Advent - Justice has come
Readings for this week December 2 - 7
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Day 1 – Justice is Coming
Silence, Stillness and Centering before God (2 minutes)
Scripture Reading – Jeremiah 23:1-4
The sheep in this passage represent Judah, and the scattering refers to exile, to the defeat and destruction of the nation. The abuse of royal power is the reason the sheep have been scattered.Those supposed to be guiding, nurturing and leading the people have instead used their position and power for their own ends. Rather than ensuring that justice is done and that righteousness prevails, the leaders selfishly looked to their own comfort and peace, promoting their own wellbeing over the wellbeing of those they were called to serve.
But God can work a new thing and the season of Advent is when we remember the glorious new thing God did when he came to us as one of us. God promises to act, and not through someone acting in his stead, but by actually taking a direct hand himself. However oppressive prevailing patterns and problems might be, God in his glorious, righteous majesty – as the one who embodies all that ruling royalty should be – can rectify the problem, redress the wrongs done, and bring a new state of affairs into being, just as Jeremiah here promised he would. Despite the failure of the nation’s kings, in the face of the historical realities of the people’s oppression, God promises to bring about a new reality. Justice will be done. The poor will be lifted up. The oppressed will be freed from tyranny. God’s hope overrides covenantal failure, dynastic disappointment and human hopelessness. Justice will reign. Judah may have failed, but God will not. The king will see to it.
Question to Consider
How can you be a day-to-day agent of God’s justice for the poor?
Prayer
Lord God, may your justice reign. May wrongs be righted, the victims of injustice lifted up and your goodness and graciousness proclaimed to all. You are the Good God. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Conclude with Silence (2 minutes)
Day 2 – Righteousness Embodied
Silence, Stillness and Centering before God (2 minutes)
Scripture Reading – Jeremiah 23:5-8
This promised king will embody righteousness. In the original Hebrew there is some subtle, but profound, wordplay in verse 6. The last king of Judah before the exile was Zedekiah, whose name means “Yahweh is righteous”. But the real king, the one anticipated, who is to come, is called Yahweh tsidqenu – Yahweh is our righteousness. Zedekiah was anything but righteous; his only connection to righteousness was in his name. But the coming king will bear more than just the name; he will embody the reality of what it is to be righteous and will inaugurate a rule that brings well-being to his people through justice. He will be more than all previous kings. He will be God’s righteous ruler in full.
And the homecoming, the new reality, that this new king, the embodiment of righteousness and justice, will bring about will be of such monumental proportions that the central defining event in the history of Israel – deliverance from slavery through the exodus from Egypt – will be surpassed by this new event and forgotten. God’s glorious new thing will displace the exodus memory. God will work something new amidst his people even in their very exile because he is always with them. He is with them in the loss of what they had and the pain of exile; he is equally with them through the newness of life and hope that he promises through the coming king. Whatever the circumstances, God’s justice will meet and surpass our cries of pain and our prayers of hope.
Question to Consider
What is righteousness? What does it mean? What would God’s righteousness look like manifested in our world today?
Prayer
Gracious God, you have shown us what justice looks like and how to bring justice in your name. May we always do so with firmness of purpose, with courage, but also with humility. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Conclude with Silence (2 minutes)
Day 3 – Justice Changes the World
Silence, Stillness and Centering before God (2 minutes)
Scripture Reading – Luke 1:39-56
Mary’s song of joy about God’s grace and favour towards her is a very personal expression of gratitude, but it also touches on God’s larger purpose for the world and his intentions regarding the poor and oppressed. As much as Mary gives thanks for the blessing that God has given her, she also paints a revolutionary picture of the upside-down transformation that the coming of God’s anointed one will bring, and the inverted nature of his kingdom. The promises that God spoke of long ago through the prophets are now coming to pass and the world will see that they are not abstract ideas forever relegated to the world of hopes and dreams but are instead concrete realities that find their embodiment in Jesus and subsequently in his followers seeking to fulfil his commands and follow his example.
Jesus will bring justice; he will embody the justice that Jeremiah and the prophets talked of. The proud will be scattered, rulers will be dethroned, the rich will go without. But the humble will be lifted up, the hungry will be fed and his mercy will be upon those who honour and fear him. There is economic and social revolution in these verses. There is the promise of justice and ‘right-ness’ restored. The justice of God has consequences for the world and for its people. The mighty acts of God that Mary sings of will result in a changed world and changed lives.
Question to Consider
How does appropriate humility before God look like? How would others see this in your life?
Prayer
Heavenly Father, this Christmas may I experience your mercy and grace in a new way and be ready to carry your love to others. May I be an agent of your world-changing justice and mercy. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Conclude with Silence (2 minutes)
Day 4 – When Justice was Shown Injustice
Silence, Stillness and Centering before God (2 minutes)
Scripture Reading – Mark 15:1-5
Jesus may have embodied God’s justice but he certainly did not receive justice at the end of his life when facing ‘trial’ before Pilate. Politics guided Pilate’s actions far more than justice - or what he (and the Roman state apparatus) considered justice. Pilate wasn’t even pressing very hard to find him guilty; it was more out of a wish to act the contrarian and to spite the Jewish leaders’ desire for Jesus to be condemned rather than any belief in justice. If Jesus was merely a troublemaking prophet, Pilate could simply have had him flogged as a lesson. If he was acting like a religious renegade, Pilate probably wouldn’t have even cared. But someone (other than Caesar) claiming to be King: that was something Pilate had to take notice of and deal with, even though he knew Jesus wasn’t leading a normal revolt like those Pilate had suppressed in the past.
So Pilate doesn’t care that the trial isn’t fair. He’s not doing this in order to get to the bottom of what’s going on; nor is he doing it because he is a lover of justice and wants to make sure Jesus gets a fair hearing. He’s doing it because he’s looking out for number one, he’s making sure that the Jews (and anyone else looking to cause trouble for him) have no grounds to complain to his superiors in Rome about how slack he is in quashing rebellions directed against imperial power. His own personal job security and desire to avoid any controversy attaching itself to him are his primary motivations as the King of the Jews stands before him, awaiting judgement.
Question to Consider
What do you think of Pontius Pilate’s actions?
Prayer
God of Justice, guard my mind so that my motivations are always honourable and put others and their situation first. May I always fight for justice in every situation. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Conclude with Silence (2 minutes)
Day 5 – Bearers of God’s Justice
Silence, Stillness and Centering before God (2 minutes)
Scripture Reading – Proverbs 21:15
Justice is part of who God is and Jesus was the promised king who would bring justice, who embodied it in his very being. His heart is for the poor and oppressed, and God promises that his judgment will fall upon social evils, on the people and the structures that hurt and oppress others. God sees and God cares. He wants an end to the dishonesty, greed and selfishness that cause suffering and poverty. He wants a fairer society in their place, a society where everyone can live without the fear of death through a lack of food and shelter, without the fear of being unjustly sentenced to imprisonment, without the fear of being singled out and treated unfairly just because of who they are.
So, if God is the ultimate source of justice, does this mean that we can just sit back and wait for God to sort everything out? Not at all. We belong to this world, we are a part of it, as was the baby in the manger who grew up to call a group of people around him to be his community on earth, reminding the world of God’s heart for justice. Part of being a disciple is to fight to bring oppressive and unjust situations to an end. We need to be ready to stand with those in need and be God’s voice for justice and restoration. But we need to recognise that we are not strong in ourselves and we are part of the problem. We are simply a people chosen by a loving and forgiving Father. The journey of justice is about following him with a firm, unshakeable belief in justice for all people.
Question to Consider
What injustices are you becoming aware of in the world around you? What can you do to learn more about this?
Prayer
God of compassion, your power and love can make the difference in everyone’s lives; help me be a pathway for that power and love into the lives of others. Nothing is too great for you. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Conclude with Silence (2 minutes)