Waiting (First Sunday of Advent)
Notes
Transcript
What do the Prophets tell us about Advent?
What do the Prophets tell us about Advent?
Jeremiah 33:14-16
Isaiah 40:1-5 and Malachi 3:1-4
Zephaniah 3:14-20 and Isaiah 12:2-6 and
Micah 2 & more…
Advent Postures - waiting, accepting, journeying and labouring
The beginning of the church year and the end or the goal of creation
Future - what is the “end” or the goal of all creation?
Past - Jesus did come… we know this story and so it affects how we tell it.
Present - where do we long for Jesus to come and make things new? What is broken? What is dark?
What does is mean to wait for this… to accept this… to journey towards this… and to labour for this…
Our preparation wil include the “accumulation of light” - from one single candle, to four, to five, to a room full of candlelight on Christmas Eve…
Context for Jeremiah:
Another prophet (last week, Ezekiel, this week the book just before it in your Bible… Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel… three big prophetic books, with unique character and perspective… perhaps Isaiah evokes God as holy and sovereign, Jeremiah portrays god as intimate & interrelated.
“Jeremiah exposes the inner life of the prophet who stands in the liminal space between God and God’s people. Through the poetry and prose of Jeremiah, we experience the relationship between God and God’s people as complicated, passionate, and messy. … [Jeremiah is] an anguished dialogue that bears witness to and makes meaning out of the trauma of exile.” Judy Fentress-William
Structure:
The call of Jeremiah (ch 1)
Uprooting (ch 1-25)
Narratives about the prophet (ch 26-29)
Scroll of Comfort (ch 30-33)
Narratives about the prophet (ch 34-45)
Oracles against the nations (ch 46-51)
Epilogue (ch 52)
Zooming in on the Scroll of Comfort, we find our text for today…
Jeremiah 33:14–16 (NIV)
14 “ ‘The days are coming,’ declares the Lord, ‘when I will fulfill the good promise I made to the people of Israel and Judah.
15 “ ‘In those days and at that time
I will make a righteous Branch sprout from David’s line;
he will do what is just and right in the land.
16 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 Righteous Savior.’
I have a new obsession - I mean hobby.
Plants. Indoor. Outdoor. All of it. I don’t really know what I’m doing, but I’m learning what likes to grow where, how to help when plants aren’t doing so well. And that’s leading to some confidence to try some new things…
And so now my window ledge above the kitchen sink, is a “propogation zone”
Did you know that if you take leaves off of the bottom of a succulent, let the edge calllous and then just lay it on soil, it will turn into THIS?
This.
like these planters. I bought beautiful planter baskets for my yard in the spring… and in early October when I got home from Lebanon, most of the plants were quite “done” each basket had something that looked like it still had some life left… but frost was threatening…
So what did I do?
I dug out these two, sprayed them down to try to keep any critters from coming inside with them, and repotted.
And the first one is happy as a clam. Took to its new surroundings and is coming along beautifully.
The second had way more trouble. Dried out, lost a lot of its leaves. And I thought I might have to give up.
But I waited. And I watched. And I trimmed the parts that were looking quite dead.
And… you know what?
It’s doing quite well! It’s a legitimate plant.
But playing with plants requires waiting…
And waiting is our posture for this first Sunday of Advent.
We’re preparing and getting ready - and in a few minutes, we’ll do some decorating. But all of the preparation is to help us keep in mind what it is we’re waiting for.
According to Jeremiah, the people in exile are waiting for the “days that are coming”
And when those days come, God is going to raise up one called a righteous “Branch” (from a word that means to grow, sprout). Some scholars translate this term as a “legitimate shoot” … and in Zechariah 3:8 & 6:12 the term is used as a messianic title.
8 “ ‘Listen, High Priest Joshua, you and your associates seated before you, who are men symbolic of things to come: I am going to bring my servant, the Branch.
12 Tell him this is what the Lord Almighty says: ‘Here is the man whose name is the Branch, and he will branch out from his place and build the temple of the Lord.
Commentator Hetty Lallemann says about this term “Branch” as a messianic title that:
Its significance has been clarified by the discovery that the Phoenicians used the word to refer to the rightful heir to the throne.19 This ideal king will rule “wisely” (a word that means to prosper or to have insight; cf. Isa 52:13 for the same word). This ruler will do what is “just and right.”
Jeremiah, Lamentations (4) Restoration of the Davidic Dynasty and the Levitical Priesthood (33:14–26)
The city would be given a new name: “The LORD our righteousness.”103 In 23:6 the name was promised to the coming ruler, but here the name is given to the city. The meaning of the new name is that Jerusalem would finally become what God intended for it to be all along—a city noted for its righteousness.
Do you see what happens? We wait for the ruler, the ideal King, who will do what is just and right. And when that King reigns, human civilizations become what they were meant to be all along. Places where things work the way they were intended - where people related to God, to one another and to the earth in the ways that lead to flourishing - for all. Living under the leadership of “The Lord our Righteousness” in a city called “The Lord our Righteousness” … isn’t that what we’re waiting for?
Righteousness is better understood less as an abstract legal concept than as behavior that fulfills the expectations and requirements of relationship, whether between neighbors or between God and humankind. (Lexham Theological Wordbook)
Living under the kingship of Jesus who is the Lord our Righteousness… the one who always fulfills the expectations and requirements of relationship… leads us to be the kind of people who also fulfill the expectations and requirements of relationship - with God, with one another, and with all of creation.
And so we wait. Trusting that the legitimate Branch has indeed come - and will indeed come again.
And so we wait.
Our Advent Posture for today is - waiting
The beginning of the church year and the end or the goal of creation
Future - what is the “end” or the goal of all creation?
Past - Jesus did come… we know this story and so it affects how we tell it.
Present - where do we long for Jesus to come and make things new? What is broken? What is dark?
And so we wait.
(Al) Prayer of Confession:
Like farmers watching the land after a planting,
we are expectant before You, Most Holy God.
You are the seed of possibility,
the root of life, the growing harvest of justice,
the off-shooting branch of salvation…
and we are impatient for it all.
Impatient to know what might be.
Impatient to forecast our lives and to secure our futures.
Impatient to see the fruit of justice.
Impatient for your salvation and healing.
We forget that this is Your work, O God, not ours.
[pause]
Forgive us.
Grant us the faith to wait and to watch for what You will do. Amen.
Benediction:
As you watch and wait for the Light… a reminder that
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ is your future,
The love of the Father holds all of your past,
And the intimate friendship of the Holy Spirit accompanies you now in this present moment.
Go in peace.