In the car today the radio has been tuned to Magic Christmas. It’s December 1! Despite what I wrote and said yesterday December 1 is Christmas! So on the radio came Chris Rea and “driving home for Christmas.”
Going home is an Advent theme. In the darkness to light service last night in Durham Cathedral, which was a little piece of heaven touching earth, they used a reading from Baruch in the Apocrypha.
In Baruch, the people of Israel have been dispersed among the nations in their Babylonian exile; Zion has been deserted; Israel’s enemies rejoice. However, Baruch promises that the people of Israel will return to Jerusalem, a Jerusalem that will regain its ancient splendour. “For God will give you (Jerusalem) evermore the name: ‘Righteous Peace, Godly glory’” (Baruch 5:4).
Baruch speaks of a God who has not forgotten the exiled people, but will bring them back to their glorious land and city. In Baruch 5:5, the writer paints a portrait of an eager Jerusalem, watching anxiously as the children of the city “gather from east and west at the word of the Holy One,” and rejoices “that God has remembered them.” Then Baruch proclaims that “God has ordered that every high mountain, the everlasting hills, be made low, and the valleys filled up to make level ground, in order that Israel may walk safely in the glory of God” (Baruch 5:7). He concludes by promising that “God will lead Israel with joy, in the light of God’s glory, with the mercy and righteousness that come only from God” (Baruch 5:9).
1Take off the garment of your sorrow and affliction, O Jerusalem,
and put on for ever the beauty of the glory from God.
2Put on the robe of the righteousness that comes from God;
put on your head the diadem of the glory of the Everlasting;
3for God will show your splendour everywhere under heaven.
4For God will give you evermore the name,
‘Righteous Peace, Godly Glory’.
5Arise, O Jerusalem, stand upon the height;
look towards the east,
and see your children gathered from west and east
at the word of the Holy One,
rejoicing that God has remembered them.
6For they went out from you on foot,
led away by their enemies;
but God will bring them back to you,
carried in glory, as on a royal throne.
7For God has ordered that every high mountain and the everlasting hills be made low
and the valleys filled up, to make level ground,
so that Israel may walk safely in the glory of God.
8The woods and every fragrant tree
have shaded Israel at God's command.
9For God will lead Israel with joy, in the light of his glory, with the mercy and righteousness that come from him.
Going home.
Looking for the exiles to return.
Safety and security.
God will restore us. If these things are to happen we can drive home for Christmas with confidence and joy!
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