Sermon 12.10.2023: Full-Catastrophe Joy

In a world full of hate and war, joy is our most faithful form of protest. Christmas calls up the full spectrum of emotions, everything from grief and lament to "sweet hymns of joy." From the ruins of war and exile, the ancient Jews rebuilt their joy. And so will we.

Scripture

Ezra 1:1-4; 3:1-4, 10-13

1 In the first year of King Cyrus of Persia, in order that the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah might be accomplished, the Lord stirred up the spirit of King Cyrus of Persia so that he sent a herald throughout all his kingdom, and also in a written edict declared:

2 ‘Thus says King Cyrus of Persia: The Lord, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and he has charged me to build him a house at Jerusalem in Judah. 3 Any of those among you who are of his people—may their God be with them!—are now permitted to go up to Jerusalem in Judah, and rebuild the house of the Lord, the God of Israel—he is the God who is in Jerusalem; 4and let all survivors, in whatever place they reside, be assisted by the people of their place with silver and gold, with goods and with animals, besides freewill-offerings for the house of God in Jerusalem.’

3 When the seventh month came, and the Israelites were in the towns, the people gathered together in Jerusalem. 2 Then Jeshua son of Jozadak, with his fellow priests, and Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel with his kin set out to build the altar of the God of Israel, to offer burnt-offerings on it, as prescribed in the law of Moses the man of God. 3They set up the altar on its foundation, because they were in dread of the neighbouring peoples, and they offered burnt-offerings upon it to the Lord, morning and evening. 4 And they kept the festival of booths,* as prescribed, and offered the daily burnt-offerings by number according to the ordinance, as required for each day,

10 When the builders laid the foundation of the temple of the Lord, the priests in their vestments were stationed to praise the Lord with trumpets, and the Levites, the sons of Asaph, with cymbals, according to the directions of King David of Israel; 11 and they sang responsively, praising and giving thanks to the Lord,

‘For he is good, for his steadfast love endures for ever towards Israel.’

And all the people responded with a great shout when they praised the Lord, because the foundation of the house of the Lord was laid. 12 But many of the priests and Levites and heads of families, old people who had seen the first house on its foundations, wept with a loud voice when they saw this house, though many shouted aloud for joy, 13 so that the people could not distinguish the sound of the joyful shout from the sound of the people’s weeping, for the people shouted so loudly that the sound was heard far away.

Sermon Text

Lachen und Weinen zu jeglicher Stunde 

Ruht bei der Lieb auf so mancherlei Grunde. 3 

Before you know what kindness really is

you must lose things… 

Before you know kindness as the deepest thing inside,

you must know sorrow as the other c. deepest thing.

You must wake up with sorrow.

You must speak to it till your voice

catches the thread of all sorrows

and you see the size of the cloth.

Then it is only kindness that makes sense anymore…4 

Soul Child 

I barely remember visiting my maternal great-grandmother Alma during her final days in the nursing home. Many years later I will learn her name, Alma, means soul. Alma opens her eyes and looks down at five-year-old me, witnessing me. In her 87th year and now unable to speak, she shows me she loves me by squeezing my hand. My mother tells me to close my eyes and make a memory. Alma. 

The day of her funeral is hectic. My grandmother, Alma’s daughter Phoebe, wants everything to be right, but there is no right way for anything to be right. She wears the shoes she had gotten dyed to match 

her navy blue cape, but, look at them, they’re not right. She wears a broach of a bird, which Alma likes, but why won’t it “do” right? My mother tries to calm her mother, knowing nothing is going to be right, not today. We file into our tiny rural Methodist church, our family as one. I am sitting between my mother and my Uncle Buddy on the front row. The hymns are getting slower and more maudlin. The pastor is drawling an altar call in our native mountain twang. 

And during a pause of reverence—my mother’s stomach growls. She sounded like a bobcat ready to pounce and feed. Now in silence, the mourners’ bench began trembling with my mother’s poorly-stifled and dependably-infectious laughter. No matter the church, congregations are completely silent only when something seems to be going wrong up front. 

My Uncle Buddy, not a small man, shook the entire pew trying to mask his giggles as weeping—at his mother’s funeral. I closed my eyes and made another memory. We all did. It was beautiful. It was right for us and our soul. Two sides of the same coin, laughing and crying are different ways of processing the same situation. We need both. Consider it a paradox. 

Ezra’s Version of the Return 

The obvious message of Ezra goes like this. 

After generations in Exile, the people are release and everybody obeys God. Everything is right. The musicians sing the right songs 5, and in the right responsive style as Kind David 6—the same song, almost, they had sung for Solomon’s First Temple’s in before time. The Second Temple would be the new “threshold of heaven” 7 God’s physical location. The priest’s matching vestments were fresh from the dry cleaners and, at the potluck dinner, all the cutlery matched (for the last time in church history). 8 The message here is clear. Obey God and good will prevail. 

Contrast this with the catastrophe 9 some forty years earlier 10 when the Babylonian army had invaded and sacked Jerusalem, marching away the aristocratic Jews to sit by the waters of Babylon held captive in Nebuchadnezzar’s detention camps. 

King Cyrus takes over around 550 BC. Although he is an adherent to the Marduk and Tiamat religion of the Enuna Elish, Cyrus could not resist the God of Israel’s the breath of God’s spirit 11 moving in his little authoritarian soul. Obeying God, Cyrus releases around 40,000 Jews and sponsors Zerubbabel to lead them back to Jerusalem. 

“It’s the [thing] that refugees don’t even dare dream about: go home. Go home, loaded with blessings. Go home, loaded with blessings, and rebuild. [And the Good Shepherd restores the soul of the Jews.] When they arrive, Ezra 3:1 says us that 12 “the people were ‘together’ again. The word translated “together” also means the people unified “as one person.” Tens of thousands “as one person” to watch the altar’s foundation set in place at the behest of the King of the Persians. Not by might, not by power, but by God’s spirit 13 the people are one. God’s spirit (ruach) can still melt the hearts of kings, autocrats and dictators. 

Isaiah’s Messiah 

God can work with imperfect material so successfully that Isaiah names Cyrus messiah (45:1). In Isaiah, the Wonderful Counsellor Everlasting Father Prince of Peace14 child that will be born unto us? That’s probably Cyrus (Isaiah 45:1). There. I’ve ruined Christmas. As much as the current media tries to beat it out of us, we can embrace paradox. Our good-looking well-educated heads can hold more than one truthful idea at a time. King Cyrus the Liberator or Jesus the Light of World, either way/both ways, the captives freed and God’s will is done! 

All this was written up for posterity by Ezra, the Bible nerd’s nerd15—the legalist without whom the Torah would not have been codified, the spiritual forebear of the Sanhedrin named Nicodemus, to whom Jesus says “whosoever believes in me shall have eternal life.” 16 

Laughing & Crying 

The final verses of today’s passage: 

old people who had seen the first [Temple] on its foundations wept with a loud voice when they saw this [new] house, though many shouted aloud for joy, so that the people could not distinguish the shout of rejoicing from the sound of the people’s weeping, 

The family reunited with shouts of rejoicing and bitter weeping. 

For many of us, that sums up the holidays. Am I right? 

Ezra makes sure to illustrate how the Zerubbabel-led caravan of Jewish refugees is the fulfillment of Jeremiah’s prophecy 17 

I will fulfill to you my promise and bring you back to this place. 11 For surely I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope. 12 Then when you call upon me and come and pray to me, I will hear you. 13 When you search for me, you will find me; if you seek me with all your heart, 14 I will let you find me, says the Lord, and I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all the nations and all the places where I have driven you, says the Lord, and I will bring you back to the place from which I sent you into exile. 

The Left-Behinds 

Of course they sing “Give thanks to the Lord for his mercy endures forever.” But Ezra, writing for the Exiles, the in-crowd, adds “towards Israel.” I thought God’s mercy was universal. It worked on Cyrus. It worked on me. But what about the left-behinds, the lesser-thans, the poor, the uneducated Jews and non-Jews alike. The hoi polloi Ezra calls the am ha’aretz (people of the land)? Aren’t us non-Jews people, too? 

In an ancient geopolitical view, Josephus Sixpack and his neighbors had kept Jerusalem going, such as it was, during decades of Exile. And here comes 40,000 basically-unknown “relatives” wanting to re-colonize the neighborhood. “We will now be taking your stuff—or at least re-doing the stuff we don’t like—because God told us to. Let us thank him with responsive singing.” 

Imperial Colonialism 

Even in euphemisms like “manifest destiny” or “pax Americana” colonization is the original sin of every empire. The rich colonizers gain everything while the colonized lose the little bit they had been holding together. In Ezra, the Jewish men who married non-Jewish women were forced to give up their families! Some say this led to Ezra’s mysterious disappearance later in the story. Legislating marriage has never worked, never will. It’s an ancient story, the fluidity of authoritarian empire. The wheel turns with every generation, and, in love with the thrill of revenge, the oppressed can easily trade places with the oppressor. Leaders cannot make decisions based solely in emotion and rage. 

International Humanitarian Law 

History warns us of the atrocities of war. In 2023, we have a set of guidelines called International Humanitarian Law. Governing war, it prohibits the killing of children, destruction of hospitals, use of human shields and out-of-proportion retaliation—everything you will read in todays’ paper. Following the advice of my rabbinical friends, I am comfortable admitting that I am not qualified to have a big opinion on what’s happening in the Middle East. (I know that’s surprising. I seem to come to clear convictions on other things. Those things I understand.) 

I can say this. I stand with International Humanitarian Law18 and all the precious lives protected by it: children, concert-goers, Muslims, Jews, Christians, atheists, journalists. We are actively unlearning all that past generations in hopes that we could avoid another world war. Why have we ignored International Humanitarian Law? 

Process Emotions 

Grief and hurt unprocessed sours quickly into grievance. There more serious it gets, we must rely on our wits, like old Sarah who laughed, like young Mary who can’t believe she’s about to have God’s baby. Grief and loss must be processed. Weep until it’s better. Then, have a good laugh. 

Over. And Next. 

This week, I binge-watched old episodes of Maude to process Norman Lear’s death. Lear’s life motto was “Over and Next.” So, now that’s over. Let’s talk it over and learn from it. Now, what’s next can be something new. This is where Ezra ends19 

19 2 the Hebrew Bible with the Exile over, a great day of homecoming and rebuilding from what was plundered. But Christian, our story cannot end here. We’ve got a baby on the way. 

Weep for Wonder 

There’s a moment on Christmas Eve, when we raise our individual lights and, as one person, we sing Silent Night Holy Night. I’ve seen you crying during that moment of joy. My friend, Masanko, grew up in the African nation of Malawi. In his village, when a child is born, a special group of women are called in to attend the birth. While others are celebrate and take on, these older women, wiser through years, stand to the side and, ceremonially, they weep for everything that goes into a life. All the skinned knees and all the candy, all the romances and all the heartbreak, all the dancing and all the grieving, the catastrophe and the rebuilding. And rebuilding. And rebuilding. 

Amen. 

1 Chingboi Guite Phaipi, The people of the land in Ezra, <https://www.academia.edu/40859864/People_of_the_Land_in_Ezra> 

2 Psalm 136, the phrase “for his mercy endures forever” is sung 13 times, and not once does the psalmist specify to whom God’s steadfast love is shown. God’s mercy is universal. In Ezra 3, the phrase “toward Israel” is added, presumably, to exclude “the people of the land.” 

3 Laughter and tears at any hour / Arise in love from so many different causes. (FriedrichRückert 1788-1866) 

4 Naomi Shihab Nye (1952—) 

5 Although with selfish alteration, adding “towards Israel” and therefore limiting what was once God's universal mercy. Bad juju.

6 2 Chronicles 5:13 —

7 Cuéllar.

8 I might’ve made up that last part.

9 The title to this sermon is too subtle, but that’s how I roll. 1) Full Catastrophe Living is a book by Jon Kabat Zinn that changed how I fundamentally regard suffering in this world. 2) Palestinians calls 1948 the year of Nabka, which means catastrophe in Arabic. Then, they were promised a state, and it has yet to happen. (Hamas is a terrorist organization that must be stopped. Every nation has a right to self-defense within International Humanitarian Law.) 

10 587 BC (?) 

11 Yahweh awakens the Ruach (spirit, Spirit) in Cyrus.

12 Rachel Wrenn, Trinity Lutheran Seminary, December 15, 2019, accessed online at Working Preacher < https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/narrative-lectionary/rebuilding-the-temple-2/commentary-on-ezra-11-4-31-4-10-13-2>

13 God’s word to Zerubbabael, Zechariah 4:6. the people are one.

14 Isaiah 9:6 

15 The Bible Project’s lingo 

16 John 3 

17 Jeremiah 29:10-14, a bit ahead of schedule, but close enough for biblical historicity 

18 What is International Humanitarian Law? https://www.icrc.org/en/doc/assets/files/other/what_is_ihl.pdf (December 5, 2023)