Choosing the Better

by Sharon Marr

(Based on Luke 10:38–42; Col 1:15-28; Amos 8:1–12)

Our readings today call us to recognise what truly matters. In a world busy with distractions, our Gospel reading could suggest to us that, like Martha, we often neglect the “better part” chosen by Mary — sitting at Jesus’s feet and just listening. In Colossians, Christ, the “image of the invisible God”, calls us into deep relationship, revealing God’s mystery and purpose, and reveals the secret:  Christ lives in us, waiting for our invitation. Meanwhile, Amos warns of a famine — not of bread, but of hearing God’s word. These passages together challenge us to centre our lives on Christ, seek the Word faithfully, and prioritise spiritual food over busyness or complacency, trusting that in Him all things hold together.  So in a nutshell I think it’s all about choices and listening.

Jesus visits the home of Martha and Mary, two sisters whom he loved dearly. Martha is busy with all the preparations — cooking, cleaning, setting the table, etc, etc, etc.  Important things, we might say. Meanwhile, Mary does something unexpected. She sits at Jesus’s feet and listens to his teaching, and Jesus allows this, and thus, from this point onwards, elevating  the status of women by affirming Mary’s right to discipleship.  (Traditionally, only male disciples sat at their Teacher’s feet to study the Torah). This gender promotion is a huge deal.

Martha is frustrated. She probably bangs the pots and pans around heavily, and thumps the bowls on the table … and I understand why. She’s doing all the work, and her sister is just sitting there. So she says to Jesus, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!”
But Jesus replies: “Martha, Martha, you are worried and upset about many things, but few things are needed — or indeed only one. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.”

Please notice Jesus doesn’t criticise Martha’s service — he really does care; but he gently corrects her distraction. Martha wasn’t doing anything wrong by preparing a meal. But by her choice, she was missing the greater gift — the presence and word of Jesus. Mary had chosen it, and Jesus says it will not be taken from her.

Even now, we face this choice: to be distracted by what we consider urgent, or to be drawn in by what really matters.   It’s easy to fill whatever spare time we have with worries, busyness, or even regrets. Jesus invites us here — gently and lovingly — to sit at his feet, like Mary, and listen to the Word that brings life. And not only on a Sunday.

Now let’s consider the harder, more sobering passage — from the prophet Amos.
Amos speaks to a people who have become comfortable and distracted by wealth, ritual and routine. They are ignoring the cries of the needy and treating worship as a formality. So God sends a warning through Amos: (I love this opening question from God) “What do you see, Amos?” When he’s shown a basket of fruit, Amos replies, “A basket of ripe fruit”. This so makes me think of our dear Steffan when he was about 5-ish.  He was coming up the stairs at our place carrying a stick and his beloved Uncle Roro said to him, “What you got there Steff – a sword or a gun?”  Steff looked at him scornfully, as five-year old boys can, and said, “It’s a stick!”

Sometimes we only see the immediate, don’t we. We don’t consider the possibilities and outcomes of our choices, as God is really telling Amos. “‘The days are coming,’ declares the Sovereign Lord, ‘when I will send a famine through the land — not a famine of food or a thirst for water, but a famine of hearing the words of the Lord.’”

This is a terrifying idea — a time when people will long to hear from God but will not be able to. They will wander, searching for his Word, but they won’t find it.

Why such a severe judgment?
Because they had ignored God’s voice for so long. They had stopped listening. And eventually God gave them what they had chosen: silence.

Bringing these thoughts together, in Luke, Mary chooses to listen at Jesus’s feet, and she receives something eternal. In Amos, the people stop listening to God’s Word, and they end up in spiritual famine.
This is not about age or ability; it’s about attitude and attention. Both young and old must choose whether we will seek to listen to God’s voice or not.

There may be some who feel like the days of activity are behind them. But the truth is, these can be the richest days of spiritual growth. With fewer distractions and more time, we have a beautiful opportunity to become like Mary — to choose the better portion. We can choose to be listeners.
In fact, the older we grow, the more valuable God’s Word becomes.  As our bodies slow down, our spirits can rise.  Memory may fade, but the eternal truth of Scripture remains unchanged.
We as the team that worship with our friends at TRC [local rest home – Ed] have found this to be true. Many folk there choose to worship with us who haven’t been to church since they attended Sunday School, and some of our friends there have dementia of some type or other; but we see as they hear the familiar hymns and prayers their lips move in unison with ours. Once out of the blue our very dear friend Gay, during a time of prayer, opened her mouth and prayed a beautiful, most audible prayer from her heart.  Such is the power of God’s Word.  As friends and loved ones die, we cling more closely to the One who never leaves us.

Let’s focus again on Jesus’s words: “Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.”

Dear friends, isn’t this a promise worth clinging to? What we build with our hands may fall. What we save may be spent. What we know may slip away. But the Word we hide in our hearts — the faith we nurture — the relationship we deepen with God — will never be taken away.

So today, let’s choose the better. Sit at his feet. Open his Word. Let his voice be the one you listen for. And rejoice, because you have chosen what is eternal.

Let us pray:
From the haste and pressure of the world we come into your gentle silence.
From the loneliness of our separate cars and houses we come into your presence.
From the noise and shouting of the world we come to listen to your voice.
Speak to us, God. Beloved, sit with us and change our hearts. Amen.

Attitudes and Motivations

by Barry Pollard

(Based on Luke 10:1-11,16-20; 2 Kings 5:1-14; Gal 6:7-16)

What a blessing we have today that our three Bible readings have threads that overlap and interweave to provide us with plenty of food for thought, reminders to seek forgiveness and ultimately to change the way we are living our lives.

Now, my preferred genre when I read is historical fiction. That is, fictional tales woven around historical fact. So when I encounter Old Testament stories I tend to view them with the same enthusiasm, like the Kings reading this morning. Although we are going to learn things from it, it is a great little tale in its own right, don’t you think?

Naaman was the commander of the Syrian army. He was a ‘big wheel’! He occupied a very powerful position. You would expect, if you met him, that he was physically imposing and quick of mind and judgment. He would have been a leader in battle, providing the battle plans and heading the charge. We are told that he was admired by his king because he was a successful campaigner.
But Naaman suffered from leprosy, a disease which would normally be terminal, and one that would set the sufferer apart from others for fear of contagion.

The suggestion from Naaman’s wife’s servant girl, that he should visit “the prophet in Samaria” for a cure, was taken up and Naaman led an entourage bearing rich gifts to the King of Israel, for the cure. As the King of Israel dithered, Elisha, the prophet of God, stepped in and offered to cure Naaman. When Naaman arrived at Elisha’s house, Elisha sent a servant out to tell Naaman that to be cured he needed simply go and wash seven times in the River Jordan!
But instead of heeding the advice, Naaman became angry. Because of his position, his status, he had expected a personal appointment with Elisha, complete with dramatic gestures, ceremony, ritual and holy healing. He was most upset when a servant was sent to tell him to go wash in the Jordan! This was far from what he was expecting. It was too simple. He was having none of it. He stormed off.

The concluding verses of the reading, however, are where reason is brought to bear: But his officers tried to reason with him and said, “Sir, if the prophet had told you to do something very difficult, wouldn’t you have done it? So you should certainly obey him when he says simply, ‘Go and wash and be cured!‘” The result: “Naaman went down to the Jordan River and dipped himself seven times, as the man of God had instructed him. And his skin became as healthy as the skin of a young child, and he was healed!”

You see, when Naaman obeyed the prophet Elisha’s simple instruction in humility, he was healed.

Now, if you are at church today [or reading this – Ed] you are here because God has a calling on your life. All of us are undergoing a transformation, from our old lives to being new creations in Christ. We are not all at the same stage but I am suggesting that the lesson Naaman learned is one we should all be mindful of. Are we missing God’s grand plan for us because we’re too proud to obey in small, ordinary ways? Does our pride get in the way? Think about it.

The New Testament reading from Galatians fits nicely with the thread developed in Kings: in the Galatians reading, the apostle Paul is advising his audience to be mindful of how they are being transformed. He says we shall each harvest what we sow. He says we should live to please the Spirit because we will receive eternal life from the Spirit. Living this way means, however, that our lives will be ones of service, not to self but to others. Doing what is good will bring us a harvest of blessing. He goes on: true spirituality is not found in religious show (like circumcision) but in being a new creation in Christ. And wasn’t Paul a wonderful example of God’s transformation. From persecutor to apostle! And his only boast was it was all down to the cross of Christ. This is the only thing, he says, that changes our focus from ourselves, and the world, to Jesus and others.

Then the Gospel of Luke describes one of the ways Jesus set about expanding his ministry. He selected a group of seventy-two from his disciples and prepared them to go out into a dangerous and unforgiving world. As we heard, this was not a walk in the park. His call to go out came with daunting conditions: they were to take no money with them, they were to take no extra clothes, they were to rely on those they encountered for sustenance. In fact, what Jesus was calling them to do was to depend on him..
Verse 17 tells us that this proved to be very successful. “When the seventy-two disciples returned, they joyfully reported to Him, ‘Lord, even the demons obey us when we use your name!’” But while their ministry had resulted in the casting out of demons and healing, Jesus reminded them that he had given them authority over “all power of the enemy”, and that their rejoicing over their successes as his workers should be replaced by rejoicing in the fact that they were Heaven-bound.

The challenge in this account is, what is the motivation for his workers? And don’t forget, we are his workers. Are we motivated by our results and reputation? Or do we serve for the glory of God?

I don’t know if you heard but this week the American televangelist Jimmy Swaggart died, aged 90. His early ministry was one of phenomenal growth and global impact, not to mention phenomenal wealth. At the height of its success his ministry was bringing in $140 million a year, through his television broadcasts and marketing of merchandise to millions of viewers in a hundred countries. But like so many enterprises that humans get involved in, the wheels fell off when he was caught out frequenting prostitutes. [Reference – Ed] What probably started out as the service of God and his kingdom ended up being self-serving and base. It degenerated to self-indulgence and money for money’s sake.

Remember in the Galatians reading, Paul said, “Let’s not get tired of doing what is good. At just the right time we will reap a harvest of blessing if we don’t give up. Whenever we have the opportunity, we should do good to everyone, especially to those in the family of faith.”
In these two verses I hear Paul saying, “Just hang in there. Just keep plugging away. And look out for your brothers and sisters, as they will look out for you.”
The preceding verses in the chapter deal with resolving conflict (within the church of Galatia). In them, Paul emphasises that there are different priorities and methodologies that can be applied. He points out there are responsibilities for those “who have been taught the Word”. There are expectations and a calling to live up to. There is a standard to keep. We have a responsibility to help one another.

If we reflect further on the Jimmy Swaggart story we could ask, where were those brothers and sisters that were supposed to be looking out for and helping him? Wouldn’t we expect them to be alongside, sharing his burdens, turning him from his temptations, helping him get over himself, refocussing his attention on God? That is living up to expectations. That is following God’s calling.

This thinking has an application to the Gospel characters. In addition to the reminder Jesus gave the chosen 72 disciples, that they were to look past their feelings of personal success, the other ordinary followers would have had a part to play in helping them maintain their God-focus. They would have been around those chosen, sharing that responsibility to keep them grounded and focussed, keeping their ‘self’ out of the equation of success.

And if you think about it we, ordinary followers, share a similar responsibility in our church. Just hanging in there in the small things. Just plugging away at the difficult or long term things. And looking out for our brothers and sisters as we know they will be looking out for us. Combining our talents to share the load. All for the glory of God!

So, where do we stand?

In our self-examination do we find we have pride in our perceived power or status? Do we have pride in our keeping of the faith? Do we hold ourselves above others? Do we boast in our human achievements? And if so, how do we change that?

I found a couple of useful ‘assists’ in my devotional readings this week, and I’ll share this one:
Researchers carried out a study asking subjects to perform a simple finger­-tapping exercise. As subjects tapped, an MRI scan was done to identify what part of the brain was being activated. The subjects then practised the finger-tapping exercise daily for four weeks. At the end of the four-week period, the brain scan was repeated. In each instance, it revealed that the area of the brain involved in the task had expanded. That simple practised task of finger-­tapping recruited new nerve cells and rewired neural connections.

The author went on to explain that when we read Scripture on a regular (and, dare I say, daily) basis, we are recruiting new nerve cells and rewiring neural connections. In computer-speak, we are downloading a new operating system that reconfigures the mind. We stop thinking human thoughts and start thinking God thoughts.

Why should we do this? Apostle Paul says: “Let the message about Christ, in all its richness, fill your lives. Teach and counsel each other with all the wisdom he gives. Sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs to God with thankful hearts.” (Colossians 3:16)

Through preaching, teaching, reading and singing, our brains are rewired with God’s word, and we develop the mind of Jesus. And that means we end up doing his will instead of being led by our own will. So keep ‘rewiring’ your mind with God’s word. Listen to or read Scripture often, and we’ll find God-thoughts come to mind more readily, pushing our me-thoughts out of the way.

Our readings have shown us that we are to be humble and obedient servants. We should be focussed on being Spirit-led in our service, transformed through God’s grace and power, showing the fruits of his love and justice, putting pride in self to the sword.

If you are like me, it is often an internal debate as to how we’ll act in any given situation. I’m talking about those times when whatever is going on is stirring you to some form of involvement. What should I say? What should I do?
Well, I found this further insight that might be useful. “Pride says, ‘Don’t just stand there; say something!’ Wisdom says, ‘Don’t just say something; stand there!’” How many times do we hear about folk who have suffered great loss being comforted by friends who just sit with them? No words needed, just their presence. And I see that as the bottom line in our takeaways from these readings today. We just have to be here – for God and each other, in the congregation, listening, affirming, serving.

I found this lovely concluding prayer that sums up how we might respond to the messages we have heard today:

Compassionate God, who strengthens us for the journey of faith, we offer ourselves in response to your call to sow seeds of love and justice. May our offerings build up the family of faith and extend your grace to the world beyond. Help us not to grow weary in doing good but to serve with joy and perseverance, trusting that the harvest of your Spirit will bear fruit in due season. Unite us as your new creation, made whole through Christ’s love and empowered by your Spirit. In gratitude, we dedicate to you all that we have, all that we are and all that we shall become. Amen.

Unexpected people. Unlikely places. Unscripted encounters.

by Barry Pollard

(Based on John 14:23-29; Acts 16:9-15; Ps 67)

“Are you a believer?” or “Are you a follower?”
The difference, without having to get into a theological debate, can be explained in a sporting analogy: a believer is like a spectator, while a follower is like a player. One is passive, the other active. In this season of Eastertide we are being encouraged to live out our beliefs, turning our thoughts into deeds. That had a big impact on me during last week’s service.
Last week we heard that our love for one another shows the world that we are followers of Christ (John 13:35). By caring for each other we are demonstrating our commitment to following his way. This week, following on in the same vein, I hope you will hear that our open hearts are vital to our giving and, for some us, our receiving!

Consulting a variety of sources (attempting to bring our readings together this week), I came across one that identified a simple theme running through our lectionary sampling: that of ‘open hearts leading to open homes (or hospitality)’. Two themes that seem appropriate for us here at St Francis Church.

I love the introduction to Psalm 67, “May God be merciful and bless us. May his face smile with favour on us.” You may remember that wonderful rendition of The Blessing Aotearoa that was released in Covid times, that begins in similar fashion.
In brief, the Psalm acknowledges God’s place in all our lives and reminds us that we have a response to make to that place. His love for us, shown by his mercy, blessings and favour, is received and lived out in our worship, praise and openness to bringing others to the same understanding.
“Then the earth will yield its harvests, and God, our God, will richly bless us.  Yes, God will bless us, and people all over the world will fear him.”
He first loves us, and we respond by loving him and others.

Please understand that the psalmist is not describing a ‘transactional’ relationship. Nor is he describing a self-focussed relationship. We don’t do things to earn God’s favour. Nothing we do is just for ourselves. We access God’s favour to bless others. It has to involve others. It has to be shared. The psalmist’s language refers to the whole world – it is global. He isn’t talking about private faith – rather it is missional faith. It is about opening hearts. All hearts. When God blesses us with peace, with provision, with salvation, it’s never just for us. It’s to bring light to the world. It isn’t just for believing. It is for following!

The Acts reading is an account of how the Gospel message was being taken to “the ends of the earth”. In it, the man in Paul’s vision was Macedonian, from northern Greece. The man’s plea was simple. “Come and help us.” Paul, accompanied by Silas, left at once, believing that God was sending them to preach the Gospel there.

When they arrived, instead of a man they met a woman, Lydia. Lydia was a businesswoman, a merchant in expensive textiles, and she worshipped God. As they preached to the gathering, her heart was opened and she received the good news! She and her household were baptised and she invited Paul and Silas to be her guests, opening her home to them.

This is the Holy Spirit at work. Unexpected people. Unlikely places. Unscripted encounters. Lydia’s response to the Gospel was she opened her home. “If you agree that I am a true believer in the Lord, come and stay at my home.” One account I read described her home as the first ‘home group’ in Philippi, a seed of the Philippian church we read about later in Scripture. When God opens hearts, hospitality becomes mission. Lydia didn’t preach a sermon, she set a table.

The Gospel reading takes this another few steps forward. “All who love me will do what I say. My Father will love them, and we will come and make our home with each of them.”
Jesus offers not just a table, but the ultimate act of hospitality. He makes his home in us.

When we love Jesus and live his word we are not just believers, we are followers.  And his gift is the Holy Spirit’s indwelling presence. He lives with us! The Spirit dwells within us, teaches us, reminds us of Christ, and gives us peace. Not temporary peace. Not circumstantial peace, but Christ’s own peace. This is the peace that Psalm 67 hopes for among the nations. This is the peace Lydia surely felt when she opened her home. This is the peace that “surpasses understanding” (Phil 4:7), and stays with us even in our troubles.

So, how do we deal with all this? How do we make it our own? How do we move beyond belief to be real followers of Christ?

I reckon it goes something like this:
Listen for the Spirit’s leading. Like Paul, we must be open to hearing from God, willing to go where God calls, even if the vision doesn’t match the expected.
Be open to God’s word and be open to others. Like Lydia, we must be open to using what we have: our homes, our gifts, our tables … all for God’s Kingdom.
Let God make his home in us. Jesus invites us to love him, to keep his word, and receive the indwelling peace that only he gives.

Then we too will become part of the great deployment of God’s grace in the world. So, let’s ask God to open hearts today, starting with our own.

Sunday Faces

by Barry Pollard

(Based on John 12:1-8; Ps 126; Phil 3:4b-14)

When Keri and I visit different places we often take in a local church service if we are around on a Sunday. As you walk up to the entrance of a church you can usually get a strong inkling of how the service will go. The people who greet you are the first clue. Smiles and conversation go a long way towards making a genuine welcome. People around, talking animatedly about the Lord and what He is doing in their lives, is another clue. Finding ‘Sunday faces’ instead is also a clue.

You know what I mean by this, eh? A Sunday face is one we put on. It is not our natural one. It signals we are taking on a different demeanour for a period of time. It is not a lasting state of mind or behaviour.

The Lenten period is rooted in Jesus’s forty-day fast in the desert before his public ministry. It is a period of spiritual preparation for the celebration of Easter, which culminates in celebrating the resurrection of Jesus Christ. During Lent we are encouraged to reflect on our lives, repent of our sins, and strengthen our faith, spending more time in prayer seeking God’s guidance. We are also encouraged to abstain from certain foods or pleasures as a sign of penance and self-discipline. All of which is worthy and good, if it is carried out with a view to lasting transformation.

But in my experience Lent can cause Sunday faces.

When we put on our Sunday face and give up chocolate for a month, are we really likely to achieve lasting transformation? I’m pretty sure we won’t. Assuming a gloomy weight over Lent doesn’t change much! Are our hearts changed or just our faces? When Jesus said, “I have come that they may have life, and have it in all its fullness,” he didn’t want us to be walking around carrying extra burdens!

Delving into our readings for today, then, my first impression of this collection was that they could result in Sunday faces if we are not careful. So, invoking preacher’s privilege, I am going to be very selective in what I refer to today. My wish is not to add to any weights, imagined or otherwise, that you may be feeling this morning. On the contrary, I would like to shine a beam of lightness!

I’m a firm believer in humour and laughter being great medicine! They can be a binding agent, bringing us, friends and strangers, together in a shared experience.
Just to be clear, I’m not suggesting our worship be replaced with comedy. But I feel a lightness of heart is called for, to help change our perceptions, to see blessings instead of burdens.

Sometimes we laugh, not because something is funny – though it might be – but because of the sheer joy of living. I remember doing that. Do you?
Keri has found YouTube on the smart TV and we get little bursts of things like “100 Adorable Kittens”, “100 Funny Kittens”, “The 20 Happiest Babies in the Universe”, and the like. A recent clip featured those happy babies and brought back a flood of memories when the smallest of ordinary inputs could elicit endless giggling from my pre-language children! You know the sort of thing: a “Boo” as you pop up beside the highchair bringing about almost falling-on-the-floor laughter! That is the “sheer joy of living” I’m talking about today. That unbridled happy reaction to a stimulus. It seems natural in the young. Maybe not so much when you have a few years under the belt, or over the belt in my case.

The joy of living is wrapped up in love and relationship, and we should give thanks for that gift of living, and loving, for being in community, for having a place to worship; in fact, for all that impacts our lives. Laughter and gratitude would to be an ideal combo for us to take away this week!

Now, let’s get Scriptural: I’d like to start with our Philippians reading.
Initially, I was focussed on what I thought was another one of Paul’s boasting sessions. You know the sort of thing – suffered more whippings than anyone, survived multiple shipwrecks, and so on. Closer attention of course made me realise that Paul was actually laying out how his life had been turned around by the intervention of Jesus.
Paul’s letter to the faithful is an encouragement to similar transformation. In it he explains what he was (the Jew, the Pharisee, the Christian hunter), what changed him (Jesus), and what he is now (a fervent follower of Christ). The key to his transformation was faith, faith in Jesus the redeeming Christ.
[I came across a clever acronym for faith yesterday – Forsaking All I Trust Him. Worth remembering.]

Paul’s Damascus experience, the direct interruption of his life by Jesus (instant blindness, a heavenly experience, a Christ encounter), put him on a very different path to the one he was travelling. Suddenly his life and knowledge were being used for Jesus, rather than against him. He understood what now lay ahead for him. He was refocussed!  “I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us,” he said. As Christ-followers you and I are included in that race too. Let us be reminded that we need to keep our focus on the prize by keeping our focus on Jesus.

Next up, think about the Gospel reading. The first three verses take us back to Bethany and the friends of Jesus: Lazarus, Martha and Mary.

You know the original Mary-Martha story in Luke Chapter 10, the story used to highlight different styles of service. In the first Mary-Martha story, Jesus visits the home of Mary and Martha and while Martha toils to prepare the meal for Jesus and his disciples, Mary sits at his feet taking in his teaching. As Martha complains to Jesus about the lack of help she is receiving from her sister, Jesus responds, “There is only one thing worth being concerned about. Mary has discovered it, and it will not be taken away from her.”

That theme is echoed in today’s reading – Martha is again preparing and serving the meal and Mary is attending to (serving) Jesus, anointing his feet with an expensive perfume and wiping those feet dry with her hair. As a result, not the fragrance of the meal cooking filled the house but the fragrance of the perfume, the symbol of the value that Mary placed on Jesus, the “one thing worth being concerned about”.

Here is another lesson for us today. If our focus remains on Jesus, the aroma in the atmosphere around us will be a wonderful and attractive fragrance! You may have come across that aroma, noticing the atmosphere when in the company of certain people? I think many of us felt it in the presence of [the late] Bishop Bruce. He never focussed on our shortcomings, only the potential he saw in us, in my experience. Such a sweet smell!

Mary took time to listen to Jesus, but Martha didn’t because she was busy ‘serving’. We too can get so busy ‘serving’ the Lord that we are in danger of losing our sensitivity to his voice and become preoccupied with secondary things.

My recent devotional readings have been about ‘conversion’. If I could explain from my readings, it has been said that there are two kinds of conversion. One is accompanied by a violent sense of sin, and the other by a feeling of incompleteness, a struggle after a larger life and a desire for spiritual illumination. Conversion involves three steps. Repentance is conversion viewed from its starting point, the turning from the former life. Faith indicates the objective point of conversion, the turning to God. The third is the new birth — commonly referred to as being ‘born again’, born into God’s family. The first and the second bring about the third. If we are Heaven-bound, we must be converted.

“Now repent of your sins and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped away, then times of refreshment will come.” (Acts 3:19-20)

And what a great way to segue into thoughts about our Psalm today … The Israelites have returned from exile. And just so you know and can follow my train of thought, whenever I come across Israel in the Scriptures I substitute myself.

The first three verses are joy filled:

“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!”

The Israelites had repented of their sins and turned back to God. Their sins were wiped away, and a time of refreshment had come! They were home. They were laughing and singing! These three verses amplify the unbridled joy of liberation. That sheer joy of living I was talking about.

Then the last three verses take into account the reality of coming to terms with a new daily life.

“Restore our fortunes, Lord, 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.”

The celebration party was over but the way ahead held promise and so the sense of joy was not entirely lost. They may be planting in tears but, through the Lord, reaping in joyous song. The verses acknowledge that there is still the risk of loss, not knowing whether your efforts will bring a return, but they also offer great hope. They were free, could look forward to better futures, reconciled with God. These verses remind us too that, although we are still in the midst of struggle, living in a very uncertain world these days, we still have great hope – in the Lord.

As I conclude I would like to share a song that was recommended as a possible prayer based on Psalm 126. Not being a radio listener these days I have no recollection of ever hearing it but I think it suits my mood this morning: The song is Cover Me in Sunshine by Pink. I have provided the words for it [here] and the Psalm [above] for those who would like to examine the theological merits at a deeper level.
Have a listen and reflect …

I said earlier that laughter and gratitude would to be an ideal combo for us this week. Joy and thanksgiving! So as we leave here today, to go back to the affairs of our daily lives, be mindful of the way Jesus has encouraged us to keep our focus on him, putting away our Sunday faces and enjoying the resurrected life we shall be celebrating in a fortnight.