1st Sunday in Advent (Year B, Lutheran Service Book readings)
Sunday, November 27, 2011
• Start putting black pieces of cloth into a box marked with David Sweeney’s “Lament Number 223,” saying one word per piece of cloth.
• Sadness, grief, despair, fights, war, shame, hurtful words, hurtful actions, sickness, death, loss, pain.
• Tape up box and put it under a chair in the corner.
• Ask congregation: Where are my laments?
• “In the corner, boxed up, taped up, hidden”
• Ask congregation: Where are your laments?
• Somewhere along the way we get the idea that we need to box up our laments, our sadnesses, our distresses, box them up during the season of Advent—which really has become known as the season of Christmas—what with everyone preparing for Christmas and talking about Christmas and good cheer and eggnog and what not.
• We get the idea we need to box up all of that dark stuff and hide it in the corner during Advent.
• Like putting away the normal decorations in the house to make room for the Christmas decorations, we box up our laments, mark the box, and put it away until January.
• That’s what David Sweeney’s art piece got me thinking
• The stenciled word “lament” over and over again
• Like marking a box, marking a box that contains all of our dark stuff
• It’s “Lament Number 223,” another in the series of laments by David Sweeney.
• Rather than giving his work titles, Sweeney numbers them, but to me it’s another reminder of how we treat our laments—especially during this season—we mark them like just something else to be numbered, we box them up, shove them in a corner, and try to stop thinking about what’s in there.
• My Grandpa died during Advent in 2000.
• We spent those last couple of days with him in the hospital, we grieved and had the funeral, but I’ll admit that as soon as I returned to my congregation, I got right back to work, preached the next week, talked about Grandpa and grief but really I put the lament in the corner and went on with what I had to. The lament was boxed up, labeled and numbered, and left there to gather dust.
• I suppose I thought it wasn’t appropriate to keep my lament, my grief around during the season of Christmas.
• I suppose I thought I’d take out my lament when it was more appropriate in January.
• Ask the congregation: Where were my laments?
• “In the corner, boxed up, taped up, hidden”
• Ask congregation: Where are your laments?
• So now what?
• Do we really just leave those laments in the corner?
• Today’s Psalm reading, the Psalm reading appointed for the First Sunday in Advent won’t let us leave the laments in the corner.
1 Hear us, O Shepherd of Israel,
Awaken your might;
come and save us.
3 Restore us, O God;
make your face shine upon us,
that we may be saved.
4 O LORD God Almighty,
how long will your anger smolder
against the prayers of your people?
5 You have fed them with the bread of tears;
you have made them drink tears by the bowlful.
6 You have made us a source of contention to our neighbors,
and our enemies mock us.
7 Restore us, O God Almighty;
make your face shine upon us,
that we may be saved.
• O Lord God Almighty, how long will your anger smolder against the prayers of your people?
You have fed them with the bread of tears;
You have made them drink tears by the bowlful.
• Psalm 80:1-7, the reading for the First Sunday in Advent stops us short. There’s the psalm making the request to the warehouse: “Bring out the box marked ‘Lament.’”
• Bring box back.
• There’s the psalm looking past the way in which we tried to hide our lament under the cover of starkly stenciled words. There’s the psalm not letting the lament be hidden until a more convenient time. There’s the psalm causing us to see that lament is most crucial to our understanding of Advent.
• Psalm 80 calls on God to act: “Restore us.” It does not let God go quietly into the Christmas celebration as if that was enough; instead it says: “Save us.” It does not settle for the glow of Christmas lights, but instead pleads for God’s benediction: “Make your face shine upon us.”
• Psalm 80 remains aware of the urgent wondering and the blank stare we get when we look up into the sky. “O LORD God Almighty, how long will your anger smolder against the prayers of your people?” How long until you come to save us?
• Even now with the knowledge of salvation through the cross and resurrection of Christ, we still wonder how long until the skies open up to reveal Jesus returning. And until He returns, we lament. We cry out. “Restore us, save us, make your face shine upon us.”
• Psalm 80 invites us to bring out the box from the back shelf, gently dust it off, open up the lament, and let God have it.
• Open box up, start pulling out fabric pieces and reading the words.
• Sadness, grief, despair, fights, war, shame, hurtful words, hurtful actions, sickness, death, loss, pain.
• Psalm 80 invites us to take those laments back out and bring those laments to God.
• We were never meant to warehouse those laments; we were meant to take them to God who promises He will save us.
• Put fabric pieces back in box, (don’t tape it shut), and put it under the altar.
• We take those laments to God, because He promises to hear our laments and promises to save us through Jesus, save us from the laments of this world.
• We go to God, because He promises to shine His face upon us, look upon us with His grace and warmth, promises to lift us up out of this darkness.
• We may have gotten the idea along the way that Advent, this season of preparing for Christmas, this season of shopping and parties, that this season means that we should box up our laments.
• But really Advent was made for laments.
• Advent means “waiting,” and we’re certainly waiting for the Lord.
• Yes, the Lord came as a babe born in Bethlehem, the Lord has come.
• But we’re still waiting, waiting for Christ to return, waiting for Jesus to rescue us from this place of laments, this place of darkness
• Jesus didn’t just come die on the cross and rise again and ascend into heaven and now He’s done.
• Jesus promised that He would return, return to take us to be with Him forever, return to give us eternal life.
• So we’re still living in Advent times—always.
• We’re still living in Advent times when we’re waiting for Jesus to return, waiting for Jesus to restore us, to save us, to rescue us, to bring us to be with Him forever.
• We have the promise that through faith we will have eternal life. Through believing in Jesus, through believing that He died and rose again, through believing that He is our Savior, we have the promise of eternal life.
• But now we wait.
• And while we wait, we live through darkness and laments.
• We live through sadness, despair, fights, war. . .
• But we can take those things to God, put them at His feet at the altar.
• We can leave our laments with God.
• We can ask God to walk with us through the darkness.
• And He promises that He hears our cries and will be with us through all things.
• So this Advent season, there’s no reason to box up your laments, to box ‘em up and tape it shut and shove it into a corner.
• Instead, bring those laments to God, bring them to the altar
• You can bring them to God by praying—talking to God very frankly about what’s going on in your heart.
• You can bring your laments to God by singing to God in worship during Advent, letting the hymns and the Scriptures call to mind your laments, and bring them to God in your worship of Him.
• You can bring your laments to God by talking to another Christian—talking very frankly about your laments and asking that person to pray for you.
• And if you’re having trouble imagining bringing your laments to God, if this idea is a challenge to you, please come and talk to me. That’s why I’m here. Sometimes people think I’m too busy to hear your concerns and talk to you, but that’s why I’m here. So if it would be helpful to talk about your laments with me, call me or email me or Facebook me. Let’s find a time to take your laments to God.
• And when you’re talking to me or when you’re talking to another Christian or when you’re singing the hymns or when you’re praying to God, use the words of Psalm 80, the words that get the laments off the shelf and bring them to God.
• Psalm 80 calls on God to act: “Restore us.”
• God will not go quietly into the Christmas celebration as if that was enough; instead Psalm 80 says: “Save us.”
• It’s not about the glow of Christmas lights, but instead Psalm 80 pleads for God’s benediction: “Make your face shine upon us.”
• The Lord hears your prayers—the prayers that echo the words of Psalm 80:
• Restore us, O God Almighty;
make your face shine upon us,
that we may be saved.
• Come, Lord Jesus, come and restore us.
• The Father shines His face upon you
• You are saved from your laments.
• You have eternal life in Jesus.
• Even so, Come, Lord Jesus, come and restore us!
• Get box back out from under the altar.
• As I name these laments again, silently name your laments before God. Name your laments and see that you don’t need to box them up and hide them.
• You can name your laments and bring them to the altar, you can bring them to God.
• Sadness, grief, despair, fights, war, shame, hurtful words, hurtful actions, sickness, death, loss, pain.
• Close box and put it under the altar again.
• God hears your cries.
• God will restore you from your lament.
• Even as you wait in this Advent life, God promises to send Christ again to bring you to eternal life.
• As you wait, as you lament, know that the Lord hears your cries, hears your prayers, takes your laments to heart, and sends you a comfort by His Holy Spirit—a comfort that goes beyond words and understand, a comfort that gives us strength in the darkest of days.
• And God promises through Jesus Christ that He will indeed make His face shine upon us.
• He will look upon us with His grace and comfort and mercy and forgiveness and love.
• He will show us His great warmth and bring us through this lament and bring us to eternal life.