prayerful, look heavenward, inward. What is he saying? He’s saying, “Don’t give your time to the world give your time to God.”

A son, now a much older man, said that the greatest gift he ever received in his life was a note his dad gave him on Christmas. It read, "Son, this year I will give you 365 hours. An hour every day after dinner. We'll talk about whatever you want to talk about. We'll go wherever you want to go, play whatever you want to play. It will be your hour." That dad kept his promise and renewed it every year.

At Christmas God sends you the greatest gift you will ever receive. It is wrapped in your heart. A promise to talk about whatever you want to talk about. Go wherever you want to go, play whatever you want to play, every day of the year. And he is keeping that promise. The promise of redemption. Wrapped in your heart. And renewed every year at Christmas time. Amen.