"The Hope in Advent "Dr.
James L. Mayfield December 15, 2002 Text: Psalm 126 One August day in 1945, I had an experience unlike any other in my life. Dad had driven our family to the plaza in downtown El Paso, so we could be part of the experience. There was a huge, cheering crowd of people jumping up and down in excited joy. Some were weeping and smiling at the same time. Strangers embraced. I remember seeing one man half way out the back window of a car, using a big spoon to beat a kitchen pot as if it were a drum. Japan had surrendered, and World War II was over. I was only nine years old but that was old enough to know that what we were celebrating was more than the defeat of our nation's enemies. Year after year in church we had prayed for peace. And our family had prayed for for the safe return of our loved ones. One cousin went down with the Hornet in the pacific Another cousin lost his life flying a P-38 over Italy. The husband of another cousin was severely wounded in the Battle of the Bulge. A family friend was wounded emotionally as well as physically on Guadalcanal. Several other cousins and friends of our family had fought in the war. After Germany surrendered, those who had been fighting in Europe and were still alive and able were preparing for the invasion of Japan. I had heard my parents' worried conversations about the huge number of our soldiers and sailors who would be killed or wounded in an invasion of Japan. So, when Japan surrendered, there was great rejoicing. When I began preparing this sermon and read the first three verses of Psalm 126, memories of that celebration were reawakened. 1 When the LORD restored the fortunes of Zion, we were like those who dream. 2 Then our mouth was filled with laughter, and our tongue with shouts of joy; then it was said among the nations, "The LORD has done great things for them." 3 The LORD has done great things for us and we rejoiced. My childhood experience the day World War II ended has lot in common with the experience of joy described in these verses. The people of Judah had suffered a lot. In 597 B.C., they had been conquered by Babylonia and many of the leaders were marched into captivity in Babylon. About 10 years later, there was a rebellion in Jerusalem; the Babylonians responded by destroying the city, including the beloved Temple. Many more people from Jerusalem, were added to the number who were marched to Babylon. Year after long year they lived in exile, away from family and friends left behind, away from the land that had been theirs. After 60 long years of forced exile, the Persians defeated the Babylonians, and the exiles were allowed to return to their homeland. It was this experience that inspired the poet to write: 2 Then our mouth was filled with laughter, and our tongue with shouts of joy; then it was said among the nations, "The LORD has done great things for them." 3 The LORD has done great things for us and we rejoiced. The Jews did not see their deliverance from exile, as merely the working of power politics. They did not focus their gratitude on Cyrus, the King of Persia whose armies had defeated the Babylonians and who had allowed them to return to Judah. It was to God that the Jews gave their thanks. " The LORD has done great things for us," the poet wrote, "and we rejoiced." When World War II ended we did not recite these lines but in worship the next Sunday, our congregations across the land sang with profound gratitude and joy: "Praise God from whom all blessings flow." And many, like my parents, had tears in their eyes. In my nine year old, naive mind, I just assumed that because the war was over, all our problems were solved, and like people in storybooks and movies, we would live happily ever after. There were probably some of the returning exiles who were just as naive in their joy. But, of course, this is not the way life is. Life moves on and with it come some new disappointments, some new pain, some new challenges. This is the way life is. None of our human victories last forever. Each of them is temporary. Life moves on, one thing after another. This was certainly the case for the Jews returning to Judah following the exile. The question is do we live in the dark seeing life as merely one damned thing after another, or, are we aware of a light of hope in the midst of darkness -- a light of hope that enables us to see the blessings of God that come one after another? When the exiles returned, Jerusalem was in ruins. The temple had been torn down. Homes had been plundered and many had been destroyed. On top of that, there was a poor harvest because of draught. And as if that were not bad enough, what meager harvest there was had been almost totally wiped out by an infestation of locusts. The exiles came home to almost famine conditions. When the reality of destruction and draught confronted the exiles on their return, there was not merely disappointment; there was deep sadness about what had happened. In the Psalm, the poet mentions the draught and the people in tears, weeping. Many, if not most, of the returning exiles had been born in Babylon and had grown up listening to stories about their wonderful homeland. But when they returned to their homeland, they discovered life was more difficult in Judah than it had ever been in their Babylonian captivity. And so, this Psalm that begins as a shout of celebration turns into an earnest plea for help. "Restore our fortunes, O Lord, like the watercourses in the Negeb. May those who sow in tears reap with shouts of joy. Those who go out weeping, bearing seed for sowing, shall come home with shouts of joy carrying their bundles of grain." This prayer is not merely a plea for help; it is also a declaration of hope. It is a declaration of confidence in God. This confidence, this hope has its roots in the past experiences of the poet and the people of faith. It is the same kind of confident hope that is expressed in the 3rd verse of Amazing Grace: "Through many dangers, toils and snares I have already come; t'is grace that brought me safe thus far, and grace will lead me home." It is our awareness of God's grace at work in our yesterdays that enables us to have confidence God's grace will be at work in our future. Because we are aware of the grace that has brought us safe thus far, we are able to have confident hope that grace will lead us home. Because the poet who wrote Psalm 126 was so aware of God's grace at work in delivering the Jews from captivity in Babylon, when he returned to Judah, he was able to face the problems confronting the returning exiles because he was confident that God's grace would provide what they needed. The God who had brought them great joy by rescuing them from the Babylonians would, in time, bring them the great joy of bountiful harvests. And so he wrote: "Those who go out weeping, carrying seed for sowing, shall come home with shouts of joy carrying their bundles of grain." To this poet the future was not one of total darkness. For him, there was light in the darkness. It was the light of God's grace -- the same grace that had delivered them from the darkness of their captivity. And so, the poet faced the problems that confronted the returning exiles with confident hope in God, and wrote: Those who sow in tears will reap with songs of joy. It is this confident hope in God and God's grace that is a major theme in the Advent season. The grace of God that has been at work in history from the very beginning has come and is coming in the Christ. We can face the future with hope. And because we are able to face the future with confidence in God and the grace of God that is revealed in Jesus, we are able to face what we must face and do what we must do. Even while we are still weeping because of the way things are, we are able to move out and move on because we have confident hope in God. We will be able to plant the seed that is ours to plant because we live in the confident hope that God is with us and will bring the harvest. When we live with hope in God, there is a certain radiance in our living. When we live placing our hope in God, we are transformed, and we become the persons Jesus was talking about when he said: "You are the light of the world." Advent is a time of hope. It is a time when we confidently expect the grace of God that has been at work in the past to continue to be at work among us and in us. And when our living is shaped by this confident hope, there is a radiance in our living, and the light of our confident hope glows in the darkness. God, may the light of hope burn brightly in each of us. Amen. (The choir sings: This Little Light Of Mine.) Pastoral prayer:
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