Today is
the first Sunday of Advent. Earlier in our service we lit a candle for hope. We also earlier heard verse 3 from Psalm 80 that
pleaded with God “Restore us O God; let Your face shine, that we may be saved.”
Hope can be a hard commodity to catch hold of
when everything seems to be going wrong. You went along to the doctors thinking it was nothing serious, and they found something
nasty. The company is downsizing and you have no seniority. A family member has gone off the rails and the implications are
going to be tough to handle. How do we get through such times?
During the reign of King Josiah (640-609 BC),
Judea was ravaged by their Assyrian neighbors. Whole families were
destroyed, livelihoods taken away and only a remnant survived in Jerusalem to tell the tale through their tears. They were in a hopeless situation. Their enemies mocked them. They felt abandoned by an angry God punishing them for their unfaithfulness.
Do you ever feel that way when things start going
wrong? God is angry? That the bad things that happen to you are a punishment for something you’ve done? Be assured by
this Psalm, you are not the first to feel that way; the whole Judean nation felt that God was mad at them.
The sobering truth was that they had been unfaithful.
God told them what would happen if they carried on down that road, and it had happened just like the prophets of doom had
said. Likewise, there are times in our lives when the things that befall us are nobody’s fault but our own. We are willful.
We do reject good advice. We go our own way.
The question then is if there is any hope for
trapped, abandoned, foolish, people like us? When things go bad what can we do? That’s where this Psalm is coming from.
And here is the advice we are offered.
- Firstly, Remember. We remind ourselves,
not of what we have done or of what has been done to us, but remind ourselves who God is and what God can do.
- Secondly, Reach Out. We call on God
to help us. We turn our tears to prayers.
- Thirdly, Rest. We rest… in the sense of waiting. Waiting, not in the manner of one about to be ushered into the dentist’s
surgery, but in quiet anticipation that in God’s time, redemption will come.
Remember
When things in our lives turn from hope to hopelessness
it is good to remember that we are not God. As we say in our Ash Wednesday service “From
dust we have come and to dust we shall return”. Life comes with no guarantee.
We will mess up. We are all sinners who fall short of the glory of God. We are not immune from the bad things that
befall the rest of creation. Chaos and decay are all around and it’s a miracle we make it through even a single day
on this planet unscathed. You messed up bad enough to make God angry? Join the
club! Life’s not fair? Go figure! That’s the way it’s always been.
Yet in the midst of that remembering our own
mortality the Psalmist bids us to remember the immortality and character of God. Psalm 80 begins with beautiful imagery. God
is ‘The Shepherd of Israel’ who ‘led Joseph like a flock’. God is the One enthroned above the angels,
resplendent in light, powerful, mighty, and awesome!
Remember what God can do and has done. Troubles
in the present always seem to obscure the bigger picture. When you are under a cloud you don’t see or feel the sunshine.
But the sun is still shining. Like Jimmy Buffet says, “It’s five o clock somewhere!” Don’t allow circumstances
that are currently dragging you down to define your destiny.
Israel had known God as the Shepherd that had led them through times when all had seemed lost. As they recall
that fact and remember that God was still in the shepherding business, a glimmer of hope starts to appear. If God could do
it then, and God hasn’t changed, then… maybe… God really can help us now!
It is at that point of realization the Psalmist
prays; ‘“Restore us O God; let Your face shine, that we may be saved.”
Already we are guided towards the second thing we need to do if we are to journey from hopelessness to hope - we need to…
Reach
Out
“Oh
Lord’ cries the Psalmist, “How
long will You be angry with Your people’s prayers?” Notice from these words the brutal honesty of the Psalmist.
Whilst in his heart he knows God can bring redemption, he also knows how bad they had messed up. God had to be angry. Their
God was a just God. Yet, the psalmist reasons, God was still the Shepherd. Shepherds didn’t stay angry forever. So the Psalmist just throws the prayer out there!
I have something to say that may be a revelation
to Presbyterians like us, with our liturgy and well structured prayers and beautiful anthems and stained glass glories. The revelation? It’s O.K. to tell God how you really feel. In fact, the words
and phrases you use may be grammatically correct and poetically perfect but if they don’t reflect what is in your heart,
God will be listening to your heart and not hearing your words. The only prayers that God hears are the real ones.
So if today you are at one of those crossroads
where you really don’t know what to pray then, follow the Psalmist’s lead, just throw it out there! If there are
things that you really want to tell God, but are afraid to say what you are really thinking, then its time to come clean.
God’s heard it all before, so don’t think that when we come with our probing questions that God will be knocked
from the throne.
If it helps to yell, then yell. If the prayer
comes through bitter tears then it comes through bitter tears. If it is made through gritted teeth then pray through gritted
teeth. If you are too ashamed to admit what’s going on, then tell God you are to ashamed to admit what’s going
on… and take it from there. And by the way… God does know what’s been going on. That all-seeing, all knowing
thing…kind of big-brother-ish, but God’s always been that way! So if you need help, ask for help. If you have
messed up, own up. If you are fed up, then give it up. Time and time again that’s what the Psalmists do!
Remember who God is and what God can do.
Reach out to God with what’s really on
your mind.
Thirdly; Rest.
Rest
Rest… in the sense of waiting. Wait, not
in the manner of one about to be ushered into the dentist’s surgery, but in quiet anticipation that in God’s time,
redemption will come. Advent is a time of waiting. Waiting for the Savior to come. We light a candle of hope. We don’t
hope for things we already have, we hope for things that are yet to be.
Advent hope is not hope without purpose, it is
hope focused on promise. It is hope focused on the promises of God, that God will redeem, that God will intervene, that God
will come into the midst of our hurts and concerns and will help us through.
The book of Hebrews 4:9 tells us “There remains therefore a rest
for the people of God.” (NKJ) The
‘rest’ there being spoken of is not talking about ‘couch time’ or ‘lazing around in a hammock
on a sunny afternoon’, but rest in terms of a place where a person’s heart and emotions can be settled because
they know God will take care of things, in God’s way and in God’s time.
This was the rest the Psalmist was seeking. The
people had messed up. They were receiving the due penalty for their wrongdoing. But a new day would come. They were forgiven.
God’s love would once more shine upon them. God was still God and they were still God’s people.
I believe an e-mail passed onto me by Patricia,
our Treasurer, captures Advent hope in an even better way: “Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass... it's about learning to dance in the rain!” So as we begin the journey to Christmas, as the weather reminds us it’s winter and there are bills on
the side waiting to be paid, as there are concerns we carry and things we don’t want to face… take time to put
on your dancing shoes! God still loves us! Jesus still died for us! God still sends His Holy Spirit to comfort us!
- Remember: Remember who God is and what God
can do.
- Reach Out: Reach out with prayers, with tears,
with honesty and integrity. Come before God aware of your need and the ability of God’s Holy Spirit to touch your life.
- Rest: Rest and give time for God to act in
your situation. Be quietly confident in God’s Word that comes through Scripture and through others people’s words
and actions as they respond to God’s promptings. Trust that God will act in God’s time, and rest confident in
such assurances.
And to the One the Psalmist describes as ‘The shepherd of Israel, who led Joseph like a flock! You who are enthroned above the cherubim’ (Psalm 80:1), the One who sent His Son Jesus Christ to be our Savior and sends His Holy Spirit
to be our comforter and guide, be all honor, praise and glory. Amen.
