Shiloh Lutheran Church, State College
First Sunday in Advent, 2015
This passage in Jeremiah grows out of one of the darkest times in Israel’s history. The nation has been in an extended period of spiritual decline. They’ve been guilty of the worst sorts of idolatry, even to the point of practicing ritual prostitution and human sacrifice. There was a brief time of reform under King Josiah, which Jeremiah experienced early in his ministry, but now things have gone back to where they were. The Babylonians are outside the gate, and the city is under siege. Soon the nation will be taken captive and deported to Babylon, 700 miles away.
Jeremiah himself has been thrown into prison for prophesying that Jerusalem is going to be overcome by the Babylonian army. Here’s how chapter 33 begins: “While Jeremiah was still locked up in jail, a second Message from God was given to him” (The Message). This is a dark time in the nation. An army they have no hope of defeating is attacking the city, those in leadership have been persistently turning their backs on God, even to the point of locking up those who preach the truth. In the past, God has miraculously delivered them from powerful enemies, but He’s not going to do that now.
Things are bad, and they’re only going to get worse: “For this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says about the houses in this city and the royal palaces of Judah that have been torn down to be used against the siege ramps and the sword in the fight with the Babylonians: They will be filled with the dead bodies of the men I will slay in my anger and wrath. I will hide my face from this city because of all its wickedness” (vv. 4-5). But then, even at this bleak moment in the nation’s history, there’s a message of hope. It begins early in the chapter: “But now take another look. I’m going to give this city a thorough renovation, working a true healing inside and out” (The Message). The nation is under judgment, and things are going to get considerably worse than they are, but that’s not the end of the story.
Verses 14-16 look forward to the fulfillment of God’s promise to send a Messiah. The whole passage is oriented to the future: “The days are coming” (v. 14), “In those days” (v. 15), “In those days” (v. 16). Right at the point where everything looks hopeless, God gives them a message of hope. Listen to these words from Hebrews 11: “What is faith? It is the confident assurance that what we hope for is going to happen. It is the evidence of things we cannot yet see” (Hebrews 11:1, NLT). The life of faith is a life of looking forward to what God is going to do in the future. It’s a life of joyful anticipation and expectation based on the certainty that God will fulfill His promises, not because everything around us seems hopeful, but because God is trustworthy.
Advent is a time that is especially set aside to cultivate a renewed sense of anticipation. Our senses become dulled over time. The sheer routineness of life tends to kill our sense of anticipation and hope. The pressures and stresses of life in this world crowd out our thoughts of God and His promises. We become dull and depressed spiritually. Everything seems gray, and it’s hard to envision things getting any better. Or, maybe our lives are going well, and we’re distracted by good things. There is so much to do, we don’t have time to cultivate a relationship with God. Advent is a time to stop and remind ourselves of the truth. Benedict Groeschel, in a series of meditations on Advent, said this: “Advent calls us as Christians to ponder again the mystery of our salvation, our hope that there is an answer to the riddle of earthly life with its passing joys, disappointments, sorrows, and frustrations, and its apparently dark end in the oblivion of death…. Advent calls every one of us to stop in the struggle of life and to look up, to recall the answer to the questions of life. We are on a journey to our Father’s house. The door has been opened to us by the Son of God, and the way marked out” (Behold, He Comes, p. 11). During the worst moment in Israel’s history, God gave them a message of hope for the future. The life of faith is a life of joyful anticipation and expectation, because God is trustworthy. This season, with its emphasis on looking forward to the fulfillment of our hope, can help us cultivate a stronger sense of hope in our Christian lives.
These verses look forward, but their anticipation for the future is rooted in God’s promises given in the past: “The days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will fulfil the gracious promise I made to the house of Israel and to the house of Judah.” God had made these promises hundreds of years before. The nation was living in an in-between time. God had promised and done great things in the distant past, but as the years and centuries rolled by, they’d lost sight of Him. Their memory of the past had become dim, and because of that they’d also lost their sense of hope for the future. Their sense of the past and their hope for the future were tied together.
It’s the same for us. We’re on a journey to our Father’s house, but our understanding of this is rooted in the past, in the promises of God and in the things He’s done in answer to the prayers of His people throughout the centuries. We, like the people of Israel, are living in an in-between time. The promise of “a righteous Branch... from David’s line” began to be fulfilled in Jesus Christ 2000 years ago, but we’re looking forward to the day when He will begin His visible reign in the New Heavens and New Earth. The focus of our lives as Christians is oriented to the future. But, in order to have a strong sense of our future hope, we need to cultivate a strong awareness of what God has done in the past. Our sense of the past and our hope for the future are tied together.
In the short-term, we’re preparing ourselves to worship the Incarnate Lord, the Word who became flesh 2000 years ago. We’ve heard the story over and over again, but we don’t really grasp the magnitude of what it means. Advent is an opportunity to meditate on God’s Word, on the things God has done and promised in the past, to cry out to Him to awaken us through His Spirit. Set aside time, during this Advent season, to pray over the story of Jesus’ birth, and come to worship expecting Him to make Himself known to you. Read through one of the gospels; pray through, and meditate on, some Advent and Christmas hymns. We’re preparing ourselves to worship Jesus Christ, the Word made flesh.
But Advent is also a time of preparation for that day in the future when we will see Him face to face. Are you living in anticipation of that day? Are you walking with Him, or has your faith been overwhelmed by the pressures and pursuits of this world? If you’re called to face Him tomorrow, will you be ashamed of how you’ve spent your life? Or will you be filled with joy? Listen to these words from Peter’s second letter: “Since everything around us is going to melt away, what holy, godly lives you should be living! You should look forward to that day and hurry it along–the day when God will set the heavens on fire and the elements will melt away in the flames. But we are looking forward to the new heavens and new earth he has promised, a world where everyone is right with God” (2 Peter 3:11-13, NLT). Or these words from John’s first letter: “Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. Everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, just as he is pure” (1 John 3:2-3). We need a renewed sense of perspective about the things of this world. This whole life is a time of preparation for the day when we will see Him face to face, and celebrating Advent can help us cultivate the habit of preparing ourselves for His coming. God graciously calls us, during this season, to stop and take ourselves in hand, to refocus our priorities.
But in ourselves we won’t ever be ready to face Him. The people of Israel, during the time of Jeremiah, were reaping the consequences of their disobedience. When they had entered the land under Joshua’s leadership, God had given them a series of both promises and warnings. If they obeyed, they would experience God’s blessing, and if they persistently disobeyed, they would experience His curse. The prophets had warned, over and over, that they were headed toward destruction, and they had continued in their rebellion. They had persistently rejected God’s lordship and had gone their own way. They were reaping the consequences of their own choices.
But, even so, God gives them this gracious promise: “In those days Judah will be saved, and Jerusalem will live in safety. This is the name by which it will be called: ‘The Lord Our Righteousness.’” We’re not prepared to face Him, because we’re guilty of sin and rebellion, of going our own way and not loving Him with all our heart and soul and strength and loving our neighbor as ourselves. We’ve persisted in making choices that are contrary to His will. But the city we’re looking forward to, the New Jerusalem, isn’t based on our righteousness. That city is named “The Lord Our Righteousness.” It’s a city that we enter because of the grace and mercy of our God in sending His Son to be our righteousness when we were hopelessly lost. “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21). The city we’re looking forward to is called “The Lord Our Righteousness,” because Jesus, our Savior, has opened the door for us and has taken away all our guilt. He is our righteousness.
As we begin this Advent season, let’s set aside time to “ponder again the mystery of our salvation, our hope that there is an answer to the riddle of earthly life with its passing joys, disappointments, sorrows, and frustrations, and its apparently dark end in the oblivion of death.” Let’s “stop in the struggle of life and... look up, [and] recall the answers to the questions of life. We are on a journey to our Father’s house. The door has been opened to us by the Son of God, and the way marked out.” Very soon we’ll be at the end of our journey and will see Him face to face. This season is a gift, an opportunity to refocus our priorities and and renew our relationship with God, to be attentive to Him and to be reminded of our future hope. Set aside time to spend in His presence, and cultivate an expectant attitude in worship. We have to do with the Living God, the Creator and Sustainer of the universe. Be attentive to what He is doing and what He has done. We never know when He is going to come to us in an extraordinary way. When that happens, may He find us waiting expectantly.
PRAYER: We thank you, O Lord, that you have so put eternity in our hearts that no earthly thing can ever satisfy us completely. We thank you that, in your sovereign wisdom, every present joy is mixed with sadness and unrest, to remind us that we are not yet home. And above all, we thank you for the sure hope and promise of an endless life which you have given us in the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ our Lord (adapted from A Diary of Private Prayer, by John Baillie, p. 91). Stir and awaken our dull hearts and minds this Advent season. Give us the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation, so that we may know you better; enlighten our hearts, so that we might know the hope to which you have called us, the riches of your glorious inheritance, and your incomparably great power for us who believe. Purify our hearts and minds and lives, and enable us to live in anticipation of that great day when we will no longer see things dimly, as in a mirror, but will see you face to face. For we pray in the name of Jesus, your Son, our Incarnate Lord, who appeared in the flesh and is now seated at your right hand, and who has promised to come again to take us home. Amen.
