I Will Restore You - February 5
Today’s Readings: AM Psalm 75, 76; PM Psalm 23, 27; Gen. 24:28-38,49-51; Heb. 12:12-29; John 7:14-36
Today’s Reflection
At that time his voice shook the earth; but now he has promised, ‘Yet once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heaven.’ This phrase ‘Yet once more’ indicates the removal of what is shaken—that is, created things—so that what cannot be shaken may remain. Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us give thanks, by which we offer to God an acceptable worship with reverence and awe; for indeed our God is a consuming fire. –Hebrews 12: 26-29
I’m writing to you this morning from Camp McDowell, where your clergy and lay delegates are representing Saint Stephen’s at the Diocese of Alabama’s 191st Convention. Here, we are gathering with colleagues and friends to hear from our bishop and other leaders on the state of the Diocese, and to do the work of voting for resolutions and electing people to the governing boards of the Diocese. But more importantly, we are also gathering so that we may break bread, share conversations, worship together, and deepen our faith through listening to teaching and preaching from our guest speaker and preacher, the Rev. Dr. Sam Wells (who is also speaking this evening at Saint Stephen’s—please come!).
Yesterday, we heard twice from Sam Wells. In the afternoon, Wells gave a talk on scarcity and abundance in both our individual lives and in the life of the church and the world. But before he gave his lecture, he first shared with us a meditation on the passage in Daniel 3 on Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. These three faithful Jews were living in Babylon under the rule of King Nebuchadnezzar, and because they loved God more than the king—and would not bow down to worship a golden statue he had made in his own image—they were experiencing a time of great trial. They could either submit to the king or be thrown into a furnace of fire. Here is how they responded: “If our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the furnace of blazing fire and out of your hand, O king, let him deliver us” (3: 17).
So, into the fire they were thrown, and here is what Nebuchadnezzar witnessed: “But I see four men unbound, walking in the middle of the fire, and they are not hurt; and the fourth has the appearance of a god” (3: 25). These three faithful men were not spared the time of trial—but they also were not left to face it on their own. God was there walking through the fire with them, so that they would be able to emerge from the fire and continue to love and praise God. As Wells observed, “Their story shows us what salvation means. What salvation doesn’t mean is that the virus can’t hurt us. … Salvation doesn’t mean freedom from sickness, care, anxiety, fear, pain, or threat. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego don’t avoid the fiery furnace. Christians don’t believe they’re immune from suffering, sealed off from worry, aloof from conflict, inoculated against conflict, exempt from grief. Quite the opposite, as this story makes clear. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego face suffering, worry, conflict, panic, and grief precisely because they’re people of faith and because they uphold God’s name.” But here’s the hope we must find and cling to as we encounter their story: “When Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego are thrown down into the fire, God is with them.”
Then, in our evening Eucharist, we heard Wells preach on another passage from the Hebrew scriptures, this one from the prophet Joel. It’s a passage written to people who have survived another great time of trial, fifty years of exile. The plague of locusts, as Wells observes, is a metaphor for everything they have lost. And this is what God tells them: “I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten.” This verse became the refrain of Wells’ sermon on restoration. We have all gone through times of loss and grief.
Wells describes a broken teapot, a favorite teapot with many memories attached to it. Our instinct is to want to repair the teapot so that it is exactly as it was before, and yet that is not possible. But the truth that we find is that the restored teapot, with “a decidedly dodgy, reattached spout,” is now a better teapot because it has been loved enough to be restored. Wells reflects: “So, too, Israel wasn’t the same as the Israel that was taken into captivity…. Restoration didn’t mean simple return to the status quo before the disaster. It was something new—combining what was good in the previous era with what was true about the challenging one.”
As we read in the Hebrews passage appointed for today, we go through times in which seemingly every single aspect of our lives will be shaken. But what I have found, and what I hope you have found, is that as we come through these times of trial, what remains is “a kingdom that cannot be shaken”—or burned by fire or consumed by locusts.
As Wells concluded his sermon last evening: “I wonder if your story resonates. … I wonder whether when you hear the words, ‘the years the swarming locust has eaten, you know which years those are. Maybe you’re in the middle of those years right now. If so, hear those words spoke to the prophet Joel in your heart today: ‘I will restore to you the years swarming locust has eaten.’ I will restore them. They are not wasted. They are not forgotten. They do not have the last word. I will restore those years. Maybe you can look back and see how God has done exactly that, redeeming your exile, your devastated fields, and restoring you to life and love.”
Thanks be to God.
—Becky+
Questions for Self-Reflection
What is the fire you have walked through or are walking through? How do you see God in the fire with you? What are the years you have lost to the swarming locust? How has God restored them—or how is moving in your life to restore them even now?
Daily Challenge
Listen to Wells’ sermon on restoration from Diocesan Convention here.
Come hear Sam Wells reflect on “Does God Heal? tonight at 7 p.m. in the Parish Hall or watch the livestream here.