The prophet Jeremiah writes from the center of capture to a people who are in the center of a siege. It is a desperate situation for all parties.

Scripture records that it was a lack of righteousness that led them to this place. They refused to do God's will God's way. Parker Palmer used the expression functional atheism that aptly describes this situation. John Wesley mentions a form of religion without the power as the plight of the people.

Isaiah 9:2

Great lights come in response to overwhelming darkness. Hope springs from despair. A people who do not have problems - do not need an advent. Advent is the waiting for a notable person or event. It is the waiting for things to get better, and in our Christian understanding, it is waiting for one who is beyond better...indeed perfect.

Today, we await, not a child but a champion. Not one who will come with humility to suffer but one who will come in strength to set all things right and just as important, if not moreso, make us right.

Let us be careful that in our self-sufficiency and evergreen preferences of perpetual happy experiences that we miss the Promise given to those who are poor in spirit, those who mourn, and those who are rejected - for he will be our righteousness.