Restore us, O God; Let Your Face Shine, That We May Be Saved

Scripture Lessons: Psalm 80: 1-7 and 17-19, and Isaiah 64: 1-9 Sermon Title: Restore us, O God; Let Your Face Sine, That We May Be Saved Preached on December 3, 2017 Today is a special day. All Sundays are special of course. I used to work with a Music Director who said that the most important Sunday of the year is the next one coming up, but today is a special Sunday - the first Sunday of Advent, plus we have these new hymnals, we have communion. I have an early memory of communion here at this church. I was a couple years older than Doug and Andy Miller, who were twins and close friends with Mickey Buchanan, and the first time those three were allowed to sit by themselves in a worship service it was a communion Sunday. I guess they were 8 or 9 and when the bread came they did just what they were supposed to do, but when the cup came, before drinking they all toasted each other with the tiny little communion cups. It’s amazing what kids do without their parents sitting close by, but the truth of the matter is that when no one is watching, all people act a little differently. Even a little bit of freedom can be dangerous for anyone. I remember the first-time wine was served at Sara’s family’s Thanksgiving dinner. It was several years ago now, and when we gathered around the Thanksgiving table with my wife Sara’s family, the adult places at the table came complete with a wine glass, and while that may sound normal enough, this is something that never would have happened if Aunt Ester were alive. While Aunt Ester was alive, all alcohol was forbidden, and every Thanksgiving dinner at her house, a group of us dissenters, we would assemble with sweet tea in our glasses – but we were mad about it. We’d huddle together on the deck or front yard, just out of ear shot from the matriarch – and together we’d dream about the day when prohibition would end on our corner of Knoxville, Tennessee. It did. Wine was served the first Thanksgiving after Aunt Ester’s funeral. That year Thanksgiving was hosted by another member of the family who was excited to take up the torch, and Aunt Janie was not a teetotaler, so not all, but many members of the extended family quietly sipped from wine glasses at that first liberated Thanksgiving, whispering to one another, “This never would have happened if Aunt Ester were still around”. The next year, wine was served more openly, then by the third year everyone was just about comfortable; but by the fourth year after Aunt Ester’s death – the invitation to this big Thanksgiving dinner for the whole extended family never came. The host family needed a year off, and Aunt Janie asked that families celebrate their own thanksgiving, a meal for all the cousins and everyone at her house was just too much. We all understood. And we gave thanks in smaller numbers, around dining room tables in Atlanta, Washington DC, Knoxville, and Spartanburg, SC, all looking forward to getting back together the next year. But another year passed. Then another without the invitation, and now we don’t even look for it, so today, on Thanksgiving we take the wine for granted, but we miss our extended family. Now a Thanksgiving where we don’t all get together - that never would have happened if Aunt Ester were still around. Do you know this feeling? You’re finally free to do what you want, only the freedom is not as wonderful as you thought it would be. Maybe you’ve been like me, unsupervised at Home Depot, shopping for Christmas lights, buying without moderation, only to get home to wonder, “Where am I going to put all these Christmas lights?” Freedom is not always what it’s cracked up to be. Hear again these words from the Prophet Isaiah: “O that you would tear open the heavens and come down. Because you hid yourself we transgressed. We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a filthy cloth.” What the Prophet means here is that without God, the people left unsupervised have so lost track of who they are that they call on God to return even if it means punishment. “Because you hid yourself we transgressed. We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a filthy cloth. We all fade like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.” According to the Isaiah we are all like kids who come home from school to an empty house. The computer is locked, but we figured out the password, and the liquor cabinet is too, but we’ve had enough time to find the key. No one is there to stop us. As adults, we face the same problems with freedom - we spend what we want on credit cards sent in the mail, because we’ve been given the freedom to take on debt, even debt that we’ll never emerge from. We eat what tastes best, forgetting the doctor’s orders even when it jeopardizes our health. We speak without thinking, act without thought to consequence. Sometimes when I read the headlines of the paper it reminds me of that book I read in English Class years ago: Lord of the Flies. We have freedom, but Piggy’s dead and we need some real grown-ups to save us from ourselves. We’re losing decency and moderation. Even our leaders speak without thinking, take without asking, because no one is around to supervise us. Maybe you saw the political cartoon in this morning’s paper. “More harassment Charges” is the headline and the woman says to a friend – “I used to have coffee with my morning shows, popcorn with my moved…now, I just eat tums.” The Prophet cries out to God: “O that you would tear open the heavens and come down,” because you are the glue that holds us together and if you are gone than things fall apart. “You hid yourself, we transgressed,” because temptation is too much if you are not there to stop us. “You have hidden your face from us, and have delivered us into the hand of our iniquity.” We have done all this – created a world of materialism where we all rush through giving thanks to get to spending more money than we have. We work and we work, and no one is there to tell us when to stop, so tension rises in our homes. There is no rest, even on the Sabbath, because who is there to speak over the loud voice of our culture that never stops telling us to produce and spend? And so, we are entertained, but seldom happy. Our bellies are full without ever being satisfied. We keep going at a fools pace, but where are we headed? “We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a filthy cloth. We all fade like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.” Deliver us Lord, from the hand of our iniquity. Come, Lord Jesus, we cry, for we are like grown children home from college, sleeping on God’s couch, lulled into the illusion that we own the place and can do what we want. But he’s coming back. We anticipate his birth during this season of Advent, preparing for his arrival as a precious mother’s child. May your prayer and mine this Advent Season be a simple one: Restore us, O God; Let Your Face Sine, That We May Be Saved from our selves. And in His face, see the abundant life that can be ours. Amen.