It happens every year, on this First Sunday of Advent. The world around us is already in full holiday mode. Everything seems to be pushing us toward Christmas. The ads, the sales, the television shows, and movies, are all about Christmas, or at least Christmas shopping, and holiday preparation. There is no escaping it. Even in the church, we know we are beginning the season of preparation and expectation of the glorious birth of the child, the Christ child, who will come to save the world. But…on this Sunday, the First Sunday of Advent, the lectionary seems to say, “Not so fast.” We do not hear a Christmas story at all. We do not hear about an Angle visit, or John the Baptist urging us to prepare the way. Instead, we hear from Jesus himself. That’s right, when the world around us is focused on December 25th, when we think we are preparing for the birth of a child, we are given a reading from later in the Gospel of Matthew. But, before you cry foul, listen to Matthew, chapter 24, verses 36-44.