Brad Sullivan
Proper 28, Year B
November 18, 2018
Emmanuel, Houston
Mark 13:1-8
…Then Were We Like Those Who Dream…
“When the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion, then were we
like those who dream. Then was our mouth filled with laughter, and our tongue
with shouts of joy.” (Psalm 126:1-2)
That’ Psalm 126 verses 1-2, and whether in those words or in other
words, that idea is a recurring theme through the history of Israel. “When the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion,
then were we like those who dream. Then was our mouth filled with laughter, and
our tongue with shouts of joy.” God
restores Israel. God restores his
people. God restores creation and
covenant.
Before God restored the fortune of Zion, well obviously
Zion’s fortunes weren’t doing so well.
Babylonian captivity and the near total destruction of the nation of
Israel. The capturing of the Ark of the
Covenant by the Philistines, God’s very presence seemingly taken from
Israel. 40 years of wandering in the
desert after the Israelites lost faith in God that he could bring them into the
land that he had promised them. God’s
anger and rejection of the people of Israel after they formed a Golden Calf to
replace God almost immediately after God saved Israel from slavery in Egypt. In each of these cases, after Israel’s
fortunes weren’t doing all that great, God restored the fortunes of Zion, and
then were the people of Israel like those who dream, then was their mouth
filled with laughter and their tongue with shouts of joy.
That portion of Psalm 126 seems to me the unspoken promise
within Jesus’ prophecy of the destruction of the temple. His warning / prophecy sounds pretty ominous,
doesn’t it. Not only will the temple be
destroyed, there will be wars, rumors of wars, nation against nation,
earthquakes, famines, dogs and cats living together, mass hysteria. “This is but the beginning of the
birthpangs,” Jesus said.
All that stuff I just described, it’s gonna get worse after
that. The birthpangs, they begin, and
then there’s full blown labor, and it’s gonna hurt, cause labor tends to do
that, and sorry guys, there’s no epidural for this one, no nerve block. The best you can do is that breathing thing. Labor is coming, guys, and it’s gonna hurt,
Jesus was saying, but let’s put a different emphasis on what he said. Rather than, “This is but the beginning of the birthpangs,” let’s say,
“This is but the beginning of the birthpangs.”
Well, after birthpangs and labor comes a baby. So, what you’re saying, Jesus, is that after
the destruction of the temple and all that other bad stuff happens, something
fantastically wonderful is coming?
Oh! Well that’s great! “When the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion,
then were we like those who dream.”
That’s what’s coming.
Now, what came was not the rebuilding of the temple, nor
even the restoration of the nation of Israel, at least not for about 1900
years. What happened was the people of
Israel were dispersed and scattered without a nation, and the people of Israel
survived, and even thrived. Rather than
ceasing to be a people, they became even more fully a people, God’s chosen
people spread throughout the world. The
Temple was not restored in Jerusalem, and the religion changed at that point,
but synagogues spread throughout the land.
A people with one temple became a people with countless temples where
folks could come and dwell and become God’s people.
I would say Emmanuel had a fairly decent dose of birthpangs
back in August of 2017. I could say that
Harvey and Emmanuel’s flooding, and all that has happened since “is but the beginning of the birthpangs.” To be
faith think we’re still in labor, but guys, all that has happened, the
flooding, the work, the fear, the discord, the coming together and the work to
be done is but the beginning of the birthpangs.
A baby is coming. New
life is coming. What’s that gonna look
like? What does it mean for us to be a
post-Harvey Emmanuel, a new creation by water and the word? I think we’re starting to find that out as we
go, as we receive hospitality, as we continue to be Emmanuel even without our
home, as we learn to be adaptive, gracious and flexible, practicing gratitude
as life comes our way.
Ultimately, I think a post-Harvey Emmanuel, a new creation
by water and the word, looks like a spiritual oasis in West Houston in which we
are a spiritual oasis because you are a spiritual oasis, and you are a
spiritual oasis, and you, and you, and all of y’all, and I are all spiritual
oases. The Emmanuel being born is an Emmanuel
in which the community is a spiritual oasis as we are all spiritual oases.
That’s the disperse nation of Israel after the destruction
of the temple, bringing the light of God not in one place, but in countless
places throughout the world. Emmanuel as
each of us being a spiritual oasis in which God’s presence, peace, and nurture
is present wherever any one of us is present, deeply rooted in prayer and
scripture, deeply rooted in Jesus, always acting in love for others, with
compassion, mercy, and peace.
That’s what I see in a post-Harvey Emmanuel. We gather as a spiritual oasis, and we leave
as spiritual oases where the weary, the sin-sick, and the burdened come to be
refreshed by the love and peace of Jesus present in each one of us. As spiritual oases, we each continually
refresh ourselves through daily prayer, almost monastic in our practice of the
four daily prayers of the Episcopal church.
We continually refresh ourselves with daily reading of scripture,
dwelling in God’s presence throughout history in the sacred stories of our
faith. We continually refresh ourselves
through other practices through which we remember and become aware of God’s
presence, and love, and peace all around us.
No ain’t none of us gonna get it right all the time, and
sometimes the best we’re gonna do is to reach out to someone else when our well
has run dry and we need refreshment from them as a spiritual oasis. That too is what Emmanuel is becoming, this
new baby being born, the new creation by water and the word. All the turmoil and strife has been but the
beginning of the birthpangs. Emmanuel is
becoming what we have been striving to be, a spiritual oasis in west Houston,
by each one of us continually refreshing ourselves in God’s presence, and love,
and peace. Emmanuel is becoming a
spiritual oasis in west Houston by each one of us becoming a spiritual
oasis. Emmanuel is becoming a spiritual
oasis as our hearts are filled with God’s promise of restoration. “When the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion,
then were we like those who dream. Then was our mouth filled with laughter, and
our tongue with shouts of joy.”
