Jeremiah 33:14-16

First Sunday in Advent, B | November 28, 2021 | Sermon Text: Jeremiah 33:14-16 | by David H. Brooks |

Life in a cell is a life measured out in square footage. First you pace out length—1, 2, 3—and then you pace out width—1…2.  Probably something around 6×8, maybe 7×10—50 to 70 square feet. Being captive is getting used to never having more than one or two steps before you must turn around again, and again, and again. In such a small space, because the body cannot travel far, many try to make their minds or imaginations do the traveling. Yet every time the mind must return, the present moment crashes back in again—1, 2, 3……1, 2.

Chapter 33 of Jeremiah begins by reminding us that the prophet Jeremiah is in prison. He is a prisoner of Zedekiah, the King of Judah, because Jeremiah kept warning the king and his officials that God was going to give the city over to the Babylonians. God would do this because the people had forgotten God, ignored God, paid lip service to God, insulted God, defied God. Important people never like being reminded of inconvenient facts, so the important people persuade Zedekiah to have Jeremiah arrested. As the Babylonians move against Jerusalem and the city’s situation becomes more desperate, so does Jeremiah’s plight. His world shrinks—no escape from the city, no escape from the rulers of Jerusalem, no escape from prison—yet Jeremiah keeps proclaiming God’s word, even as the rest of Jerusalem is very suspicious of him and his motivations.

The reason Jeremiah can do this is because God is not limited by square footage, small spaces, or prison walls. God comes to Jeremiah announcing a bold word: behold! Open your eyes and see, Jeremiah! God comes to his poor prophet, and amid the looming destruction and despair declares “I will raise up restoration and fresh hope!” Amid the hunger and the fighting: “I will raise up abundance and peace!” Amid the dying and the tears: “I will raise up healing, wholeness and new joy!” Amid the guilt and the sin: “I will raise up cleansing and forgiveness.”  God will do this because he plans to fulfill, perform, raise up the promise he made to the people of Israel and Judah. He will bring forth one who executes justice and righteousness. God will cause the Righteous Branch to grow, grow where it has no business growing: grow where the soil is bitter with tears, grow where lives are parched with fear and anger, grow where greed squeezes out space, grow where hearts have grown cold and stony.

Here, at the beginning of Advent, many we know are pacing out lives that are marked by very small spaces. For some, the small space is literally that: the nursing home room, the “temporary” home office, the screen on the laptop. For others, the small space is in the mind or the heart: the estranged family member, the fickle friend, the fearful neighbor. We have all learned over the last two or three years to be suspicious of the motives of others, even to thinking it’d be better if they were arrested. Ironically, when we learn the world is too big to control, we retreat into spaces—whether physical or mental—that we can easily pace out, and to which we grow used.

But God comes to us and calls to us to behold! Behold the chance to bless the person living down the hall! Behold the moment to support the coworker! Behold the opportunity to grasp something new! Behold the invitation—to pray with family over Advent devotions, to join with a friend online and search the promise held in the Scriptures, to give generously to a neighbor in need, to confess or forgive wherever a wound has hurt a relationship. No matter where we turn our gaze, no matter how far we count our paces, it is not a prison we see, but the Righteous Branch that makes all manner of things well.  Behold!

Pastor David H. Brooks

Durham, NC USA

Pr.Dave.Brooks@zoho.com