Pages

Sunday, November 26, 2023

As the darkness deepens

Sermon for the Sunday next before Advent

Who is Jeremiah 
speaking to?

He tells us that God 
"will raise unto David
a righteous Branch,
and a King shall reign,
and prosper,
and shall execute judgment
and justice in the earth."

Is that message for us?

[PAUSE]

It would seem not.

Jeremiah
is preaching to
the peoples of Israel
and Judah
affected by the Great Captivity
and scattering
among the nations.

He tells of the coming Messiah,
the Branch of David,
the Root of Jesse,
the Lion of Judah.

But that's all past.

Jesus has come and gone.

What possible message
can Jeremiah have
for us now?

What can Jeremiah say
to this time
in which there is still
a barbarous war
in the Middle East
in which so much hatred
is being aired
and acted upon
with such great ferocity?

[PAUSE]

What message does Jeremiah
have for us
in a world in which
there is much 
darkness and depression?

Mankind is becoming
anxious,
fearful,
untrusting,
resentful,
demanding recompense
in order to find some closure
on the pains of living.

Mankind is seeing its demons
in Society,
in the Environment,
in the hearts of others,
in the stars and planets,
in the systems of living
which are supposed to protect
and allow for growth.

Mankind is now
imprisoned in a cage of freedom
which has been fabricated
by our fall from the face of God.

Mankind seems to be losing hope
and the darkness is coming.

[PAUSE]

But who is Jeremiah
speaking to?

He addresses precisely
those who have lost hope.

His words
are the words of God
- he is a prophet after all.

His words tell us 
of the growth of the Branch
the coming of the Kingdom
the establishment of justice.

He is not presenting
a final end
but the beginning of something
that, for us,
has already been sown
but is growing now
and will continue to grow
throughout Human history.

God's message through Jeremiah
is a message of hope.

God wants us to have hope
and hold it
and allow it to grow
so that faith and love 
may also increase.

God has never, 
never left the people who love Him
without hope.

Granted, 
we may not know what God is doing -
in fact we probably cannot know
what God is doing -
but he tells us to hold on
and continue to dare to hope
in Him
though the stars fall from the Heavens
and the angel trumpets echo 
around the earth,
though the dreaded horsemen
thunder across the nations
and men become sick and faint.

We hold on.

[PAUSE]

Advent approaches.

This is a time for us
to fast and pray
and to nuture the tiny grains of hope
that we have
because the Kingdom of God
is coming
and is now here with us
and we shall see it again
present with us
in the tiny Christ Child 
of Christmas Day.

The Devil will always
try to destroy that hope
in whatever way he can,
but, while the Innocents may perish,
the Christ Child will not
and He will give all good things
to those who lose for His sake.

The Innocents will receive their justice.

And we will see our hope fulfilled,
because we dare to cling onto it
for the love of Him
Who dares to hope in us
and shares His hope with us.

Glory be to Him 
that sitteth upon the throne
and to the Lamb
now and unto the age of ages.
Amen.

No comments:

Post a Comment