Christmastide | Fr. Samuel Mbabaali - Jeremiah 31:7-14

A reading from the prophet Jeremiah.

For thus says the Lord, sing aloud with gladness for Jacob,

and raise shouts for the chief of nations.

Proclaim, give praise, and say, O Lord, save your people, the

remnant of Israel. Behold, I will bring them from

the North Country and gather them from the farthest parts of

the earth, among them the blind and the lame, the pregnant

women, and she who is in labour together a great company.

They shall return here. With weeping they shall come,

and with pleas for mercy I will lead them back.

I will make them walk by brooks of water in a straight path in

which they shall not stumble, for I am a father to Israel, and

Ephraim is my first born. Hear the word of the Lord, O

nations, and declare it in the coastlands far away.

Say he who scattered Israel will gather him, and will keep him as

a shepherd keeps his flock. For the Lord has ransomed Jacob,

and has redeemed him from hands too strong for him.

They shall come and sing aloud on the height of Zion, and they

shall be radiant over the goodness of the Lord, over the

grain, the wine, and the oil, and over the young of the flock

and the herd. Their life shall be like a

watered garden, and they shall languish no more than shall the

young woman rejoice and dance, and the young men and the old

shall be merry. I will turn their mourning into

joy. I will comfort them and give

them gladness for sorrow. I will feast the soul of the

priests with abundance, and my people shall be satisfied with

my goodness, Declares the Lord, the word of the Lord.

Please pray with me. We thank you, Lord, for the gift

of the New Year and for gathering us during this

Christmas time. Now we welcome you, Lord, to

come and speak to us through me. In the name of Jesus Christ, we

pray. Amen.

Can I have your seats? I welcome you to this New Year,

2026. This is the year that one of the

events our country, the USA, is going to be hosting the World

Cup. Yeah, but speaking about

politics, let me turn to the Olympic Games.

There was a. Time when?

The Olympic Games. Fell silent twice in the last.

Century. During World War 2, there was

such devastation. In the world, and the world

could not gather to compete and to celebrate and to hope

together there was. Silence there was.

Suffering and because of that. The world could not unite.

Together and there was no joy as a result of the Olympic Games

but. The Olympic Games later

returned. In 1948.

And they were just more than. Games.

When they returned, there was. They were a sign that in spite

of the. Destruction there was.

Still hope. And victory there was life.

Again, it was a statement that the future was still.

Open and it was a hope that the global.

Crisis had not ended. The story of the world.

I invite you to turn with. Me to Jeremiah, the reading that

we have taken in Jeremiah chapter 31, verse 7 to 14.

Jeremiah 31:7–14

Because there God. Promises a future.

Just like. That but a.

Future that is greater than the return of the.

Olympic Games the. Promise of God.

In Jeremiah Unfolds. As a movement from exile.

To home God gathers the. People who are scattered.

Back to himself. But out of that gathering stems

another second. Promise.

A movement from mourning. To joy and here.

God restores the. People and he gives.

Them everlasting celebration. And abundance of joy.

Let us consider these two promises, starting with the

first one with a go, where God calls us from exile to home.

Jeremiah prophecies. During a time when the people

here in exile. They had been conquered and

deported. From their nation.

Jerusalem, the capital, lay in ruins and even the Temple.

Which was their place of worship was destroyed.

And their daily life had been shattered and scattered and.

Stripped away. The people we are not just

living away geographically from their home.

They were. Suffering, grief.

The circumstances of our life might be different, but we might

reco organize ourselves just as Israel experienced in exile.

Many of us know how life can be interrupted and.

Disrupted because of. Loss and even sometimes we

experience interruptions in our familiar.

Routine. Things like sickness, you can be

healthy today and then you fall sick.

Things like death we have even experienced sometimes.

Broken relationships, they. Can shatter us, and then we feel

grief. We feel loss of hope and even.

Loss of dreams, but as well as real exile, was tied towards

their moral failure as a nation. They were perhaps experiencing

this and they were saying, now we are lost because of our sin.

We can also wrestle with our sin and we feel that the choices

that we make have made us feel unworthy.

Before God. We feel that we have been

disqualified before God, and we may fear that our story is

ended. Because of our sin, we.

Fear that we have missed a chance, We fear that our journey

spiritually has ended or even our journey in form of our

relationships has ended. But also exile had threatened

Israel identity as a nation. They were anxious that now our

identity has ended and has been erased.

Sometimes as believers, we might also struggle with what is our

identity in Christ. We may feel that we don't know

who we are in Christ. And Neil Anderson calls this as

a result of what he terms. As false.

Equations in Search of identity Often times, when we are

surrounded with circumstances and a culture that sometimes

threatens us to redefine ourselves, we might feel that we

don't know our. Identity, but in.

Reality of such laws and dislocation, Jeremiah speaks.

About a promise of reversal. Exile will not be the end.

Sorrow, grief and shame will not.

Last forever. God is still preparing a future

where his people. Will be gathered.

Jeremiah describes this kind of restoration.

How it will look like? It is a total mending.

Of both physical and social brokenness.

Those who had been scattered to distant lands are now not

forgotten and abandoned. God promises to reinstate them

in verse 80 says I will bring them from.

The North Country. And gather them from the

farthest parts. Of the Earth.

He gathers them and brings them home and this gathering is

inclusive. Jeremiah tells us that among the

people that. God gathers.

He includes the blind and the lamb, the pregnant women, and

she who is in. Labor together.

A great company they shall all return, all the people who even

sometimes are felt as if they are not significant.

God is bringing them together in this massive.

Gathering. Exile had not scattered them.

God was bringing them together anew, and God was promising to

bring them all together without any of them missing.

In this gathering. He was like a loving.

Father, a faithful. Shepherd leading them to once

was a journey of danger, now it was going to be a journey of

restoration, care and safety. And God gives them belonging

again. They are not isolated.

God is securing them and is bringing them together as a.

People. Just as Israel was.

Gathered by God. God does not abandon us in our.

Seasons of fragmentation. When we experience suffering,

when we Aladdin with sin, Jeremiah reminds us that God is

still at work in our lives. God does never.

Cast us away. He's waiting and able to restore

us and to do us back into relationship.

With him. In these times of Christmas that

we are living in, God is faithfully gathering us.

God does not only gather us from a distance.

God comes to us. He meets us there.

In the birth of Christ, God steps into our.

Exile. Into our broken and suffering.

And sin. Because in Christ, home comes to

us. Home does not wait for us to

come, but home comes to us. The Inc The incarnation of

Christ declares that. God does not wait for us, but.

He comes to us and meets us and brings us.

Home. And the inclusiveness of God's

governance reminds us that God does not.

Overlook anyone? Sometimes we feel that we are

weak and we are forgotten. We are wounded, but God says

that even the wretched of sinners, God calls him again

into His Amazing Grace. And in fact, the ministry of

Jesus Christ later testifies about.

This. Because in his ministry

literally the people who are sick, lame and blind are drawn

into Jesus flock literally in a literal sense to point to us

that God. Brings together all people into

his fold so. Jesus gathers us into a renewed

community as well. He does not only gather us into

a relationship with God. But also into a relationship

with one another. God draws people.

Into belonging, into worship, into shared.

Life again, God. Gathers people through the

church you and me God uses. Us to gather people into a

shared life. So God is calling us again to

know up that we are also agents of His gathering as He's

gathering people. The Church is one of the agents

that God uses. To gather people into his

family. But sometimes exile tempts us to

feel that God is promises are not true, that God does not have

a plan to restore. US.

Jeremiah calls us to faith because he cries in verse 8 says

behold, and in this call he summons us to stop and look and.

To pay attention. To put our eyes to all the

things that are causing us to look away.

To feel that we are afraid and terrified from our guilt and.

Shame, Jeremiah. Invites us to fix our eyes on to

God these promises of restoration.

It serves as a reminder that God is promises are steady, fast.

They are only changing in spite of the things that are.

Going on around us, the suffering.

And the failures and the Tamil that we are.

Going through. The Hey Maya says.

Behold. And this, behold, is an

invitation to trust. God.

To rest our weight on His faithfulness and to believe that

what He has promised. He's.

Able to accomplish. So what does it look like to?

Trust in. God in real life, what does it

mean to? Behold God.

In our ordinary moments for a parent, sometimes parenting can

be toting. You can feel that the children

are running astray and you feel that you are not in control.

When we trust in God, we know that God is in control.

We can rest assured that. God is ready.

To shepherd those people we can't wait on to him in.

Prayer, knowing that. God is at work in the lives.

Of those students? For students like me, sometimes

we feel that student life is demanding the tests and the

exams and the demands of student life.

Sometimes you feel that you don't measure up because you

have missed a grade. But God.

Tells us to trust in him is to know that in spite of all the.

Pressures around us. God still says you measure up,

you are not just was there because of the grades that.

You are making but because I love you and I care for you so.

Invites us to trust in him. Because of that care.

So to behold, sometimes it invites us to examine our hearts

to see whether we are relying on the.

Promises of God because. If we don't rely on those

promises, then we choose to. Take our eyes from God.

And to fix. Them elsewhere.

Besides waiting upon the. Promises of God.

Jeremiah also invites us to declare God is faithfulness.

This is what he says in verse. 10 Hear the word of the Lord in

the all nations. And declare it in the coastlands

far away, say he who scattered Israel will gather him, will

keep him as a. Shepherd keeps his flock God.

Restoring work demands to be declared publicly.

God is work is becomes now a testimony for all people.

To hear. We are called not to keep the.

Story of God is. Working for ourselves, we are

called to be bold witnesses. To that story.

Even in this new year that God has given us, God is calling us

to be faithful people in proclaiming His works even in

our lives, not just by what we say in our.

Words, but. Even in our lives, our lives can

shine out. As a testimony about God is.

Goodness as we act in love, as we act in obedience, as we show

the forgiveness that we have. Received from God.

That is a. Testimony about how.

God is working, so therefore this speaks against timid

Christianity. Sometimes Christianity can be

timid and we feel, what can I share?

I don't have anything to say. There is nothing like timid

Christianity. Because when we receive the

promises of God, those promises now invite us to declare that

God is indeed. Faithful.

And we speak that with our. Words, but also in how we live

and relate with other people. So after gathering the.

People in exile, God offers. Them another promise.

And this. Is a promise.

Of. Turning their mourning into.

Joy. This is the fruit of his.

Restoration. That he gives them.

You know, now we are living in these winter days and as if

everything has come onto a standstill.

When you look at the trees, I use the analogy that the trees

are now skeletons. They don't have leaves.

And the rivers, when you look at them, they are frozen.

Life is that as if it's at a standstill, though we are still

living. But when the spring comes, the

flowers are going to bloom again and the rivers are going to flow

and. All of.

You who live here near the lake are going.

To run. To go into the lake.

And to enjoy. Life, because now life has come

up again. Restoration works.

In the same way. It is not just an end of

hardship, but it's an arrival of hope and abundance, an arrival

of a renewed life. It is a shift from mourning to

joy. Jeremiah shows us that God

restores the people in the body and in heart, and the people

respond to the blessings. Of God.

By receiving grain in their field, the wine is flowing, the

oil is plentiful and the flocks are now striving.

This is a testimony about God is care for the physical needs of

the people. But even the priests are also

sharing in this blessing because it says the priests are also

experiencing the abundance. Of the Lord.

I will feast the soul. Of the priests.

With abundance. So the restoration is communal,

everything is flourishing, physical life is flourishing,

but also it leads into the spiritual life of worship where

all the things that the priests expect from the congregation are

being made because. They have been restored, but

restoration. Is not just.

Physical it also. Reaches out to.

The heart. Jeremiah paints this picture of

this scene, he says in verse. 11 and 13.

They shall come and sing. Aloud on the.

Height of Zion, and they shall be radiant.

Over the goodness of the Lord. They shall come and sing aloud

on the height. Of Zion.

And they shall be radiant. Over the goodness of the Lord

God is. Restoration is not just on the

outside, but also in the inside. There is life, there is joy and

the whole community is really enjoying the restoration.

Of the Lord. So just as God restores the

fields. Of the Israelites.

God is ready to provide our everyday needs.

God cares for our needs, the needs.

Of. Food and shelter, the needs of

relationships and all the opportunities we need to strive.

God is ready to care for us. Sometimes when we say God is

caring, people think he only cares for our souls.

God cares for our souls, our inside.

But also he cares for the fullness of our life.

But also enjoying God is blessing.

He calls us to be effective stewards of his blessings,

faithfully sharing the blessings He has given us.

We don't only enjoy God is blessing by receiving them, but

we enjoy them by sharing them with other people.

That's one way how we can. Testify about God is goodness.

So God's restoration continues with the heating of our hearts.

He invites us to bring our brokenness, our grief.

Sometimes we can go through grief for a number of years.

God is inviting us to turn that grip to Him.

That. Grief to Him our disappointments

when we pray and things are not coming out and we are

disappointed because the relationships that we are having

are not working out. God is inviting us to turn all

those disappointments to Him so that He can heal our hearts.

He's inviting us to reason, to release bitterness.

Some people are bitterness. I'll never forgive that person.

What He did to me I will never. Maybe God is calling us this

year to a year of forgiveness, releasing that bitterness so

that our hearts can be healed, but also to embrace gratitude.

There is a time when we can go through groaning and then we are

complaining and we don't see what God has done.

You look at the previous year and you feel I had a list of all

these things I wanted to do 123I only achieved half of them and

you are bitter. God is calling us to a time of

gratitude even as we are stepping into this new year,

because that's how God renews our lives.

And when we do that, it reflects His transformative power in our

lives. And then the abundance.

Of joy that. God gives us, is not just.

Temporary it. Points us to the final and

eternal restoration that is coming.

God is leading His people into a future where sorrow will be gone

and where joy will endure. Forever and when?

We are in Christmas time. We are reminded that the

promises of God have already started.

They are here and now. We are not only waiting for them

to happen then, but the promises are here and now.

The child in the manja is the first step.

How God is mending things. He's working up things.

So when we embrace the child in the mangia, we have received a

down payment of that joy. The joy is already here.

We are not waiting for something that is yet to come.

We already have something with us when we behold that child in

the mangia. So God is inviting us to carry

out that joy, to go with that joy in the new year.

We shouldn't only leave that joy now, in this Christmas time.

That joy should go on. We should be encouraged that God

is working in our. Lives, but also.

Let us extend the joy to other people by encouraging them.

People need to be encouraged. Many people have lost hope.

They are living a life without hope.

Let us encourage them that things are in control.

God is. Working out.

Let us extend acts of kindness so that people can realize that

as we are kind, it is a testament that God is working

even to restore things that appear as if they are messy.

Now I would love to return to the Olympic Games because I know

some of you are waiting to cheer your teams.

The USA is going to be playing with many countries from all

over the world. Uganda is not going to play

where I come from. We have not qualified.

But when the games are here, there will be a lot of

celebration. The nations are going to gather.

They're going to be here in this country.

Athletes are going to be around people playing soccer.

The music is going to be around. That is what happened when the

Olympics were. Restored, there was joy.

The Games declared that despite the past, God was now working

something new. It was a new beginning.

For the world. The world had moved from silence

and from agony. To celebration, Jeremiah.

Shows us something that is. Greater God is.

Leading his people from. Exile to home.

He's gathering the people who are scattered.

He's carrying the people who are weak.

He's restoring those who felt. Abandoned.

And from that restoration flows an.

Abundance of joy. Mourning is turning to gladness

and sorrow is turning into singing, and broken lives are

now testimonies. About.

God is grace, yet this joy, as I've said, is pointing to us

about the ultimate restoration that we are waiting for in

eternity. But until we are expecting that

restoration, Christmas tide reminds us that God is already

working. In our exile.

God is already bringing joy into our weariness.

There is hope. In the broken world.

And there is light in the darkness, and as Christ is doing

that, we are hoping that one day things shall be made whole.

And we are waiting for that with joy.

The joy is here, and the joy. Is yet to come.

I pray that you experience that. Joy as we go through this new

year. May the Lord increase used to

know that things are working out well.

I don't know how the year has been for you.

Maybe things have not been fine, but God is working in our lives

and there is restoration that is going on in our life now.

And then to come the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy

Spirit. Amen.