Fellow-Redeemed
in Christ Jesus,
Some years ago in a
commercial, Green Giant foods featured the
Jolly Green Giant. Do you remember the name of the little child who was with
him? It was Sprout. Back in the day, “sprout” was a fairly common nickname for
a child.
Another place we find sprouts of a different
kind, or new growth, is from the stump of a tree. If you do not remove all the
roots and the stump, sprouts will keep coming back no matter how frequently you
take them off.
Jeremiah used this picture to describe the
New Testament Church that sprouts from Christ. Just as Sprout was very much like
the Green Giant, and new growth from a stump is like the tree, so The Lord Raises Up a Sprout Just Like Him.
God always keeps the promises he makes. The sprout beats the name the Lord our
Righteousness.
Today, we
begin the church year, particularly its festival half with Advent. In a way, we
are beginning a study of the Apostles’ Creed. The Festival half of the church
year takes us through the redemptive work the Father, Son and Holy Spirit
carried out on our behalf.
What a good way to begin. Jesus came. Jesus
comes. Jesus is coming again. We begin with preparation for Jesus’ coming into
Bethlehem, his coming in Word and sacrament, and his coming on the clouds. We
prepare to welcome Jesus by repentance. The liturgical color, therefore, is
violet, the same as Lent.
Jeremiah’s days were a time when God’s people
needed repentance. The LORD had called the prophet to preach repentance to the
nation who had turned away from him to false gods. Because they would not
repent, soon the Babylonians would carry them away from Judah and Jerusalem
into 70 years of captivity in that foreign land. God would not let them go
without hope, however. God had a plan and a purpose for them. God made them
several promises.
We can say that Advent is about God’s
promises made and kept. Advent is a repetition of a promise made to Judah and
Jerusalem. In Jeremiah 23 God promised, “I
will raise up to David a Righteous Branch, a king who will reign wisely and do
what is just and right in the land…he will be called the LORD our Righteousness.”
This is the LORD’s promise of the coming Savior. Even though his people had
been unfaithful to him, the LORD would be faithful to the promise he had made
to Abraham and repeated throughout the monarchy. This king, unlike the evil
kings in both the northern and southern kingdoms would rule with wisdom,
justice, and righteousness. He would save Judah and Israel from their sins. He
would keep them safe in his power and grace.
Advent is about the Lord raising up that
king, that Righteous Branch. It is about God keeping his promise to send the
Savior. Even though we have been unfaithful to God by our sins, God’s promise
remains sure for us. As we prepare for Jesus’ coming in all its aspects by
repenting of our sins and trusting in Jesus Christ, we find his wisdom, justice
and righteousness always there for our forgiveness. God always keeps the
promises he makes.
This promise in our text is not merely a
repeat of the promise of the Righteous Branch. This promise is about the sprout
that comes forth from him. That sprout is just like him. The sprout the Lord
raises up just like him is the Holy Christian Church. Just like Christ, the
church bears the name the LORD our Righteousness.
To put it simply, there is no salvation apart
from the church. The church is the spiritual body of Christ who is our head.
Like a father bears a child whom he might call sprout, we believers are the
sprouts who are like our Savior The
Father has imputed to us Christ’s righteousness under the law, and given us the
eternal benefit of Christ’s sacrifice for us on the cross. The LORD is our
Righteousness That is the family name we
bear.
The church is Judah and Jerusalem. We are
saved and dwell in safety in Christ. Jesus is the Righteous Branch who sprouted
once from David’s line. He was we might say cut down by his enemies on the
cross. Yet from him sprouts the New Testament Church just like young shoots
come from a stump. And like them, the church keeps sprouting over and over
again with new growth.
People today including we are looking for
justice and rightness. We won’t find it in the sinful plans and actions of men.
We do find it in the LORD our Righteousness. We are the LORD’s righteousness
through Christ. We find justice and rightness in the church. Here we have the
perfect obedience of Christ through faith and purity from our sins by the
washing of water with the Word. Here in the church we have the just and right
verdict of not guilty for our sins. We know that God will keep his promise that
whoever believes and is baptized shall be saved. We trust in our hope that God
will not change his mind about his verdict. Believers though still sinful stand
before Jesus’s manger, hear the Word and receive the sacraments, stand before
the judgment seat of Christ righteous in God’s sight for we are like our
Brother.
Those in Judah who trusted in these promises
God made them through Jeremiah were saved by their faith as members of the
church. Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior and you too will be
saved and find safety. There is no salvation apart from the church because
there is no salvation apart from Jesus Christ. The church is the sprout that
comes from Christ and is just like him.
The first Advent message for us is that Jesus
is coming just as God promised. As the sprouts of that Righteous Branch we are
just like him because through faith we have what he prepared for us. We are
safe in the church. We render justice and righteousness in the land through the
Word.
As the church, we gather for worship in what we
call the nave. Nave means ship. Our joint worship in this nave pictures our
safety in the ship, the ark of our salvation, the Holy Christian Church. She
bears the name the LORD our Righteousness for we are the Righteous sprouts from
David’s line, from Jesus Christ. Amen. <SDG>