Jeremiah 23: 5-8
Psalm 72: 11-19
Matthew 1:18-25
During Advent, we wait in a milieu of timeless silence, the womb of ancient, yet ever present wisdom of realized Hope, breathing life into our yesterdays, our tomorrows and our todays.
The prophetic voice of Jeremiah meets the exilic loss of all that mattered, anticipating and longing for Righteousness to come among us – a desire for all that which is Just, Wise, Holy and Legitimate, to serve as the names of God with us.
Jeremiah heard in the exilic silence, the certainty of God’s faithfulness, a Certainty he named Righteousness, a trusted Certainty: “Surely, the days are coming.”
It is an open-ended Certainty until St. Matthew records Certainty’s name, the One of Righteousness born in unexpected ordinariness, a gift of the Spirit whom Joseph, betrothed to Mary, was to name Jesus, as spoken by an angel in a dream.
Waiting in silence stirs our soul’s longing for Righteousness – Justice, Wisdom and Holiness to come among us in the world, the church, and in you and me, a world where the human ego’s too small and lifeless agendas fall away to make room for the One, who is Righteousness.
Today’s lessons awaken in the human soul God’s desire for all that which is Good, leading us to respond to this quickening felt within our soul for “surely the day has come” in the fullness of time eternal, now and forever. Jesus, Emmanual, God is with us; Righteousness realized. Amen, Amen, Amen.
– GailMarie Henderson