The ending of a liturgical year speaks of the end of all things. Our Lord spoke plainly about the end of the world. There are signs the end is coming. Jesus’ teaching seems to elicit only question marks on our part. “When?” “What?” “How?” The signs He speaks of include false teachers in the church, wars, rumors of wars, and earthquakes as “but the beginning of the birth pains” (Mark 13:8). The Jewish people of Jesus’ time on earth would be alarmed at His prediction of the destruction of the temple as it would mean the end of their faith and hope in God. The world is to see, however, that the loving, saving God is closer than ever in the new temple of the flesh and blood of Jesus Christ, crucified and risen again for the life of the world. As the beloved hymn says, our “hope is built on nothing less than Jesus’ blood and righteousness.” No merit of our own can prepare us “when darkness veils... in every high and stormy gale... in the raging flood; when every earthly prop gives way.” No matter what comes we are “clothed in His righteousness alone, redeemed to stand before His throne! On Christ, the solid rock, I stand; all other ground is sinking sand” (LSB 575/576).