The Long Way Home
I am so excited for the weeks and months to come! Covid 19 is not entirely in our rearview mirror, but I feel this Easter we are stepping out of a tomb that has held us at bay this past year. To be honest, my tomb was pretty comfortable as far as things go. The toilet paper situation started to look a little scary, but we never ran out. Outside of a week-long government-imposed lockdown I experienced in Honduras years back, I don't have a lot of personal experience with these things. But I have enough to realize my year of exile was pretty comfortable as far as these things go.
But it wasn't what I wanted for 2020. At all. I know I'm not alone. I think all of us are going to be processing and unpacking 2020 for years to come. Grief. Fear. Anxiety. Isolation. Depression. Loss. Anger. Disappointment. Betrayal. The list goes on and on. But we are finally adding Hope and New Beginnings to that list. Groundhog Day is over. It's time to start over and rebuild.
Last year we prepared for an Easter that didn't seem to come. We started the season of Lent, but rather than 40 Days, Lent 2020 seemed like, well, 2020. But now? I feel Easter has finally arrived! Praise God! We can go home. But how far is that?
Centuries ago, Israel was conquered, and God's people were taken from their homes and relocated to foreign lands, forced to live in exile. They never thought it would happen. God had always protected them from their enemies, regardless of how many times they walked away from Him. Finally, they had gone too far too many times, and God dropped the safety net that protected them. The Israelites were conquered. They couldn't believe it! The Israelites were dispersed throughout the Babylonian empire. They called themselves the "Diaspora." The term is used to describe a farmer who sowed (dispersed) seeds. God's children were led away from their Promised land in chains and relocated throughout the foreign lands. Families were split up. Children were taken from parents and sent to live with new families. I really can't imagine the experience. After several generations of exile, it all changed when King Cyrus of Persia decreed, "Let the Jews return to Jerusalem and rebuild their homes and temple."
Just like that, exile was officially over. But it was a long journey home that some didn't even try to make. Some were gone before the ink of the King's decree dried. They returned to their beloved city and began rebuilding the temple as soon as they could get there. Others stayed in exile. They were living well and didn't want to leave what they knew for an unknown life. But the majority who went home took a while, like a group of Jews led by a man named Ezra. He led a group of exiles home 58 years after the temple was rebuilt. Much of the physical work of rebuilding was done, but 58 years after the temple was rebuilt, Ezra led the emotional work of rebuilding their home.
There are so many lessons for us from Ezra's story. The exiles yearned for the life they had, but they had to work to rebuild it. Not unlike someone emerging from a divorce or a tremendous loss, there was a life transition that had to take place. Those who were born in exile grew up hearing of their beautiful land, God's magnificent temple. When they returned, they found the ruins and rubble of war. Some were packed and ready to return before the King signed the decree; others took a long time to leave. Talk about lessons for us today! All along, they had to deal with feelings like Grief. Fear. Anxiety. Isolation. Depression. Loss. Anger. Disappointment. Betrayal. But in the midst of it, they experienced Hope and New Beginnings. Their home was restored. And they realized the actual journey was returning to the God they had left behind long before the exile.
I want to invite you on this journey with me. In our new series, "The Long Way Home," we'll study the return of the exiles from Babylon. We'll start with Psalm 137 and consider the emotional impact of the Israelite exile. We'll study the book of Ezra and see what lessons (good and bad) we can learn as we see the exiles return and rebuild their former lives. We'll end the series on Mother's Day with a special message from the book of Esther, a beautiful story written to share the experience of those who chose to stay in exile.
Let's experience New Life together!!
In Christ, your pastor,
Bryan White