Seeds & Stars

An excerpt from a sermon for the first Sunday in Advent.

Seeds & Stars * Genesis 1:27 - 31 & Jeremiah 33:14 - 18

Full sermon available here.

…aren’t we still longing for miracles?

Miracles of healing.

Miracles of reconciliation.

Miracles of peace in a violent world. 

Miracles of civility in the midst of dehumanizing discourse. 

Miracles of restoration to a creation that has been injured. 

Miracles of actually believing that we were not made for Target and the manufactured promises of consumerism.

Miracles of justice in the presence of unjust and oppressive systems.

Miracles of righteousness while we work so hard to hide our shame at our perceived inadequacies. 

The prophet’s promise is that this branch that is springing up will do justice and righteousness - don’t we long for that still? 

The promise is that we will dwell in safety, and security - not shame and fear. 

The promise is for righteousness - for soul-deep assurance that we are known and loved and protected because the Righteous one has made it so on our behalf. 

I will cause a righteous branch to spring up declares the Lord who imagined and made and planted seed-bearing trees, and created humans to help bury the seeds into fertile soil and choose awe each time a new shoot pushes through the earth.   

This righteous branch springing up was planted when everything was planted in Eden.

From the very beginning God buried the promise while also creating the conditions to nurture it to fruition. 

At the time when God placed stars in the sky, including a star that would one day guide the magi to the newborn Messiah. 

In each intentional placement and planting God-the-first-science-teacher wanted us to see that these Messiah promises are as bright and ancient as a star and as strong yet tender as a new shoot pushing through the soil. 

We still long for reminders of the miracle. 

We still long for the miracle itself. 

We know what it feels like when we gather at this table with wounded hearts, knowing the brokenness of the bread more than the fullness it offers our souls.

We know what it feels like when we try to pray in the midst of chaos and violence - 

or, when we try to close our eyes and ears and hearts to those realities, when we sanitize our own newsfeeds 

to try to remain unbothered by the sounds of ever-present suffering. 

Sometimes, we wonder, if we believe in the goodness of God, are we also allowed to be honest about the places in our souls and in the world that still desperately need the goodness of God?

Yes. We are allowed. 

Advent invites us.