Turn around...God!

Psalm 80

   ^{1 -2} Listen, Shepherd, Israel's Shepherd— get all your Joseph sheep together.
   Throw beams of light
      from your dazzling throne
   So Ephraim, Benjamin, and Manasseh
      can see where they're going.
   Get out of bed—you've slept long enough!
      Come on the run before it's too late.

   ³ God, come back!
      Smile your blessing smile:
      That will be our salvation.

   ^{4 -6} God, God-of-the-Angel-Armies,
      how long will you smolder like a sleeping volcano
      while your people call for fire and brimstone?
   You put us on a diet of tears,
      bucket after bucket of salty tears to drink.
   You make us look ridiculous to our friends;
      our enemies poke fun day after day.

   ⁷ God-of-the-Angel-Armies, come back!
      Smile your blessing smile:
          That will be our salvation.

The Message

Yesterday marked the first Sunday in Advent in many churches. This is my favorite season of the year...well, next to Lent and Easter. I am always moved by the images of Advent, of light and dark, of God hearing the cries of the people and becoming "God with us"; images of preparation and anticipation and of turning around, repentance and new life.

The Biblical Greek word for repentance is 'metanoia', meaning to turn around.  Usually I've heard and preached this call to 'turn around' in terms of our own straying from God, our own sin and missing the mark in our life.

But today's bible verses call upon God to turn around.  It is a plea for God to be God and not abandon the people, but lead them with God's own 'beams of light' so that the people may know where to go. 

As we've talked about before, this wilderness time of Chronic illness can feel very dark, and disorienting. It is easily a time when all that we knew before now seems foreign and far away, and when we may not know where to go or what to do next.  I am coming to believe that this can be our experience whether we've been fighting chronic illness a few months, or 25 years.  It is part of the territory that we deal with at times...no matter how good we've become at reading the terrain.

The cry of the psalmist could be our cry...an authentic cry of faith that trusts in God and calls upon God to be known to us.  I would offer this "Chronic hope" paraphrase of these verses... perhaps in your own words it may even sound a bit different.  Feel free to use the psalms' words to voice your own experience.

'Oh God!  Your people feel so scattered, like sheep on different hillsides...far from each other, wandering and looking for you.
Shine your light upon  those who are seeking you, especially the long-suffering sick-- those who wrestle with health of body, mind and spirit every day.
We weary of the dragged out nature of these illnesses. Day by day the little tasks wear us out, and we wonder how we can serve you faithfully when we have so little strength.  We are wasting away, and cry out for your help.
Turn around! Come on the run, and help us to know you are here!
We are misunderstood by those who have never been on this journey...we are seen as weak and lacking fortitude.  Oh, if they only knew the fortitude that it takes to get up and move each day!
By your presence, comfort us, give us strength, and renew our hope.  Smile your smile of blessing upon us, and help us to know you are near.'
  (my own paraphrase)...now you try~

Lord, hear the cries and prayers of our hearts. Amen.