November 28, 2021 Sermon
Sermon title: "A Righteous Branch"
Scripture: Jeremiah 33:14 - 16
{{Other lectionary choices include Psalm 25:1-10, I Thessalonians 3:9-13, and Luke 21:25-36.}}
Jeremiah 33:14-16
The Righteous Branch
14The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will fulfill the promise I made to the house of Israel and the house of Judah. 15In those days and at that time I will cause a righteous Branch to spring up for David; and he shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. 16In those days Judah will be saved and Jerusalem will live in safety. And this is the name by which it will be called: "The Lord is our righteousness."
Christians have always loved the prophet Jeremiah, partly because he is so hopeful, even if his own life wasn't so wonderful. Also, he often tells us his feelings, even if what he felt was painful. And we especially like the verse in which he says - quoting God - "I will put my law within them, not like the old law written on stone, but I will write my law on their hearts." And I just had this thought: maybe Jeremiah reminds us of Jesus, because he comes across as a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, a phrase found in Isaiah but which so many have thought foretells the coming of Jesus.
So, we historically have liked Jeremiah for many reasons. In today's Scripture reading, Jeremiah is hopeful that one day a legitimate descendant of King David will sit on the throne in Jerusalem, David's royal city. And not only will he be a descendant of David.....he will rule righteously. As I indicated a moment ago, Jeremiah did not have an especially happy life. The name of the king in Jeremiah's time was Zedekiah, and that name means "Yahweh the Lord is my righteousness" or "Yahweh is my vindication". Says Robert Davidson, who wrote a commentary on the book of Jeremiah, that name, Zedekiah, "expresses a confident faith in God, a faith Zedekiah denied in almost everything he did." So, to say Jeremiah was disappointed in his king is an understatement. But Jeremiah did not lose hope. That's why he said that one day, one day, certainly "there would come such a king, a king rightly called 'Yahweh is our righteousness' or our 'vindication'."
If you are interested, as I am, as to when Jeremiah lived, he probably began his ministry around the year 627 B.C., which means he was around when Jerusalem fell to Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon in 586 B.C. Jeremiah himself didn't go to Babylon; he was probably forced by some of his countrymen to flee to Egypt where he eventually died. And it is altogether possible that Jeremiah thought himself to be a failure. I don't know this for a fact, but I think it's greatly possible. Why? Because he wanted his people to trust in God more than they did, and he wanted his king Zedekiah to do the same. If you think about it, you might wonder if JESUS thought he had failed as he was dying on the Cross. He wanted HIS people to trust in God, too, more than they did, and we CERTAINLY know from the Gospels that he was sometimes disappointed with his disciples. Perhaps Jeremiah and Jesus had a lot in common. But something else they had in common, too, and that was that they were FAITHFUL. They may not have been successful, but they certainly were FAITHFUL. And Jeremiah and Jesus are good examples for you and me, and that is that God doesn't call us to be SUCCESSFUL. What God DOES call us to be is FAITHFUL. I think of our giving food away every month (thank you, Gwen!). Does it help? Who knows? But I believe we are called to do that, FEED the HUNGRY. Are there more hungry people now than before? Maybe so.... but that doesn't mean we should stop feeding the hungry! We need to remain faithful, just as Jeremiah and Jesus remained faithful. Oh, I am reminded of Jesus' feeding of the 5,000. Some kid had some loaves and some fishes - but one of the disciples said, "What is that among so many?" What he meant was, how can a couple of fish and a few pieces of bread feed THIS crowd? What I think Jesus was saying WITHOUT saying it was, just try! "You just might be surprised what God can do if you'll just TRY!" So....whether you are successful or not, simply try to be faithful, and you'll be surprised at what God can do!
As we said earlier, today is the first Sunday of Advent. You may find it strange that one of our lectionary choices comes from Jeremiah, a rather gloomy prophet. Shouldn't we be happy that Christmas is on the way? I mean, "Advent" means the coming of something. Actually, I think whoever devised the lectionary centuries ago was/were on to something. First of all, we have to get ready. Is your heart ready yet for King Jesus? (Remember that African-American spiritual, "Mary Had a Baby"? Sing "Mary had a baby. What did she call him? Mary had a baby - He was called King Jesus. Mary had a baby, My Lord.") So, we need to get ready for the Birth of a King.
More importantly, into what kind of world was Jesus born? Sort of like our world, I think. The Jews of Jesus' day hated the Romans. Here in America, some of us hate each other, and a baby being born in a back-water town like Bethlehem isn't going to do a lot to change that hate.....or will it? Maybe that's up to you and me. Jesus was born outside. The homeless we see around us perhaps everyday live outside ALL the TIME. In Jesus' day there were lepers, and people stayed away from them. In our day, the homeless are the "lepers" of our society, and many of us do our best to look the other way. You can probably come up with your own similarities of how our world is similar to the world into which Jesus was born. If we aren't ready, too bad! Here comes Jesus!
Look, God never comes to us at a "convenient" time. We sort of always have to be ready. And if you think the world wasn't ready then, are we really any more ready NOW? I don't think so.
But what we have is HOPE. Jeremiah had hope in "a Righteous Branch" sometime in the future, way beyond his lifetime. I just thought of something Jeremiah said in utter frustration when his people were behaving badly: "Can a leopard change its spots? Can an Ethiopian change his color?" The obvious answer is NO, and Jeremiah was frustrated with what he saw. And wasn't Jesus also frustrated with what he saw? I think the answer is yes. But Jesus also said that with God, all things are possible, and I think Jeremiah believed that, too, even if he saw no evidence to the contrary!
In the book of Hebrews is the verse that says faith carries with it the assumption or the belief or the HOPE of things that are as yet unseen. "For who believes or hopes for what he sees?" is another verse close to that passage. That's what faith is. That's what HOPE is. This Advent season, let us continue to live in the HOPE that God will save us. Jeremiah did. Jesus did. How can we not? Amen.
Pastor Skip
