Advent 1: Hope Jeremiah Style

Hope is a word that is often used – I hope it rains or I hope we find a carpark, or I hope we make it on time. a child might say I hope we have spaghetti for tea.

Sometimes it seems we use the word hope when we mean wish.

““Hope is a feeling of desire and expectation that things will go well in the future”  ^[i], or to “expect with confidence” ^[ii]

Jeremiah is writing while imprisoned. Jeremiah was a prophet; he lived and spoke God’s word even when it made him unpopular.

Jeremiah spoke of the impending doom because of the sins of the people; “unethical economic practices, violating the Sabbath, sacrificing young children”; these actions, and others, hurt not only God’s people, but the land itself. ^[iii]

Jeremiah had predicted the coming destruction and exile, and the King of Judah puts Jeremiah in prison. [iv]

Jeremiah spoke the word of God, both messages of doom and messages of hope. In the midst of turmoil, where leaders were in exile, the people of Jerusalem who were still in the city were running out of food and water and Jeremiah was in prison, he spoke the words of hope we heard this morning.

This is not hope that things will return to how they were.

This is not wishful thinking.

Here Jeremiah anticipates the future messiah, the future saving by the hand of God. He announces what will be.

Jerusalem will hear the laughter of celebration; the land will be productive; the king will rule with justice and people will live in peace.

Hope is not necessarily happiness. Hope is trusting on God’s promises. Putting our faith in what is possible, even when it seems impossible.

A little earlier in the book of Jeremiah, Jeremiah buys a field. Who buys land when you are about to be overthrown by a neighbouring empire? [v]

Jeremiah did not speak of hope, he lived in hope and acted on that hope.

I have a story book now – A Child’s Garden: A Story of Hope.

The theme of advent 1 is hope. I wonder how hopeful the people effected by the ongoing drought are. I wonder how hopeful the people who have lost homes and animals and livelihoods and loved ones in the bushfires are feeling this advent.

In Advent we wait, with the people of Israel who waited, who yearned for a different future.

In Advent we wait, not just for the birth of the baby Jesus, though that is important, but we also wait for the coming of Jesus, day after day;

that our living may more closely resemble the life of Jesus

that we may see the signs of the kingdom, the green shoots of new life that grow in the midst of despair and turmoil.

And just as the boy in the story watered, protected and cared for the green shoots, we need to not only wait for a new future, but to actively work towards God’s promised future.

“In Advent, the church proclaims an alternative reality that grows out of confidence in God’s righteousness. The promise of God’s righteousness both convicts and makes new. Advent invites us to name the places in our lives and society that are at odds with the divine vision of justice and righteousness. There may be a wide gap between what is and what we wish were so. And yet the promise of Advent is that the Lord is our righteousness. This promise allows us to proclaim an alternative reality in which all things will be made new.” [vi]

This advent, what will you do in the waiting?

The waiting for God’s Kingdom – a kingdom of love, forgiveness, reconciliation over self-preservation. [vii]

“Advent is not about what God will do in spite of us
 or about waiting to be saved,
but about what God will do through us and
within us to save the world.”[viii]

How will you be like Jeremiah, not only speaking hope, but actively living into the hope we have in God.

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[i] https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/hope

[ii] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hope

[iii] https://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=4219

[iv] https://www.monasticpastor.com/2019/11/good-days-coming.html?fbclid=IwAR1umvrv8R9WP3g1teQ_JewzkYPKAlwl211n3n_zuMQoZtARKyEpMTshZfY

[v] Kathryn M. Schifferdecker | 2 Comments

http://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=448

[vi] Anne Stewart | 1 Comme

http://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=2693

[vii] https://www.pulpitfiction.com/narrative-notes/2-13?fbclid=IwAR1QH7lJisqwgp-zLesFdLkmIbjgf4INYanBJPJp73ecsn6fgI_9aUuB9K8

[viii] https://www.pulpitfiction.com/narrative-notes/2-13?fbclid=IwAR1QH7lJisqwgp-zLesFdLkmIbjgf4INYanBJPJp73ecsn6fgI_9aUuB9K8

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.