Jeremiah 33:14-16
33:14 The days are surely coming, says the LORD, when I will fulfill the promise I made to the house of Israel and the house of Judah.

33:15 In those days and at that time I will cause a righteous Branch to spring up for David; and he shall execute justice and righteousness in the land.

33:16 In those days Judah will be saved and Jerusalem will live in safety. And this is the name by which it will be called: “The LORD is our righteousness.”

This is just one of the readings for the first Sunday in Advent, the church’s season of preparation for Christmas.  Advent means “arrival” and the season focuses on God’s arrival in the world, in the hope of prophets, the call to repentance, the readiness of Mary the mother of Jesus, the vision of  the just kingdom on earth. The book of Jeremiah is a complex entity, which is the object of wildly differing interpretations by scholars. It purports to give an account of a man who lived and prophesied in Judah before 586 BCE when the Babylonians conquered the kingdom and took its leading famiies into exile. Given that all biblical material was edited after some exiles returned from Babylon, it may be that all the prophecies about the return were also composed then. The voice of God, complaining, threatening, wheedling, promising, is an invention of the prophets whose oracles are in the divine first person, and possess an inimitatble emotional clout. The “righteous branch” of the tree of King David is a messianic figure who will provide “mishpat” and “tsedaqa” for the people. These  wonderful hebrew words  are often translated “judgement and righteousness” but I would translate “the rule of law and justice.” mishpat” is to do with the execution of law, “tsedaqa” with its content.

These are the most profound of human goods, and are desired passionately by all human beings whose happiness is not dependent on injustice. The Christian hope in Advent may be more than this ancient longing, but it should not be less.