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A picture from the past: When I was a boy and I would visit Grandma & Grandpa Gilts’ house on West Main Cross in Findlay, Ohio, there were always a few Sears & Roebuck catalogs lying around.  Most of the time these were used as booster seats and step stools, but in December they were like finding buried treasure.  My brothers and I would pour through those catalogs with great care.  In fact, we did not even refer to it as a retail catalogue, we called it what so many other people called it, “The Wish Book”.  We would circle items on pages, write our name in the circles and bend the pages for easier reference.  We knew from experience that not everything in the book would find its way to our house on Christmas Eve, but we could wish and wish we did – all month long, every year.  That is wishing and it is great for kids.  Some children under the care of Child Protective Services are doing it right now. They submitted their wish lists, which were distributed to area churches and are wondering what will wind up under their tree.  There is a lot of wishing that goes on in December.

A picture from last week: Last Sunday after lunch I made my monthly trip to Marble Slab for my regular – Sweet Cream with Butterfinger in a plain waffle cone.  I always order a kid’s portion, but apparently they evaluate that on one’s age and not on the way one presses one’s face against the glass or drools with anticipation.  They told me I had to get a regular.  I waited and watched them as they made it for me – one big scoop of creamy ice cream spread over a frosty stone slab, a crater made in the middle of it to hold a spoonful of crushed up Butterfinger candy bar, then the ice cream folded over that crater and away they go.  The professional started mixing and turning that treat until no two pieces of Butterfinger were touching each other.  Then like a surgeon the specialist scooped up the delicacy, dropped it into a cone and delivered it to me.  The cone was not extended for long.  I’m pretty sure my hand was reaching for it before the task was even completed.  I had been waiting with great expectation ever since I turned into the parking lot.  There is a lot of waiting in December.

Which of these pictures best describes your Advent experience?  Wishing or waiting?  Do you approach the promise of God with us more like a child wishing with a pen and a Sears & Roebuck catalog or do you wait like an expectant customer at the ice cream store watching the promise develop?

The prophet Jeremiah was waiting.  Even though Israel showed little signs of ever getting it together, he waited.  His country had civil wars within, oppression and injustice throughout, corrupt rulers for generations and he waited.  Finally their land was invaded, their city destroyed and their citizens taken into exile.  Still, the prophet waited, hoping for a new start.  Listen to his words in Jeremiah 33:14-16.  Hear now the Word of the Lord:

¹⁴“The days are surely coming,” says the Lord, “when I will fulfill the promise I made to the house of Israel and the house of Judah. ¹⁵In those days and at that time I will cause a righteous Branch to spring up for David; and he shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. ¹⁶In those days Judah will be saved and Jerusalem will live in safety. And this is the name by which it will be called: ‘The Lord is our righteousness.’”
 

The Word of God for the people of God.  Thanks be to God.  In this passage the prophet Jeremiah promised the exhausted exiles that a promise made by God is a promise kept.  Let us pray.

           
            Advent hope waits more than wishes.  Hope is the first word that I recite every Advent season.  It is a comforting word and an assuring word, but it is not an uncertain word when it comes to God.  Jeremiah’s promise began with the words, “The days are surely coming,” says the Lord, “when I will fulfill the promise…” and he is almost like a child with his face pressed against the frosty glass watching it be made before his eyes.  He waits for the day when a new branch will grow out of the old tree; when righteousness will replace wickedness and safety will replace stress and despair.  He can see it coming – can you?

 Advent hope waits more than wishes.  There are still many signs of brokenness in our world – disease, conflicts that seem to refuse to subside, stress that threatens to undo relationships and individuals, but “The days are surely coming,” says the Lord, “when I will fulfill the promise…” How will you approach hope this Advent season?  Will you simply wish for it to come true or will you wait on the certain fulfillment of God with us - the Lord, our righteousness?
 

Advent hope waits more than wishes.  And as a down payment we have been given this feast of grace, of God with us in the Lord’s Supper that we now share in hope.  But remember advent hope waits more than wishes. Amen.