Sunday, December 10, 2023
Spirit of Hope Lutheran Church, Lincoln, NE
Third Sunday of Advent
(narrative lectionary)
watch this service online (reading starts around 23:54; children’s sermon starts around 27:20; sermon starts around 36:08)
Reading(s): Ezra 1:1-4, 3:1-4, 3:10-13, (Luke 2:25-32)
For the children’s sermon today, I brought in some stockings and a tree skirt and asked the kids if they have things like this at home, and how they feel when they start to see these kinds of decorations coming out. We talked about the happiness and excitement we feel as Christmas gets closer, how we look forward to gifts and festive food and celebration and lights. Even before we get to all those things, we feel the joy of anticipation and expectation. In our bible reading for today, the Israelites joyfully celebrate the signs of something that they have been waiting for: the foundation of a new temple. We remember that, even though Advent is a season of darkness and of waiting for light, it is also a season of joy, as we wait with joyful expectation for the good things that God has promised us.
If the last couple of weeks have seemed longer than usual, there’s a good reason why. We started our Advent season with the fall of Jerusalem and the destruction of the temple, and now it’s been 70 years since then! Most of the people of Israel are still living in exile in Babylon. And you can imagine, after all that time, new generations of Israelites have been born; these generations have only heard stories from their parents and grandparents about their beautiful homeland and their once-glorious kingdom. By this time, there are only a handful of people left who have actually seen it.
But, after 70 long years of exile, the tides suddenly turn for God’s people – and it happens for them in the most unexpected way imaginable. The mighty Babylonian empire that had held them captive for decades is abruptly overthrown! And who might their great liberator be? Is it the promised Messiah? Is it Elijah? Or maybe Moses – you know, the “Let my people go!” guy? Nope! Their liberator is a Persian king named Cyrus the Great.
Turns out there’s a new empire in town. But unlike the Babylonians and their king, Nebuchadnezzar, Cyrus allows and encourages the exiles to return to their homeland. He gives back the sacred vessels stolen by the Babylonians and encourages the Israelites to rebuild the temple. Then he goes even further and actually helps them finance its construction! Amazing!
It is unbelievably joyous news for God’s people. And even though it happens in such an unexpected way, the Israelites have absolutely no doubt that this is God’s doing. Somehow or other, God is at work through this random Persian king.
So once they’re back in Jerusalem, they waste no time in setting up an altar, so that they can offer sacrifices of thanksgiving to God. And they immediately start in on the massive project of rebuilding the temple.
By the end of our reading today, the foundation of the new temple has been finished, right on the site of the old temple. And all the people of Israel gather to celebrate – the priests get all spiffed up in their vestments and everything. And together they lift up their voices in shouts of joy, making a whole holy racket in praise and thanks to God. They cry out, “Give thanks to the Lord, for the Lord is GOOD! For God’s steadfast love endures forever.”
But not all of this noise is entirely joyful. Amid the celebration, the elders of the people are so overcome with emotion at the sight of this new foundation that they begin to weep. They still remembered the old temple, and had witnessed its destruction; they remembered being forced from their homes and watching their city be destroyed. No doubt they felt joy at seeing the temple rebuilt; but they had been through so much, lost so much, that it was impossible for them not to grieve even as they rejoiced over what God had done for them.
It’s such a poignant image: this mix of deep grief and surprising joy. There’s a bittersweetness to it that I find very relatable.
It made me think back to when my grandpa died, about 12 years ago. It was unexpected; Grandpa had gone in for gallbladder surgery, and everything had gone well – but for some reason, he just never woke up. My whole extended family and I took turns sitting with my grandma by Grandpa’s bedside, waiting and hoping for some sign of change. But once it became clear that that wasn’t going to happen, we all gathered together at the hospital as they took him off of life support. And my grandpa – stubborn as ever – kept on breathing for another 15 hours.
So my whole family hunkered down and kept vigil all night long, camped out in the hospital waiting room. And it ended up being the most unexpected blessing. We were all just there, present – cousins and aunts and uncles together. And we spent the whole night telling our favorite stories about Grandpa. Like, I knew that my grandpa spoke sign language, because his father, my great-grandpa, was deaf. But I didn’t know how often my grandpa and his brothers had gotten in trouble in school for cheating on tests by signing to each other under their desks! Or my brother told the story about the time our grandpa literally tried to bribe him into getting his hair cut. And we all fondly remembered him assuming the grandpa position after every holiday meal, which was: sacked out in his favorite armchair, pants unbuttoned, glasses askew on his face, and snoring up a storm.
As sad as we were to say goodbye, our grief was mixed with so much joy and so much love. That time together was bittersweet, but it was undoubtedly a gift from God. And my grandpa was a man of deep faith his whole life long – faith that he passed down to all of us. So we also found comfort and hope in the promise that this goodbye wouldn’t be forever.
Whether we consciously realize it or not, we live in this strange, in-between place where joy and sadness meet. We are kind of like those Israelites who were born in exile. We have never seen more than a glimpse of this kingdom that we long for, but we have heard the stories. We rejoice and praise God that the foundation of our hope has been laid – but we are still waiting for the day when it is complete, for the day when the world is made whole and right.
But that doesn’t mean we have to wait all that time for joy. Even in the darkest seasons we may go through, God has a way of breaking into our lives and surprising us with unexpected joys. And part of the purpose of observing Advent is to practice looking for those little God moments. Because the more we look for them, the more we will notice them. And the more we notice them, the more we will realize that this world abounds with signs of God’s joyful and loving presence.
We didn’t read it today, but the little gospel snippet that goes with our reading from Ezra for today is the story of Simeon from the second chapter of Luke. At some point in his life, the Holy Spirit had revealed to Simeon that he would see the Lord’s Messiah within his lifetime. And every day after that – for who knows how many decades – Simeon watched and waited with expectation that he would see the Christ. And because of this watchfulness, Simeon noticed when he felt the nudgings of the Spirit. And he followed the Spirit, which led him – of all places – to the temple: the same temple rebuilt by his ancestors with help from Cyrus the Great.
So Simeon was there when this young, poor couple from rural Galilee came into the temple with their newborn son in order to offer the appropriate sacrifice. Probably no one else saw anything out of the ordinary in this little family. But Simeon was filled with joy when he saw them. He walked up to Mary and Joseph, took Jesus in his arms, and immediately began praising God, saying:
Master, now you are dismissing your servant in peace, according to your word, for my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the presence of all peoples, a light for revelation to the nations and for glory to your people Israel.
Luke 2:29-32
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I have no idea what surprises God may have in store for us this Advent season. But I pray that we may stand firm on the foundation of our ancestors’ hope and faith. And I pray that we may wait and watch with the eyes of Simeon, so that whatever God sends us, we may receive it with joy.
This is the Day 
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