12-07-24

ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGS
December 7, 2024
Tomorrow marks the second Sunday of Advent, and we will explore the notion of righteousness. However, like many concepts within the Christian faith, it becomes challenging to fully explore the profound significance of such a crucial term in a single sermon. In fact, books have been written on the subject, and so my sermon will only be touching on a segment of a rather complex idea that is woven into both the Old and New Testaments. Righteousness is about relationships, beginning with God’s relationship with humanity. God is righteous, and thus God’s relationship with us is an ideal of what “right” relationship looks like. Walter Brueggemann suggests that righteousness is when things are as they should be. Of course, what is “should be”? Equity, justice, and peace would be central attributes to that “should be,” though I’m sure there are other attributes that could be added to the list. There is another component to this, and that would be integrity. In life, there are times when we weigh what’s best in the moment, often bending a little on our values. We justify it for all kinds of reasons, and it might make sense to us. But righteousness doesn’t bend—doesn’t take into account how others will react or whether someone won’t like us anymore. Righteousness is about what is right for the relationship—not necessarily what might feel good in the moment, but what should be done to bring about equity, justice, and peace in the relationship. Righteousness should, in any given moment, be a reflection of God’s right relationship with us.

Amidst the daily struggles and questions of life, O Good and Righteous God, we pray for the capacity to know what is right and to live into that rightness. Amen.