A Righteous Branch

(Scriptures:  Jeremiah 33:14-16, I  Thessalonians 3:9-13,  Luke 21:25-36)

 

As you may have noticed from the bulletin, today is the first Sunday in Advent.  In terms of the liturgical calendar, advent is a time of waiting for the coming of the Christ child.  In a broader sense, it’s a time of waiting for God to break into our world with new hope and new life.
 

 We also begin a new yearly cycle of Scripture readings, and for the coming year – until Christ the King Sunday in November 2013 – most of our Gospel readings will be coming from the Gospel of Luke.  Each of the Gospels has its own personality: John’s Gospel has a mystical, timeless quality to it, while the other three Gospels – Matthew, Mark, and Luke – follow roughly the same sequence in narrating the life and ministry, death and resurrection of Jesus.  But each of these three Gospels has its own unique qualities – each of the Gospel writers had their own sort of “secret sauce” that flavors the Gospel, similar to what various fast-food outlets offer to make their burgers unique.  Mark’s Gospel, thought to be the first written, is very fast moving, portrays Jesus as a man of action, and ends in an unresolved way that invites the reader to make their own decision about Jesus.  Matthew and Luke both expand on Mark’s narrative., Matthew adds a birth narrative and, for his Jewish readers,  many Old Testament references to assure his readers that Jesus was indeed the one foretold in the Scriptures.   Luke’s Gospel circulated in a more mixed community of Jews and Gentiles, and from time to time Luke explains various Jewish terms for his Gentile readers.  Like Matthew, Luke also adds a birth narrative, though different in some details from Matthew’s narrative.  Luke’s focus – his “secret sauce”, if you will – is an emphasis on how Jesus interacted with those on the margins of society:  the poor, the marginalized, and women – lots of women!  According to Luke, the text for Jesus’ very first sermon – which Jesus took as his mission statement – spoke of “proclaiming good news to the poor, release to the captives, recovery of sight to the blind, freedom to the oppressed and the year of the Lord’s favor” – literally, a jubilee.  Luke – named by St Paul as “the beloved physician” – had a real heart for those who were forgotten by the rest of society. 
 

 Each year, the Gospel reading for the first Sunday in Advent is, not about the birth of Jesus, but about the second coming.  It reminds us that we, too, live in expectation of seeing God intervene in our lives and in our society.
 

 Both our Old Testament and Gospel reading take place with unrest lurking in the background.   Our reading from Luke follows a description of the upcoming destruction of the temple in Jerusalem – Jerusalem surrounded by armies, days of vengeance, people fleeing for the mountains – the message is literally, “when you see all this, head for the hills!”- and Jerusalem being trampled by the Gentiles.  And then comes this morning’s reading, describing people fainting from foreboding at all the strange phenomena taking place in the natural world.  But Luke says, “Now when these things begin to take place, stand up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing nigh.”  So in the midst of Luke’s description of Jerusalem and the powers of nature literally going shake, rattle and roll, Luke’s message is – hope!

 

Those who originally heard Jeremiah’s words that we heard in our Old Testament reading had already seen their world shake, rattle and roll.  They had already seen Jerusalem and its Temple destroyed, had seen themselves exiled to a foreign land amid hostile people.  Before all this happened, Jeremiah warned against the leaders of Judah that their social injustices and their lack of concern for God and neighbor would lead to Jerusalem’s destruction.   When Judah’s leaders and elites were, as the saying goes, sitting fat, dumb, and happy, Jeremiah went against the grain by warning them of impending destruction.  But now that destruction had happened, and the exiles lamented in despair, Jeremiah once again went against the grain by speaking a word of hope.  At the time, the exiles from Judah saw their country as the rotting stump of a once-great tree that had been cut down.   But Jeremiah responds that the stump is not dead, that there’s still life in the roots, and that a branch – a righteous branch – will grow.  And, indeed, decades later, led by righteous leaders such as Ezra and Nehemiah and Zerubbabel, the exiles did return to Jerusalem and rebuild.  And, of course, the early church saw further fulfillment of Jeremiah’s words in the coming of Jesus.
 

  Do you have dreams that have been cut down, that are like a lifeless stump?  Perhaps dreams for for reconciliation with a friend or family member from whom we’re estranged?  Or dreams for an end to loneliness, for a sense of connection to the human race. Or dreams for a job that will enable us to feel like we’re where God wants us to be, doing what God has called us to do?  Or, in this economy, perhaps dreams for any kind of job, dreams for something as basic as being able to eat regularly, dreams for a safety and protection from those who would wish us harm.
 

Advent tells us to be alert, to be watchful for signs of God’s presence and intervention.  It likely won’t be in a way that’s obvious and heavy handed.  It may be more like the growth of a twig out of a stump that we thought was dead and rotted out.  Or it may, in fact, be something as small, but as powerful as the birth of a child……a child whose life will change the world forever.  While so many are frantically running about trying to find the perfect gift, during Advent we can celebrate the perfect gift of Hope that God has given to each of us. 

 

 And we can proclaim this gift of Hope to those around us.  We live in violent times, with many places around the globe surrounded by armies, and an increasing lack of civility in our own political process.  Climate change is manifesting in unusual weather patterns, and so-called “hundred-year storms” seem to be an increasingly frequent occurrence.  It’s easy to despair.  But instead, let us stand and look up.  God has not left the building.  Let us repent – that is, let us change direction to turn away from drunkenness and dissipation and all those things in our life that add to the world’s incivility and violence, turn away from our preoccupations with our personal priorities to respond to the poverty and pain of our neighbor and the degradation of what’s left of the natural environment, so that our neighbors and all of God’s creation can live in peace.  We worship a God who pleads with us to choose life, not death.  Indeed, we worship a God who from despair brings hope, and from death brings resurrection.  May we, as followers of the risen Christ, live so that our lives are aligned with the God’s powers of hope and new life, and may we proclaim hope and new life to our neighbors. 
 

 “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light, and on those living in the shadow of death, light has dawned.”   May we as followers of the Risen Christ live in the light, and may our witness lead our neighbors to the light as well. Amen.