The call to holiness
Commentary
Every year the church struggles with the same question. How can we honor the Advent season without the encroachment of Christmas? This is a question lost to the culture. Already in October, Christmas displays are up. Some communities celebrate "Christmas in July" with helping-neighbor activities. There are stores scattered around the nation that are totally devoted to Christmas all year, the largest being nestled in the quaint Germanic community of Frankenmuth, Michigan. The church has to recognize the dilemma it causes by hosting a season of waiting and watching before Christmas. After all, Christmas itself helps define the Advent season; so, in that sense, it has already encroached upon it. The theme of the second coming of our Lord, which is central to our texts today, is hard to talk about without reference to the first coming, which, of course, is Christmas. Yet, Christmas has a context and we must pay attention to that context in order to appreciate it more fully when it arrives; hence, focus on the historical preparations of Old Testament times. Plus, Christmas creates a context in which our Christian lives unfold; hence, focus on our daily doings while we await the Lord's promised return.
Often times the church feels captive to the culture. It can be so hard to find a receptive public audience or home congregation to listen to deep matters of the soul, when there are so many distractions around, beckoning us to get caught up in the spirit of conviviality. We are in good company, then, today, for Jeremiah is "shut up in the court," Paul has experienced rejection along with his Thessalonian friends, and Jesus is speaking about end things just days before his own end on the cross. Despite Christmas programs in the midst of Advent (Wouldn't it be nice if they were all scheduled during the Twelve Days of Christmas?), let us resolutely draw the attention of the faithful and the faithless to aspects of the Biblical witness that are beyond Bethlehem, although they are anchored there.
Jeremiah 33:14-16
In the Rijksmuseum (Amsterdam) there is a painting by Rembrandt van Rijn titled Jeremiah. Sitting forlornly, with head in hand, the prophet is near tears over the destruction of Jerusalem in the background. The mood is downcast and probably reflects his personal feelings when he himself was "still shut up in the court of the guard," his prophetic ministry rejected by the government, who did not want to hear a message of judgment. But, the message was clear, nonetheless. Due to the wickedness of the city (read the people of God in the Southern Kingdom), God's wrath was upon them. History tells us that at the end of the seventh century and the beginning of the sixth century B.C., Jerusalem was laid waste by the Babylonians and the people were deported into Exile.
Jeremiah's prophecy is not complete, however, sounding only a note of judgment. He was a true prophet of the Lord, knowing how to handle the word of truth rightly (2 Timothy 2:15). So, he speaks the second edge of the sword that offers the promises of God to cut through the pale of tomorrow. "In those days" is the clarion phrase to open the ears of the hearers to new doings at the Lord's hand. God has not forgotten his promises of old to David. God will bring the past promises forward to shape a new tomorrow for his people. The metaphor for this happening is "a righteous Branch," reminiscent of Isaiah's words and anticipatory of Zechariah's, which will be its echo at the end of the century. In the language of the laity, "There are better times ahead." But, the point is that these times will be designed by God and be brought about by his action. They will not simply be a natural unfolding of cyclical recurrences devoid of divine interplay. God's justice and righteousness will be meted out intentionally according to God's will. Jerusalem and its inhabitants (symbolizing the whole people of God) will have a new name, which will not reflect the glory of their deeds, but will reflect what God does and means for them: The Lord is our righteousness. The Apostle Paul would be proud of this, as he himself writes about the righteousness that properly belongs to God (Romans 1:17; 3:21; 5:18; 1 Corinthians 1:30). It is for the people, but it is not of the people and by the people. The people are required only to wait and watch for and hope in "those days."
1 Thessalonians 3:9-13
It seems like every day is Thanksgiving Day to Paul. Wherever you look in his letters, you can see notes of thanksgiving scattered throughout -- thanksgiving to the Father for Jesus, thanksgiving to Jesus for salvation, thanksgiving to the Spirit for new life, thanksgiving to God for fellow believers, thanksgiving to fellow believers for their partnership in the gospel. Paul is generous in expressing his appreciation for the Thessalonian Christians, how they "received the word in much affliction" (1:6). He, then, calls this fledgling congregation to be "unblamable in holiness" (3:13), as they await the Lord's return.
Paul needs to encourage them to "lead a life worthy of God" (2:12), because they are living in an immoral society (4:1-8). Paul enumerates qualities of Christian character that should distinguish the Christian from other members of the society. Generally speaking, this means to "abound in love to one another and to all" (3:12). This love is lived out in disciplined sexuality, marriage, family, friendship, and work. Everything in one's daily life is of interest to the Lord. He is coming again, after all, for the believer, who should strive to be "unblamable in holiness" (3:13).
There is a strong sense of community that is expressed in these few verses. Paul writes about the need to "see you face to face and supply what is lacking in your faith" (3:10). No e-mail correspondence here. The Christian faith is nurtured best when it is together in flesh and bone reality, not virtual reality. There is something about connecting physically in real time and real space that helps the faith be personal and vital to believers. The faith is not a matter of propositions, ciphers in a book, or on a computer screen. The faith is a matter of relationships that connect people to one another, as an expression of being connected to God.
The motivation for growth in the Lord comes through the conviction that Jesus is returning soon. It is interesting to note that Paul's inclination is to be with his friends in Thessalonica and to encourage them to "abound in love," not only for one another but also for all others. This kind of connecting and expanding love is the true character of those who expect the return of the Lord. It is simply wrong to separate oneself from the Christian community and the human community in order to prepare for "that day." Jewish Essenes were wrong at the dawn of the new age and Christian speculators throughout the centuries since have been just as wrong (for example, Jan Matthys in Mnster, Germany, the American Millerites, and the Korean followers of the Hyoo-go movement). True devotion to Christ will engage one lovingly with the world in his name, not separate oneself from the world.
Luke 21:25-36
A lot happened during Holy Week. Not every moment was spent in preparation for Thursday's meal. Jesus took time to help prepare his disciples for "that day." He had already spoken about the destruction of Jerusalem, which would take place in 70 A.D. under the sword of Titus. But, this would only be a sign of the coming of yet another lord, this one the Son of man, who will come "with power and great glory." Rather than holding the fear of invading armies in one's heart, joyous anticipation ("raise your heads") will be the mood of the day, "because your redemption is drawing near." It is interesting to note the season Jesus refers to in reference to the fig tree. He points to the leafing of the fig -- spring yearning for summer. The tree will be budding with life. So, too, when the Son of man comes, it will be a time of life and hope for those who are waiting. This is much different than the view of those who behold his coming without the knowledge of his redeeming purposes: "men fainting with fear and with foreboding."
Jesus' words on watchfulness hit hard in his day and in ours. He warns against "dissipation and drunkenness and cares of this life." These misadventures will keep one from anticipating and welcoming the return of the Lord. That day, then, will become more like a snare that captures than a time of redemption that sets free. Since it will come upon all, a critical factor in our respective experience of it will depend to a large extent on our preparation for it, our watchfulness for it. The remarkable thing is, that as we live in anticipation of that day, even though it delays, it still shapes us to be God's people who live out the future in the present by the power of faith and hope. M. Robert Mulholland, Jr., in his wonderful book Shaped by the Word, says, "Wisdom is bringing all the dynamics of your being into harmony with the word God is speaking you forth to be in the world." Jesus' words about standing before the Son of man will be echoed by Paul years later when he writes for the Thessalonians to "establish your hearts unblamable in holiness before our God."
Every age has its prognosticators who try to interpret the signs of the times and relate it to particular promised events. Certain stellar movements or earthly catastrophes are identified as what Jesus was specifically talking about in reference to his second coming. Perhaps it would be more pastorally fruitful to point out that phenomenal happenings, great as they may appear to be (an asteroid hitting the earth, a tsunami, an earthquake, a hole in the ozone layer), are themselves overshadowed by the great power of God in Christ Jesus. That power will be revealed from the cross and the empty tomb, as a foretaste of what is finally to come.
Application
The call to holiness from dissipation needs to be heard in every age. The churches today have a duty to call our nation to repentance. There is certainly biblical precedence for this: Josiah's discovery of the Book of Deuteronomy and his public reading of it for the people. When the people showed themselves faithless despite the call, Jeremiah had the lamentable task of pronouncing God's judgment in no uncertain terms. In America, there have been two great waves of spiritual resurgence: the Great Awakening of the eighteenth century and the Second Great Awakening of the nineteenth century. Both had been Christian in character. There has certainly been a spiritual resurgence at the end of the twentieth century, but it has not been driven by Christianity. At best, it has been a post-modern backlash to modernity's superficiality; at best, it is self-authenticating and self-serving. How will our churches "stand before the Son of man"? What must we be doing from our pulpits and from our pews today, so that our hearts are established "unblamable in holiness before our God and Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus"?
We need to be thankful for the times in which we live, pregnant with possibilities. These are perilous times, it is true. Strauss and Howe in The Fourth Turning describe historical cycles in Anglo-American history from the fifteenth century that place us at a turning into a period of crisis, tantamount to the American Revolution, the Civil War, the Great Depression, and World War II. However, our time is like the Chinese character for crisis, composed of the symbol for danger and the symbol for opportunity.
With boldness, the church can proclaim that: 1) the fulfillment of God's promises are ultimately seen in Jesus in his humble coming in Bethlehem and his second coming in glory; 2) Jesus sets the standards for justice and righteousness in his person and in his work; 3) the righteousness we can achieve in daily life must be preceded by and be built upon the righteousness of God in Christ; 4) God has placed us here at this time for a purpose, which we must discern in order to be faithful and to stand before the Son of man; 5) the church is the gathered people of God, face to face, who together can encourage faith, hope, and love for dealing with the vicissitudes of life; 6) whenever we see the powers that threaten us, we are to turn to the Lord who comes "with power and great glory"; and 7) the Lord's glory is defined by love and the purposeful culmination of his rule over all, not in disasters (natural or historical). Here are themes worth developing that will help God's people wait and watch and prepare during this Advent season for that which is better and yet to come -- Christmas and the Christ of Christmas.
FIRST LESSON FOCUS
By Elizabeth Achtemeier
Jeremiah 33:14-16
For centuries the Christian Church has looked in two directions on this first Sunday of the new church year, this first Sunday in the Advent season. We look backwards to remember and to anticipate once again the birth of our Savior at the beginning of the first century A.D. But we also look forward to the future, to Christ's Second Coming, when he returns to set up the Kingdom of God on earth, even as it is in heaven. Both of our New Testament lessons speak of that return of our Lord. In 1 Thessalonians, Paul prays that we may be found unblamable at Christ's coming. Luke admonishes us to watch and to pray at all times that we may stand before that second coming of the Son of Man. The Lord of glory will return to defeat all his foes, to judge all people, and to establish that eternal Kingdom of God for whose coming we pray every Sunday in the Lord's prayer. But who is it who is coming and what will be the nature of his rule over all the cosmos? It is our text from Jeremiah that can help answer those questions.
Jeremiah 33:14-16 repeats the words that are found first in the prophet's book in 23:5-6, with only one slight difference between the two texts. They come from the latter part of the prophet's ministry in Judah in 626-586 B.C. and the principal thrust of the message in Jeremiah 33 is God's faithfulness to his promise to King David. "I will fulfill the promise I made to the house of Israel and the house of Judah," God declares in 33:14. If you could break my covenant with nature, God says in the following verses, if there is no longer day and night, only then could my covenant with David be broken (33:20-21, 25-26). God has made a promise to David that he is going to keep!
And what is the promise? It was first spoken to King David in 2 Samuel 7:16 and it is repeated in Jeremiah 33:17. "David shall never lack a man to sit on the throne of the house of Israel." In other words, there will always be an occupant of Israel's throne from the lineage of David. That seems very strange though, doesn't it, because there is now no longer a throne of Israel? In fact, in Jeremiah's own time, the nation of Israel fell to the Babylonians, her nationhood was lost, and the davidic heir, who was named Jehoichin, was taken in chains into exile. The nation of Israel, as it is found in the Old Testament, with its throne and davidic king, never existed after 587 B.C. The modern democratic Israeli state that was founded in 1948 is something entirely different. So what, then, of God's promise of a davidic heir?
The prophets of Israel knew that God always keeps his promises, even over centuries of time. And they knew that despite God's judgment on his covenant people that sent them into exile for their unfaithfulness, that judgment was not God's last word. Judgment is never a loving God's last word. So those prophets peered into the future that they knew was in God's hands, and they all agreed. Proclaimed Isaiah, "There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots" (Isaiah 11:1). Declared Zechariah, speaking God's word, "Behold, I will bring my servant the Branch" (Zechariah 3:8, cf. 6:12). And in our text from Jeremiah, God promises, "I will cause a righteous Branch to spring forth for David" (Jeremiah 33:15). Those prophets did not say when such a davidic heir would appear. He would come "in those days," they said (Jeremiah 33:16) -- at that indefinite time in the future when the time was ripe and God decided to fulfill his promise. But God would raise up a King from the house of David. Of that the prophets all were sure.
Our text from Jeremiah goes on to describe the reign of that King sent from God. "He shall execute justice and righteousness in the land." Those words have a special meaning in the Old Testament. "Justice" is not just a legal term. Rather, it refers to God's total order for society. It refers to everything conducted according to God's will -- government, law courts, ethics, relations between family members and neighbors and strangers, actions toward the poor and helpless, religious practices -- the whole realm of life made satisfactory in God's eyes. That's what the promised davidic King will bring. And he will bring "righteousness" says our text, and again, "righteousness" has a special meaning. "Righteousness" in the Bible signifies the fulfillment of the demands of a relationship, and if we are righteous in God's eyes, we love our neighbors and other persons as ourselves. But above all, we love our God, because that is the principal demand our God makes of us -- not works, not servitude, not blind obedience, not dead piety, but love. God wants our hearts, our devotion, our love because he has first loved us. God wants love like that of a faithful wife toward her husband, says Jeremiah, or like that of an adoring son for his father (cf. Jeremiah 3:19-20). And that love, states our text for the morning, is what the promised davidic King will bring to us.
When such a King comes, reads our text further, then his gifts of justice and righteousness will establish peace and security in the land. Isaiah first put it into memorable words. The King "shall judge between the nations," proclaimed that prophet, "and they shall beat their swords into plowshares/ and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation,/ neither shall they learn war any more (Isaiah 2:4). Peace, security, safety, salvation -- such will be the gifts of God's promised davidic King.
But, implies our text from Jeremiah, God knows us very well. He knows that we have no power in ourselves to love as we ought to love, to be righteous and just as we ought to be, to bring forth peace in the midst of the warring ways of this wayward world. And so our text gives a new name to Judah and Jerusalem, to Israel and to the church and to us, "The Lord is our righteousness" is the name. In other words, the only way we will have justice and righteousness, peace and security and salvation is through our trust and surrender to that promised davidic King who is coming. Only in him, will we be righteous. Only in him, will we act justly. Only in him will we find that peace that passes all understanding, and know that we are secure and saved.
Well, that promised davidic King, that branch from the stump of Jesse, that fulfillment of God's Word to David has come, hasn't he? Born in Bethlehem, the city of David, the promised Word of God became flesh, and we remember his birth at this Advent season. But says our New Testament lessons, he is also coming again, as we confess every time we say the Apostles' Creed. "He ascended into heaven and sitteth on the right hand of God the Father, from thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead." Christ, the promised davidic heir, in other words the Messiah, comes again in God's future. He comes to establish the Kingdom of God over all the earth. And in him -- in him alone, good Christians -- are that righteousness, that justice, that security, that salvation which can enable us to stand at his coming and to enter into his eternal kingdom.
Often times the church feels captive to the culture. It can be so hard to find a receptive public audience or home congregation to listen to deep matters of the soul, when there are so many distractions around, beckoning us to get caught up in the spirit of conviviality. We are in good company, then, today, for Jeremiah is "shut up in the court," Paul has experienced rejection along with his Thessalonian friends, and Jesus is speaking about end things just days before his own end on the cross. Despite Christmas programs in the midst of Advent (Wouldn't it be nice if they were all scheduled during the Twelve Days of Christmas?), let us resolutely draw the attention of the faithful and the faithless to aspects of the Biblical witness that are beyond Bethlehem, although they are anchored there.
Jeremiah 33:14-16
In the Rijksmuseum (Amsterdam) there is a painting by Rembrandt van Rijn titled Jeremiah. Sitting forlornly, with head in hand, the prophet is near tears over the destruction of Jerusalem in the background. The mood is downcast and probably reflects his personal feelings when he himself was "still shut up in the court of the guard," his prophetic ministry rejected by the government, who did not want to hear a message of judgment. But, the message was clear, nonetheless. Due to the wickedness of the city (read the people of God in the Southern Kingdom), God's wrath was upon them. History tells us that at the end of the seventh century and the beginning of the sixth century B.C., Jerusalem was laid waste by the Babylonians and the people were deported into Exile.
Jeremiah's prophecy is not complete, however, sounding only a note of judgment. He was a true prophet of the Lord, knowing how to handle the word of truth rightly (2 Timothy 2:15). So, he speaks the second edge of the sword that offers the promises of God to cut through the pale of tomorrow. "In those days" is the clarion phrase to open the ears of the hearers to new doings at the Lord's hand. God has not forgotten his promises of old to David. God will bring the past promises forward to shape a new tomorrow for his people. The metaphor for this happening is "a righteous Branch," reminiscent of Isaiah's words and anticipatory of Zechariah's, which will be its echo at the end of the century. In the language of the laity, "There are better times ahead." But, the point is that these times will be designed by God and be brought about by his action. They will not simply be a natural unfolding of cyclical recurrences devoid of divine interplay. God's justice and righteousness will be meted out intentionally according to God's will. Jerusalem and its inhabitants (symbolizing the whole people of God) will have a new name, which will not reflect the glory of their deeds, but will reflect what God does and means for them: The Lord is our righteousness. The Apostle Paul would be proud of this, as he himself writes about the righteousness that properly belongs to God (Romans 1:17; 3:21; 5:18; 1 Corinthians 1:30). It is for the people, but it is not of the people and by the people. The people are required only to wait and watch for and hope in "those days."
1 Thessalonians 3:9-13
It seems like every day is Thanksgiving Day to Paul. Wherever you look in his letters, you can see notes of thanksgiving scattered throughout -- thanksgiving to the Father for Jesus, thanksgiving to Jesus for salvation, thanksgiving to the Spirit for new life, thanksgiving to God for fellow believers, thanksgiving to fellow believers for their partnership in the gospel. Paul is generous in expressing his appreciation for the Thessalonian Christians, how they "received the word in much affliction" (1:6). He, then, calls this fledgling congregation to be "unblamable in holiness" (3:13), as they await the Lord's return.
Paul needs to encourage them to "lead a life worthy of God" (2:12), because they are living in an immoral society (4:1-8). Paul enumerates qualities of Christian character that should distinguish the Christian from other members of the society. Generally speaking, this means to "abound in love to one another and to all" (3:12). This love is lived out in disciplined sexuality, marriage, family, friendship, and work. Everything in one's daily life is of interest to the Lord. He is coming again, after all, for the believer, who should strive to be "unblamable in holiness" (3:13).
There is a strong sense of community that is expressed in these few verses. Paul writes about the need to "see you face to face and supply what is lacking in your faith" (3:10). No e-mail correspondence here. The Christian faith is nurtured best when it is together in flesh and bone reality, not virtual reality. There is something about connecting physically in real time and real space that helps the faith be personal and vital to believers. The faith is not a matter of propositions, ciphers in a book, or on a computer screen. The faith is a matter of relationships that connect people to one another, as an expression of being connected to God.
The motivation for growth in the Lord comes through the conviction that Jesus is returning soon. It is interesting to note that Paul's inclination is to be with his friends in Thessalonica and to encourage them to "abound in love," not only for one another but also for all others. This kind of connecting and expanding love is the true character of those who expect the return of the Lord. It is simply wrong to separate oneself from the Christian community and the human community in order to prepare for "that day." Jewish Essenes were wrong at the dawn of the new age and Christian speculators throughout the centuries since have been just as wrong (for example, Jan Matthys in Mnster, Germany, the American Millerites, and the Korean followers of the Hyoo-go movement). True devotion to Christ will engage one lovingly with the world in his name, not separate oneself from the world.
Luke 21:25-36
A lot happened during Holy Week. Not every moment was spent in preparation for Thursday's meal. Jesus took time to help prepare his disciples for "that day." He had already spoken about the destruction of Jerusalem, which would take place in 70 A.D. under the sword of Titus. But, this would only be a sign of the coming of yet another lord, this one the Son of man, who will come "with power and great glory." Rather than holding the fear of invading armies in one's heart, joyous anticipation ("raise your heads") will be the mood of the day, "because your redemption is drawing near." It is interesting to note the season Jesus refers to in reference to the fig tree. He points to the leafing of the fig -- spring yearning for summer. The tree will be budding with life. So, too, when the Son of man comes, it will be a time of life and hope for those who are waiting. This is much different than the view of those who behold his coming without the knowledge of his redeeming purposes: "men fainting with fear and with foreboding."
Jesus' words on watchfulness hit hard in his day and in ours. He warns against "dissipation and drunkenness and cares of this life." These misadventures will keep one from anticipating and welcoming the return of the Lord. That day, then, will become more like a snare that captures than a time of redemption that sets free. Since it will come upon all, a critical factor in our respective experience of it will depend to a large extent on our preparation for it, our watchfulness for it. The remarkable thing is, that as we live in anticipation of that day, even though it delays, it still shapes us to be God's people who live out the future in the present by the power of faith and hope. M. Robert Mulholland, Jr., in his wonderful book Shaped by the Word, says, "Wisdom is bringing all the dynamics of your being into harmony with the word God is speaking you forth to be in the world." Jesus' words about standing before the Son of man will be echoed by Paul years later when he writes for the Thessalonians to "establish your hearts unblamable in holiness before our God."
Every age has its prognosticators who try to interpret the signs of the times and relate it to particular promised events. Certain stellar movements or earthly catastrophes are identified as what Jesus was specifically talking about in reference to his second coming. Perhaps it would be more pastorally fruitful to point out that phenomenal happenings, great as they may appear to be (an asteroid hitting the earth, a tsunami, an earthquake, a hole in the ozone layer), are themselves overshadowed by the great power of God in Christ Jesus. That power will be revealed from the cross and the empty tomb, as a foretaste of what is finally to come.
Application
The call to holiness from dissipation needs to be heard in every age. The churches today have a duty to call our nation to repentance. There is certainly biblical precedence for this: Josiah's discovery of the Book of Deuteronomy and his public reading of it for the people. When the people showed themselves faithless despite the call, Jeremiah had the lamentable task of pronouncing God's judgment in no uncertain terms. In America, there have been two great waves of spiritual resurgence: the Great Awakening of the eighteenth century and the Second Great Awakening of the nineteenth century. Both had been Christian in character. There has certainly been a spiritual resurgence at the end of the twentieth century, but it has not been driven by Christianity. At best, it has been a post-modern backlash to modernity's superficiality; at best, it is self-authenticating and self-serving. How will our churches "stand before the Son of man"? What must we be doing from our pulpits and from our pews today, so that our hearts are established "unblamable in holiness before our God and Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus"?
We need to be thankful for the times in which we live, pregnant with possibilities. These are perilous times, it is true. Strauss and Howe in The Fourth Turning describe historical cycles in Anglo-American history from the fifteenth century that place us at a turning into a period of crisis, tantamount to the American Revolution, the Civil War, the Great Depression, and World War II. However, our time is like the Chinese character for crisis, composed of the symbol for danger and the symbol for opportunity.
With boldness, the church can proclaim that: 1) the fulfillment of God's promises are ultimately seen in Jesus in his humble coming in Bethlehem and his second coming in glory; 2) Jesus sets the standards for justice and righteousness in his person and in his work; 3) the righteousness we can achieve in daily life must be preceded by and be built upon the righteousness of God in Christ; 4) God has placed us here at this time for a purpose, which we must discern in order to be faithful and to stand before the Son of man; 5) the church is the gathered people of God, face to face, who together can encourage faith, hope, and love for dealing with the vicissitudes of life; 6) whenever we see the powers that threaten us, we are to turn to the Lord who comes "with power and great glory"; and 7) the Lord's glory is defined by love and the purposeful culmination of his rule over all, not in disasters (natural or historical). Here are themes worth developing that will help God's people wait and watch and prepare during this Advent season for that which is better and yet to come -- Christmas and the Christ of Christmas.
FIRST LESSON FOCUS
By Elizabeth Achtemeier
Jeremiah 33:14-16
For centuries the Christian Church has looked in two directions on this first Sunday of the new church year, this first Sunday in the Advent season. We look backwards to remember and to anticipate once again the birth of our Savior at the beginning of the first century A.D. But we also look forward to the future, to Christ's Second Coming, when he returns to set up the Kingdom of God on earth, even as it is in heaven. Both of our New Testament lessons speak of that return of our Lord. In 1 Thessalonians, Paul prays that we may be found unblamable at Christ's coming. Luke admonishes us to watch and to pray at all times that we may stand before that second coming of the Son of Man. The Lord of glory will return to defeat all his foes, to judge all people, and to establish that eternal Kingdom of God for whose coming we pray every Sunday in the Lord's prayer. But who is it who is coming and what will be the nature of his rule over all the cosmos? It is our text from Jeremiah that can help answer those questions.
Jeremiah 33:14-16 repeats the words that are found first in the prophet's book in 23:5-6, with only one slight difference between the two texts. They come from the latter part of the prophet's ministry in Judah in 626-586 B.C. and the principal thrust of the message in Jeremiah 33 is God's faithfulness to his promise to King David. "I will fulfill the promise I made to the house of Israel and the house of Judah," God declares in 33:14. If you could break my covenant with nature, God says in the following verses, if there is no longer day and night, only then could my covenant with David be broken (33:20-21, 25-26). God has made a promise to David that he is going to keep!
And what is the promise? It was first spoken to King David in 2 Samuel 7:16 and it is repeated in Jeremiah 33:17. "David shall never lack a man to sit on the throne of the house of Israel." In other words, there will always be an occupant of Israel's throne from the lineage of David. That seems very strange though, doesn't it, because there is now no longer a throne of Israel? In fact, in Jeremiah's own time, the nation of Israel fell to the Babylonians, her nationhood was lost, and the davidic heir, who was named Jehoichin, was taken in chains into exile. The nation of Israel, as it is found in the Old Testament, with its throne and davidic king, never existed after 587 B.C. The modern democratic Israeli state that was founded in 1948 is something entirely different. So what, then, of God's promise of a davidic heir?
The prophets of Israel knew that God always keeps his promises, even over centuries of time. And they knew that despite God's judgment on his covenant people that sent them into exile for their unfaithfulness, that judgment was not God's last word. Judgment is never a loving God's last word. So those prophets peered into the future that they knew was in God's hands, and they all agreed. Proclaimed Isaiah, "There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots" (Isaiah 11:1). Declared Zechariah, speaking God's word, "Behold, I will bring my servant the Branch" (Zechariah 3:8, cf. 6:12). And in our text from Jeremiah, God promises, "I will cause a righteous Branch to spring forth for David" (Jeremiah 33:15). Those prophets did not say when such a davidic heir would appear. He would come "in those days," they said (Jeremiah 33:16) -- at that indefinite time in the future when the time was ripe and God decided to fulfill his promise. But God would raise up a King from the house of David. Of that the prophets all were sure.
Our text from Jeremiah goes on to describe the reign of that King sent from God. "He shall execute justice and righteousness in the land." Those words have a special meaning in the Old Testament. "Justice" is not just a legal term. Rather, it refers to God's total order for society. It refers to everything conducted according to God's will -- government, law courts, ethics, relations between family members and neighbors and strangers, actions toward the poor and helpless, religious practices -- the whole realm of life made satisfactory in God's eyes. That's what the promised davidic King will bring. And he will bring "righteousness" says our text, and again, "righteousness" has a special meaning. "Righteousness" in the Bible signifies the fulfillment of the demands of a relationship, and if we are righteous in God's eyes, we love our neighbors and other persons as ourselves. But above all, we love our God, because that is the principal demand our God makes of us -- not works, not servitude, not blind obedience, not dead piety, but love. God wants our hearts, our devotion, our love because he has first loved us. God wants love like that of a faithful wife toward her husband, says Jeremiah, or like that of an adoring son for his father (cf. Jeremiah 3:19-20). And that love, states our text for the morning, is what the promised davidic King will bring to us.
When such a King comes, reads our text further, then his gifts of justice and righteousness will establish peace and security in the land. Isaiah first put it into memorable words. The King "shall judge between the nations," proclaimed that prophet, "and they shall beat their swords into plowshares/ and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation,/ neither shall they learn war any more (Isaiah 2:4). Peace, security, safety, salvation -- such will be the gifts of God's promised davidic King.
But, implies our text from Jeremiah, God knows us very well. He knows that we have no power in ourselves to love as we ought to love, to be righteous and just as we ought to be, to bring forth peace in the midst of the warring ways of this wayward world. And so our text gives a new name to Judah and Jerusalem, to Israel and to the church and to us, "The Lord is our righteousness" is the name. In other words, the only way we will have justice and righteousness, peace and security and salvation is through our trust and surrender to that promised davidic King who is coming. Only in him, will we be righteous. Only in him, will we act justly. Only in him will we find that peace that passes all understanding, and know that we are secure and saved.
Well, that promised davidic King, that branch from the stump of Jesse, that fulfillment of God's Word to David has come, hasn't he? Born in Bethlehem, the city of David, the promised Word of God became flesh, and we remember his birth at this Advent season. But says our New Testament lessons, he is also coming again, as we confess every time we say the Apostles' Creed. "He ascended into heaven and sitteth on the right hand of God the Father, from thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead." Christ, the promised davidic heir, in other words the Messiah, comes again in God's future. He comes to establish the Kingdom of God over all the earth. And in him -- in him alone, good Christians -- are that righteousness, that justice, that security, that salvation which can enable us to stand at his coming and to enter into his eternal kingdom.
