Every actor deals with the fear that something will go horribly wrong when they step out onto the stage. Forgetting a line. Tripping over your own feet. A wardrobe malfunction. Fortunately, actors are taught to think on their feet and improvise if something were to go wrong in a scene.
Actress Jennifer Laura Thompson recalls how her cast mates in a stage play of “The Wizard of Oz” tried to improvise when the set machinery didn’t work. Thompson was playing the role of Glinda, the Good Witch, who is supposed to descend to the stage in a large bubble. As Thompson began her descent, the bubble stopped working. She was stuck 40 feet in the air as her cast mates down below ad-libbed, “She’s coming . . . it’s Glinda . . . she’s coming . . . Glinda’s coming . . .” (1)
Can you imagine being in those poor actors’ shoes having to act excited as they waited . . . and waited . . . and waited for Glinda to arrive? If you can imagine such a scenario, then maybe you can have a little sympathy for the prophet Jeremiah as he tried to point the nation of Israel to the coming of their Messiah. Israel was hurting. Israel needed a Savior. That Savior was coming. But they couldn’t wait. They needed hope now. In the last days of his ministry, Jeremiah gave them that hope.
In his book The Rest of God, Pastor Mark Buchannan tells of counseling a young woman who was struggling on two fronts: she had never healed from a childhood of abuse and neglect, and these painful experiences fueled her present bad choices that were messing up her life. Nothing he said could heal her past or undo her present situation. And it was in this moment of despair that Pastor Buchannan realized that God still had plans and promises for this woman’s future. Her hope lay in trusting her future to the God who promised to be our Wonderful Counselor, Everlasting Father, and Prince of Peace.
Pastor Buchannan writes, “Since [that day], this is mostly what I do when I counsel: I help people anticipate . . . What I do best is describe, as much as human words allow, the hope to which they have been called, the glory we are to receive. I describe how Jesus has power to bring everything under his control . . .” (2)
Listen to those words again: “. . . I help people to anticipate . . . What I do best is describe, as much as human words allow, the hope to which they have been called . . .” That was the message of Jeremiah the prophet to his people and to us as well.
“The days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will fulfill the good promise I made to the people of Israel and Judah. In those days and at that time I will make a righteous Branch sprout from David’s line; he will do what is just and right in the land. In those days Judah will be saved and Jerusalem will live in safety. This is the name by which it will be called: ‘The Lord Our Righteous Savior.’”
It’s sad. Jeremiah is remembered as “the weeping prophet.” He always seemed to be on the unpopular side. Why couldn’t he keep his mouth shut, we wonder. His inability to hold his tongue cost him dearly. He was banished for a time from the priesthood. He was physically beaten and publicly humiliated on more than one occasion for expressing his unpopular convictions. Why couldn’t he keep quiet?
After all, he could have enjoyed a peaceful life, a relatively comfortable life. He had the soul of a poet. He observed with joy the blossoming of the almond in early spring. He wrote of the migratory impulse of the turtledove, the swallow and the crane.
Animals have to obey their impulses. Humans don’t. Why couldn’t he check those red-hot impulses that so often got him in trouble? Why couldn’t he just sit back and enjoy the beauty of nature? He could cultivate a garden—enjoy the blessings of marriage and family. Why didn’t he? The answer is simple. There was a voice within that would not let him alone.
On the other hand, why couldn’t his countrymen see the folly of their ways? He tried to warn them about the consequences of their greed, their disobedience, their disregard of right living. But they would not listen. And because they would not listen, God had forsaken them. His country was now besieged.
This lonely, sensitive prophet could have chided them derisively, “I told you so! I told you so, but you would not listen.” It would be easy for Jeremiah to do that and he would be justified, but that wasn’t the message the Lord had put into his heart.
When we first meet Jeremiah, he is a preacher of righteousness. By the time we encounter him in this last chapter of his book, he speaks words of comfort. Some would say that he had mellowed. Perhaps so, but the situation had also changed. Before, his people needed to be confronted, now they need to be comforted. Before, they needed words of judgment, now they needed words of grace. Before, they deserved condemnation, now they needed hope. So instead of offering a word of punishment, Jeremiah offers a word of promise:
“Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will fulfill the promise I made to the house of Israel and the house of Judah. In those days and at that time I will cause a righteous Branch to spring forth from David; and he shall execute justice and righteousness in the land . . . And this is the name by which it will be called: ‘The Lord is our righteousness.’” (RSV)
Sixteen times in his book he uses the phrase, “the days are coming.” Jeremiah is announcing the coming of Jesus. Oh, he didn’t realize when he made this prophecy just how God would fulfill the messianic promise, but it was an announcement of Christ’s coming just the same. And like all of God’s promises, it would be fulfilled. It took 600 years, but what’s 600 years to God? A thousand years is but a day for God. The important words are these: the days are coming. The days are coming. There is an inevitability about those words: the days are coming. Does it mean that they are right around the corner? No, but the days are coming. Does it mean that there won’t be heartaches yet ahead? It doesn’t mean that either. But etch it in stone where it will never be forgotten: the days are coming.
And that is what this first Sunday in Advent is all about: The days are coming. The days are coming where there will be justice. That is the first promise Jeremiah makes about the coming of the Messiah. There will be justice. This world needs more justice, doesn’t it?
There is an old Arabian story about a wealthy prince who claims the land of a poor widow so that he can enlarge his palace gardens. The poor widow brings her complaint before a local judge. The judge is a man of character and integrity, but he is also smart enough to know that the wealthy prince could ruin him. As it was in ancient times, so it is today: the poor and powerless have little chance of receiving justice when they go up against the wealthy and powerful.
Rather than summon the prince to his court, the judge loaded a large sack on his back and went to the palace. The judge then asked the prince if he could fill his sack with dirt from the palace garden. The curious prince agreed. After the judge had filled the sack to the brim with dirt, he asked the prince to lift it. The prince said, “The sack is too heavy even for our combined strength.”
The judge replied, “This sack which you think too heavy to bear, contains only a small portion of the land that you took from the rightful owner. How then, at the day of judgment, will you be able to support the weight of the whole?” (3)
We have an innate need for justice, don’t we? We want to see bad guys punished and good guys rewarded. There is something built into the very fabric of our being that yearns for justice. Until the Messiah comes, what is our role in creating justice? Because it is all too easy for us to turn a blind eye to injustice, even to benefit from it.
Rev. Thomas G. Long writes, “Righteousness is not a sweet virtue that everybody in the world desires. Those who take advantage of others for their own gain do not want the world to be fair and just. Those who benefit from the weakness of others do not want the world to be compassionate. Much money and power are invested in maintaining injustice. If every wage were fair, if every person were honored as a child of God, if every human being were safe from exploitation, many would lose their grip on status, self-gratification, and affluence.” (4)
We all squirm when we hear those words. Prophetic words are meant to challenge us. They are meant to wake us up. Life is not fair. Nevertheless, the days are coming, says Jeremiah, when the playing fields of this world will be leveled. The days are coming when that which is unfair will be set right. For when the Bible speaks of justice, it is not merely talking about individual justice. God’s call is for a just society. God’s call is for basic fairness for all people. God’s call is for a new kind of society—a society where all persons will live in dignity and freedom.
That is what justice is all about.
Jesus said the days are coming when the last shall be first and the first shall be last. During Advent we need to take those words seriously and ask ourselves whether we are contributing to a just society or whether we are one of those who are contributing to the status quo. The days are coming when there will be justice.
The days are also coming when there will be righteousness. Justice refers to the state of our society. Righteousness refers to the state of our individual souls.
A Yiddish term for “righteousness” is zaddik. It refers to a saintly person, someone whose character and actions are aligned with the will of God. Dr. James Qualben tells a story to illustrate the meaning of this word.
A few years ago, his car’s fuel-injection system was malfunctioning, so Dr. Qualben took his car to a mechanic. The mechanic happened to be an orthodox Jewish man. He listened carefully to the engine, then took apart the fuel injection system, carefully cleaned each individual piece, and put the whole thing back together again.
The car worked perfectly now. The mechanic closed the hood and announced with a satisfied smile, “Zaddik!” The fuel injection system and the engine were working precisely as the engineers had created them to work. (5)
It is revealing that these two terms are so rarely linked—justice and righteousness. It is that old division in western Christianity between those who advocate a social gospel—the gospel of civil rights, concern for the poor, and social justice—and those who advocate a personal gospel of piety, prayer and high moral conduct. The days are coming when such a false dichotomy will be forever dispelled. Both justice and righteousness are attributes of the Kingdom. They are an essential expression of God’s character. We do not have the luxury of taking our choice. We must have both.
The days are coming, says the Lord, when justice and righteousness will prevail. Justice AND righteousness. It is not enough on this First Sunday of Advent to think of the peripheral elements of this season, like lights and candles and trees and cookies. We need to think about the very heart of the Advent message—the coming of the Messiah, and with his coming, justice and righteousness—the redemption of society as well as the redemption of individual souls.
Ruby Bridges was just six years old when, in 1960, she was chosen as the first Black child to integrate the William Frantz Elementary School in New Orleans. Photos show the incredible courage of this little girl who was escorted to school each morning by federal marshals to protect her from the angry white parents who screamed curses, insults and threats at her each day.
Dr. Robert Coles, a child psychiatrist from Harvard, interviewed Ruby Bridges in an effort to determine how young children learn to cope with such frightening and dehumanizing abuse day after day. In the interview, Ruby told Dr. Coles that she prayed for the people who threatened her, insulted her, spat at her. Her mother and her minister had told her that God was watching over her each day, and it was her duty to pray for and forgive the people who opposed her.
When Dr. Coles asked Ruby if she thought this advice was correct, she said, “I’m sure God knows what is happening . . . He may not do anything right now, but there will come a day, like they say in church, there will come a day. You can count on it. That’s what they say in church.” (6)
“. . . there will come a day. You can count on it.” That was Jeremiah’s message more than 2000 years ago. And it is the church’s message still today. Jeremiah the prophet was a lonely man. He had a fire burning in his bones. Jeremiah had a passion for righteousness and justice. He announced the coming of One who would bring righteousness and justice into the world. That One is Christ. We are Christ’s disciples. On this first Sunday in Advent we need to ask, does righteousness and justice burn within us as well?
1. “60 Actors Reveal Their Worst Flubbed Lines and Onstage Mishaps” by Playbill staff, November 27, 2016, http://www.playbill.com/article/60-actors-reveal-their-worst-flubbed-lines-and-onstage-mishaps.
2. Mark Buchannan, The Rest of God (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, c. 2006), p. 209. Cited by Rev. Jeff Chapman, Faith Presbyterian Church, Sacramento, CA, https://faithpresby.org/?p=2862.
3. Dr. Daniel Lioy, Tarbell’s Lesson Commentary, September 2004-August 2005 (Colorado Springs: Cook Communications).
4. Thomas G. Long, Matthew: Westminster Bible Companion, p. 50. Cited in “Close to the Bone,” Rev. Chandler Stokes, http://www.firstchurchoakland.org/closetothebone1luke4211.
5. Note: Author may be Pastor Kent. Can’t find staff listing. “Three Tests of Faith: Believe, Love, and Obey,” Campus Lutheran Church, Columbia, MO, http://www.campuslutheran.org/sermons/Three%20Tests%20of%20True%20Faith.doc.
6. The Rev. Dr. P.C. Enniss, http://day1.org/1068-peace_is_more_than_a_christmas_wish.