Joy Worth the Risk – Psalm 126
Posted by Chris on December 11, 2011 under Front Page Posts, Sermons
It is good and right that we should take the time to celebrate the commitment of our new campus minister, Travis Campbell, and our commitment to him as a fellow servant. It is good and right because when we do such things, we speak of ideas that are too often not spoken: joy, hope, promise, courage, sacrifice, commitment.
It is good and right for us to focus these grand notions on something tangible. So that we can say with the Psalm – “The The LORD has done great things for us, and we are filled with joy.”
It is good and right for us to name anything that the Lord has done. It is good and right to admit to the hardships and sacrifices that paved the way to our joy. It is good right to stir up our spirits and embolden one another, because our enemy is threatened when we develop the sort of passion to do God’s work despite the cost.
The enemy’s scheme is subtle . . .
We live in an antiseptic, instant, quick-fix society. Our society’s chief goals are to eliminate boredom, waiting, and pain. Not so bad, but have we lost sight of greater goals? Have we lost the yearning and ache for the reward that is worth risk and pain. Have we settled for comfort and mediocrity because it promises safety and predictability?
Woe to us if the spiritual paralysis of our culture numbs us with too many cheap thrills and the lure of retreating into our electronic eggshells for imitation adventure.
And woe to us if we dare to think that our worship and service should be non-threatening and nice. When did we accept the notion that God is Santa Claus and will give us what we want if we behave. Do we really think that we test God or threaten him when we sing loudly about joy, hope, promise, courage, sacrifice, commitment?
“Indeed, if we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling around about drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are too easily pleased.” (C.S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory)
Psalm 126 sings to us of a God who can run the range of our experience. A God who transforms tears into laughter; and yet he is always with us in all of it.
Psalm 126 reminds us that in life there are sorrow and tears. There is sweat and suffering. But it also reminds us that these things are not the last things when God goes about his business of restoring his people . . .
Beware the anesthetizing and lobotomizing force of contemporary culture. Do not settle for cheap laughs and lesser dreams. It’s a trick to give us something imitation and plastic so that we never get a yearning or hope for greatness. Because once we have had a taste of what is truly possible, we will risk anything – our comfort, our wealth, our life, to experience all over again the great things that God has done for us.
As Christmas approaches, conversation and recognition of Jesus Christ emerges in our culture all over again. And this is where I see the work of the enemy at its most clever and subtle. The story of the Savior’s birth has become so cheery and sentimental that Christians are confused as to why anyone would be threatened by the birth of Baby Jesus.
God forgive us for missing the real meaning of this story and becoming preoccupied in our tradition about history and whether or not we should even acknowledge that Christmas exists. We have missed the meaning that the birth of the savior is a blinding light that pierces the darkness. It is a siren that blares through the calm. The Savior came into the world once and , in the words of Psalm 126, he will do it again!
The Savior born in Bethlehem is the one who said . . .
24-25″Listen carefully: Unless a grain of wheat is buried in the ground, dead to the world, it is never any more than a grain of wheat. But if it is buried, it sprouts and reproduces itself many times over. In the same way, anyone who holds on to life just as it is destroys that life. But if you let it go, reckless in your love, you’ll have it forever, real and eternal.
26″If any of you wants to serve me, then follow me. Then you’ll be where I am, ready to serve at a moment’s notice. The Father will honor and reward anyone who serves me.
27-28″Right now I am storm-tossed. And what am I going to say? ‘Father, get me out of this’? No, this is why I came in the first place. I’ll say, ‘Father, put your glory on display.'”
A voice came out of the sky: “I have glorified it, and I’ll glorify it again.”
29The listening crowd said, “Thunder!”
Others said, “An angel spoke to him!”
30-33Jesus said, “The voice didn’t come for me but for you. At this moment the world is in crisis. Now Satan, the ruler of this world, will be thrown out. And I, as I am lifted up from the earth, will attract everyone to me and gather them around me.” — (John 12:24-33)
The Savior born in Bethlehem is a king who calls us to follow him. He stirs our souls so that we are not content to simply be a grain of wheat. He calls us to imitate him and go into a world in crisis and sow the seed in tears – for yes, there may be death and sacrifice and we may have to give up the simple things that too easily please us, but let go of the life that you will simply ruin and exchange it even now for life eternal.
It is all worth it when the Lord restores our fortunes and we haul in a harvest of joy.
If you settle for the imitation joys, cheap laughs, and lesser dreams, then you may be able to avoid the hard work of sowing seed that must fall to the ground and die, but you will never be able to say with confidence – “When the Lord restored our fortunes, it was like a dream! The Lord has done great things for us!”