Year B
First Sunday of Advent
November 30, 2014
Title: Restore Us with Hope
Physical image: candle on candlestick
Going deeper
Psalm 80 is a communal lament. One
of the important dates to remember in Old Testament history is 721 BC. After
Solomon, one was the northern kingdom of Israel and the other was the southern
kingdom of Judah. Assyria threatened both kingdoms. This psalm arises from that
experience of national threat and emergency. Eventually, Assyria would carry
the nation off into exile. Yet, we see the longing for restoration and help in
a time of national calamity. The psalm is an expression on inner groaning and
heartfelt plea to God, who alone can restore what the psalmist has lost. We
will look at a few of the verses. We begin with an invocation and petition. The writer wants us to envision God in a
certain way.
Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel, you who lead
Joseph like a flock!
You who are enthroned upon the cherubim,
Now, based upon this
vision of who God is, the writer makes a petition.
shine forth {2} before Ephraim and Benjamin
and Manasseh.
Stir up your might, and come to save us!
{3} Restore us, O God;
let your face shine, that we may be saved.
If they are to
experience any restoration, it will come from God. The writer now offers the
lament.
{4} O LORD God of hosts,
how long will you be angry with your people's
prayers?
{5} You have fed them with the bread of
tears,
and given them tears to drink in full
measure.
{6} You make us the scorn of our neighbors;
our enemies laugh among themselves.
Have you ever had a
lament like that? Have you ever felt like you were the target of so much
suffering that tears were your bread and drink? Maybe not, but if not, you can
think of situations where it might feel like that. Once again, the psalm offers
a petition for restoration.
{7} Restore us, O God of hosts;
let your face shine, that we may be saved.
The next verses
relate a parable, where the Lord brought a vine, Israel, out of Egypt and
planted it in the land of Canaan. Based on this, the psalmist wants God to turn
toward Israel again. The writer then offers a petition. He wants God to look
down from heaven with regard for the vine, that is, for Israel. God, infinite
and eternal, wholly other than human beings, will yet turn to what takes place
on earth. This distinction between heaven and earth also assumes that God has
given the creatures of earth room to live their lives alongside God. The
petition ends with the following words.
{17}But let your hand be upon the one at your
right hand, [referring to
the king]
the one whom you made strong for yourself.
{18} Then we will never turn back from you;
give us life,[after all, the Spirit of God is the source
of life] and we will call on your name.
{19} Restore us, O LORD God of hosts;
let your face shine, that we may be saved.
Introduction
I want to talk with you just a bit
about Advent.
He made his comic-strip debut in
1931, in the depths of the Great Depression. Dick Tracy was a hard-hitting
police detective who fought the good fight against a colorful array of crooks
and hoodlums. He had technology going for him in order to communicate. He had a
wristwatch on which one could communicate like a phone and in 1961, in which he
could see the person with whom he was talking. It was quite amazing.
My mother talked on the telephone
we had in the kitchen. After work, she would get a cup of coffee and cigarette
and call a friend, talking for hours, so it seemed. When I went to college, I
tried to write a letter once a month. In those days, one could record a message
on a cassette tape. Of course, one could always talk face-to-face.
We have so many ways to communicate
today. If you are in a public place, 50% of the people will have a phone in
their hands, texting, showing photos, reading e-mail, or listening to music.
Communication is so readily
available that down time is getting increasingly precious.
When was the last time you had a
heart-to-heart talk?
You see, the irony of all this
communication is that people have the feeling of being increasingly insulated.
Yes, “friend” has become a verb. We “friend” someone on facebook and “follow”
on twitter. Yet, seeing words appear on a screen is not as emotionally
satisfying as exchanging feelings and thoughts face-to-face.
Try saying it aloud -- "You're
here." Experiment with the number of ways that you can change the meaning,
depending on how it is said. One can convey anything from excitement (You're
here!) to amazement (you're here?) to disgust (you are here). How something is
said can make a world of difference. That complex variety of possibilities can
be lost in a text message: "U R here," as in capital U, capital R,
plus here. It just does not convey the emotion behind the statement.
Advent is about time spent with
God.
That statement almost feels strange
to me. Yes, I was among those who spent a little time at Wal-Mart on Thursday
night. The temptation is to think about things like the activities and gifts of
the season.
If our "face time" with
each other is dwindling, our time spent one on one with God is on the
endangered list. Sadly, our busy world with endless to-do lists challenges the
notion of the importance of quiet time with our Creator. Advent invites us to
turn that life-draining pattern upside down. Advent celebrates the
incarnational, Word-becomes-flesh God. Advent announces that God was not
willing to have a distant, arms-length relationship with us -- God's beloved
creatures formed in God's image. Advent is all about God's willingness -- even
insistence -- to be vulnerable, accessible, reachable, and attainable. Advent
breaks down the barriers between the created and the Creator.
God does begin the process with a
message. One could look upon the world God has made and see it as a testimony
to the majesty of God. Matthew tells us of wise people in the east looking upon
the star and following it. One has an open invitation to celebrate the God who
made all of this, including you and me. Yet, such a form of communication is
one we easily misunderstand. King Herod clearly did not get it.
God does not stop there; God also
sends messengers to deliver this urgent, good news. God sent prophets to Israel
who looked forward to Immanuel, God with us. God sent angels, especially
Gabriel in Luke, to announce the birth of a child and sing their praises to the
shepherds.
Nevertheless, messaging was not
enough. God did not choose to communicate through a third person. God's desire
was to deliver the Good News of mercy, love and hope in person. God chose face
time in a way that would change the world. God spoke to the hearts of the
people through Jesus, God's Son.
Not only does God yearn to communicate
deeply and intimately with God's people, God chooses the perfect way to slide
into our lives. While anyone might reasonably be intimidated by the idea of
approaching the omnipotent, omniscient Master of the Universe and speaking up,
even the most hesitant among us can be drawn into a conversation with a child.
Place a baby in meager circumstances -- like, for example, in a manger, a
feeding trough for farm animals -- and even the hardest of hearts will begin to
warm up and the most serious of persons will grudgingly smile. Invite passersby
to come, worship and adore and lo -- a relationship is born.
Application
The writer of this Psalm, in a time
when hope is gone, has a heart to heart with God.
The prayer of the psalmist echoes
the hopeful yearning of God's people today. "Let your face shine that we may be saved," is the call of
people surrounded by technology but still lonely for meaningful communication.
It is the cry of people who may receive hundreds of texts every day but who
still feel unheard. It is the yearning of the human heart that does not want
simply to be told of love but needs to be transformed by love and hope for
nothing less.
The psalmist calls out
"shine," and throughout the season of Advent, the Good News of hope
is indeed illuminated. God's face shines not only in the baby Jesus but also in
the obedience of Mary, the willingness of Joseph, the amazement of the
shepherds, and the faithfulness of the magi. Advent is an invitation to us to
receive the gift of hope that, if received, is indeed our salvation.
We find hope in the shining face of
God
During this season, we might hear
words like what we want for Christmas or what we wish for Christmas. Eugene
Peterson (Living the Message: Daily Help
for Living the God-Centered Life) points out that what a lot of people call
hope is wishing.
"Wishing is
something all of us do. It projects what we want or think we need into the
future. Just because we wish for something good or holy we think it qualifies
as hope. It does not. Wishing extends our egos into the future; hope grows out
of our faith. Hope is oriented toward what God is doing; wishing is oriented
toward what we are doing."
Peterson goes on to say that we can
picture wishing as though it were a line coming out from us with an arrow on
the end, pointing into the future, pointing toward that thing we most want to
possess. Hope is just the opposite. Hope is a line that comes from God out of
the future, with its arrow pointing toward us.
"Hope means being
surprised, because we don't know what is best for us or how our lives are going
to be completed. To cultivate hope is to suppress wishing -- to refuse to
fantasize about what we want, but live in anticipation of what God is going to
do next."
"Let your face shine," pleads the psalmist: The question for us
is -- where do we see and experience God's face shining today? The good news
for this dark season is that the light does continue to shine in the darkness.
The grace of God can restore us. The darkness cannot overcome God's light.
God's face will shine and reflect God's mercy and forgiveness.
The answer to the sad plea in psalm
80 is a resounding "Yes."
- Yes, I will give ear to your cry.
- Yes, I will come and save you.
- Yes, I will restore our relationship fractured by your
faithlessness and sin.
- Yes, I will save you from neighbors who wish to destroy
you.
- Yes, my hand will be upon you.
- Yes, you will know the strength of the living God.
The promise of Advent is that the
strength of God meets us in the midst of our weakness. There is no place too
dismal, no sin too egregious, no transgression too dire to separate us from the
love of God who now comes to us in Christ.
Conclusion
The insistent message of Advent is
-- do not settle for less than the full power of God Immanuel, God always with
us. True, the reference to the shining face of God reminds us of the candles,
stars, and lights of this season. However, do not allow Advent to be only about
nice decorations and scented candles. Advent is about the desperate need for
forgiveness and the restoration of hope through a loving relationship with God.
Anything less than that does not speak to the urgent, heartfelt cry of God's
people.
We need God who is our hope -- in person, tangible. Not a
message, not a text, not even just a star in the sky.
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