This is a time of year that has distinct music doesn’t it? No other time of year features so widely in popular song. And of course there are the many Christmas carols that we will be singing soon.
On the first Sunday of Advent we hear some different words from Jeremiah
14 The days are surely coming, says the LORD, when I will fulfil the promise I made to the house of Israel and the house of Judah. 15 In those days and at that time I will cause a righteous Branch to spring up for David; and he shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. 16 In those days Judah will be saved and Jerusalem will live in safety. And this is the name by which it will be called: “The LORD is our righteousness.”
These are words that of the future not the past. In those days and at that time
In these days before Christmas the future is not where our culture encourages us to go. Instead our culture fosters an experience of Christmas that is nostalgic or immediate and self-centred. Think of how many of the Christmas songs – not carols but songs – that look back or conjure up an image of Christmas that was.
“I’m dreaming of a white Christmas, just like the ones I used to know”
“Last Christmas I gave you my heart”
But in Advent we in the church are encouraged to look to the future:
And In those days and at that time we are told that God will establish his Kingdom of justice and righteousness. In those days and at that time we believers are called to look to that promise and we look to Christ coming again.
In Advent, we in the church are called to hear once again the message of the prophets. Their words are like an overture of what is to come. The prophets’ words are not like the background Christmas music we hear time and again playing in shops. Instead the prophets’ words tell loud and clear what is to come – or more precisely who is to come.
And Jeremiah’s words are the opening bars of the overture that leads up to the full Christmas music with the birth of Christ.
In those days and at that time there will be justice and righteousness.
Advent is an unpredictable time. It’s a period of the year when time is mixed up. We in the church look forward to a baby being born, though we know he has already been born and we know he is still being born in us – Emmanuel who came, and is coming and is among us right now.
In to this mix of time periods we hear Jeremiah’s words.
Jeremiah’s words are to the people of Judah, people taken off into captivity in Babylon. The people of Judah, who have seen their city Jerusalem destroyed along with their temple.
Jeremiah speaks to a people who are desolate. A people who may well have given up on God for how could God allow these things to happen? I think we can assume that the people Jeremiah speaks to are what might be termed a tough audience. Jeremiah is called by God to bring words of comfort.
And despite every sign to the contrary Jeremiah says:
The days are coming when God’s promises will be fulfilled.
Jeremiah tells them that God’s promises will be fulfilled but until that time they must make the best of a bad situation.
In due course the words were fulfilled. The people of Judah were allowed to return to their homeland and Jerusalem and the temple were rebuilt. But initially Jeremiah’s words must have felt very hollow indeed.
And in our time, with a world in fear from terrorism, in a world that is full of inequality, in a world of darkness, we may wonder about Jeremiah’s words too.
In those days and at that time there will be justice and righteousness.
Really? Will those days ever come?
Heidi Neumark is a Lutheran pastor in the Bronx area of New York. And in her book Breathing Space she wrote about how hard it is to be a minister in such a rough part of New York. But in the same book she mentions how she loves Advent:
“Probably the reason I love Advent so much is that it is a reflection of how I feel most of the time. I might not feel sorry during Lent, when we are called to repentance. I might not feel victorious, even though it is Easter morning. I might not feel full of the Spirit even though it is Pentecost and the liturgy spins out fiery gusts of ecstasy. But during Advent I am always in sync with the season.
Advent unfailingly embraces and understands my reality. And what is that? It is best expressed by a Spanish word “anhelo” which means longing. Advent is the time when the church can no longer contain its unfulfilled desire and the cry of anhelo bursts forth. Maranatha! Come Lord! O Come Lord Jesus! O come O come Emmanuel!”
Heidi Neumark Breathing Space (Boston: Beacon Press 2004)
Those words express my feeling too.
I long for God’s justice and righteousness to come in to the world. So that there will be no more wars. I long for the day when every person on this planet lives in a world where all people are treated with dignity. I long for a world where people have enough to eat. I long for a world where those who are wealthy use their wealth to help others not to exploit others.
O come O come Emmanuel!”
Maybe you feel the same?
I don’t know how you feel, but at times I feel terribly despondent. I see churches that are empty. I see faithful people trying their best to be faithful when it is so hard. I see people not wanting to know anything about the Gospel. And that’s before all the terrible things happening in the world. And at times I find myself feeling, a bit like Justin Welby on Songs of Praise last week.
As you may know he was interviewed in the wake of the Paris atrocities and it was widely reported that he said he doubted in God’s existence. Since then he’s clarified what he was trying to get over. It wasn’t so much that he doubted that God existed. Rather he says it was more that he was thinking of Psalm 44 in which the Psalmist says:
Rouse yourself! Why do you sleep, O Lord?
I get that. Very often I feel the same.
Then I hear the words of Jeremiah:
14 The days are surely coming, says the LORD, when I will fulfil the promise I made to the house of Israel and the house of Judah. 15 In those days and at that time I will cause a righteous Branch to spring up for David; and he shall execute justice and righteousness in the land.
I hear those words and they are a wakeup call to me once again. The words remind me of God’s promise. That Emmanuel will come. He has come once before and he will come again. But that doesn’t stop me longing for it to happen.
Some years ago, the American comedians Carl Reiner and Mel Brooks did a series of comedy sketches called the "2000-Year-Old Man." The premise has Reiner interviewing the 2000-year-old Brooks and inquiring concerning life way back when. At one point, Reiner asks the old man,
"Did you always believe in God?"
Brooks replies, "No. We had a guy in our village named Phil, and for a time we worshiped him."
Reiner wonders, "You worshiped a guy named Phil? Why?"
"Because Phil was big, and mean, and he could break you in two with his bare hands!"
The interviewer asks, "Did you have prayers?"
Brooks answers, "Yes, would you like to hear one? O Phil, please don't be mean, and hurt us, or break us in two with your bare hands."
Reiner: "So when did you start worshiping God?"
And then this wonderful answer: "Well, one day a big thunderstorm came up, and a lightning bolt hit Phil. We gathered around and saw that he was dead. Then we said to one another, "There's somthin' bigger than Phil!"
I long for people to realise that not only is there something bigger than Phil but that there is something far more than the here and now.
And I long for people to know that God hasn’t abandoned them. That God hears our cries. I long for people to know that God is that baby in the manger. That God is the man on the cross. I long for people to know that God is love. I long for people to know that God isn’t the God terrorists claim they are acting on behalf of. I long for people to know that the God I worship is the God who will in his time bring more mercy and justice than we can ever grasp.
Maranatha! Come Lord! O come o come Emmanuel! Come into our world today. Amen
