Jeremiah 33:14-16

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. In 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. In 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.

We at McCormick seek to live out our calling to make the world and our various communities in it a better place—much like Jeremiah tried to do—and, like Jeremiah, we sometimes also find that living the Word isn’t always easy or pleasant.

In Beyond Words, Frederick Buechner writes of Jeremiah: “At his lowest ebb he cursed the day he was born, like Job, and you can hardly blame him. He had spent his life telling the people to shape up, with the result that they were in just about as miserable shape as they’d have been if he’d never bothered, and urging them to submit to Babylon as the judgment of God when all their patriotic instincts made that sound like the worst kind of defeatism and treachery. “

How often do we want to give up? Even Jeremiah cursed the day he was born. But here in the depths of his frustration and exasperation, Jeremiah utters the promise—the promise of a day to come when a new branch will spring up and justice and righteousness will prevail. The timetable is God’s and the waiting for the new day may seem interminable, yet the promise remains..

Prayer

Good and Gracious God, when none seem to be listening, when we feel like no one wants change for the better, when our motives are doubted, when all seems lost, when the world is in constant turmoil and we can’t see a way out, help us to remember and remain faithful to Your promise of a world to come where justice and righteousness prevail. In the name of Jesus Christ whom we await. Amen.