Waiting in Hope
Text: Jeremiah 33:14-16
Every year, I look for ways to connect with the anticipation and hope that Advent instills. In recent years I’ve had something to look forward to around Christmas, being it as profound as the birth of my daughter last year, or as trivial as the first release of the Lord of the Rings back in 2001. In some ways, these personal experiences were reminders of the sense of waiting and hopefulness of Advent… but this year I have to do some things to remind me about what it is to wait. As of today, this is the Christian New Year. We begin with a time of preparation, anticipating the coming of Christ. As much as I want to draw parallels between my own past experiences, the waiting and hopefulness of Advent is on a much grander scale.
We have visions expressed such as this from Jeremiah:
14The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will fulfil 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.” --Jeremiah 33:14-16
This has a tone of the epic. The days are surely coming… that a righteous branch will spring up for David… and there will be justice and righteousness in the land… All will be made right, Judah will be saved and Jerusalem will live in safety. All will be well… and all hope fulfilled.
Wow… admittedly, this sounds really cool… but so what? It seems to be an optimistic expression of something but really we don’t know what. Jeremiah is expressing hope for the future… great! Yet it seems disconnected, from anything tangible.
Unfortunately, we take this one out of context if we just leave it here. Jeremiah expresses this wondrous vision of hope towards the end of this chapter, in the larger picture, he’s saying here’s the hope, “but we’re not there yet.” If this vision is of a hope of Israel restored, the message comes in the midst of a very dark time.
At the beginning of Advent, we often hear from several of the well-known in Hebrew Scripture, Isaiah, Jeremiah in particular. What these and others have in common is a shared crisis, facing the destruction of their nation, needing to plant a seed of hope when everything else around them has gone up in flames.
So often our knowledge about Biblical history is rather limited. We tend to think of Biblical times as having been idyllic, peaceful and trouble-free. We tend to look to the heydays, the high points in Israel’s history... king David, king Solomon... among others. Yet we have long since forgotten that most of the Biblical experience, a large part of the writings that we have today, came together during dark times. Foreign occupation, war, famine, strife, exile were very much a part of the experience. It is out of this struggle with identity and crisis do we get these optimistic voices. These are not sun-shiny, sentimental wishes, but a genuine expression of hope in the midst of dark times… almost as a defiance of what is happening around them.
In Jeremiah’s case… by the time he offered these words towards the end of the book, his prophetic words that Judah would indeed fall to the Babylonians had come to pass. Jerusalem had been destroyed, the Temple in ruins, and the religious and cultural elite were being forcibly confined in exile. Jeremiah escaped, fleeing to Egypt, but he voices optimism and hope that Israel would be restored. Jeremiah expresses of hope that this shall happen, but it certainly has not happened. Not yet, anyway. We have to remember that Jeremiah would not live to see the fall of Babylon, but ultimately this voice of optimism helped give the people a strength of faith that would see them through this dark time. Even so, Jeremiah would spend the rest of his life in the midst of the not yet.
It is that sense of expectant waiting, but also that sense not yet that is the essence of Advent, perhaps many more of us can relate to. We celebrate Advent in a changed world. International relations have taken on a much different tone since September 11th, and even the rights and freedoms that we have taken for granted were called into question… lost… and now we seek to recover them again. We live in a time where while we no longer live with an immediate fear of nuclear annihilation, we find ourselves still looking over our shoulders, not even really sure why. When I served as Presbyterian Chaplain to the University of Western Ontario, I did far more counseling in the months that followed 9/11 than I did in previous years combined. It’s wasn’t just with undergraduate students, it’s been with faculty, staff, graduate-level students. There is an underlying fear, and people are looking over their shoulders wondering if they could be next. As a people today, I think we understand the “not yet” all too well.
Maybe that’s why Jeremiah’s words carry such a deep resonance today. Not in so far as his specific words, because really, they come across as almost a dreamy Disneyland-ish vision of the future. In essence it isn’t what he says so much as when he says it. In the midst of this “not yet” world, Jeremiah has the audacity to proclaim a vision of hope, when even he himself is weighed down with the burden of the reality he sees. He expresses optimism in the midst of a pessimistic landscape, where Israel has become “just like everybody else.”
Jeremiah dares to see something different. He dares to look forward, to hope, when everyone else is looking over their shoulder for what doom is coming next. I think that takes a great deal of courage, to be able to speak with hope of the future when everyone else it seems is sitting in ashes around him. He lives with a sense of optimism, even though he himself knows that he won’t live to see it fulfilled.
Advent is about daring to see something different, about daring to see the world differently. It is about lighting a candle in the midst of darkness, and not trying to stampede our way into Christmas… but consciously live in that sense of not yet. The trouble is, our society is not very good at waiting in this sense of ‘not yet’.
I was casually listening to a program called “Freestyle” CBC Radio One this past week, and they had done a poll amongst their listeners as to when to start with the Christmas programming. The vote resulted in saying December 4th… tomorrow… which I suppose we can give a certain amount of kudos to them for waiting as long as they have. Christmas shopping hours have been in play it seems since the beginning of November! That having been said, I’ve worked in retail before, and I know full well that the Christmas decorations are packed up on Boxing Day, and the hearts of Valentines Day begin making the rounds soon after. I worry sometimes that we as the Church have bought into the commercial appeal. Maybe we have forgotten that Christmas Day is the first day of the Christmas Season, and it lasts until January 6th… For us as Christians today we start the Season of Advent… which is the season of expectant waiting… and waiting in hope. Our challenge as 21st Century Christians is similar each year in to try and reclaim Advent for what it is. Our challenge is to see the world differently, to be able to light a candle in the darkness, rather than to skip over it…
The hope of Advent is not about ignoring the dark times, but to affirm that God is still there, working in the midst of them towards something new. We know that Jeremiah would not live to see his own optimistic hope of Israel restored, but we also know that his prophetic words would give that sense of hope not only for the people who lived in the darkness of the exile, but for generations to come. His inkling that God was up to something new would turn into something far beyond his own imagining. His expression of hope that a root from the branch of Jesse would spring up again gave a metaphor for something truly new and unique many hundreds of years later, and would have an impact for thousands more. Jeremiah’s words continue to give hope to us today, reminding us of promises fulfilled, as we ourselves continue to wait in hope.
Amen
Every year, I look for ways to connect with the anticipation and hope that Advent instills. In recent years I’ve had something to look forward to around Christmas, being it as profound as the birth of my daughter last year, or as trivial as the first release of the Lord of the Rings back in 2001. In some ways, these personal experiences were reminders of the sense of waiting and hopefulness of Advent… but this year I have to do some things to remind me about what it is to wait. As of today, this is the Christian New Year. We begin with a time of preparation, anticipating the coming of Christ. As much as I want to draw parallels between my own past experiences, the waiting and hopefulness of Advent is on a much grander scale.
We have visions expressed such as this from Jeremiah:
14The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will fulfil 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.” --Jeremiah 33:14-16
This has a tone of the epic. The days are surely coming… that a righteous branch will spring up for David… and there will be justice and righteousness in the land… All will be made right, Judah will be saved and Jerusalem will live in safety. All will be well… and all hope fulfilled.
Wow… admittedly, this sounds really cool… but so what? It seems to be an optimistic expression of something but really we don’t know what. Jeremiah is expressing hope for the future… great! Yet it seems disconnected, from anything tangible.
Unfortunately, we take this one out of context if we just leave it here. Jeremiah expresses this wondrous vision of hope towards the end of this chapter, in the larger picture, he’s saying here’s the hope, “but we’re not there yet.” If this vision is of a hope of Israel restored, the message comes in the midst of a very dark time.
At the beginning of Advent, we often hear from several of the well-known in Hebrew Scripture, Isaiah, Jeremiah in particular. What these and others have in common is a shared crisis, facing the destruction of their nation, needing to plant a seed of hope when everything else around them has gone up in flames.
So often our knowledge about Biblical history is rather limited. We tend to think of Biblical times as having been idyllic, peaceful and trouble-free. We tend to look to the heydays, the high points in Israel’s history... king David, king Solomon... among others. Yet we have long since forgotten that most of the Biblical experience, a large part of the writings that we have today, came together during dark times. Foreign occupation, war, famine, strife, exile were very much a part of the experience. It is out of this struggle with identity and crisis do we get these optimistic voices. These are not sun-shiny, sentimental wishes, but a genuine expression of hope in the midst of dark times… almost as a defiance of what is happening around them.
In Jeremiah’s case… by the time he offered these words towards the end of the book, his prophetic words that Judah would indeed fall to the Babylonians had come to pass. Jerusalem had been destroyed, the Temple in ruins, and the religious and cultural elite were being forcibly confined in exile. Jeremiah escaped, fleeing to Egypt, but he voices optimism and hope that Israel would be restored. Jeremiah expresses of hope that this shall happen, but it certainly has not happened. Not yet, anyway. We have to remember that Jeremiah would not live to see the fall of Babylon, but ultimately this voice of optimism helped give the people a strength of faith that would see them through this dark time. Even so, Jeremiah would spend the rest of his life in the midst of the not yet.
It is that sense of expectant waiting, but also that sense not yet that is the essence of Advent, perhaps many more of us can relate to. We celebrate Advent in a changed world. International relations have taken on a much different tone since September 11th, and even the rights and freedoms that we have taken for granted were called into question… lost… and now we seek to recover them again. We live in a time where while we no longer live with an immediate fear of nuclear annihilation, we find ourselves still looking over our shoulders, not even really sure why. When I served as Presbyterian Chaplain to the University of Western Ontario, I did far more counseling in the months that followed 9/11 than I did in previous years combined. It’s wasn’t just with undergraduate students, it’s been with faculty, staff, graduate-level students. There is an underlying fear, and people are looking over their shoulders wondering if they could be next. As a people today, I think we understand the “not yet” all too well.
Maybe that’s why Jeremiah’s words carry such a deep resonance today. Not in so far as his specific words, because really, they come across as almost a dreamy Disneyland-ish vision of the future. In essence it isn’t what he says so much as when he says it. In the midst of this “not yet” world, Jeremiah has the audacity to proclaim a vision of hope, when even he himself is weighed down with the burden of the reality he sees. He expresses optimism in the midst of a pessimistic landscape, where Israel has become “just like everybody else.”
Jeremiah dares to see something different. He dares to look forward, to hope, when everyone else is looking over their shoulder for what doom is coming next. I think that takes a great deal of courage, to be able to speak with hope of the future when everyone else it seems is sitting in ashes around him. He lives with a sense of optimism, even though he himself knows that he won’t live to see it fulfilled.
Advent is about daring to see something different, about daring to see the world differently. It is about lighting a candle in the midst of darkness, and not trying to stampede our way into Christmas… but consciously live in that sense of not yet. The trouble is, our society is not very good at waiting in this sense of ‘not yet’.
I was casually listening to a program called “Freestyle” CBC Radio One this past week, and they had done a poll amongst their listeners as to when to start with the Christmas programming. The vote resulted in saying December 4th… tomorrow… which I suppose we can give a certain amount of kudos to them for waiting as long as they have. Christmas shopping hours have been in play it seems since the beginning of November! That having been said, I’ve worked in retail before, and I know full well that the Christmas decorations are packed up on Boxing Day, and the hearts of Valentines Day begin making the rounds soon after. I worry sometimes that we as the Church have bought into the commercial appeal. Maybe we have forgotten that Christmas Day is the first day of the Christmas Season, and it lasts until January 6th… For us as Christians today we start the Season of Advent… which is the season of expectant waiting… and waiting in hope. Our challenge as 21st Century Christians is similar each year in to try and reclaim Advent for what it is. Our challenge is to see the world differently, to be able to light a candle in the darkness, rather than to skip over it…
The hope of Advent is not about ignoring the dark times, but to affirm that God is still there, working in the midst of them towards something new. We know that Jeremiah would not live to see his own optimistic hope of Israel restored, but we also know that his prophetic words would give that sense of hope not only for the people who lived in the darkness of the exile, but for generations to come. His inkling that God was up to something new would turn into something far beyond his own imagining. His expression of hope that a root from the branch of Jesse would spring up again gave a metaphor for something truly new and unique many hundreds of years later, and would have an impact for thousands more. Jeremiah’s words continue to give hope to us today, reminding us of promises fulfilled, as we ourselves continue to wait in hope.
Amen
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