Roll On Mighty River
Musician Luke Vasella opens our Advent series with a song reminding us of the life-giving gift of Jesus’ mighty river of justice.
DR FELICITY McCALLUM
For our eighteenth Advent 2024 devotional, Dr Felicity McCallum reflects on finding hope and renewal in the journey towards justice.
On the Way
The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. In his days Judah will be saved and Israel will live in safety. And this is the name by which he will be called: ‘The Lord is our righteousness.’
Therefore, the days are surely coming, says the Lord, when it shall no longer be said, ‘As the Lord lives who brought the people of Israel up out of the land of Egypt’, but ‘As the Lord lives who brought out and led the offspring of the house of Israel out of the land of the north and out of all the lands where he* had driven them.’ Then they shall live in their own land.
Jeremiah 23:5-8
On the way…
to the full picture, we begin to see what we feared most didn’t happen after all.
Some summers, rains soften the heat, eucalypts revive, kangaroos will shelter baby joeys.
On the way…
a child climbs first steps, finds safety, grounding under foot, chuckling fate.
On the way…
a human heart feels the milk of its own kindness, sifts out sands of sorrow, selects an honest friend and decides to trust again,
on the way to knowing what they were born for.
On the way…
we crane to glimpse us being our best selves,
our dreams, our Dreaming do not go awry, on the way, after all.
We do as we are meant to.
The land builds us up, owning us from the inside out.
On the way…
The rains cool the fires that seem unquenchable; may this happen for you this advent, may justice flow.
When composing this piece, several drafts materialised on my page. Life had been a maze of urgent tasks since returning from overseas, where I had been working on a Reconciliation chant for Australia in rural France. Reconciling my own disorientation on time, energy & material resources to balance here again meant any response other than an analytical or critical one was eluding me.
I had to engage the gratitude part of my brain to let creative tones create a connected response rather than the amygdalin part of the brain (fight or flight mode). Prayer was the answer, bringing my attention to the companionship of Jesus forward was necessary. This is sometimes called ‘the Immanuel moment’.
Then a summer storm hit and the light in the sky, the songs of the insects and the refreshing water drops restored me.
I found out more about Jeremiah, looked up key words and walked around in them for a couple of weeks - mused on them, yarning over them with fellow theologians and historians, here and interstate in Australia. And I listened to the gospel of the Wanungine-Wallambine (Awabakal) summer storm.
Culturally, my heart has to be aligned with the curve of whatever I write for sharing or publishing, to be absolutely responsible to readers and kin - a solemn critique just felt too heavy, it read too cold.
These words that I offer above are just about a flow of life, heralding possibilities for justice, wellsprings of alignment and energy from one gentle moment to the next, in an atmosphere of reassurance not scorn. Why? Because fighting leads nowhere and only love gives wisdom to see that the option towards life and joy is everywhere.
Dr Felicity McCallum is an Awabakaleen (female of Awaba) residing on Wanungine-Wallambine (Awabakal) country. Felicity facilitates national and local civic initiatives for Indigenous/non-Indigenous peace based on just engagement. She consults to national boards and co-leads international research projects aimed at the application of findings on justice, wisdom and unity across the globe. Felicity is also a teacher, lecturer and tutor at Australian Catholic University as well as an Adjunct Research Fellow with the Australian Centre for Christianity and Culture, Charles Sturt University.
This devotional is part of a series of daily email devotionals for Advent 2024 reflecting on the life-giving, thirst quenching justice of Jesus we long to see flow across these lands. A justice overflowing with love and compassion, bringing forth hope, healing, nourishment and flourishing for all.
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