The days are coming
SUNDAY, DECEMBER 1, 2024
“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.”
—Jeremiah 33:14-16 (NIv)
Biblical prophets are my favorite because they never shy away from hard truths. They speak plainly about the problems in the world. They weep and mourn for the brokenness, the pain, and the suffering that they witness—especially a man named Jeremiah (he wasn’t called the weeping prophet for nothing). Jeremiah noticed the ways that the world was not as it would be, not as it should be. He saw the world through tears. Yet he also saw something sacred shining through. Long before the birth of Christ, Jeremiah predicted his coming, and he told everyone: “The days are coming…they are coming” when someone will come whose very name means truth and justice and love and compassion and peace and safety and righteousness to make all things right (a paraphrase).
Fast forward over 500 years, and enter a baby born to usher in a new creation, a new hope, a new truth—a truth that the world would one day be restored. This is the very promise of God that began in creation and is now being fulfilled in the person of Jesus. And perhaps this is what the season of Advent invites us to bear witness to.
But that doesn’t mean we can’t tell the whole truth about what we are experiencing in the here and now. It takes courage to wrap our minds around the inconvenient truths, the difficult truths, the complicated and seemingly contradictory truths. God has made us for truth-telling, to have eyes that glimpse through tears at the already-and-not-yet that we live in. And at the same time, these same eyes are trained on Jesus, who embodies the compassion, restoration, and justice we long for. So this Advent, may we have the eyes to look long and see this promise of truth coming toward us once again. Let’s meet it with joy, together.
Practice
Advent Together
The tradition of the Advent wreath began in 1839 in a shelter for orphans and neglected children. Each night of Advent, a German pastor named Johann Hinrich Wichern gathered the kids around him to light a candle, tell them a story, and pray. Imagine their excitement as the candle pushed back the darkness more and more, one night at a time. Any child called John or Joan would be first to help light a candle as they heard about John the Baptist who prepared the way for Jesus. Visitors who came to the orphanage loved the wheel-shaped chandelier, and so the custom spread as churches and families adopted it- though the number of candles were eventually reduced to 4 for each Sunday of Advent, and 1 on Christmas Day.
For the first night of Advent, gather your family or friends over for dinner, or FaceTime your parents or grandkids. Grab a match, dim the lights, and sit around your Advent wreath. Light the first purple candle and take a moment to look around at the faces in the candlelight. (You can play an Advent song to begin. Or sing “This Little Light of Mine.” We have an Advent playlist available, here.)
Note: If you have young children or want to lean into your creative side, give each person paper and colorful crayons, markers, or colored pencils. Ask them to start drawing pictures of Christmas lights as you start the discussion.
REFLECT
1. Christmas is the season of light and of lights. Many people light-up the long winter nights with lights on their trees or homes, even blow-up characters and dinosaurs. There are lights everywhere you look. Share your favorite memory of going to see Christmas lights, or lighting up your Christmas tree, or dreams you have of decorating your house with lights one day. What are your favorite kinds of Christmas lights?
2. John 1:5 says, “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it” (NIV). How does Jesus, as the light, reveal something true about the world as it is now? (Feel free to be hilariously specific.)
3. Jeremiah speaks about how the “days are coming” when the world will look different, a promised future we can only glimpse. If you were to pick one big hope for the world, what would it be? For your community? For your family?
RESPOND
The promise of Advent is that there is a light coming who overcomes the darkness. One night this week (perhaps tonight!), take time to notice the lights of Christmas, or look up at the stars and the moon. Get curious about the contrast. How do the lights make you feel as you stand in the night? What does this light reveal to you about Jesus as the light shining in darkness (John 1:5)?
A Blessing for Beginning Again in Advent
I need this to be the season
when I feel more.
Hope for more.
Reach for more.
Expect to see a goodness coming
like starlight from a distant time.
Make me alive to every tiny sign
that your promises are coming.
The promises of truth, so clear and bright
that every shadowy lie scatters.
The promise of compassion, so deep and strong
that everyone is encircled in its embrace.
The promise of restoration, so complete and beautiful
that there is wholeness everywhere.
The promise of justice, so satisfying and right,
that all will be well.
May this be the season
when I feel my own beginning
as we live by the light of your coming promises.
Seeing the world through tears,
while also noticing everything beautiful and sacred shining through.
Our Truth. Our Light. Our Promise incarnate.
Amen.