Sermon: Joy and Sorrow Join
December 15th, 2019 Rev. Betsy Perkins
First Baptist Church, Delavan WI
Scripture passage: Ezra 1:1-4, 10-13; Luke 2:25-32
Disaster and Promise
We just heard the story of Simeon, a story from a little over 2000 years ago. Now I invite you to travel further back in time with me, another 500 years, as we focus on the final Old Testament story from the narrative lectionary year. Next week we move fully into the New Testament, but since the Fall we have heard story after story of God at work in the world, creating, meeting people and calling people like Moses to follow in God’s ways, inviting people through King David to put God at the center of their lives. God calling people back to living in God’s ways when they’ve gotten off track, through Elijah and Hosea and Jeremiah. Yet people are stubborn and short-sighted – they want to do their own thing, float free like that balloon that still floats up on our ceiling… (from the end of October! when we heard the story of split between Israel and Judah – the leaders tried to crush the people, they resisted and choose to go their own way, float free, but God’s plan, God’s promise was for another way, a way in which we are to be tethered together in love for God and one another.)
Two weeks ago we consider the story of Jeremiah, who shared God’s message in the midst of an embattled and besieged Jerusalem, under attack by the army of Babylon. First, Jeremiah shared words of disaster and judgment, that Jerusalem and Judah would be conquered and destroyed and the people taken away as prisoners of war. These bitter words were followed by words of comfort and hope and peace to those grieving people whose lives were falling apart. Jeremiah gave them this message: This is what the LORD says, “When 70 years are completed for Babylon, I will come to you and fulfill my good promise to bring you back to this place, for I know the plans I have for you, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future.” Jer.29:10-11
Yet even with these promising words, the people are forced to leave their homes and land, and move to a strange country, among people they do not know. They have to recreate ways to make a living, recreate how to worship without a holy temple. They asked questions like: Why has God done this to us? Why did things fall apart? Has God abandoned us? Can we still trust God? Can we trust those promises that God makes and shares through these prophets? How do we reestablish a relationship with God in the midst of this difficult situation?
Returning! Rebuilding!
The Israelites were deported to Babylon in several waves, and about 70 years from the time the first group was marched away into exile, a new world power arose and defeated the Babylonians. The Persian King Cyrus assumed rule of that part of the world. King Cyrus implemented a new foreign policy. Rather than decimate native people and march them off their land, Cyrus’ policy was that native people should stay in their land, be allowed to worship their own gods and maintain their own cultures, but simply pay taxes and recognize his authority over them. (Like an early form of colonialism?) Isaiah had even been given the message that God was putting Cyrus in power to bring about the fulfillment of God’s plans – those plans Jeremiah had spoken of – to give the people a hope and a future, back in their own land, back in Jerusalem (Is.44:28).
Here is the story, in the book of Ezra 1:1-4: In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia—fulfilling the Message of God preached by Jeremiah—God prodded Cyrus king of Persia to make an official announcement throughout his kingdom. He wrote it out as follows: From Cyrus king of Persia, a Proclamation: The Lord, the God of the heavens, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth. He has also assigned me to rebuild His Temple of worship in Jerusalem, in Judah. Any of you who belong to God’s people may go to Jerusalem which is in Judah and build The Temple of the Lord, the God of Israel, Jerusalem’s God. May the Lord be with you! Their neighbors and those who stay behind, will support them with silver, gold, tools, and pack animals, along with a Freewill-Offering for The Temple of the Lord in Jerusalem.
God kept God’s promise by working in King Cyrus’ heart so that he basically said to the exiles, “Go home! Load up with blessings and go home!” So they take an offering, and add to that the original furnishings that had been stolen from the temple by the Babylonians which King Cyrus returns to them. Ezra 2 lists the people who were in that first group of Jews to return to their homeland, saying, “The total count was 42,360 people, plus 7,337 servants, plus 200 singers (that’s quite a traveling choir!), plus 736 horses, 245 mules, 435 camels and 6,720 donkeys.” Wow!
After everyone had a chance to get settled back into their hometowns and villages, they all assembled together as one in the rubble of the city of Jerusalem. Led by a priest named Joshua and other priests, together with the new governor, Zerubbabel and his associates, they rebuilt the altar of the Lord God, so that the first thing to be restored in that place would be worship and offerings to God according to the Law of Moses.
Next, the builders got to work on the foundation of the building. Ezra 3:10-13: When the builders completed the foundation of the Lord’s Temple, the priests put on their robes and took their places to blow their trumpets. And the Levites clashed their cymbals to praise the Lord, just as King David had directed. With praise and thanks, they sang this song to the Lord:
“God is so good! His faithful love endures forever!”
Then all the people gave a great shout, praising the Lord because the foundation of the Lord’s Temple had been laid. But many of the older priests, and other leaders who had seen the first Temple wept aloud when they saw the new Temple’s foundation. The others, however, were shouting for joy. The joyful shouting and weeping mingled together in a loud noise that could be heard far in the distance.
Sorrow and Joy Join
This celebration takes place amidst the ruins, only the altar and the foundation have been restored. And as they worship God together there, the people are overwhelmed with joy at the promises that have been fulfilled, amazed at God’s goodness and faithfulness. Yet many are also overcome with sorrow at what has been lost and the painful grief for how things used to be. Joy and sorrow mingle together in that moment, they cannot be distinguished, and both are offered up in that worship.
This is a story of return, but a return marked with grief. It’s a story of redemption, but a painful redemption. It’s a story of promises kept, but not without a price. It’s a story of rejoicing, but the joy is inextricably linked to the losses that came before. It’s a story of ambiguous joy – but isn’t that the story of our lives, too? And isn’t that the core of the Advent story? We wait for the final fulfillment of God’s promises, the final coming of Jesus to bring peace, with a joyful anticipation yet at the same time we stand in the midst of the rubble of what has been lost as we wait – loved one lost, relationships lost, perhaps other hopes or plans dashed along the way. The pain is woven together with the joy of love that has been, the hope of redemption to come.
Sitting in the wreckage
In Ezra, it’s the young ones who rejoice and the older ones who weep, but none of us exist fully in one state or the other, the sounds of our joyful shouts can never be easily distinguished from the sounds of our weeping. What is the brokenness, the rubble or wreckage of life that you are sitting in right now? Is it something in your personal life? Or it is the brokenness in the wider life of our community, our nation, our world? What are the losses, the grief and pain, that is woven together with the joy in this Advent season?
Perhaps you are asking the questions that the Israelites asked: Why has God done this? Why did things fall apart? Has God abandoned us? Can I still trust God? Can I trust the promises God gives in the Bible? How do we reestablish a right relationship with God in the midst of the brokenness?
Ezra tells us that the first celebration held on the new foundation of the Temple was the Festival of Tabernacles – the celebration of God’s faithfulness to their ancestors when they traveled through the wilderness living in tents/tabernacles. Perhaps for us, too, the place to start is to take time to worship, to remember and celebrate God’s faithfulness in the past, and to pray with the psalmist, “Restore to me the joy of my salvation, and renew a willing spirit within me. (Ps.51:12)
And isn’t this the perfect time – Christmas, the celebration of God’s faithfulness in sending His own Son, keeping His promise of a Messiah, the proof of God’s enduring love for you and for me. And even if your shouts of joy are joined with tears of sadness or sighs of longing, we bring it all in worship to God. We live into God’s promises, into God’s new and bright future holding both our sorrow and our joy, waiting for healing and comfort and new life and Christ’s coming.
Worship and Sing!
We live into God’s promises and God’s future by coming together to worship, by coming together to do the work that God gives us to do. The worship service held on the rebuilt foundation of the Temple had trumpets blasting, cymbals crashing, the 200-voice choir singing. They sang an old, familiar song from their psalter – their song book and prayer book. Perhaps it was Psalm 136, chanted responsively. Join me in reading responsively the first few verses of that psalm:
Give
thanks to the Lord, for He is good.
His love endures
forever.
Give thanks to the God of gods.
His love endures
forever.
Give
thanks to the Lord of lords:
His love endures
forever.
to Him who
alone does great wonders,
His love endures
forever.
who by His
understanding made the heavens,
His love endures
forever.
who spread
out the earth upon the waters,
His love endures
forever.
who led His people through the wilderness;
His love endures
forever.
(And now my own verses…)
who sent His
one and only Son
His love endures
forever.
to be born in a lowly stable in Bethlehem,
His love endures
forever.
the Shepherd
who gave His life for His flock,
His love endures
forever.
and went
ahead to prepare a place for us,
His love endures
forever.
and will
come again to take us home,
His love endures
forever.
Amen!
God is faithful 100%! Jesus told his disciples, “I have told you these things so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.” (Jn.15:11) Let us worship God together with a familiar song:
Closing Song: “Joy to the World”
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