So how in the world am I supposed to talk about the outrageous joy of returning from bitter exile? Sorry, I just don’t have it in me…
But then I took another long look at our scripture passage for today – and it occurred to me perhaps there are some lovely connections here. Maybe our Bible passage isn’t about our bitter exile as it is about remembering blessing. Maybe the moments of outrageous joy we experience and remember are supposed to help us find even more moments of outrageous joy. Maybe all the beauty and joy God allows us to experience in life is the very key to helping us experience even more beauty and joy in life.
Let me explain what I mean.
Most scholars believe our short psalm today was a simple, little song of ascents worship tune the ancient people of God used to prepare themselves to worship joyously in the temple. It was a little song of celebration and remembrance sung as the people walked up the steps of the temple. It was a song about choosing to remember what God has done in the past (their return from bitter exile) so that they might joyously and victoriously anticipate what God might yet do in the difficult future. The New Living Translation of this brief psalm is especially nice…
When the LORD brought back his exiles to Jerusalem, it was like a dream! We were filled with laughter, and we sang for joy. And the other nations said, “What amazing things the LORD has done for them.” Yes, the LORD has done amazing things for us! What joy! Restore our fortunes, LORD, just as streams renew the desert. Those who plant in tears will harvest with shouts of joy. They weep as they go to plant their seed, but they sing as they return with the harvest.
Last Tuesday on vacation, we had the privilege of visiting the beautiful La Basilique de St. Anne de Beaupre, a huge cathedral/healing shrine about 30 kilometers up the coast of the St. Lawrence Seaway from Quebec City in Canada. Over a half million pilgrims visit the popular church each year, many of them reporting dramatic, well documented healing experiences as a result of their visits. While I’ll confess I do have all sorts of questions and theological concerns about such sacred shrine/holy relics pilgrimage places, I still found it profoundly inspirational. The sheer beauty of the place is not to be missed – the church, its sanctuary, iconography, chapels and grounds, complete with beautiful, life-sized, “Stations of the Cross” sculptures up the hillside pathway behind it, is well worth a visit. It was beautifully thought-provoking.
But there was one thing at this cathedral I found particularly relevant to our scripture passage this morning. Just inside the entrance of the church, strapped up the two principal pillars on each side of the church, were the crutches, canes, and braces and other assorted medical paraphernalia of people claiming healing at the church. It was a beautifully blunt and simple statement; a powerful reminder that, in spite of our often clumsy efforts to understand and relate to him, Almighty God still moves in amazing ways. Almighty God is still involved in our daily lives. Much in the same way our scripture song reminded the ancients of God’s hand in their returns from the bitterness of perhaps both Egyptian and Babylonian exiles, those two St. Anne de Beaupre pillars filled with crutches and simple canes reminded all visitors that God still moves today – life is still filled with outrageously joyous possibilities. We can expect joy because we have experienced joy. We have received in the past what we long for our future.
It seems to me there is a simple, very elementary two part message in our scripture passage today. As we long to live lives filled with the outrageous joy Almighty God created and intends for us to enjoy, there are always two simple components to our experience of that joy.
Joy Remembered
The first component is remembrance. We must remember and celebrate the joyous and profound restoration we have received. Whether we’re talking about our salvation and spiritual restoration itself, our spiritual return from exile, an actual physical healing, miraculous financial provision, divine guidance or simply another gorgeously unnecessary, leafy moment of beauty God has allowed us to experience, I am utterly convinced that remembering is the first essential component of outrageous joy. Remembering clearly and constantly what God has done for me in the past is the best foundation for believing He might move again for me in the future.
Why do you suppose the Bible is filled with so many specific admonitions to remember? We are told to remember the exodus from Egypt and the words of this Book. We are to “tie these things on our foreheads,” right? The ancient Jews were given countless celebrations, days and moments to remember. Today, we join together in communion to remember what Jesus did for us on the cross. We use baptism as a reminder of what it is we’re embracing as we agree to follow Jesus. We gather to worship regularly at least partially to remind ourselves of all God has done for us. The Bible is all about remembering God! If we don’t remember all God has done, it will always be difficult to believe what God might yet be willing to do for us.
So let me ask you bluntly; what crutches and canes are you intentionally tying to the pillars of your life to help you remember what God has done for you? What big and little things are we intentionally doing to help us remember what must not be forgotten?
How intentional are we being about remembering?
On my way out to Boston last week, I took the time to stop off at the new Flight 93 National Memorial near Shanksville, Pennsylvania. While the memorial is not yet completed, I found its simple, marble wall of engraved panels very moving. I want to remember these dear people and the courageous risk they took so that evil would not be victorious and others might not suffer. I want to make a special point of remembering them so that, in the future, when perhaps I too might find myself faced with similar, no win situations, I too will make the right, but difficult decision. I want to be intentional about remembering something in the past so that I might be better prepared to joyously participate in the restoration of something in the future.
What are we doing to intentionally, joyously remember what God has done for us?
What sort of reservoir of joyous remembrance are you establishing from which to draw when the going gets tough in your future? How do any of us ever expect to joyously and courageously face whatever comes next if we so cavalierly forget all God has done in our past? We must make an intentional point of remembering our joyous moments of restoration!
I don’t want to simplistically reduce or trivialize these things, but one of the reasons I’ve grown so intentional about photography, blogging, study, writing and filing over the last years is that I want to remember what God has done for me. Every time I walk past that hallway picture of that whale breaching and jumping crazily off the Oregon coast years ago, I remember how God listens and sometimes says “yes” to even the silliest, most insignificant little prayers if we’ll just bother to ask Him. Kevin, pray about everything – pray always! Every time I glance up from my desk chair at the grinning Liberian children at the rehab school years ago, I am reminded how God can bring joy even into the most desperately sad situations. Kevin, even the most hopeless situation might not be so terribly hopeless! Every time I go back and review a sermon manuscript, a blog article or Bible study, I am reminded how God still speaks if we’ll just take time to listen. Kevin, the Word of God is alive and active! The Bible speaks! When I make a joyously intentional point of remembering how outrageously God has moved in the past, an intentional point of tying a crutch or two to the pillars of my life, I’m ready to believe He’ll do so again in the future. The LORD has done great things for me; I am filled with joy!
What crutches and canes are you intentionally tying to the pillars of your life?
Joy Relived
Only in doing that will we be adequately prepared to relive joy in our future. This is second obvious component of knowing outrageous joy. For those taking notes, we’re talking simply about joy remembered and then joy relived! We will only be prepared to “take hold of that for which Christ has taken hold of us” in the future if we make an intentional point of remembering how truly wonderfully He has taken hold of us in the past. If I properly, joyously celebrate and remember how God has restored me in the past, I will be better prepared to joyously relive and restore my future. The key to my future joy is remembering my past joy!
And we need as many big and little “crutches on the pillars” reminders as we can get because, as the psalmist reminds us clearly, there will be tears in our future. As this worship psalm says, while I may well find myself “planting with tears,” I can do so fully expecting to reap a harvest of joy. That just the way the song is written. That’s just the way things have happened in the past and so I expect them to happen that way in the future in some mysterious way. I too may well quite often be found weeping as I plant my hard won seeds into the hard, dry ground, but I can continue to do so because I’m fully expecting a harvest of singing. That’s just the way this thing works!
There is a profound and powerful relationship between joyously remembering our past and joyously reliving it in our future – these are the two simple components of discovering truly outrageous joy in life. While it is wonderful to remember how God has restored us, how God has begun a work in us, we aren’t interested in simply dwelling/rejoicing in our past restoration and redemption for its own sake. We’re hungry for our final restoration and redemption. We aren’t temporarily interested in outrageous joy; we’re eternally interested in outrageous joy.
So as we leave here this morning, take an inventory. Take a moment today, take some intentional time in these gorgeous fall weeks leading up to Thanksgiving, to walk through your life and intentionally remember how God has constantly restored and refreshed you. Thank Him for all those grim exile moments from which He has joyously rescued you, thank Him for all the wonderful moments of restoration and joy He has graciously lavished on you and then think hard about creative ways to tie a few memorable crutches (whatever they might be) to the pillars of your life to help you remember those great moments in your past and help ensure outrageous joy in all the difficult tearful moments of your future. Think of intentional ways to memorably outrageously fill your reservoirs of joy so they are there from which to draw in whatever challenging moments to come.
Just like these ancient people singing of their return from exile, the LORD has truly done amazing things for us as well! What joy! Let the nations be amazed at what God has done for us! May we very intentionally remember these amazing things so we might enjoy even more amazing things! May all our moments of outrageous joy lead to even more moments of joy!
Amen.
