Here They Come, Singing
Sermon
Renewal of the New
Sermons For Sundays After Pentecost
When six nations of eastern Europe were freed from the domination of totalitarian Communism in 1989, there was wild celebration by the people in the streets. They sang, they shouted, they marched, they danced in the streets, they laughed, they hugged each other. This was the happiest time of their lives. They were freed from decades of living under uncompromising dictatorships. Now they could speak out openly about how they felt, and they could march and shout their protests to a hated regime. It was a celebration the like of which they had never before experienced.
Something of the same kind of celebration is described in today's First Lesson from the thirty-first chapter of the prophecy of Jeremiah. This chapter of the Bible is so important that worshipers would hear eight lessons from it during the three-year lectionary cycle if they attended every service. It is a part of the three chapters of Jeremiah that are called the Book of Consolation. But even more important is the fact that a Christian believer today can be a participant in the same kind of wild celebration. Let us discover together why this is true.
An Amazing Deliverance
When this lesson was written, God's people had been in exile in Babylon for almost seventy years. God had allowed this to happen because his people had grown brazenly disobedient toward him, worshiping idols and engaging in gross immorality. As part of their punishment, Jerusalem was destroyed, and the inhabitants were carted off to Babylon by their victors. After many decades of such exile, the people began to lose hope of ever being released. They became discouraged and despondent. Then the prophet announced that the people could celebrate because they were about to be freed by God. In fact, their liberation was so certain that the prophet put it in the past tense, as if it had already happened, saying, "The Lord has saved his people." In a short time an amazing thing happened. The ruler of the land in which they had been exiled for so long told them that they were free to return to Jerusalem now. He even encouraged them to return and helped them to do so. This was an astounding proclamation, coming out of the blue as it did. No human being could have predicted it. Only the hand of God could have opened the door of their prison in this way.
In doing so, God proved himself faithful to his promise. He had promised that he would restore his people to their homeland, but they had lost sight of his promise. God did not forget. He never does. He fulfilled his promise to the letter. This is the great theme of today's lesson. God is faithful. His Word can be trusted absolutely. He will never fail his people who look to him. Every word that he speaks will come true. One of the greatest promises he has ever made occurs earlier in this same chapter of Jeremiah. It is one of the most important verses in the Bible. "I have loved you with an everlasting love," God promised his people; "therefore I have continued my faithfulness to you." It is an Old Testament parallel to John 3:16: "God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life."
True, Jeremiah's prophecy speaks of only "the remnant of Israel" being saved, as in today's lesson. The whole people did not make it back to Jerusalem. Some died in captivity over those long years. Some didn't want their freedom, so they stayed in exile. Some remembered Jerusalem destroyed, and they didn't want to go back to that wasteland. Some had married Babylonians and chose to continue living in Babylon. Still, today's lesson speaks of "a great company" of those who would return. However many or few, they did not constitute a problem for God. He has done miraculous things with remnants. Even today he can do unbelievable things with only a few persons. Their number is not important; their faith in God is what matters.
The staggering emancipation of God's ancient people prefigures God's astounding liberation of his people today from bondage to sin and death into the freedom of eternal life and peace through Jesus Christ, his Son, our Savior. However, the deliverance bought by Calvary and Easter is a thousand times more significant than the deliverance of Israel from Babylon. The crucified and risen Savior offers his spiritual deliverance to the whole world for as many as repent of their sin and trust in his grace. It is the most amazing gift in the history of the world. Nobody could have ever foreseen that God would make it in this precise way, but it changes everything for everybody, at least in its potential. No wonder that a seventy-seven-year-old nun who miraculously survived that plane crash in Sioux City, Iowa, held so tightly to a crucifix afterward, saying, "Whatever I do, I'm not letting go of this." No one in his or her right mind would let go of a Savior. What he has done for us is similar to what happened to the playwright Vaclav Havel in Czechoslovakia. In 1989 he was languishing in a prison for opposing the government. Eight months later he was elected prime minister of the new government by its parliament, as cannons boomed and a military band played the national anthem. So we were in prison to sin and death, but Christ released us by sacrificing himself in our place, and by his Resurrection he made us number one as children of God and heirs of heaven, if we trust ourselves to what he has done for us. This is God's great surprise for us.
Shouting For Joy
In Jeremiah's prophecy we read:
Thus says the Lord: "Sing aloud with gladness for Jacob, and raise shouts for the chief of the nations; proclaim, give praise, and say, 'The Lord has saved his people, the remnant of Israel.' "
The decibels are almost deafening as the sounds of this passage come through. One almost needs ear plugs to read it. These people are on fire with the joy and victory which their God has given them. No one could quiet them. Their thankful joy will out. Lotte Lehmann, the famous opera singer, recalls how musical recording back in the early days of Thomas Edison was done into a large horn, rather than into a microphone. "On the high notes you always had to step back," she remembered, "and on the low notes go forward. It was really like dancing the whole time." That's what God's people would be doing on their journey from Babylon to Jerusalem. They would be dancing while they were singing out of pure joy and thanks to God.
Where has such excitement gone in a normal Sunday worship service today? When hymns are sung, there is hardly more than a soft murmuring among those in the pews. If anybody were to shout, the ushers would likely show that person to the exit. Why is our response to God's mighty grace so muted? Is there nothing to shout about in our understanding of the Gospel? Has it become so "old hat" that it doesn't even raise our blood pressure one point? On the contrary, here is the most exciting news that earth has ever heard. God has rescued us through Christ from an eternity in hell to an eternity in heaven. We who were on death row because of our disobedience toward God have been freed by undeserved grace to live within his everlasting hug of love. We are the apple of his eye. We are the dearest thing to him that he has created. He even gave up his only Son to bring us back to him. Let the decibels rise. Let congregational song be stirring. Let the singing of the liturgy be exciting. Let church worship set our spirits dancing and invigorate our participation, for this God is our God, and our salvation in his name is glorious. Any contact with him is an electric experience. It causes goosebumps among the faithful.
Note in Jeremiah's prophecy those words "proclaim" and "say" before the words, "The Lord has saved his people." In other words, tell others about God's saving love. Don't just keep it to yourself. It's too good just to keep. Here are two true "dog stories" for illustration. A young woman walked her dog every evening along the streets of her apartment complex. One evening she met another young woman from another apartment who was also out for a walk. They enjoyed their conversation. On following evenings they began to walk together. The woman with the dog talked enthusiastically about her church. She was so excited about it that she persuaded the other woman, who had no church home, to bring her husband and worship there. Eventually they made it their church home also. Christian witnessing can occur naturally even in walking the dog. The other story is about a blind woman who, as a choir member, processes with her seeing-eye dog regularly with the choir in Sunday worship. It is a sight to stir the heart to see this robed choir member in procession, being led down the aisle by her dog in harness. She is proclaiming to others by her deed that "The Lord has saved his people." Are we using the opportunities around us in daily life to tell others how good God has been to us and to invite others to worship him with us?
Even the Weakest
In the great company of those who are singing and shouting as they march to freedom in Jeremiah's prophecy are some from the farthest places of earth. God says, "Behold, I will bring them from the north country, and gather them from the farthest parts of the earth." This return to Jerusalem does not just involve the exiles in Babylon, but also other scattered Hebrews from many other countries. The drawing power of God's love is like a giant magnet. He gathers his own from all nations and restores them to joy in him. Not only the farthest, but also the weakest are in the vast column of the singing marchers headed toward Jerusalem. "Among them the blind and the lame," Isaiah reports, "the woman with child and her who is in travail, together." God does not mention the mighty and the rich and the brilliant in this march. Some of them were there, no doubt, but God is careful to include the lame and the blind, mothers with little children, and expectant women. No doubt this is only a partial list of the weak. It could have included also the deaf and the retarded and the chronically ill and the very old and the psychologically disturbed and the disfigured. The list of such is very long. Our God has a special interest in all such. They have been called "the disabled," but a beautiful way of describing them is "the differently abled." We are all able in certain areas, but each differently abled person has his or her own competence in different areas. Perhaps we should not even call them weak. They can be like the filament of a spider's web, which looks like one of the frailest things on earth, but which actually is stronger than steel of the same dimensions would be.
It is fair to ask at this point whether such persons are specially included among God's people in the church today. It is not enough to have slots designated for wheel chairs. There must be an intense concern and love for such "differently abled" persons, culminating in a desire to have them in our midst and to receive a blessing from them. Their talents must also be used in the mission of the church through its witness and service. In one church a mentally retarded woman was thought to have little to contribute in terms of service. However on one Sunday the altar guild member failed to show up to arrange the altar flowers in their vases. This retarded woman did the job instead. She did such a beautiful job of it, and she took such joy in doing it, that the church realized her talent in this area. From that time on, she was asked to arrange the altar flowers every Sunday, and she was delighted to do it as her service to God. Jesus took a special interest in a blind beggar in today's Gospel. He set the example for us.
When Jeremiah's prophecy has God saying, "With weeping they shall come, and with consolations I will lead them back," there are two possible interpretations. Those could be tears of joy from exiles who were deliriously happy to be returning in freedom to Jerusalem. On the other hand, the prophet could have meant that they went into exile with weeping, but that they came out with singing. When Thomas Wang, the Chinese Christian leader, was talking with Peter Wagner, the church growth specialist, he said, "Pete, I have studied your theories of the elements that make up church growth. I believe that you have left out one of the most important." "Really? What was that?" asked Wagner. "Suffering," replied Wang. "It is the suffering church that has been the growing church." Into the ears of the suffering church God whispers his eternal consolations to make it strong and growing.
On a Smooth Path
Now the path of the exiles' return is described in Jeremiah. "I will make them walk by brooks of water," God promises, "in a straight path in which they shall not stumble." Here are three blessings for the journey of God's people. Brooks of water will accompany their path. In the desert which they must cross, water is of paramount importance. God will provide it. A second blessing is that the path will be straight. It will not meander all about, making the journey twice as long. The path will be the straightest distance between two points. The third blessing is that the path will be smooth. It won't have obstacles over which they could stumble. On a long journey by foot, especially for the differently abled, all of these blessings are important.
On our spiritual journeys through life, God promises the same three blessings. He provides us with the living water in Jesus Christ, who promised, "He who believes in me shall never thirst." A young man in China asked the American Bible Society representative, "Could you please send me a Bible? I am thirsty for the Good News." We have all the Good News we shall ever need to satisfy our spiritual thirst in the love of our Savior, Jesus Christ. Then, too, God offers us a straight path into the heart of his mercy. He wants us to come to him as quickly as possible. But also the path seems smooth because God helps us so wonderfully over the obstacles in life, even carrying us when the path gets rough. No journey is too hard, no path is too rough, no life is too long, when God goes with us and provides for us out of the great storehouse of his grace.
Jeremiah's prophecy for today ends with the thrilling words of God, "For I am a father to Israel, and Ephraim is my first-born." Ephraim is another name for Israel. The firstborn child of any set of parents will always have a special place in their love. The first child has a meaning different from any other child who follows. Such is the relationship with his people which God treasures in his heart. The prophet Hosea spelled out this precious relationship in these words of God, "When Israel was a child, I loved him ... It was I who taught Ephraim to walk, I took them up in my arms ... I led them with cords of compassion, with the bands of love." How infinitely tender a love God has for his people! That fatherly love is our salvation. It is the Good News that sustains us, no matter what.
See the happy exiles marching out to freedom, singing and dancing and shouting with joy, supplied with water from the brook alongside, God making their way an ecstatic experience, even for the differently abled. Now see God's people today, making their way through this life, singing with all their hearts the songs of salvation, liberated mercifully from their bondage to sin and death, their spiritual thirst more than quenched by the living water of Jesus Christ, carried in the arms of God over the sharp stones of adversity along the path. Now, finally, see the saints of God traveling in a great column that leads up to heaven, there singing the song of the Lamb around the crystal sea, the journey ended, Zion entered, the new Jerusalem, now their eternal home at the throne of God. As the hymn describes it,
We're marching to Zion,
Beautiful, beautiful Zion.
We're marching upward to Zion,
The beautiful city of God.
Are you in that great column of singing pilgrims, liberated by grace, powered by the Spirit, redeemed by the Son? Your place is in that joyful company of God's people. To be among them by God's choice and call is to transform life on earth and to inherit life in heaven.
Something of the same kind of celebration is described in today's First Lesson from the thirty-first chapter of the prophecy of Jeremiah. This chapter of the Bible is so important that worshipers would hear eight lessons from it during the three-year lectionary cycle if they attended every service. It is a part of the three chapters of Jeremiah that are called the Book of Consolation. But even more important is the fact that a Christian believer today can be a participant in the same kind of wild celebration. Let us discover together why this is true.
An Amazing Deliverance
When this lesson was written, God's people had been in exile in Babylon for almost seventy years. God had allowed this to happen because his people had grown brazenly disobedient toward him, worshiping idols and engaging in gross immorality. As part of their punishment, Jerusalem was destroyed, and the inhabitants were carted off to Babylon by their victors. After many decades of such exile, the people began to lose hope of ever being released. They became discouraged and despondent. Then the prophet announced that the people could celebrate because they were about to be freed by God. In fact, their liberation was so certain that the prophet put it in the past tense, as if it had already happened, saying, "The Lord has saved his people." In a short time an amazing thing happened. The ruler of the land in which they had been exiled for so long told them that they were free to return to Jerusalem now. He even encouraged them to return and helped them to do so. This was an astounding proclamation, coming out of the blue as it did. No human being could have predicted it. Only the hand of God could have opened the door of their prison in this way.
In doing so, God proved himself faithful to his promise. He had promised that he would restore his people to their homeland, but they had lost sight of his promise. God did not forget. He never does. He fulfilled his promise to the letter. This is the great theme of today's lesson. God is faithful. His Word can be trusted absolutely. He will never fail his people who look to him. Every word that he speaks will come true. One of the greatest promises he has ever made occurs earlier in this same chapter of Jeremiah. It is one of the most important verses in the Bible. "I have loved you with an everlasting love," God promised his people; "therefore I have continued my faithfulness to you." It is an Old Testament parallel to John 3:16: "God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life."
True, Jeremiah's prophecy speaks of only "the remnant of Israel" being saved, as in today's lesson. The whole people did not make it back to Jerusalem. Some died in captivity over those long years. Some didn't want their freedom, so they stayed in exile. Some remembered Jerusalem destroyed, and they didn't want to go back to that wasteland. Some had married Babylonians and chose to continue living in Babylon. Still, today's lesson speaks of "a great company" of those who would return. However many or few, they did not constitute a problem for God. He has done miraculous things with remnants. Even today he can do unbelievable things with only a few persons. Their number is not important; their faith in God is what matters.
The staggering emancipation of God's ancient people prefigures God's astounding liberation of his people today from bondage to sin and death into the freedom of eternal life and peace through Jesus Christ, his Son, our Savior. However, the deliverance bought by Calvary and Easter is a thousand times more significant than the deliverance of Israel from Babylon. The crucified and risen Savior offers his spiritual deliverance to the whole world for as many as repent of their sin and trust in his grace. It is the most amazing gift in the history of the world. Nobody could have ever foreseen that God would make it in this precise way, but it changes everything for everybody, at least in its potential. No wonder that a seventy-seven-year-old nun who miraculously survived that plane crash in Sioux City, Iowa, held so tightly to a crucifix afterward, saying, "Whatever I do, I'm not letting go of this." No one in his or her right mind would let go of a Savior. What he has done for us is similar to what happened to the playwright Vaclav Havel in Czechoslovakia. In 1989 he was languishing in a prison for opposing the government. Eight months later he was elected prime minister of the new government by its parliament, as cannons boomed and a military band played the national anthem. So we were in prison to sin and death, but Christ released us by sacrificing himself in our place, and by his Resurrection he made us number one as children of God and heirs of heaven, if we trust ourselves to what he has done for us. This is God's great surprise for us.
Shouting For Joy
In Jeremiah's prophecy we read:
Thus says the Lord: "Sing aloud with gladness for Jacob, and raise shouts for the chief of the nations; proclaim, give praise, and say, 'The Lord has saved his people, the remnant of Israel.' "
The decibels are almost deafening as the sounds of this passage come through. One almost needs ear plugs to read it. These people are on fire with the joy and victory which their God has given them. No one could quiet them. Their thankful joy will out. Lotte Lehmann, the famous opera singer, recalls how musical recording back in the early days of Thomas Edison was done into a large horn, rather than into a microphone. "On the high notes you always had to step back," she remembered, "and on the low notes go forward. It was really like dancing the whole time." That's what God's people would be doing on their journey from Babylon to Jerusalem. They would be dancing while they were singing out of pure joy and thanks to God.
Where has such excitement gone in a normal Sunday worship service today? When hymns are sung, there is hardly more than a soft murmuring among those in the pews. If anybody were to shout, the ushers would likely show that person to the exit. Why is our response to God's mighty grace so muted? Is there nothing to shout about in our understanding of the Gospel? Has it become so "old hat" that it doesn't even raise our blood pressure one point? On the contrary, here is the most exciting news that earth has ever heard. God has rescued us through Christ from an eternity in hell to an eternity in heaven. We who were on death row because of our disobedience toward God have been freed by undeserved grace to live within his everlasting hug of love. We are the apple of his eye. We are the dearest thing to him that he has created. He even gave up his only Son to bring us back to him. Let the decibels rise. Let congregational song be stirring. Let the singing of the liturgy be exciting. Let church worship set our spirits dancing and invigorate our participation, for this God is our God, and our salvation in his name is glorious. Any contact with him is an electric experience. It causes goosebumps among the faithful.
Note in Jeremiah's prophecy those words "proclaim" and "say" before the words, "The Lord has saved his people." In other words, tell others about God's saving love. Don't just keep it to yourself. It's too good just to keep. Here are two true "dog stories" for illustration. A young woman walked her dog every evening along the streets of her apartment complex. One evening she met another young woman from another apartment who was also out for a walk. They enjoyed their conversation. On following evenings they began to walk together. The woman with the dog talked enthusiastically about her church. She was so excited about it that she persuaded the other woman, who had no church home, to bring her husband and worship there. Eventually they made it their church home also. Christian witnessing can occur naturally even in walking the dog. The other story is about a blind woman who, as a choir member, processes with her seeing-eye dog regularly with the choir in Sunday worship. It is a sight to stir the heart to see this robed choir member in procession, being led down the aisle by her dog in harness. She is proclaiming to others by her deed that "The Lord has saved his people." Are we using the opportunities around us in daily life to tell others how good God has been to us and to invite others to worship him with us?
Even the Weakest
In the great company of those who are singing and shouting as they march to freedom in Jeremiah's prophecy are some from the farthest places of earth. God says, "Behold, I will bring them from the north country, and gather them from the farthest parts of the earth." This return to Jerusalem does not just involve the exiles in Babylon, but also other scattered Hebrews from many other countries. The drawing power of God's love is like a giant magnet. He gathers his own from all nations and restores them to joy in him. Not only the farthest, but also the weakest are in the vast column of the singing marchers headed toward Jerusalem. "Among them the blind and the lame," Isaiah reports, "the woman with child and her who is in travail, together." God does not mention the mighty and the rich and the brilliant in this march. Some of them were there, no doubt, but God is careful to include the lame and the blind, mothers with little children, and expectant women. No doubt this is only a partial list of the weak. It could have included also the deaf and the retarded and the chronically ill and the very old and the psychologically disturbed and the disfigured. The list of such is very long. Our God has a special interest in all such. They have been called "the disabled," but a beautiful way of describing them is "the differently abled." We are all able in certain areas, but each differently abled person has his or her own competence in different areas. Perhaps we should not even call them weak. They can be like the filament of a spider's web, which looks like one of the frailest things on earth, but which actually is stronger than steel of the same dimensions would be.
It is fair to ask at this point whether such persons are specially included among God's people in the church today. It is not enough to have slots designated for wheel chairs. There must be an intense concern and love for such "differently abled" persons, culminating in a desire to have them in our midst and to receive a blessing from them. Their talents must also be used in the mission of the church through its witness and service. In one church a mentally retarded woman was thought to have little to contribute in terms of service. However on one Sunday the altar guild member failed to show up to arrange the altar flowers in their vases. This retarded woman did the job instead. She did such a beautiful job of it, and she took such joy in doing it, that the church realized her talent in this area. From that time on, she was asked to arrange the altar flowers every Sunday, and she was delighted to do it as her service to God. Jesus took a special interest in a blind beggar in today's Gospel. He set the example for us.
When Jeremiah's prophecy has God saying, "With weeping they shall come, and with consolations I will lead them back," there are two possible interpretations. Those could be tears of joy from exiles who were deliriously happy to be returning in freedom to Jerusalem. On the other hand, the prophet could have meant that they went into exile with weeping, but that they came out with singing. When Thomas Wang, the Chinese Christian leader, was talking with Peter Wagner, the church growth specialist, he said, "Pete, I have studied your theories of the elements that make up church growth. I believe that you have left out one of the most important." "Really? What was that?" asked Wagner. "Suffering," replied Wang. "It is the suffering church that has been the growing church." Into the ears of the suffering church God whispers his eternal consolations to make it strong and growing.
On a Smooth Path
Now the path of the exiles' return is described in Jeremiah. "I will make them walk by brooks of water," God promises, "in a straight path in which they shall not stumble." Here are three blessings for the journey of God's people. Brooks of water will accompany their path. In the desert which they must cross, water is of paramount importance. God will provide it. A second blessing is that the path will be straight. It will not meander all about, making the journey twice as long. The path will be the straightest distance between two points. The third blessing is that the path will be smooth. It won't have obstacles over which they could stumble. On a long journey by foot, especially for the differently abled, all of these blessings are important.
On our spiritual journeys through life, God promises the same three blessings. He provides us with the living water in Jesus Christ, who promised, "He who believes in me shall never thirst." A young man in China asked the American Bible Society representative, "Could you please send me a Bible? I am thirsty for the Good News." We have all the Good News we shall ever need to satisfy our spiritual thirst in the love of our Savior, Jesus Christ. Then, too, God offers us a straight path into the heart of his mercy. He wants us to come to him as quickly as possible. But also the path seems smooth because God helps us so wonderfully over the obstacles in life, even carrying us when the path gets rough. No journey is too hard, no path is too rough, no life is too long, when God goes with us and provides for us out of the great storehouse of his grace.
Jeremiah's prophecy for today ends with the thrilling words of God, "For I am a father to Israel, and Ephraim is my first-born." Ephraim is another name for Israel. The firstborn child of any set of parents will always have a special place in their love. The first child has a meaning different from any other child who follows. Such is the relationship with his people which God treasures in his heart. The prophet Hosea spelled out this precious relationship in these words of God, "When Israel was a child, I loved him ... It was I who taught Ephraim to walk, I took them up in my arms ... I led them with cords of compassion, with the bands of love." How infinitely tender a love God has for his people! That fatherly love is our salvation. It is the Good News that sustains us, no matter what.
See the happy exiles marching out to freedom, singing and dancing and shouting with joy, supplied with water from the brook alongside, God making their way an ecstatic experience, even for the differently abled. Now see God's people today, making their way through this life, singing with all their hearts the songs of salvation, liberated mercifully from their bondage to sin and death, their spiritual thirst more than quenched by the living water of Jesus Christ, carried in the arms of God over the sharp stones of adversity along the path. Now, finally, see the saints of God traveling in a great column that leads up to heaven, there singing the song of the Lamb around the crystal sea, the journey ended, Zion entered, the new Jerusalem, now their eternal home at the throne of God. As the hymn describes it,
We're marching to Zion,
Beautiful, beautiful Zion.
We're marching upward to Zion,
The beautiful city of God.
Are you in that great column of singing pilgrims, liberated by grace, powered by the Spirit, redeemed by the Son? Your place is in that joyful company of God's people. To be among them by God's choice and call is to transform life on earth and to inherit life in heaven.
