11- 23-08

"BRINGING IN THE SHEAVES"

Rev. Jim Petersen

First Congregational UCC-Great Falls, MT

11-23-08

Text: Psalm 126--Joel 2:21-26

Writes the psalmist (126:6):

"Those who go forth weeping, bearing the seed for sowing,

shall come home with shouts of joy, bringing in the sheaves."

Or as we just sang, probably for the first time in a long while, I mean, I had to dig through some dusty hymnals to find this one, "Going forth with weeping, sowing for the Master...We shall come rejoicing, bringing in the sheaves."

I didn't know what a biblical sheaf was until I moved to Montana. A sheaf is a bundle. I knew that. But for us suburban kids, we think of a sheaf of paper. But this is not the biblical sheaf. The biblical sheaf is a bundle of grain.

The farmer swaths the grain and then bundles it into sheaves. Then he gathers the sheaves and brings them into the barn. Am I right? Something like this.

Bundles of grain. Sheaves. It is a wonderful image for Thanksgiving, don't you think? Indeed, this Psalm 126 is a Thanksgiving psalm, written for recitation during the harvest festival at the Temple.

But look at it closely. You may not have noticed this as you heard it read. The psalm uses the future tense to talk about thanksgiving.

"Those who go forth weeping, bearing the seed for sowing,

shall come home with shouts of joy, bringing in the sheaves."

The psalm is not talking about abundance now. It is talking about bringing home the sheaves at some future time. For now they "go forth weeping." Then, at a later date, they "shall come home with shouts of joy." You see, this is a thanksgiving psalm for those who, at the moment, find thanksgiving difficult.

I suspect this may be an appropriate Thanksgiving psalm for any number in our nation this holiday. For many in our abundant land for many different reasons thanksgiving may not come easily. Perhaps there is an empty place at the table, the first holiday spent with a loved one lost, or with a loved one deployed in a distant land in service of us all.

Or perhaps unemployment has visited the household; we cannot be immune to these corporate layoffs of tens of thousands, where the bread winner is unable to provide the fatted fare for the family around the table.

Or perhaps the household is gone, wiped out by a raging Southern California wildfire, and the table is being set at a community center. Or maybe it is the first Thanksgiving to be eaten at a nursing facility. Or the chemotherapy is wrecking the diet, or the divorce is final, or the child is in a treatment facility, or the...well, you get the drift. Fill in your own blank. For some of us thanksgiving may be painful.

It is not that we are ungrateful for what we have. It is just that for the moment we are overwhelmed by what we once had, and have no longer. Try as we might to count our blessings, it is hard to do so as we "go forth weeping."

If you are in this number, then Psalm 126 was written for you. It is a psalm for those who are having a hard time with thanksgiving in the present. Let's hear from the psalmist some more.

Remember, this is a thanksgiving psalm, to be sung as the nation of Israel gathers to give thanks for their harvest festival. So, understand, it is their equivalent to our Thanksgiving Holiday, which we remember was not really born in a time of plenty either.

It has not been a year of plenty for the children of Israel. Indeed, it has been a drought year. And there is no harvest. Nearly none. People are hurting and hungry, if not dying. And there is no relief in sight. Nor any crop insurance to apply for. So what do the children of Israel do?

First the biblical people remember how God has blessed them in the past. This is how the psalm begins, "When the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion," first verse. This is probably a reference to their exile in Babylon, and how God returned them - a half century later - to Jerusalem. "...restored the fortunes of Zion."

Though maybe not. This could be a reference to any number of miserable moments in Hebrew history, and how God in their understanding would find some way to sustain them. So they remember past blessings, "The Lord has done great things for us, and we rejoiced." Verse three. Which means they have been here before. Their forebears knew hardship as well. Maybe even worse.

No, this was not their first run of bad luck, not their first encounter with war, pestilence or drought. Which gives them courage for the facing of this hour.

This is the first guideline for celebrating Thanksgiving when you don't feel like it. Remember, "when the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion." This is what much of worship is about. Remembrance, the nativity, the tomb that was found empty, the miracle of the first Pentecost.

Maybe for you it was the wedding day, or a graduation day, or the day you brought the child home from the hospital. Remember how God was present in the past, blessing, forgiving, sustaining, restoring.

Then with this faithful footnote from the past, we can look forward to the future with hope. Hear the psalmist again: "Restore our fortunes, O Lord, like the watercourses in the Negeb!"

What a wonderful image. Let me explain. The Negeb is the wilderness of Judah. Near desert. Like eastern Montana. Dry, including the river beds, which are called "wadis." Wadis are dry rivers in the desert.

Except during those rare desert downpours. Five inches of rainfall a year, and it comes in two storms. Then the wadis fill up, fast, woe be to those who are camping in the wadis, and run across the desert "like the watercourses in the Negeb," bringing blossoms and new life to the desert, following the flood.

"Restore our fortunes, O Lord, like the watercourses in the Negeb." This might be our Montana prayer in any number of years. Or our nations prayer currently. "Restore our fortunes, O Lord." A prayer of hope for the future.

And then this from the psalmist, "May those who sow in tears reap with shouts for joy." In other words, tears are like seeds dropping to the ground. Though sacrificial now, though painful now, no sorrow will be forsaken, no suffering will be for naught. Tears are like seeds of God's love.

Therefore, "Those who go forth weeping, bearing the seed for sowing, shall come home with shouts of joy, bringing in the sheaves." Your sorrows, your tears of love, your cheeks stained with compassion, will one day bring home a harvest, for through your tears you are planting the love of God.

Remember how Jesus put it:

"Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted." This is the Matthew's version (5:4). Luke is even better. "Blessed are you that weep now, for you shall laugh." (6:21b) Isn't this hopeful?

This is sometimes called an "economy of grace." It means nothing is lost. No suffering goes unnoticed, no sorrow goes unheard. Tears are like seeds. You weep now. In time, you shall reap joy.

This is what happened on the ancient psalmist's thanksgiving day. The children of Israel gave thanks not for this year's harvest. Because there was none. It was a drought year. They were no better off than our Pilgrim forebears on their first Thanksgiving Day.

They gave thanks not for their present circumstance. They gave thanks for their past, to the God "who restored the fortunes of Zion," and to the God who will do it again, so that in time, "those who sow with tears shall reap with shouts of joy."

Ditto the message in our Old Testament reading from the prophet Joel. Only this time it is not drought but locusts ruining the day for the children of Israel. An army of locusts has destroyed

I have never observed it, but we get the idea driving across Montana, when we have to stop at Eddie's Corner and scrape the windshield off from the hoppers, the front of the car plastered with the buggers, ping, ping, ping, ping, ping...

Only locusts are bigger, pong, pong, pong, pong, pong, and much thicker, pong-pong-pong-pong-pong. Locusts are still common in biblical lands today, especially in northern Africa.

Like a black cloud, they block the sun. And when they descend, they devour a field in minutes. There is nothing you can do. And there is nothing left. In the year of the locust, it is total devastation.

But listen to the prophet Joel, preaching to the people as they perish, "Do not fear," he preaches. "Do not fear...for the Lord has done (past tense) great things! Do not fear...You shall (future tense again) eat in plenty and be satisfied, and praise the name of the Lord your God."

It is the same formula. It says, if you cannot thank God now for your present circumstance, then thank God for what God has done for you in the past and for what God is going to do for you in the future.

Well, easy enough for the psalmist and Joel to say. They were writing the Bible. But how about us, amidst war, pestilence and drought. In the midst of a continued war on terrorism, and the new pestilence of global warming, and the current drought of our economy. How can we practice this kind of biblical thanksgiving?

Dan Wakefield writes a book entitled Returning: A Spiritual Journey, in which he tells about why he came back to church. He says he came back because he found in church a larger perspective in which to see his life. As he puts it, "being part of something greater than what I could see through the tunnel vision of my own personal concerns."

I think this is a clue. Worship provides this. Worship opens us to a wider perspective. It enables us to see the context of our life in a wider reference. The ruler of our life also happens to be the ruler of the universe. Wow! That's big company.

Not that worship is to eliminate the self. We are to bring our personal concerns with us to church. We are to place them on the altar and pray for them. If things are bad, we should let loose with loud lamentations and prayers of petition.

We should take it to the Lord, trusting the Lord can take it. As St. Theresa said in a rough period in her life, speaking to the Lord, "It's no wonder you have so few friends, considering how you treat them."

When the going gets rough, lamentations are in order. They are biblical. Next to psalms of thanksgiving, there are more psalms of laments than any other kind. Though I must tell you many of them begin with lamentation and end in thanksgiving. This is how God works.

So if you have complaints, get them out. If you have fears, say so. Then continue with worship. For every worship service, every prayer, every request of God, is like "going forth with weeping, bearing the seed for sowing."

The wadis are still dry. The drought is still with us. The army of locusts still terrorizing. But look at all God has done, and look at all God will do, and you "shall come home with shouts of joy, bringing in the sheaves." So surely and incredibly this is a time for harvest festival. For bare fields or not, God calls us to thanksgiving.

Did you catch that post 9/11 story about the middle school students in Columbia, South Carolina? They decided to raise funds to buy a fire truck for New York City. It seems they remembered how 134 years before, two years following the Civil War, the New York Firemen's Association, made up mostly of Union soldiers who had recently fought a war against their brethren in the South, had donated a fire wagon to South Carolina's capital city, Columbia, hearing how the city was depressed and still trying to put out fires with bucket brigades.

Upon receiving the gift in 1867 one prominent South Carolinian said, they hoped to return the favor "should misfortune ever befall the Empire City."

So with the help of the citizens of Columbia, South Carolina, the students remembered and led a movement to repay the New York City favor. They raised $447,265, enough to buy New York City a new fire truck with $100,000 to spare.

As one student said, "It shows we care about people in New York. It also shows we keep our promise."

You see, the students remembered the past and gave thanks, which gave them the courage to perform deeds of hope during a national disaster. May we do so as well. For in this way we

will come to know what the psalmist knew to be true, "Those who go forth weeping, bearing the seed for sowing, shall come home with shouts of joy, bringing in the sheaves."