Year B
Third Sunday of Advent
December 14, 2014
Cross~Wind UMC
Title: Restore us with Joy
Going deeper
Psalm 126 is a communal
thanksgiving psalm. The date is prior to the 587 exile. It became part of the
Songs of Ascents collected during the time of the reform initiated during the
reign of Josiah. The psalm combines profound piety with noble simplicity. The
psalmist gains deep strength from the hope of the people. The psalmist offers a
plea for help. What God has done in the past becomes a paradigm for the help
for which the community now pleads.
126: 1-3
recall a supreme moment of the past.
When
the Lord restored (indicating that Jerusalem had experienced misfortune) the fortunes of Zion, (a reference to
Jerusalem)
we
were like those who dream. (The mood is the psalm is like those in a
dream).
Then our mouth was filled with
laughter,
and
our tongue with shouts of joy;
then
it was said among the nations, (This restoration of the fortunes of Zion
will have the result of becoming a testimony to the nations. The restoration of
Zion is not for the purpose of glorifying Zion.)
“The
Lord has done great things for them.” (Here is the reason for the
restoration of the fortunes of Zion. The Lord is the only one who can turn
things around.)
The Lord has done great things
for us,
and
we rejoiced. (In the presence of such restoration, the human response is
one of joy).
126: 4 is
the heart of the matter.
Restore
our fortunes, O Lord,
like
the watercourses in the Negeb. (Here is a likely reference to the
torrential rains that would occasionally fill the dry desert with water.)
This prayer arises out of intimacy and assurance. It also
suggests a belief in a God who is powerful to save and restore, and therefore
do great things. Such a God is the basis of this prayer.
126: 5-6
indicate agricultural festivals.
May
those who sow in tears
reap
with shouts of joy. (Yes, the labor that is part of life will have its
tears, but a time for reaping will come, and then we have joy.)
Those who go out weeping,
bearing the seed for sowing,
shall
come home with shouts of joy, carrying their sheaves. (As if to repeat, the
tides of life constantly shift, weeping being part of life, but they shall
shout for joy, the second reference to joy in this brief Psalm. The present,
that may carry its tears and weeping, also carries with it the seeds of joy.
The point of the psalm, of course, is that “Laughter,”
“rejoicing,” and “joy” have returned to the people. This psalm is for those on
a journey, a journey that has a specific destination, and yet people cannot
believe their good fortune in the process. Yes, they experience weeping and
tears, but they also laugh, rejoice, and have joy.
Introduction
Have you ever lost your wallet? I
never lost it in a final sense, but I have done stupid things. I left it at a
Starbucks once, drove a half hour, returned to Starbucks, and it was still
there. You can imagine the panic I was feeling on the way. I left it overnight
at Buffalo Wild Wings once. Someone found it, but it was a moment of panic.
My panic was around the cards that
were in it. Our wallets contain the proof of our identity, tell others we are
licensed to drive a car and get on a plane, carry our cash and credit cards --
in other words, just about everything we need to move about in the world.
I came across a little
human-interest story about Bill Fulton, who had lost his wallet. Whatever panic
he felt was gone, for he had lost it in 1946, and 63 years later he had pretty
much forgotten about it.
Bill is not sure exactly when or
under what circumstances he accidentally dropped his smooth leather wallet with
a cowboy design behind the wooden bleachers at Baker Middle School in Baker
City, Oregon. It was probably during a basketball game between the Baker
Bulldogs and some long forgotten opponent (the Baker High School team played at
the Middle School back then). There it sat for 63 years until worker Nathan
Osborne found it on June 17, 2009, while tearing out those old pre-World War II
era bleachers during a renovation project at the school. Osborne found the wallet
right where Bill had dropped it, along with stuff other students had dropped
back there during the school's history: some old homework, lost library books,
and a program from the 1964 talent show.
The next day, Baker Middle School
secretary Melanie Trindle brought the newly found wallet to Fulton's home in
Baker City. "He was pretty much amazed," said Trindle. "He just
kept saying, 'Thank you. Thank you so much.'"
"After that long, my gosh, it
stayed in good shape," says Bill about the wallet. "It's hard to
believe."
Bill was overjoyed to have it back,
but not necessarily because of what was still in it. His Social Security Card
was still tucked in its usual place. He did not have any cash to begin with, so
none was missing. His bicycle license was in there, bearing the address of the
house he lived in at the time. Bill remembers that he needed the license
because of his job delivering medicine for Rodamar Drug. The only thing missing
was his student ID, which Fulton swears he always kept in the wallet. While all
those things were important at the time, the real value of the wallet for Bill
was the memories it brought back of a wonderful period in his 78 years of life.
After high school, Bill went off to
the Korean War, then to Berlin, and back to Baker City where he worked for
Ellingson Lumber for 30 years, retiring in 1994. Now Bill spends his days
hiking in the mountains with his dog Smokey. To use his own words, Bill has
"covered a lot of country" since 1946. "Where did all the time
go?" he asks with a deep sigh. "It's hard to believe that the times
have gone so fast." If only for a moment, feeling the leather of that long
lost wallet reminds Bill that it has all been worth it, and reminds him of who
he is.
Finding something we have lost -- especially something as
valuable as a wallet that reminds us who we are -- is cause for both relief and
joy. On this third Sunday of Advent, as we light the candle of joy, we
celebrate the fact that God exposes our lost and hidden identity and, to borrow
the words of the psalmist, restores our "fortunes" (Psalm 126:1).
Application
The psalmist teaches us that joy is
not just a good feeling that arises spontaneously. Instead, we feel joy most
intently after the resolution of a period of distress.
It is one thing to be happy to be
carrying around a wallet that we take for granted, it is quite another to find
that wallet after a long period of searching for it frantically or after
resigning ourselves to its being lost forever. It is one thing to live in God's
grace when everything is going well, but it is quite another to experience the
reality of that same grace after a period when we have been lost, searching or
distant from God. It is not just something you nod and smile about but, as the
psalmist says repeatedly, it is something about which you have to shout! (vv.
2, 5, 6).
First, when we truly connect with God, we connect with joy.
Brian McLaren thinks that when we
connect with God, we plug our souls into a pure current high-voltage joy. I
like that. God is a joyful being. To enter into the presence of God is to enjoy
a bracing jolt of invigorating delight. Granted, there is a time for quiet
reverence and the dignity of pipe organs. Yet, God is joyful, and this divine
joy is contagious.[1]
Preachers often rightly criticize
the way this culture approaches the season of Christmas. However, one emotion
the culture gets right is that of joy. Yes, it might feel at times like a
general and vague warm, fuzzy feeling connected with family and friends. Yet,
it might also be a deeper joy that comes from turning yet another corner in our
lives. We have a sense of joy in the healing potential of this season and of
the future possibilities. Yet, let me suggest that the brokenness that may
people feel in our culture needs a deeper healing that only God can bring into
their lives. Think of the joy of allowing God to heal brokenness. Think of the
joy of finding who and whose you are. When humanity was lost, Christmas reminds
us that God is the one who sought us and found us.
Second, joy is not the same thing
as happiness, cheerfulness, or good
luck.
C. S. Lewis, in Surprised by Joy, said that joy is
"an unsatisfied
desire which is itself more desirable than any other satisfaction. . . I doubt
whether anyone who has tasted it would ever, if both were in his power,
exchange it for all the pleasures in the world."
Third,
the opposite of joy may not be sadness or sorrow, but anxiety.
Jesus encouraged
his followers, "do not worry about
your life. . . Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?"
Consider the joy of the birds in their morning songs, or the flowers in their
springtime glory, he said. If the Lord of the universe clothes creation with
such extravagance, then we can rejoice in divine love regardless of our circumstances.
Jesus says that we rest in God's love "so
that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete" (John
15:11).[2]
Conclusion
Bill Fulton could only keep
repeating "Thank you, thank you" when that long lost wallet showed up
at his door in the hands of a caring school secretary. The third Sunday of
Advent is an opportunity for us to say "Thank you" to God for giving
us the ability to discover our true identities, to redeem our memories, restore
our fortunes and to shout with joy!
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