Ariano's Trattoria is a small restaurant in Mahopac which draws large crowds. Waiting in line is often a part of your dining out experience. But, the food and atmosphere are well worth the wait. The place is chaotic; the food is delicious. So many people seated in such close quarters. You might be disappointed if you value elbow room more than leg of lamb. To echo Yogi Berra, "the place is so crowded that nobody goes there any more." One striking feature of Ariano's is the blue T-shirt worn by the waiters and waitresses. On the back of each shirt, Ariano's motto is printed, "Don't panic." Need ketchup? Don't panic. Salt shaker empty? Don't panic. Out of wine? Even then, don't panic! Don't panic. I believe it's one of the major themes of the Christian faith: don't panic.

Turn back the calendar of your memory ten years ago today. Remember the growing panic about Y2K? If the calendar of your memory doesn't turn back that far, Y2K was shorthand for "Year 2000." November 15, 1999, and in six weeks, for only the second time in history, the odometer was rolling over to a new millennium. There was real fear that computers would crash, taking down communications, and financial institutions, and nuclear weapon capability. Omigosh. We can't access the nukes! In other words, there was a good bit of panic going on. People were stockpiling food and weapons, preparing for the end of the world as we know it.

Well, get ready for the hype regarding 2012 ... to be more specific, Friday, December 21st, 2012. It's the final day of the ancient Mayan calendar. Already there are countless web pages that seek to raise your level of panic. Again with the stockpiling of food and weapons. One theory has it that a comet is going to hit Canada and the damage is going to reverberate around the world.

I'm no prophet, but Y2K is going to pale in comparison to the hype about December 21st, 2012. As for me, I plan to stockpile just one thing (can you stockpile just one thing?). I'm going to get a T-shirt from Ariano. Underneath "Don't panic," I'm going to add, "December 22nd - we survived the 21st!"

Of course, December 21st of any year has always sparked fear in the hearts of every Christian. Three days until Christmas Eve and extra sermons still to be written (well, maybe that has never been your particular panic button). But you know what I mean: close to Christmas, the annual panic is no picnic. Gifts still to buy, food shopping to be done, packages to be shipped, cards to be sent. Add to that trying to remember which greeting is appropriate to what person. Seasons Greetings? Happy Hanukah? Merry Christmas? Carefree Kwanza? Sometimes when December 21st rolls around, we're almost rooting for the comet! Almost - because in the end, we know we'll survive. December 21st, 2012 will be no different.

It is holiday time in Jerusalem. I wonder if they say, "Happy Holidays," in Jerusalem, rather than, "Have a Blessed Passover"? I misspoke. Just like Christmas, Passover is no holiday. It is a holy day. Jesus and the disciples are in Jerusalem to observe one of the holiest days on the Jewish calendar. One of the disciples is clearly awestruck. Certainly he had been to Jerusalem previously, but "Gosh, Jesus, what large stones and large buildings!"

If you were in church last Sunday and heard the story of the widow placing her two tiny coins into the Temple offering, you'd catch the irony of the comparison of the smallest of coins and the largest of stones. In a real sense, her smallest of coins to the Glory of God were helping to support the largest of stones, the temple constructed to the Glory of God. No matter how small, offerings to the Glory of God support ministry to neighbors just outside the walls, and stretch out to the less fortunate far beyond the walls.

"Look, Teacher," exclaims one of the disciples, "what large stones and what large buildings!" And Jesus gives his Temple Talk, "Do you see these great buildings? Not one stone will be left here upon another; all will be thrown down." If the disciples were thinking, "That's impossible," we say, "That's understandable." Sometimes our minds can't wrap around the enormity of great destruction. Tumbling Temple stones? That's impossible. But the immensity of what hatred can accomplish was brought home to us just eight years ago, when we witnessed the terrible, the horrific, the seemingly endless, tumbling of stones.

As Jesus looks at the Temple, he can see the handwriting on the walls ... and within two generations the Temple came tumbling down. It didn't end with the Temple, the terror and the power of Roman wrath came tumbling down on those first Christian followers too. Would Jesus have been surprised? No, it is what he predicted. Jesus knew you can't change the world, and bring about a new way of looking at life, a new way of love and forgiveness, you can not do that without, as he puts it, without birth pangs. And so the words of Jesus in our Gospel text are spoken to prepare his followers for the difficult times they were going to face. The "beginning of the birth pangs." As you go through wars and earthquakes and your lives are shaken to the core, do not be alarmed. Do not panic. It is not the end, but a beginning.

The point being (and this might be more relevant coming from a pastor who is a mother rather than a father) the point being, the pains of giving birth are made more bearable, if you will, by the knowledge that the result will be a child ... a new creation. What sustains a woman in labor is the thought of the child which is coming into being. And within days of this Temple Talk, Jesus himself will be killed - but three days beyond that, Jesus emerges from the womb of the tomb - God's bold new world comes into being.

Pastor Brian Stoffregen gets to the point of our story with this rhetorical question: how often do parents say to their children, "There now, everything will be all right"? A child falls skins a knee. "Everything will be all right," we say to the sobbing child. We tell the bed-ridden grandparent in the hospital, "Everything will be all right." "Will there be life on this planet in another hundred years?" "Everything will be all right," says the One who created the planet. "How can I make ends meet, with more debt than income?" "Everything will be all right," is God's promise. "I'm having surgery tomorrow and I'm scared." "The tests for cancer came back positive." "Everything will be all right," proclaims our Great Physician. "My brother was just sent to a war zone." "Everything will be all right." "My mother just died. My mother just died!" "I am the Resurrection and the Life. Everything will be all right." We have the Word of God which proclaims, indeed, everything will be all right.

There are a lot of "Do not be afraid" verses in the Gospels. My favorite is one we hear on December the 24th; it is not only Christmas comfort; it speaks to all our seasons. "... the angel said to them, 'Do not be afraid ... I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people: to you is born this day ... a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.'"

The world is in which we live can be frightening at times, made more so by irrational fears of Y2Ks and 2012s. However, when stones do come tumbling around us, and they will from time to time, the Word of our God encourages us: "Do not be afraid, don't panic; for to you is born - a Savior."