Marilu Thomas, “Security Line”

We had family visit us last weekend for an early Thanksgiving. Traveling in the age of you-know-what can be an anxiety producing experience, with all the extra hassles and precautions. When they texted from the airport, “All checked-in and in the Security Line,” my heart relaxed some. But it started me thinking about Security. The definition of security is, “the state of being free from danger or threat.” Wouldn’t it be great if you could get in a line that would give you 100% Security? —not just a pat down and a hands-over-head robot scan? What if you could go through “Security” and come out the other side feeling non-anxious, secure, grounded, confident, assured; whatever term you would use for feeling ‘secure’ today? 

When we talk about security, our thoughts automatically go to our insecurities. The definition of insecure is “not firmly fixed; liable to give way or break.” We are feeling generally insecure, not firmly fixed, liable to give way or break. We are all a bit neurotic these days—which means exceedingly anxious. The Post Office, banks, government, schools, stores, courts—you name it, and we have lost faith in it. The labor shortage makes it hard to get a human on the phone. The supply chain crisis is feeding our fears that we won’t have enough for Christmas. We are not feeling secure externally. 

These can feed our personal insecurity, making that critical inner voice come up with even more reasons you are flawed and doomed. “You’re not like other people,” “You’re a failure,” “You’re so stupid,” “You’re so boring,” “You’re so old,” “You’re so ugly,” “You aren’t a real grown up,” “You’re not like other people,” “There’s something really wrong with you,” “You’ve gained so much weight,” “No one is ever going to love you.” I call mine The Drill Sergeant. Sometimes alternating with Ursula, the scary Octopus villainess in the Little Mermaid. (“Hello, Ursula. So you’re back again.”)

Our insecurity is constantly scanning the horizon for a source of security— something that will makes us feel ok again and stop the looping internal hum that telegraphs we are not enough and not up to the challenge of living. Kate Bowler tells a story about Ruth Stafford Peale in one of her books. Her husband, Norman Vincent Peale, wrote the bestseller The Power of Positive Thinking, which was designed to have the reader have a permanent optimistic attitude. Ruth, however, said one of her main jobs as his wife was ministering to his insecurities after a sermon or a talk, as he was convinced that people didn’t like him and he did not perform well.  Like Norman, we feel insecure in the world—and we want someone to help us make it stop. 

The hidden twist is that we as humans are not able to make insecurity stop because it is the ancient ingredient in the primordial soul soup that is being human. We cannot make ourselves ok by ourselves. Our efforts to keep our insecurity under wraps and numb it ourselves is legend, despite the evidence that they pop up again after the numbing wears off. 

Christians are an Advent people because we have deep yearnings for God to fix things. We are always looking forward into a future that will dispel the present darkness. On this first Sunday of Advent, as the light wanes and the darkness increases daily, we are given the prophet Jeremiah to light our way. His words are a gift from God to us. The biblical chapter heading on our lectionary today in the Message translation is “Things you could never figure out on your own.” Eugene Peterson says of Jeremiah, “In looking for a companion who has lived through catastrophic disruption and survived with grace, biblical people more often than not come upon Jeremiah and receive him as a true, honest, and God-revealing companion for the worst of times.” Why is that? 

Jeremiah was the prophet who was called by God to warn the people of Israel of the inevitable invasion of Nebuchadnezzar from Babylon and the fall of Jerusalem in 587 BC. Not only did the people ignore him, but he is thrown in jail by King Zedekiah for being a Negative Nelly. Jeremiah writes these texts from prison, telling us that God’s word can find us anywhere while pounding the drum of God’s promises to the insecurities of the people. Old Testament scholar Terry Fretheim tells us that, “The irony of Jeremiah is that God’s words about freedom and spaciousness are voiced in the midst of restriction and confinement…God has this future in place before the fall [of Jerusalem] had even occurred. God’s promises span the destruction of Jerusalem and carry them through.” Jeremiah was so convinced of God’s promises of redemption and restoration that he bought a piece of land in Jerusalem before it was destroyed.

There is a hauntingly beautiful painting by Rembrandt called Jeremiah Mourning the Destruction of Jerusalem. The wizened and grief-stricken prophet, with silvery thinning hair and straggly beard, sits on a rocky slope, while Jerusalem burns behind him. Rembrandt was a genius at painting emotions and expressing mood with lighting. There is an awareness of the darkness coupled with light from a heavenly source. The painter has captured a man who knows our insecure nature and our penchant for distrusting God, and yet gives a word of tenacious hope. The Words of Jeremiah from prison are a straight line to our Advent because it proclaims Christ’s birth as the ‘righteous Branch to spring up for David.’ Jeremiah declares, “The Lord is our righteousness,” will be the name of the Branch. Isaiah 11:1 says, “Then a shoot will spring from the stem of Jesse, and a branch from his roots will bear fruit.” A stump is what is left after a tree has been cut down and is dead. New life springing from a stump is what God’s promise is to us through this scripture. Those insecurities you have are the deadness of the law—the ‘shoulds’ and comparisons that diminish you. The new life springing from that stump is the voice of the Lord telling you, “You are my beloved child. I made you, I know you, and I love you” which is the grace of Jesus Christ. Walter Brueggemann wrote that the promises of Jeremiah 33, “Join together the resolve of heaven and the future of earth.” 

Jeremiah asks, “Where is your security?” There is not a ‘what’ or ‘who’ in this world that can relieve your insecurity. The Lord is your righteousness, your ok-ness, your enoughness, your acceptance, your only security. Jesus’ death on the cross was the light in the midst of the darkness that secured your future with God, just the way you are. The God of Abraham, Isaac, Joseph and Jeremiah came as Jesus Christ and went through the line in Hell to give us his security, his promise of fidelity and his life. A promise made and a promise kept by God to be with us. Jeremiah 29:11 reminds us, “For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” God had this future in place before there was a world. Before there was a you. His promises are trustworthy and you are beautiful in His eyes.

The same proclamation from Jeremiah is given today to us. In the midst of darkness, light is about to break in. In the midst of despair, hope erupts. Christ secures you. See yourself through His eyes of love. Pierre de Teilhard de Chardin wrote, “Above all, trust in the slow work of God.”

I would like to close with the lyrics of one of our beautiful Advent hymns: Come Thou Long Expected Jesus.

Come, thou long expected Jesus,

Born to set thy people free;

From our fears and sins release us,

Let us find our rest in thee.

Amen