Our Sermons

Bible Passage: Jeremiah 33:14-16
Pastor: Pastor Schlicht
Sermon Date:  November 28, 2021

It’s been surprising to me how quickly people have moved on from the tragic and heinous event in Waukesha last Sunday. It only happened 7 days ago, just one week, and yet I don’t see the wall-to-wall coverage that so much other drivel gets. There may be some reasons why the news has moved on, like the killer is obviously guilty, and we had Thanksgiving and then of course the promotion of black Friday. But 6 people died. Over 60 are injured, many still in critical care, and the country has already moved on after one week? Overall, it’s symptomatic of our numbness to devastating news. It seems like there’s no terrible crime, no evil, no godless act that would really surprise us anymore.

We’ve become saturated by unrighteousness. Like when you add so much salt into a glass of water that after a while it doesn’t dissolve and just settles at the bottom, we hear about so much evil and bad news that we’ve become completely saturated. We aren’t able to absorb it and process it. It’s just one more headline among many. I sat with my wife on Sunday night praying for those families and I asked the Lord for him to bring justice upon the man who committed the crime. And then I asked for forgiveness because I know that my heart and mind is saturated with unrighteousness as well, even if I might compare better in the eyes of men. I thought of the prayer of the saints in heaven who call out, “How long, O Lord?” And I thought of those in Waukesha who are probably praying the same thing in not so many words. This world is hopelessly broken in unrighteousness and we all yearn, deep down, for a righteous God to come and fix it, to fix us.

That’s why it’s a good thing we are in Jeremiah today. Jeremiah wrote at a time where unrighteousness ruled in Judah. He saw heinous acts of injustice, terrible crimes, and all of it among a people who were supposed to be God’s chosen nation. And Jeremiah? He was as the Lord called him, “a bronze wall,” a pillar of God’s word that would not be shaken. He delivered the message of judgment that God asked him to bring. Because of their unrighteousness God would allow the Babyloinians to come and destroy them. But just when things seemed darkest the Lord sent these words to Jeremiah:  Listen, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will fulfill the good promises that I have spoken to the house of Israel and concerning the house of Judah. ¹⁵ In those days and at that time, I will cause a righteous Branch to grow up from David’s line. He will establish justice and righteousness on earth. ¹⁶ In those days Judah will be saved, and Jerusalem will dwell securely. This is what she will be called:   The Lord Our Righteousness.

These words are astonishing. On the eve of Babylon’s destruction, God promises that David’s line would somehow continue, and that this king would finally succeed where all others had failed. This king would finally establish justice and righteousness on earth. This is the hope that would sustain and motivate them through years of devastation and captivity. This promise is our hope as well: A righteous branch.

You know “righteousness” is a Bible word we don’t usually use often outside of church. The usual thought that may come to mind is probably being a good person. But that isn’t very useful, since people have been trying to define good and evil to their own advantage since the Garden of Eden. The Hebrew word for righteousness (zedek) describes an ethical standard in reference to relationships between people. It’s about treating others with God-given dignity as dearly loved people created in his image. So righteousness is really about loving your neighbor as yourself, a radical selfless way of life. This is reflected in Jeremiah 22: “This is what the Lord says. Do what is just and right. Rescue the person who has been robbed from the hand of the oppressor. Do no wrong or violence to the foreigner, to the fatherless, or to the widow. Do not shed innocent blood.” (Jer. 22:3)

This is what the Israelites were called to be. They were to be people who practiced righteousness! Afterall, they were once immigrant slaves in Egypt, being oppressed unjustly. God then condemned Egypt and rescued Israel. But the tragic irony of the Old Testament is that these redeemed people went on to commit the same acts of unrighteousness. They too preyed on the vulnerable and shed innocent blood. And that’s why God had Jeremiah declare them guilty. But they aren’t the only ones who are guilty of being unrighteous.

All humans are sinful and unrighteous. It’s everywhere around us and in us. Oppressors selfishly wield power over the oppressed. And sadly, history shows that when the oppressed gain power they often become oppressors themselves. We all participate, actively, passively, even unintentionally, we are all guilty. Not to mention the more obvious acts of unrighteousness, this include the small acts of everyday selfishness, like the way we like to hold onto others’ mistakes and use them as leverage, or the way we are tempted to think of others as less important or judge them harshly. It includes the participation in the gratification of pornography which is linked to all sorts abuse and human trafficing. It’s the choice to turn away from God’s Word to the whims of society, not telling people what God’s Word says (truly loving your neighbor as yourself) but pacifying them by saying whatever is acceptable in the moment. We are all unrighteous. As the apostle Paul writes in Romans: “There is no one righteous, not even one.” (Ro 3:10)

That’s why this promise from Jeremiah is so amazing. God’s surprising answer to humanity’s legacy of unrighteousness is to give us a gift, a King who would be righteous in our place. Jesus was perfectly righteous in thought, word, and deed and yet he died on behalf of the guilty. “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” Can you hear the echo of Jeremiah? Speaking poetically of God’s people he wrote: In those days Judah will be saved, and Jerusalem will dwell securely. This is what she will be called: The Lord Our Righteousness. In other words, through faith in Christ, we are counted as righteous. Despite what we’ve done, in love Jesus chose to give us his name. He takes our punishment of our sin and we get the white robe of his righteousness. Think of it, the God who is holy and perfect, whose very nature should burn us up, like an object that gets too close to the sun, this God humbled himself, and became one of us in order that he might live for us and die for us. This is what we celebrate at Christmas. The righteous King who comes to justify the unrighteous, the branch of David’s line born in Bethlehem, the King who comes to establish righteousness and justice upon the earth once and for all.

When Jesus does return, that promise will be completely fulfilled. We will dwell in everlasting security and righteousness. But until then we are those whom he empowers to establish righteousness and justice. Being righteous through faith isn’t just a status, it also compels us to live for God and love our neighbors here on earth. It enables us to sometimes make other people’s problems our problems, to bear another’s burdens. Jesus’ righteousness compels us to watch out for the vulnerable and oppressed, to stand up for God’s Word, to rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep. To act justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.

May the Branch of Righteousness be our joy this Advent when the Lord comes near. Amen.