Restore our fortunes, O Lord

We are in the season of Advent. We've said that here were in the third week saying that were in the season of Advent and yet? If we were to go outside these doors and give ourselves an assignment, some of us go to the mall over in Portage. Others show up at the Walmart here or over there on 9th Street, maybe a few others show up at the Panera or the Biggby and we sit down with a questionnaire and asked everyone who came across our path. Have they heard of the season of Advent?

Probably not many. Would have heard of it. They probably look at us with a little bit of confusion. None of us want to look like we don't know what we're talkin about, or don't know Something do something like volunteer Advent that like like an Advent candle or an Advent wreath. And that might be the extent of what we get out of people. That sense of not really, knowing there is a season of Advent and really, they're living it out Anyways, they're in the process of preparing, as are we getting ready for Christmas? Advent is all about coming. Christmas is coming and of course, we're also getting ready. For the return of Christ. Advent is a season about coming, the coming of the Christ child and also the return of Christ. And ya know we could explain that with our clipboard in hand and our pen as we mark off and explain to each person with the season of advent is and they say uh-huh Ya, thank you very much. And they go away feeling maybe a little more educated but likely to forget everything we said within a week.

So how does one grasp, what is really going on? Why were taking this time? Perhaps you had the opportunity to look over the shoulder of your child, or even your grandchild, as they play with one of their screens. And as they play one of their games, there is a remarkable thing that happens. Maybe you've seen it. There character, Something harmful happened to their character and they seem to be Nonplussed by it, not bothered by it, it's a non-issue because their character will come about again. It'll be reborn or as they say in Minecraft respawned. I got concerned about that when I first heard that in Minecraft, that's okay. My character is going to spawn again over here. What? And they get their character back and they get to start all over, they get to start anew. They like that beginning again. So they're able to take risks and go forward and try things. That's okay. They can start again.

There's something powerful about restoration and being restored and so much of our Advent themes have circulated around the idea of being restored and there's a joy that comes with being able to start over that. Life isn't done that. You know, you get a flat on the highway and now you're thinking about changing your tire and wouldn't it be great if you could just push a button and you don't have a flat tire anymore? How many are in favor of that?

Right. Now we have something, what are children involved except for when they play Minecraft and, and if they're playing in survival mode and they lose their character and I know right now your eyes are glazing over. Looks like your grandchild eyes glaze over when you start to tell him about your past.

When they respawn, they don't get any of their stuff back. That's kind of a bummer, isn't it? It's kind of a partial restoration. It's not a complete restoration. It's a partial restoration and Advent finds us in that middle Place of restored and not fully restored of the Kingdom coming. But not yet fully here. And so in Advent, we are preparing for the celebration of the coming of the Christ child, but we're also yearning, for our King to return and everything to be restored. And so we've been focusing on three themes. We focused on Hope and peace. And this week. We're focusing on Joy and we've been using the Psalms to bring us to these different elements of advent. And so we're going to read from Psalm 126 and see if we can't hear that theme of Joy. Let's take a moment to pray.

Lord, you know, precisely,

What we need to hear today. What you want us to hear? Oh, we may come today thinking. We know. Or even believing that there's not much we need to hear today. But, you know, Lord. You know, through your spirit, how to guide and mold and redirect us so that we might follow ever closer to you. That we might become the people that you intend us to be. Help us this morning O Lord to hear your word in Jesus name. Amen.

We're in Psalm 126. We're going to read the complete psalm. It's a short psalm. It begins this way. When the Lord restore the fortunes of Zion, we were like those who dream that our mouth was filled with laughter and our tongue with shouts of joy. Then they said, among the nation's, the Lord has done great things for them. The Lord has done great things for us. We are glad. Restore our fortunes. Oh Lord, like streams in the Negev. Those who sow in tears shall reap with shouts of Joy. He who goes out weeping, bearing the seed for sowing. Shall come home with shouts of Joy, bringing his sheaves with him.

This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. I want to do something. And I'll ask our Tech Booth to help us. I want to read this again. This time. I want you to catch what happens? The first three verses speak of a past event. And then there's a shift and it speaks of a future from verse 4 on. And I would suggest to you that we are caught between verses 3 and 4. So listen again. When the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion, we were like those who dream that our mouths were filled with laughter and our tongues with shouts of joy. And he said, among the nation's, the Lord has done great things for them. The Lord has done great things for us and we are glad

Restore our fortunes. Oh Lord, like streams in the Negev. Those who sow in tears shall reap with shouts of Joy. He who goes out weeping. Bearing the seed for sowing shall come home with shouts of Joy. Bringing his sheaves with him. Maybe this time you were able to catch that exchange that change from verse 3 to 4. This psalm, Psalm 126 is able to capture our reality in a way that few passages capture us completely. It captures that past, as well as that future. And yet holds Us in the Middle where we really are in that in-between place. That's where we find ourselves between what has happened and what is yet to happen and the psalmist is speaking from that in-between place. Let's go to the Past. Let's deal with that first part when it speaks of when the Lord restored, the fortunes of Zion. We've talked about many times here, how the Israelites looked back to their past. They look to God's actions in their history, in their Heritage, and they lived upon those past actions. They lived with an ever-present, reminder of The Exodus of them being brought out of Egypt, out of the land of captivity. They remembered The Parting of the Red Sea and they're walking through on dry land. They remember, they're coming into the promised land, and that first challenge of Jericho and walking around it several times and the walls come tumbling down.

They remember well, their Heritage, indeed they even have things such as the Passover meal, which is an annual meal in which Jesus himself redefined, and used that Passover meal, to explain what he was doing. But that Passover meal had been for them all generations, a meal of Education, and Training and remembering Their past. It would be as if you every year had to be sat down and you had to go through the old slideshow of the family's history.

They remembered their past. I don't know about you though. When we haven't lived that past, it's not as real to us. I mean, here I am in my 50s and I watch it happen with my own children and they're doing the same thing that I did with my parents. Maybe you did it with yours as well. I have greater appreciation now for the history and and reality of my parents life, before I was born, they would tell me all the events that happened in their life when they were where they met when they met, how they met at, and how long they dated, and where they went to school. And when they were married and where all these events happened, and I got to admit to you, I kind of glaze over. I hear it. And not fully hear it, I take it in, but honestly reality didn't really come into being until I did.

Right. There's something in which we can talk about the past and say it's of value. But there's another part in, which it changes. If we didn't live through it. This past weekend, or past week. We celebrated, actually celebrated in the word because it was a day of infamy.

Pearl Harbor, 80 years ago. That's a negative event. But just like, if you go down to San Antonio, Remember the Alamo. events, that happened that we know happened in part of our history, but we don't take them in in the same way. That's not the past that the psalmist has in mind at the start of this paslm. The psalmist is speaking to a past. That is very real. That those who are listening. remember Well, you see, they've lived through their own Exodus. They remember well, the stories. Of how the northern kingdom was carried away by Assyria and the southern kingdom was carried away by Babylon. They lived that second experience. That carrying away to Babylon that going into Exile. That's where we get our stories of Danielle and Shadrach and Meshach in a Bendigo. When they're carried away from their land. But, they weren't there forever. And after 70 years, something amazing happened. They the people were released. They were no longer captives. Not only that they were released to go back to their Homeland and more than that. They were released to go back to their Homeland with all the Royal Authority and all that they would need to repair everything that have been destroyed.

Now, They were overwhelmed. As they say, when the Lord restore the fortunes of Zion. We were like those who dream. They couldn't hardly believe it was happening. What do you mean? We're no longer Captive? We no longer have to stay here? What? You're going to foot the bill for the reparations? You know, that sense of having to pinch themselves believing, it couldn't have happened. Its as if you go home today and you're met at the door by Bill Gates, who says, you know what, all my fortune is now yours, who believes that's going to happen today?

Right, and if it did you be like, no, come on, where's the camera? You know, they were overwhelmingly amazed.

The expression was that their mouths were filled with laughter. The words for the joy. They had here isn't simply Joy. It's shouts of Joy. It's just absolutely breaking out in amazement. They were just yelling to each other I can you believe this? It's like the living room when your favorite team scores the winning score and everybody's high-fiving one another. But so much more than a simple sporting event. They were freed. They were released. They were on their way home. When many of them, no longer knew what home looked like. Overwhelming. Amazement.

but we

We are in this passage. In that verse. That's not a verse.

In that moment. That is assumed. That part that speaks from the place in which the psalm itself is written. That doesn't Define the in-between, but rather is living in the in between. We remember what that joyous day was like we lived it when God freed us and set about everything that was going to be good for us and yet,

It's not yet, All good.

For the grandchild. It's the Minecraft character that's respawned but doesn't get all of his stuff. It's that in-between place that we live daily. In which we acknowledge that God has sent his son Jesus Christ into the world.

Not only sent God's Son into the world, but God's Son came and died on the cross for us. Taking our sins upon himself paying our price. We live in the reality of knowing that we have been freed from sin and that we can walk with God through Jesus Christ. And yet. As much as we can Proclaim that to the person outside on the sidewalk. There's still a part in which someone can say, yeah but what do you do with what just happened the other day, just by the weather?

A tornado that's on the ground for over 200 miles. All the death and destruction.

What do you do with the believer? Who's saying I believe and yet. My loved ones in the hospital. And I don't know where this is going to go. we live in that in-between place in which its great to speak of Joy, but you know,

Today's kind of hard. Today's kind of rough.

How am I supposed to handle today?

Advent. Is more than Advent candles. More than an Advent wreath.

It's about getting ready for the coming of Christ again.

It's about preparing our hearts. And getting ready.

There's a shift that happens between verse 3. And verse 4. It moves from the past that we experienced.

And it moves. Not from the present. But to a future expectation.

Oh God, you did this in the past. We are now praying for you to do this in the future. Which is what gets to that third item on the banner restore, our fortunes. Oh Lord. Restore our fortunes. Oh, Lord. It's that bringing everything back to the way it was meant to be. That's just the way it was, but the way it is meant to be the new heavens and a new Earth. Is calling for an entirely new reality? That God would fully make us whole. That there'd be no more mourning or crying or pain anymore. Now, the imagery that is used is really quite something. It's an imagery with water. And what I find fascinating about the imagery, there's two different images, they both play with water. But what's fascinating to me is even those who've gone out of their way to help make the Bible accessible to others. Such as Eugene Peterson many people, appreciate Eugene Peterson's The Message, which is his re- not so much translation, but a paraphrasing of what the scripture says. So that someone who's not familiar with God's words, can still access it and even Eugene Peterson stays away from changing the way, the psalmist, puts this because there's no better way to put it. Uses an image of water in the first water is powerful in our lives, right? Water, you know, we look at water was a parting, the Red Sea. We look at water in baptism. Water cleanses, refreshes, sustains. Water's a powerful image that just brings us hope and

The scripture uses this, the Psalmist uses water in this way.

He says.

Let There Be water in the negev, Let There Be streams that flow in the negev. May our joy flow like that. Now what you need to know is the Negev, if that's not a familiar term with you. You might as well just substitute desert. Negev is this place in in Israel, which is really barren. It's it's it's just, it's desert. And there are things such as where it looks like a stream used to be. They call them wadis, it's totally dry. It's a channel, but there's no water whatsoever. Even if you dig down you're not going to find any water. It's like those pictures you get from Mars where it suggested. Maybe there was a river at one time. I mean, it's just it looks like you could have been a stream there, but there's nothing. It's know as a wadi w-a-d-i. And what the Psalmist is saying is let our joy flow, like streams in the Negev. See, there's one time of year where the water comes and it rains and those dry streams those dry Wadis suddenly fill up with water flowing and rushing and it is such a contrast of image that feeling of barren that feeling Like there could never be water here again. And yet the water now flows and you just are surprised by it. Restore. Our fortunes is calling upon God, to bring about that, which looks impossible as Christians. We are always dealing with that struggle of the impossible. We're always dealing with the sense of, we believe this, but we've got to face reality. We say, well that's just the way it is, but the truth of the matter is in in the scriptures and in our faith, we are constantly being called upon, to realize that God can do the impossible. And the psalmist is saying like in the same way that you pulled us out of captivity. Not only pulled us out of captivity. Let us go home, but you also had them pay for it.

That's amazing. That's a complete reversal of Fortunes in the same way. Oh Lord, restore our fortunes. There's an acknowledgment event that things aren't yet fully right. O Lord, make them right in such a way. That what looks dry and empty and has no chance. Let it be flowing with streams. Let our Joy Burst forth. It's like Ezekiel. The prophet who has a vision of dry bones. In a valley where it's all dry and got us. And God asks the prophet can these bones live? I mean, what is the obvious answer, there's no way, their bones. The prophet knows enough to say only, you know, O Lord.

Our joy. Comes from believing in a God, who can do the impossible.

Sends his son into the world to die for us and then raises his son from Death can do the impossible.

The next image. Becomes more personal. Still an image of water. Still an image, that's not changed. An image that really comes from an agrarian society. A society where, you know, you need water to live because plants need water.

In this image. It's an image that acknowledges the pain and the sorrow we experience in life. And it calls upon God to take our tears. and let our tears be the very The suffering, be the very reality that brings forth. Joy.

Those who sow with tears. Would still reap bountifully. That God would somehow take our suffering. And turn it. And bring us joy.

That's an amazing change. That is really hard for us to believe possible.

but as we get ready for, The return of Christ. As we journey through this season of Advent, the season of coming. There's a call upon us to realize that even in our suffering, God is ready and able to produce Joy. Calling us forth to see what God will yet do. Restore our fortunes. Oh, Lord. Restore us to what it should be. We're waiting for a new Heaven and a new Earth. Let us pray.