Those days are surely coming

 Sunday 29th November 2021 First Sunday of Advent

In these days before Christmas, we in the Church are in a different time and place to the world outside. Outside, many people are looking forward to “the big day” but equally they are wrapped up in the here and now thinking about what to buy, thinking about when to post cards, thinking of the food order, putting off thinking how they’ll pay for it all.

We followers of Jesus on the other hand are called to be in a different time. In fact, in Advent, we are thinking in many different times. We are looking back. We are in the here and now. But we are looking to the time to come. We are hopping around time like Dr Who!

In a few weeks’ time in  our carol services we’ll hear the words of Luke read out:

In those days a decree went out from Emperor Augustus that all the world should be registered.  Luke 2:1

Luke telling what happened in Nazareth and Bethlehem.

But on this first Sunday of Advent Jeremiah tells us that we must look to the future

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. 

In those days and at that time ….

In these days before Christmas the future is not where our culture encourages us to go. Whether that encouragement takes us to the Outlet Village or to wallow in nostalgia of Christmas like we used to know.

Jeremiah speaks words to the captive Hebrews in Babylon. Captives who he’s previously told in chapter 29 that they are going to be in Babylon for some time. So, they’d better make the most of it. They’d better settle down, allow their children to marry local people, help Babylon prosper.

Jeremiah is saying that God’s promised future will come not through giving up on God’s promises during this period of waiting but by trusting God to deliver in God’s time

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.

In God’s good time - In those days and at that time …. All will become well.

It can’t be easy being a prophet. Imagine being given the task by God to tell the Hebrew people, who have been conquered, who have seen their city flattened, who have been taken off as slaves to Babylon, imagine going to them and saying trust God. Yes, trust God, God who has allowed these things to happen to you his people. Yes, trust him because he is at work. He will deliver you from captivity. In those days and at that time God will make things right.

Heidi Neumark was a minister of a Lutheran church in a very deprived part of New York. In her book Breathing Space she wrote about how for her and her church, Advent captured their mood perfectly.

“I might not feel sorry during Lent when we’re told to beg repentance. I might not feel victorious on Easter morning. I might not feel full of the spirit on Pentecost. But in Advent I always feel in sync with the season.”

She goes on to explain that “Advent embraces and understands my reality” A reality which seems to be one of plodding on, of waiting for something better to come about. Being a good and faithful servant but feeling tired and fed up.

A feeling like the Hebrews in Babylon. Maybe a feeling we know too?

Heidi Neumark explains that what Advent means to her can be summed up by a Spanish word “anhelo” which roughly translates as “longing or desire.”

She says

“Advent is the time when the church can no longer wait, when the church can no longer contain it’s unfulfilled desire and it cries out with anhelo “Come Lord Jesus! Come o come Emmanuel!”

This is they cry of Christians trying to make sense of the crazy world we are living in. It is the cry of Christians who are fed up with seeing injustice and unrighteousness. Its is the cry of Christians who see the need for change in the world but who have lost hope in change coming through governments. Come Lord Jesus! Come o come Emmanuel

The Hebrews in Babylon longed to be released from captivity. They longed to return to their homeland. They longed for a time when God would

execute justice and righteousness in the land. Jeremiah 33:15

So many of us feel that longing now. We long for a day when God’s kingdom in heaven will be here on earth. Surely that day is coming? We long for the day when the poor are not having to live on the streets or made to rely on food banks. Surely the day is coming? We long for a day when all people care for the world that is the Lord’s. Surely the day is coming? Yes. Surely that day IS coming!

For over 2,000 years we followers of Jesus have expressed “anhelo”. For over 2,000 years we’ve longed for Christ to come again and bring in his reign of justice and righteousness. It might seem it will never happen. But we must believe it will.

Ruby Bridges was just six years old when, in 1960, she was chosen as the first Black child to integrate into the William Frantz Elementary School in New Orleans. A school of white children. Photos show the incredible courage of this little girl who was escorted to school each morning by police officers to protect her from the angry white parents who screamed curses, insults, and threats at her each day.

Dr. Robert Coles, a child psychiatrist from Harvard, interviewed Ruby Bridges in an effort to determine how young children learn to cope with such frightening and dehumanizing abuse day after day. In the interview, Ruby told Dr. Coles that she prayed for the people who threatened her, insulted her, spat at her. Her mother and her minister had told her that God was watching over her each day, and it was her duty to pray for, and forgive, the people who opposed her.

When Dr. Coles asked Ruby if she thought this advice was correct, she said, “I’m sure God knows what is happening . . . He may not do anything right now, but there will come a day, like they say in church, there will come a day. You can count on it. That’s what they say in church.” (6)

“. . . there will come a day. You can count on it.” That was Jeremiah’s message almost 3000 years ago. The days are surely coming

That is what we hope for. That is what we long for. The day when Christ will come again. Those days and at that time when God will cause a righteous Branch to spring up and he shall execute justice and righteousness in the land.

Those days are surely coming. Come Lord Jesus!