Wait  a minute. What is going on here? This is the first Sunday of Advent on the church calendar, and, more than that, it is almost Christmas. Thanksgiving is over along with “Black Friday.” The shops and malls are playing “Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire” and “Winter Wonderland,” everything is decorated to a fare thee well but we gather in church today and hear the gospel thundering about suffering and the sun being darkened, the moon without light and stars falling from the sky.

Not long ago, my wife and I joined a tourist excursion to mainland China. One day, our hosts took us to a beautiful local park where we met hundreds of Chinese locals playing board games, kicking soccer balls, doing Tai Chi exercises, folks playing music on whatever instruments they had brought. There was ev…