| December 10, 2000 Baruch 5:1-9 + Philippians 1:4-6,8-11 + Luke 3:1-6 |
| Jeremiah, Baruch, Zephaniah, and Micah are our guides through the season of Advent. Jeremiah, the prophet of Justice gives way this week to Baruch. Thought to be a scribe of Jeremiah, the Prophetic Book comes from a later time when an abandoned and occupied Jerusalem has been transformed by a God who is faithful to the promise. The words of the Prophet ring with the truth that it is God who saves, for left to ourselves, we can do nothing but heap one offense upon another in spiral of self-destruction. |
| The Prophet saw Jerusalem as a mother and the faithful as her descendants. From our perspective in the New Testament, we are that mother – that church, that holy city, the New Jerusalem looking to the east and the west wrapped in the cloak of Justice from God. In as much as we can embrace the promise of Mercy, God’s coming is reason for Joy, not fear. Our hope, and the hope we can offer to this world through this season is that the light of God’s glory will brighten this world because we have made mercy and justice our companions. When this world comes to see mercy in us, it will, as the Gospel of Luke says today, “have come to see the salvation of God.” |
| More than waiting for Justice, we are a people waiting for Mercy. We are a people who have in every generation made a mess of justice, so much so, that many fear the coming of our God.Baruch teaches us that Justice and Mercy belong together, and so the coming of God brings hope of-consolation, not the fear of condemnation. |
| One look at this world days away from a new millennium reveals so clearly how much we need again to hear the message of Baruch. Our “justice” is so harsh. Our “justice” is so unfair. Our “justice” is so punitive, vengeful, and even corrupt. But the justice with which Jerusalem shall be wrapped when it lives in the presence of God is a Justice with Mercy and that Justice is the Glory of God. |
| If Jeremiah is the prophet of Justice, Baruch is the Prophet of Promise: the Promise of God’s saving presence. The message of this writer – two centuries before the birth of Christ keeps us mindful of the fact that while we cannot produce our own salvation, ours is a God who has not left us to fend for ourselves. The Son of Justice comes to lead us home. |
| Leading us further into this Season of Advent, the text of Baruch gives voice to truth that left to itself humankind can produce nothing, and the truth that the resources of our own salvation do not lie within the possibilities of human history. What we need, what we long for, and that for which we wait lies outside our abilities. Deep in the heart of Baruch’s writer is a God who has freely and lovingly chosen to become involved in human history; and therein lies the very heart and focus of this season. |