Prophet's Story:

"Looking for Righteousness"

Mid-week Advent I - November 30, 2005

Jeremiah 33:14-18

Advent! That is the season of the church year which began last Sunday. What does it mean? Why do we celebrate it? Should we act differently? What is it all about?

According to Webster's dictionary, Advent is about "a coming or arrival". On Christmas Eve, the Jerabek household will celebrate the advent of Grandpa & Grandma Jerabek, and Uncle Tyler. Oh, we will celebrate the first Advent of Christ as well. In fact, we will probably place more emphasis on the first Advent of Christ than upon the arrival of my family to celebrate Christmas. After all, even my family would agree that Christ is more important to Christmas than they are.

We celebrate Advent each and every year. It is a penitential season. It is a time of preparation for the coming of Christ. It is penitential, meaning that we prepare for Christ's coming by repentance. With penitent hearts we wait for His coming among us. While Christ’s coming is a future event, it is also a present reality with roots in God's action through Christ’s first advent on earth, in the past.

The prophet Jeremiah wrote some 600 years before the first Advent of God’s Messiah. His writing the words, "Behold, the days are coming," were meant to stir up the people. Through the prophet Jeremiah, God was calling the people back to their God in repentance. At the time of his writing, the people of Israel and Judah were wicked and immoral. God's judgement upon them loomed large because of their idolatry in turning to other gods, and because they adopted the lifestyle of the pagans who lived in their midst.

And yet, God moves Jeremiah to write these words of our text. These are words warning of judgement, yes! But, even more, they are words of promise. Hear them again, "‘Behold, the days are coming,’ says the Lord, ‘that I will perform that good thing which I have promised to the house of Israel and to the house of Judah: ‘In those days and at that time I will cause to grow up to David A Branch of righteousness; He shall execute judgment and righteousness in the earth. In those days Judah will be saved, And Jerusalem will dwell safely. And this is the name by which she will be called: THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS.’"

I don't know about you, but the thought of God coming with judgement is not all that pleasant of a thought. When we are honest with ourselves, the day of the Lord is a dreadful thing for which to look forward. It is a day of fear and trembling - especially when we look at ourselves in honesty, that is, in light of our sinfulness.

When I look back at my past, and my present, I have fears. I look upon my life and see my disobedience to God. My deeds may appear to be rather righteous to the outside world. Outwardly, I hopefully appear to be a man whose life is lived to the glory of God. On the outside, we all look this way. To the appearances of others in a world where immorality and decadence runs rampant, hopefully, none of us here has the outward appearance of a sinful person.

My friends, that is where we need to apply the old saying, "you can't judge a book by its cover." You and I are sinners. You and I are wicked, evil people in God's eyes, because God doesn't look simply at how we outwardly live our lives. God looks beyond what everybody else sees and looks at our heart and sees our thoughts as well.

Dearly beloved friends, even if we think we are pretty good - even in our thoughts - then we need to hear again John's first epistle, "If we say we have not sin, we are deceiving ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, God is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His Word is not in us."

You and I ought to fear that day - that day of Christ's second Advent - when He will return to execute His judgement. That is why Advent is a time of preparation for the coming of Christ. That is why Advent is penitential. For it is in repentance that we prepare for Christ's second coming. It is with penitent hearts that we wait for His coming among us.

Yes, Christ’s coming is a future event, but more importantly, it is also a present reality with roots to God's action in the past.

You see, even as Jeremiah waited for the prophecy to be fulfilled, we know that it has been fulfilled. Jeremiah waited, looking for righteousness. We wait, looking for righteousness, even as we look back at the events that bring it to us - we look back to the first Advent of God's Christ. For when we look at Christ's second coming with His first Advent clearly in focus, we need not fear His second coming.

For it is through the work of Christ, during His first Advent upon the earth that all fear and dread are removed. Christ's life, suffering and death are the events which are applied to us as we receive God's gifts of grace. His perfect life becomes ours. His suffering and death become ours, for His life was a substitutionary payment, or full atonement for our sinfulness.

Yes, Christ has come - once. And yes, He will come again. But, as we look forward to the coming of His final judgement, we look at it in light of His righteousness as it comes to us here - today. God's righteousness in Christ comes to us, it makes us holy. Christ comes to us in Word and Sacrament, delivering the blood He shed and cleanses us from all sin.

This Advent, we remember the past, as we prepare to celebrate the first Advent of the Christ-child - our future becomes clear. By looking at the past, we are looking at God's righteousness, come once, in human flesh, to save all mankind. It is about this Child that Jeremiah prophesied in our text.

Our future is one of hope as we look for God's righteousness because His righteousness comes to us. Christ comes to us. We look for righteousness each time we gather together. And, as Christ has promised, it comes to us. God's forgiveness in and through Christ, comes to us and delivers to us His righteousness.

You and I may look for righteousness, yet God's righteousness has instead found us. God's righteousness comes to us and saves us. As our hymn just proclaimed, My hope is built on nothing less than JESUS’ blood and righteousness... (hymn #370 vs. 1)

This Advent, as we do every Advent, we are looking for righteousness. Look no further than the place where God comes to His people and gives them His righteousness. Look no further than His Word and Sacrament, where Christ is delivered to us, and peace on earth good will toward men is granted. Know this, When He shall come, with trumpet sound, I then in Him will be found - clothed in His righteousness alone, faultless to stand before the throne. (hymn #370 vs. 4) Amen.

The peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.

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