Pastor Alexander Mielke on Jeremiah 23, 5-8 at Martin Luther Church, Toronto  on December 2nd, 2007

Dear Congregation,

”How quickly time passes! The Advent Season is here again!” This is what some of us think. Time flies by quickly sometimes; especially for mothers and grandmothers at this time of the year it can be too short. There is so much to prepare and to buy, but right after the 4th Sunday in Advent it is Christmas Eve already on Monday.

Let us now have a moment of stillness and reflect on time together. At this time of short days and long nights, it is almost natural to look back on the year and actually on our life, on good times and hard days, on times of worry and times of happiness. They are both present in our life, and when the Advent candle burns quietly, then we begin to think about how we are doing right now and at what point we are presently. Advent means: Looking ahead, awaiting Jesus, looking forward to the great Christmas celebration. But when the Advent candles quietly light up the room, then the thoughts come all by themselves. And so, both are part of the Advent Season: Looking backward and looking ahead.

The prophet Jeremiah spoke to people who had to go through a time of great suffering, and who only looked back because they saw good things only in the past. For there was a great golden glowing past, but the present was threatening and exhausting.

At the beginning of Israel’s history was the liberation from Egypt, here they had experienced God’s help, the refugees had found a new homeland. Then there had been powerful and capable kings, David and Solomon; this had been a time of success and abundance. But later on, irresponsible and corrupt kings came along, and with them times of catastrophes, division of the land, destruction of the North Kingdom – and now the South Kingdom and Jerusalem were threatened by Babylon. Some people had already met the same fate as the North Kingdom more than 100 years ago: being deported, led away into a foreign country. All were in danger of the same fate. They came to the limit of their strength, they only saw misery, they had only fear. They no longer counted on God, no longer did they think him capable to act.

Jeremiah, however, calls out: “Do not dream only of the good old times, do not think only backward: It was like that once, but it will never be like that again!”

But believe that God is mighty, God is capable to act!

“As the LORD lives” Jeremiah calls out. God makes a new beginning, you will receive his help! “As the LORD lives” – times come and go, but in them is written this word of Jeremiah: “As the LORD lives”. Jeremiah wants to say: “God lives and acts!” This is undisputable and certain, and the hard core of world history. Even when you meet limits: think forward, think of God being capable, expect something new from God.

We briefly remind ourselves that Jeremiah had been right, not just once, no, several times. 50 years after their defeat, the Israelites could return to their country. A long time later, they could enjoy the large temple of Herod in Jerusalem. And much, much later, they had their own state again; 1948 Israel was founded. Long periods of misery and emptiness, but then again also periods of happiness and abundance, when they realized: time and time again, God is working new things, we can believe that God is capable of new things.

In the middle of this history, Jesus entered Jerusalem. The King on the donkey. The King who came to the people in their misery, to bring them the light and the help from God. And so, we too, await him during this Advent Season, the Saviour, the Rescuer.

The Advent Season wants to strengthen our hope. Advent means to look backward with faith and to look ahead with hope. So that we can say with Israel: “As the LORD lives – he has helped us and will help us again.” At the time, when friends helped us when we were in need, at the time, when we were successful in what we first thought we were not capable of doing. At the time, when we found a partner for life. At the time, when we could do meaningful work again. “As the LORD lives”, “as truly as Jesus has come and shall come again” – all these promises the Advent candle brings. “As truly as this candle burns, more and more light will brighten our life!”

Advent means: Jesus comes, God’s light is coming. And our darkness is the place where God’s light can find us. Our limits are the place from which God’s light can lead us forward.

I have to think of a book which is very impressive: Jacques Lusseyran, And there was Light  <Das wiedergefundene Licht /Et la lumière fut, 1963>. Jaques Lusseyran was blind, but he wrote about light. As a small child he was already very short-sighted and needed strong glasses. When he was eight years old, a gang of big boys attacked him, they threw him to the ground, his glasses shattered and glass splinters destroyed his eyes, he was totally blind. The parents tried everything to support him and put him into good schools. When France was occupied by the Germans in the Second World War, he joined the “Resistance” the resistance movement. And Lusseyran, who was blind, still saw many things. He, who could not see people, recognized them very well, indeed, he could differentiate between trustworthy and unreliable people. Therefore, he even took on a key position in his group. The worst darkness was the prison camp, but he was also led out of it again. Later on, he became professor of history in the USA, and was known as a captivating story teller and teacher. One student said: “History was alive for him, because his inner world was so rich and alive.”

The life of Jacques Lusseyran seemed to be able to move only in very limited circles. And yet, light led him into new freedoms and he could be a light for others. This is the experience of Advent: Our limits are the place where God’s light finds us, where God’s light leads us on and thereby the place where we can act. Where we receive light, we can also pass on light, a sphere of activity opens up for us.

The fate of the blind in my African congregation in the Massai steppe comes to my mind. Many people there suffer from eye diseases. That has, foremost, to do with poor hygiene. Trachoma and Glaucoma are very common, and again and again one meets Massai with blind eyes and hollow eye sockets. Blind people need help. In the Massai Steppe there are no trained dogs for the blind and no signal tones at traffic lights. However, there are people who help. Children are assigned to lead the blind. And so, time and again I saw two people on my drives, walking together. For instance, an old blind grandmother and her small grandchild, who led her on a long stick. The child walked in front and led the grandmother who held fast to the other end of the stick and followed. So they wandered through the steppe, perhaps a march of a few days, perhaps to our hospital, where she could get help through a cataract operation.

Two together on the road towards the light. The child leads, the grandmother follows. But does only the one give, does the other only take? There are, indeed, limits in the lives of both! The grandmother can no longer see, but the child has only seen very little. And so both can give something to each other, both can lead each other through the world. The child relates what it presently sees and leads forward. But the grandmother tells about her long, rich life, leads the child into the past and thereby also into the wide world. So they give to each other what they need. This way, each has her limits but also her place of action, where she is important, as her life is helpful to the other. I think this is an image also for successful work in the congregation: young and old help, can help together, each with his weaknesses and strengths adds something; we belong to a community and give each other light! At the Advent get-together we can experience this right away.

Together on the road in the direction of the light – that is Advent. Times come and go, but in them comes God’s light. When we look back, we remember times of need and times of abundance. But because “As the Lord lives” is the true centre of strength in our life, our life is a time with God, and therefore a promising matter. Now we can look ahead full of hope and believe God to be capable of new things. For God lets his light shine forth also in this darkest of night of the year. And God’s light will radiate ever more, until everything is filled with this light, and we can celebrate Christmas together, the birth of our Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.