"In obedience and trust, we approach you, O God. Day by day, your promises are fulfilled among us and we rejoice that our redemption is drawing near. Help us to prepare ourselves and our communities for Christ’s coming. Equip us now to worship you with all those whose faith is in you, past and present, nearby and far away. Amen" (Adapted from Gathered by Love. Lavon Baker. Cleveland. United Church Press, 1994, p.4).

The calendar tells us that it is early December, the last month of the year, and while the weather outside is not quite frightful, it is nevertheless frigid. Today is also the Yet this first Sunday in Advent, and the first day of a new liturgical year. The worship year begins with a time of waiting excitedly for the birth of Christ and it concludes late next year when the church celebrates Jesus Christ as the ruler of salvation.

Even though we know that this Advent season ends at Christmas, we nevertheless anticipate the new and renewing thing God is going to do among us.

Hope helps expect that God will be true to the promises made to the world to send us a savior, to redeem us from the sin and brokenness that leaves us exhausted and shattered, to give us a warm hand and a welcoming heart and a sense of expectation that the God who has loved us, loves us still and will love us without condition.

Jeremiah knows that the people of Israel have suffered greatly and need the promised righteousness and justice to come quickly. This is the situation Jeremiah is addresses. Imagine what it is like to be in Baghdad or Darfur today, or in Berlin 60 years ago, or anywhere at any time that is war-ravaged, chaotic and fear-filled. Wouldn’t you want a word of hope to come to you?

Of course we would. It is when things are at their most bleak, when everything looks hopeless, that we need to hear the word Jeremiah proclaimed, help is on the way. "Surely the days are coming" (Jeremiah 33.14), the prophet says. The days of righteousness and justice are on the way – God is sending a branch, a descendant of David to come to us.

This is the world into which Jeremiah prophesied. "The devastation inflicted on Jerusalem by the Babylonian siege and destruction had brought a deep psychological shock. Houses were destroyed, and their materials used to make a massive siege ramp used by the Babylonians (v.4); the victims of the battle lie unburied in the streets (v.5). After the siege had ended and after the city was ransacked, the city of Jerusalem was nearly deserted (v.10). In the face of such a overwhelming catastrophe, could there ever be a new city built upon such a heap of ruins? The prophet says yes.

"He pictures with remarkable sensitivity normal, healthy city life with all its sound and bustle. There will be marriage festivities, singing and worship, all expressive of hope and the joy of youth (v.11).

"The possibility of a real and meaningful future needed to be presented in a way that was altogether immediate, memorable, and compelling in its power to convince" (Interpretation. Jeremiah. RA Clements. Atlanta, John Knox Press, 1988, p.198-199).

When Erika Jackson led the EZEKIEL Team in a meeting last September, she shared a DVD in which the narrator said along the lines of, "we’ve been taught that seeing is believing, but the truth is that ‘believing is seeing’." The truth is if we believe, if we have hope, then we can begin to see new possibilities, we can dream and make our dreams come true, we can believe and believing, see that God is not yet done with us. We can plan, follow through, become successful, and celebrate the victory, learn from what is not as successful as we hoped, and with our learning, begin again.

When you think of hope, what do you see? Is it relief, great change, prosperity, good health, or spiritual vitality? When I think of hope, I see patience and work, and laughter and growth and the will of all of us to make it so because God’s calls us even in the midst of pain and disappointment to believe that the promised future is in God’s hands. We believe as Christians that God has placed hope for the world in Jesus Christ, through whom it is true that God’s work and word was not "’yes and no’; but in him it is always ‘yes’" (II Corinthians 1.20)

"On the other hand, the petition asks for love ‘for all’. The line between the church and the world is not one that tells us whom to love and whom to ignore or disdain. The circles God draws are inclusive, not exclusive, and they call the Christian community to practice compassion beyond itself and its own needs" (Texts for Preaching – Year C. Louisville. Westminster/John Knox Press, 1994, p.7).

Every movement for social justice, for world peace, for safe communities, excellent schools in every neighborhood for honor students and for children who need special help, to affordable housing, accessible health care, a livable wage, and every other movement for the good of all of us understands that we do not live only our ourselves.