YOUR REDEMPTION IS DRAWING NEAR
A sermon by George R. Pasley
Jeremiah 33:14-16; Luke 21:25-36
What is the meaning of the word, redemption? It has to do with relationship.
Two things are in relationship, and something happens to that relationship.
Say, a man and his boat. They are in relationship, until the man can’t pay the mortgage.
Then the bank takes the boat away. But the man has a reversal of fortune, and pays the debt he owes, and reclaims his boat. That’s redemption.
Or take the same man and the same boat, but there’s no mortgage. Instead, the boat strikes a rock, and sinks. The relationship between the man and his boat spins off into chaos.
But the man loves his boat, perhaps more than reasonable. So he hires a salvage company, raises the boat, and spends a small fortune restoring it to its former glory. That’s redemption.
Or consider a different circumstance. The man falls ill, the boat remains tied in its slip. It means nothing to the boat- after all, it’s inanimate. As for the man, well, he has other things to think about. He forgets his boat, or nearly so.
Months go by, even years. But one day, the man is declared healthy. He walks out of the hospital and laughs to feel the wind in his face. The clouds break and he sees the sunshine- and he remembers his boat. He walks down to the dock- and there it is, where he left it. Their relationship had been strong, then nebulous, but now it awaits its restoration. It is a good day to lift anchor, and they do.
That’s redemption.
That’s the formula, and the bible uses it in a number of different ways. The book of Leviticus, for example, talks about the relationship between the land and the people.
The land is not to be sold, because it belongs to God. Instead, it is assigned to each of the Israelites. But God recognizes that hard times come, that men make bad financial decisions, that things happen. So God allowed for the land to be used in certain ways to help individuals out of bad financial situations.
A man could sell his land, but in that case a relative was obligated to buy it back from the purchaser- to redeem it, to put it back in relationship with the family who had received it from God.
If the man who sold the land had no relatives, he himself could redeem the land at a later date.
But if the man never raised enough money to redeem the land, God would redeem it when the nation practiced Jubilee. Every 50th year, Jubilee was the commandment of God. Debts were pardoned, slaves were set free, land was returned to its original owners.
That was redemption.
I spent some time this week searching the internet for art depicting biblical stories, and I found some fascinating art.
Several pictured the strong man, Sampson, in the throes of being blinded by his Philistine captors.
One pictured the prodigal son, partying with prostitutes and squandering his inheritance.
One pictured Adam and Eve finding the body of Abel, after he had been murdered by Cain.
Many showed Christ on the cross, emaciated, his blood poured out, his flesh scarred, dead or nearly so.
Those are pictures of persons in need of redemption.
Sampson separated from his sight.
The prodigal separated from his father and from good sense.
Adam and Eve, mourning their son.
Jesus, his spirit gone, his body ready for burial.
But one more caught my eye, a painting by Rembrandt. It was a painting of the prophet Jeremiah. He sits on a rock, his elbow propped on another rock, his head resting on his hand. His eyes are shut, and his face is cast down. He is not looking at the world around him, because the things that are there to see are too horrible to bear. It is a picture of Jeremiah as he laments the destruction of
Now, the word redemption is not used in Jeremiah 33. But some other very important words are used.
Words like restoration and rebuild.
Words like cleanse and pardon.
Words like health and healing.
Words like saved and safety.
Those words were a promise from God, and they described the redemption that would- and did- take place. But in the midst of that description of redemption there was a picture of how it takes place for us.
The picture was a metaphor- a branch, springing forth into life. Elsewhere in scripture, the branch springs forth from a stump, and the stump is the fallen dynasty of David. But here, the stump is understood.
Imagine skunk cabbage springing forth along the trail in spring, and you know how Jeremiah might have pictured this promise. Something living and vibrant suddenly exists where there was only death and destruction before.
And this new life- it has a name, and a persona, and a course of action, and a purpose. But the name- it explains everything.
The Lord is Our Righteousness, which is to say,
The Lord will do what we cannot.
The Lord will bring about justice-the restoration of relationships.
The Lord will erase our sin, and replace it with proper ways of living.
The Lord will redeem what is lost, whatever it is.
Now, today we have established signs of the season.
Some of them are green branches. We smell their wonderful fragrance, and we ponder their beauty in the midst of a rather gray season.
But Jesus told us about some other, quite different signs, we would see. They would be signs of distress, foreboding and ominous.
But something funny is attached to those fearful signs: a word of encouragement- get up and look, because when things are really scary, that’s when your redemption is drawing near.
In fact, Jesus used that word- NEAR- twice! Does trouble surround you? Redemption is near!
Elizabeth Berg’s novel “
Moving to a different community is a difficult adjustment for Katie, and the difficulty of adjustment is compounded by her father’s demanding strictness. But her father gives her permission to go out and about after school, as long as she tells the housekeeper where she is going, and as long as she is back at the house before her father gets home from work.
When the first cold snap of winter came, Katie asked for permission to go ice-skating, and received it. She was a very poor ice skater, but she wanted to be off doing something, by herself, and she knew the perfect little pond- she had waded in that pond all summer long.
So off she went.
She skated forwards fairly well, so she tried skating backwards and promptly fell.
She got up, tried skating backwards again, and fell again. But this time when she fell she broke the ice.
Katie scrambled- she reached out on the ice in front of her, and it broke some more. But she reached out once more, it held and she climbed out.
The shore was not far away, but Katie was freezing. Somehow she made it, somehow she continued to walk on land even though she was wearing her skates. Somehow she made it to the nearest building, a gas station.
The attendant stopped just short of force getting her into the bathroom, insisting that she get out of her wet clothes. He found a gas station uniform for her to wear while her clothes dried.
She was safe, she was warm, and she was dry. That was redemption. But there was something more. Her father would be home soon, and she needed to get home.
“Let me take you,” offered the attendant.
“What about the people who come to buy gas?”
“We won’t be long and they’ll wait,” he answered.
He opened the door to the tow truck, and held it for her while she climbed in.
He drove her to her house.
“Thanks for everything,” she said. “I’ll bring this back tomorrow,” referring to the uniform.
“I’ll be there,” he said, and that shocked Katie, that he had been there a while, and that he would be there tomorrow, just like that. Somehow, she’d never thought of it that way. But it was so.
And so it is with our redemption. It is near, it has been near, and it will be near.
His name is Jesus, and no matter how bad things get, you’ll find he is near. In fact, the worse things become, the closer he is.
Wouldn’t it be a shame if he was right there, right when you needed him, and you missed it?
Therefore be alert, and let your heart be open to wonder.
In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost. Amen.
