Sunday Text & Theme

In conjunction with Luke 1:26-38, the Old Testament Lectionary text for this Sunday comes from Jeremiah 33.  Together we'll focus on verses 10-16, particularly how they communicate, as Gabriel did to Mary, The LORD is With You.

¹⁰ “This is what the Lord says: ‘You say about this place, “It is a desolate waste, without people or animals.” Yet in the towns of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem that are deserted, inhabited by neither people nor animals, there will be heard once more ¹¹ the sounds of joy and gladness, the voices of bride and bridegroom, and the voices of those who bring thank offerings to the house of the Lord, saying,

“Give thanks to the Lord Almighty,
    for the Lord is good;
    his love endures forever.”

For I will restore the fortunes of the land as they were before,’ says the Lord.

¹² “This is what the Lord Almighty says: ‘In this place, desolate and without people or animals—in all its towns there will again be pastures for shepherds to rest their flocks. ¹³ In the towns of the hill country, of the western foothills and of the Negev, in the territory of Benjamin, in the villages around Jerusalem and in the towns of Judah, flocks will again pass under the hand of the one who counts them,’ says the Lord.

¹⁴ “‘The days are coming,’ declares the Lord, ‘when I will fulfill the good promise I made to the house of Israel and to the house of Judah.

¹⁵ “‘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.
¹⁶ In those days Judah will be saved
    and Jerusalem will live in safety.
This is the name by which it^[c] will be called:
    The Lord Our Righteous Savior.’

Jeremiah was a prophet at the end of Judah's reign in the Promised Land.  For more than 400 years an ancestor of David had sat on the throne in Jerusalem.  The people had flourished in the land.  But a series of degenerate Davidic grandsons were tilting the whole nation toward exile. Many had already landed, with a first wave of captivity, in Babylon.  As Jeremiah is receiving and reciting this very prophecy, the dust of King Nebechednezzer's chariots and horses was rising off the eastern horizon.  Jeremiah is under house arrest because his own people are sick of his negative prognostications.
However, in the chapter just before this one, Jeremiah had bought a parcel of land in Judah -- a ridiculous gesture of hope in what was a hopeless time.  Here they were -- the neighborhood that society had forgotten.  Homes are in foreclosure.  Neighbors for 50-60 years are aging, their children have left for more promising parts of the city, even left for other states!  What is to become of this old place?  City Commissioners don't seem to care.  Has God forgotten to care?
When, all of a sudden, new developments begin to go up across the street.  The show home is beautifully staged and at least half-a-dozen yet-to-be-built homes have been purchased.  "Well, what is this?" Think the neighbors.
In one of the most quoted (and ill-quoted) texts of Jeremiah, the prophet proclaims the promise of God -- a promise intended for the WHOLE PEOPLE OF JUDAH (not necessarily to individuals therein):

"'For I know the plans I have for you,' declares the LORD. 'Plans to prosper you and not to harm you. Plans to give you a hope and a future.'"

It's just that, who would have thought this plan would be so outlandish as the Second Person of the Trinity descending to our humanity?
Who would have thought that prosperity looks like a manger and grubby shepherds?
Who would have thought that our protection from harm required the suffering of an innocent?
Who would have thought that our hope and our future began with a Nazarene teenager woken from ordinary life by the proclamation of an Angel of the LORD?