Sermon Dec.1-2, 2012

Title: In Christ the promise of righteousness is fulfilled for you!

Text: Jer. 33:14-16

14 “Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will fulfill the promise I made to the house of Israel and the house of Judah. 15 In those days and at that time I will cause a righteous Branch to spring up for David, and he shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. 16 In those days Judah will be saved, and Jerusalem will dwell securely. And this is the name by which it will be called: ‘The Lord is our righteousness.’

In the Antarctic summer of 1908-9, Sir Ernest Shackleton and three companions attempted to travel to the South Pole from their winter quarters. They set off with four ponies to help carry the load. Weeks later, their ponies dead, rations all but exhausted, they turned back toward their base, their goal not accomplished.

Altogether, they trekked 127 days. On the return journey, as Shackleton records in The Heart of the Antarctic, the time was spent talking about food -- elaborate feasts, gourmet delights and sumptuous menus. As they staggered along, suffering from dysentery, not knowing whether they would survive, every waking hour was occupied with thoughts of eating.

Jesus, who also knew the ravages of food deprivation, said in Matt. 5:6,

"Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for RIGHTEOUSNESS!"

We can understand Shackleton's obsession with food, on his long return and food deprived journey. We too long for the day when the Righteous One, Jesus Christ, returns in glory for His bride, the church; and as we wait, we also prepare during this Advent season to welcome the babe in the manger who came to fulfill all righteousness and is … our righteousness, because:

Source Unknown.

In Christ the promise of righteousness is fulfilled for you!

Jeremiah had a tough job. As the court prophet for King Zedekiah he brought God’s word to the King. At times God’s word through Jeremiah could proclaim blessing and joy and at other times it could proclaim judgment and sorrow.

Judah was in bad shape. They had been falling away from God and His word and trusting in their own righteousness. Even Zedekiah’s name in Hebrew means “Just” and “Righteous.” I thought, just for fun, I’d look up my own name, Russell, only to find out it simply means “Ruddy” or “Red Haired” you can see my parents got that one wrong. But I’ll take just a little joy in my name and its meaning when we consider King David’s description in (1 Samuel 16:12):

12 And he sent and brought him in. Now he was ruddy and had beautiful eyes and was handsome. And the LORD said, “Arise, anoint him, for this is he.”

For this is right, that David was anointed to be King called by God as one after God’s own heart. But King Zedekiah was hearing judgment from God through Jeremiah’s proclaiming and it was only a matter of time before God’s judgment would come, in the form of King Nebuchadnezzar and the entire Babylonian Army, carrying the entire nation away into exile.

So what do you do if you’re the King and you don’t like what God’s word says? You continue to trust in your own righteousness and your own reason and understanding and lock God’s prophet up in prison of the palace so you don’t have to hear it.

It’s what Zedekiah did and at times it’s what we do. But the joy that our lesson today proclaims … and the blessing we wait in anticipation for this Advent season is that:

In Christ the promise of righteousness is fulfilled for you!

Don’t you too at times shut up God’s word in your own prison of indifference or rejection? When God’s word condemns your sin, it is often easier to reject the truth God’s word points out than to turn in repentance, asking for forgiveness and receiving the forgiveness and absolution God so desires to give you and for you to hear.

For Zedekiah the judgment of God would come through the Babylonian Army. Where might your judgment come from? For you and for me and through the ages, the Army that many times caries us away is found in our own wisdom, understanding and reason. What God’s word says and that which we can’t understand or wrap our arms around we often reject as foolish or only intended for a certain place and at a certain time. We set ourselves up as God’s judge and determine what is and what is not relevant to me. Our society, or Kingdom if you will, is being judged by God’s word. The truth is we are falling short as a nation. We are all going our own way, as Israel did in the  Book of Judges, having everyman doing what was right in his own eyes so that only a generation or two later … they neither knew the Lord or what He had done for them. How or when we get carried away into our own exile as a nation remains to be seen. But, understanding and reason is a constant battleground.

As Martin Luther stated in one of his Table Talks:

He said:
“Reason is the greatest enemy that faith has; it never comes to the aid of spiritual things, but—more frequently than not—struggles against the divine Word, treating with contempt all that emanates from God.”
—Martin Luther, Table Talks in 1569.

But even though we fall short there is still reason to rejoice because:

In Christ the promise of righteousness is fulfilled for you!

In those days, as also today, God’s word brought judgment and blessing and for those who needed to hear, just as we need to hear, listen:

14 “Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will fulfill the promise I made to the house of Israel and the house of Judah. 15 In those days and at that time I will cause a righteous Branch to spring up for David, and he shall execute justice and righteousness in the land.

The promise of a savior, Christ the Lord, would spring forth from the righteous branch of that ruddy rascal King David. He, Jesus, would execute justice, fulfilling at the cross God’s work of redeeming mankind from sin and the works of the Law which cause many to stumble and fall short, trusting in their own works and own righteousness but you … are FREE because by the power of the Holy Spirit you have been brought to faith and trust in a foreign righteousness, one outside yourself and by that same Spirit you cling to Christ and the eternal hope for which He came.

In Christ the promise of righteousness is fulfilled for you!

16 In those days Judah will be saved, and Jerusalem will dwell securely. And this is the name by which it will be called: ‘The Lord is our righteousness.’

The Lord is our righteousness indeed! He has come for you and as we wait in joyful anticipation this Advent season for the coming of the babe in the manger … which is Christ the Lord, we know that He came for you.

But how, you might say, can I know and be sure that he came for me?  By faith through baptism and the preaching of the gospel, God has called you to believe and be His child.

As the Apostle Paul tells us in 2 Cor.5:17-21:

17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. 18 All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; 19 that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. 20 Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. 21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him (in Christ) we might become the righteousness of God.

That is the blessed Good News; that is the blessed exchange that you cling to that:

In Christ the promise of righteousness is fulfilled for you!

The Lord is our righteousness … that we might become the righteousness of God!

So, just as Sir Ernest Shackleton and his three companions in their hardship and suffering on Antarctica hungered and longed for the feast that would satisfy their earthly need. So to, Christ has come … calling you to faith and to His banquet feast, turning you back to Him, and making you His beloved child who feasts on the righteous truths of His word and believes and holds fast the blessed hope as we wait and long for during this Advent season.

The days are coming … when I will fulfill the promise … And those days have come in Jesus Christ our Lord and savior, who having redeemed you from sin, death and the power of the Devil now clothes you with His righteousness now and forever more.

In the name of the Father and of the Son + and of the Holy Spirit.

Amen