sprouting branch

Sunday December 2^nd, Jeremiah 33: 14 " 'The days are coming,' declares the LORD, 'when I will fulfill the gracious promise I made to the house of Israel and to the house of Judah.  15 " 'In those days and at that time I will make a righteous Branch sprout from David's line; he will do what is just and right in the land. An olive tree is almost impossible to kill.  There are some in the garden of Gethsemane that they believe were around at the time of Jesus.  I believe it was the olive tree this text refers to.  In the midst of life going sour, God drops a sprouting branch, new life.  Barbarians at the gate and a nation about to fall, and in the midst of it, life, and the promise is renewed brought to you by the God of all creation and time.  When the barbarians are at our gate, whatever form they may take, the promise is there for us also.  Emmanuel, God with us.  Life, comes into our darkness and announces that the light of the world that is coming, is in fact is already here.  Lift up you heads, stand up straight, wipe the tears from your eyes, because in the midst of your darkness, there is hope, there is light, there is love, there is life, and there is your God, with us and among us in the faces of one another.