hope

Jeremiah 33:14-16
This week a Baptism and Communion,  so a shorter sermon than usual.

 

“The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will fulfil the promise I made …” Each year we sing of hope and peace and joy; each year we hear these advent readings about the coming of the kingdom of righteousness, peace, justice; Sometimes we hear about the lion laying down with the lamb – which must be the ultimate in reconciliation of the whole creation. Some years we hear about swords turning into ploughshares, weapons into implements to grow food. We hear of the coming fulfilment of the promises of God.

“The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will fulfil the promise I made …”

The people Jeremiah was speaking to were in exile – Israel and Judah had already split from each other, and now both were in exile, the people taken to a foreign country, the Temple destroyed, the people had to answer to a foreign power. Jeremiah, speaks God word to them - “The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will fulfil the promise I made …”

Imagine what it would have been like for the people in exile, hearing these words from Jeremiah. Hearing that once again there would be a King, a righteous king. Not a foreign king, but a King from their own people, a king from the line of David.

It was  a long wait for the people, many generations passed before the birth of Jesus, and then he was not what people were expecting the king to be like.

We wait this advent time, we wait each year for the coming of the righteous branch of David, we wait for the one who will come and make all things new, the one who will be the fulfilment of God’s promise of justice and peace and reconciliation and redemption. We wait.

We wait to celebrate the coming that happened 2000 years ago, to retell the story of the baby in a stable, the baby that some saw and the one Jeremiah had referred to as the fulfilment of the promise, the righteous branch of Israel.

But we also wait for another coming. One writer talks of the comings of Jesus: the birth, the resurrection, the coming in the Holy Spirit. I would add the coming of Jesus into our lives. And Jesus will come again, and again, and again. Into our lives, into this community.

What will mean it mean for Jesus to come again into our lives and into this world?

In the Church year, this is the beginning of a new year, Advent is the start of the lectionary, and today we began our reading of the Gospel of Luke.

As we begin another year, we look ahead, we reflect on what has been, and plan for a different future – that basically is what New Year’s resolutions are.

During worship this week and for the next 4 weeks, we will think about the theme for the day, this Sunday it is Hope.  

 When are we aware of being hopeful, hopeful rather than despairing about the future, and the present.

 Think about a time when you were full of hope.

What would help you be hopeful more often in your life?

When we look at the word around us, there are plenty of stories of anguish and desperation.  I wonder what we can do to increase hope in the world?

2 minute video on the start of the Christmas Bowl. http://www.actforpeace.org.au/Ways_To_Give/The_Christmas_Bowl/Christmas_Bowl_2012/Video__the_Christmas_Bowl.aspx

There are ways we can bring more hope into the world, we can give to the Christmas Bowl, we can buy Gifts that give a future to people, we can shop fair trade. What else might you be able to do,

Each of you will receive a piece of paper, on it I want you to write, or draw, one thing you will do this year that will grow hope in the world, in your life, or in another’s life.

When you have done that, please come and place it around the manger.