Beauty from Brokenness
Advent 3 – December 11, 2011
On Sunday, May 22, of this year a tornado ravaged the Missouri city of Joplin. Several people died in the destruction and its aftermath. Peace Lutheran Church was demolished – its sanctuary, offices, classrooms, and gathering place leveled. This was a congregation that had already been facing difficult times. They were between pastors, and member giving could only support a part-time pastor to begin with. The loss of their building, combined with the wreckage of so much of the town and the increasing number of deaths attributed to the disaster was devastating. It was a time of sorrow and mourning, a time to begin wondering about when and how they would rebuild and continue the ministry God had called them to. And while the people of Peace showed remarkable courage and spirit in the face of the obstacles before them, I imagine that there have been times when those obstacles seem insurmountable, when they consider the future and doubt how they will get to where they want to be and wonder if they will have what it will take to get there.
It's the same dilemma faced by the people of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, faced by the people of Japan after this past year's earthquakes and tsunami, faced by the people of North Dakota after spring flooding, faced by people in upstate New York and New England after Hurricane Irene turned into a tropical storm and skipped over Long Island, only to wreak serious damage further inland. How do you rebuild when everything you've ever known has been brought to rubble? Where do you even start?
These are questions the people of ancient Israel knew only too well. The prophet Isaiah speaks to and about them in our Old Testament lesson this morning – defining his mission as one anointed and sent to bring good news to the oppressed, to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and release to the prisoners; to proclaim the year of the LORD's favor and the day of the vengeance of our God” (Is. 61:1-2) – to comfort and provide for all who mourn.
You see, this is after the time of the exile – when the ruling class and elite and wealthy had been carted off by the Babylonians as part of their divide and conquer war strategy. But now, God has sent a deliverer, Cyrus of Persia, who had defeated the Babylonians, and told the Israelites that they could go home – and not only that, but once they arrived there, they were to get to work rebuilding the city of Jerusalem and the Temple of God. But that wasn't as easy as it sounded. When they arrived home, they found the city in worse shape than they could have imagined. Rebuilding was an overwhelming prospect, complicated by the fact that they struggled to work together, to agree with one another on how to work toward their common goal. And so they languished there, hopeless, feeling helpless to change their situation, to restore and repair the ruin that surrounded them.
Even if we've never experienced that kind of literal devastation, we all know something of what it feels like to have your world turned upside down, to feel like the things you have worked so hard to build have been leveled, destroyed, laid waste – whether it was the end of your dream career, the disintegration of a marriage or close friendship, the lasting trauma of military service in a war zone, or the death of your spouse or child or parent. We've all come to those times when we feel our lives are in ruins, and we are surrounded by the wreckage of what should have been and wonder how it is that we are to begin rebuilding – how we can find the energy or stamina or strength – emotional, physical, or spiritual – to start over, when everywhere we look, there is destruction and devastation.
But it is into just such situations as this that God anoints and sends messengers to speak to God's people on God's behalf. In this part of the Bible, God sends the prophet Isaiah to bring good news, to speak words of courage and of hope, to offer comfort – to remind the people that God has come near, that God is turning things around! God is working a transformation – promising a garland instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the mantle of praise instead of faint spirits. In the face of all the trouble and challenges that are before them, God sends Isaiah to remind them that God brings light out of darkness, joy out of sorrow, hope out of discouragement, life out of death!
It's not for nothing that in Luke's gospel, in chapter 4, when Jesus is just beginning his public ministry, he stands up in the synagogue in his hometown of Nazareth and is handed the scroll. And he finds the place where it was written just these words from Isaiah: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the LORD's favor.” And he rolls up the scroll and hands it back to the attendant, and sits down, and with everyone looking, says to the crowd, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”
Jesus is the one that brings these words of Isaiah to fruition. God began this work with the leaders and the prophets of old, but in Jesus, it is completed. He is God's good news to a hurting world. He is the one who binds up our broken hearts. Jesus is the one who brings liberty and release from all that holds us captive. In Jesus, our mourning is traded for gladness, our dejected hearts replaced with hearts of praise. In him, we are clothed in salvation and righteousness.
But the story doesn't end with our own healing. Through Jesus, we are sent, as Isaiah was sent, to bring good news, to heal the hurting, to bring joy to the grieving. We are called to reach out to others from our own brokenness – to share the love of God that is healing us
.
Out of the devastation of Peace Lutheran Church comes this beautiful story of what happens when we do that. In the days and weeks after the tornado hit, as people from all over came to help begin the rebuilding process, a youth group from Christ and Trinity Lutheran Church came from 200 miles away in Sedalia, Missouri to help with the clean-up efforts. And while they were there, they saw pieces of broken glass where Peace had once stood. They were inspired to collect those fragments and take them back to their church, where they formed them into a huge, beautiful, illuminated cross – a gift that they delivered back to the people of Peace just two weeks ago as the season of Advent was beginning.
And that, right there, is a sign and symbol of what the gospel is – taking what is broken and shattered and destroyed and transforming it, reshaping it, rebuilding it into something new, a reminder of hope, something that gives life to those who encounter it.
This is what God does.
God brings beauty out of brokenness.
And then God sends us, God's beautiful, broken people, to do the same, in the name of the One who was broken for us.
Thanks be to God. Amen.
*If you are interested in seeing the cross & reading more about the youth involved in this project in Missouri, you can read an article about it here.
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