Standing on the Edge
Jeremiah 33:14-16, Luke 21:27[1]
Promises are powerful words. They can reassure us when we’re
feeling afraid or lonely or rejected. They can encourage us when we’re doubting
ourselves or wondering whether we are lovable. They can motivate us to act when
we question whether anything we do or say matters. Promises are powerful words.
Of course, power can be used for good or for evil. Sometimes promises become a
means of manipulating people. At times, those promises may stem from good
intentions. At times, they may stem from a blatant aim of getting people to do
what we want without any thought of fulfilling the promise made. I believe most
of us would like to think, however, that we use promises for good. We know that
promises are powerful words.
If we take promises seriously, they may leave us standing on the
edge of anticipation. After all, a promise points toward the future. Our
ability to trust in a promise may rest on past experiences. If we have had
promises made to us and broken, it can be hard to trust in any promise at all.
When it comes to our faith, essentially we’re trusting in a promise that has
not yet come to pass. And when we do so, we’re anticipating an outcome that we
hope to see based on the promise made. It can feel a little bit like standing
on an edge: the edge of a curb, or the edge of a journey, or the edge of a
major life decision. Promises leave us standing on the edge.
I think the promises in our Scripture lessons for Advent function
that way: they raise our hopes but they also leave us on the edge of
anticipation. In the midst of the brokenness of our world, we greet the promise
of something new and better with relief, and joy, and a sense of hope that
perhaps all things will, after all, be put right. At the same time, if we are
paying attention to the brokenness in our world, these promises create in us a
kind of “holy dissatisfaction” with the way things are. They leave us standing
on the edge of a whole new world that has been promised, but has not yet fully
come to pass. The promises in the Scriptures for Advent raise our hopes, but
they also leave us standing on the edge of anticipation.
The promises in the Scriptures for Advent have a different kind of
edge to them. They speak of the one who is to come in a way that we may not be
able to fully grasp. We seem to want a Savior who will grant to us eternal life
and perhaps also the occasional prayer request. But the promised one in our
Scriptures for Advent looks different from that. The promise that the Lord says
he will “surely fulfill” concerns one who comes to “execute justice and
righteousness in the land.” We’re not used to associating a Savior with
“justice and righteousness.” But if we pay careful attention, we will find that
establishing that which is truly just and right is at the heart of God’s
promise.
I think perhaps part of what creates the edge for us here is that
we are not used to thinking of salvation in these terms. Salvation concerns
eternal life in the hereafter and abundant life now. As it turns out, however,
creating the conditions for a life that is truly just and right is actually
central to what salvation looks like in the Bible. Part of the “edge” in this
promise is that it confronts us all with the ways in which we conduct our lives
that are not just and right. It is a promise that contains hints of judgment.
When the one God promised comes, he will bring to light all of our
shortcomings. In fact, Jesus said that we will all face judgment to the extent
of every “careless word” (Mt. 12:36). And yet, we have to remember that it is
Jesus who is the one who be setting things right. Nevertheless, that promise
has an edge that may leave us all a little unsettled.
There is also a further edge to these promises, in that they point
us forward to the hope of the day when the Son of Man will come “with power and
great glory.” At this time of the year, we may feel good about welcoming the
“baby Jesus.” A baby, as most of us know well, is cute and cuddly and warms our
hearts. At least that’s how we like to think of them. Parents, of course, know
that babies have their moments that aren’t so cute.
But our Scripture readings speak of a very different person
coming. They convey to us the promise of a mighty Savior who will come to
establish God’s Kingdom on earth as it is in heaven. That may not fit very well
with our version of celebrating Christmas. But if we listen carefully to the
promises of Scripture, this is the Savior we should be welcoming. He is the one
who comes with God’s authority and power to right the wrongs and to bring hope
to the hopeless. He comes to fulfill God’s new world.
If we pay close
attention, the promises of Advent leave us standing on the edge. They leave us
standing on the edge of anticipation. There is something within us all that
longs for the love of God that will heal our broken hearts and bring to pass a
better world. The promises of Advent leave us standing on the edge of the
restoration of what is just and right. As we watch events unfolding all around
us, it’s painfully apparent that what is just and right does not always prevail
in our world. Perhaps more painful is the realization that we don’t always
practice what is just and right in our own lives. Finally, the promises of
Advent point us to the coming of a mighty Savior to establish God’s Kingdom on
earth as it is in heaven. In so doing, the leave us standing on the edge of
world we’ve always hoped for but could never quite find. I know this hope
is one that is difficult to hold these days, but may the promises of Advent encourage
us to live in the hope that our Savior is continually working to bring this new
world into our world.
[1] ©2018 Alan Brehm. A sermon delivered by Rev. Dr. Alan
Brehm on 12/2/2018 at Hickman Presbyterian Church, Hickman NE.
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