Proper 25
Readings:
Jeremiah and the Psalm today are both talking about the same thing - when God's people return from exile. It was an unbelievable end to a horrific, long ordeal. To hear about it, read the first 28 chapters of Jeremiah.
It might be something like POWs coming home after years in captivity - or like this:
It's striking, some of the words that describe the people's joy in returning - a big mix of emotion:
"Sing aloud with gladness... and say 'Save, O Lord, your people...' With weeping they shall come, and with consolations I will lead them back..."
"When the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion, then was our mouth filled with laughter, and our tongue with shouts of joy"
One person's comments on this passage noted how the Psalmist describes his or her mouth "filled with laughter" - as if it burst out involuntarily. Has anything like this happened to you before? Not so much that you laugh, like you would at a joke, when you are planning on it, but - suddenly and unexpectedly - your mouth is filled with laughter?
In grief or pain, we're often not prepared for joy.
The opposite seems similar in a way. In a time of joy, the pain you have been experiencing but holding at bay to pace yourself suddenly erupts because that pain or separation may finally be ending. If you are familiar with Nelson and Winnie Mandela's story, you may realize that the picture above is not one of joy, simply, but that it's much more complicated. When joy suddenly appears, it carries with it everything that came before. I saw a video of a reunion between one of the Lost Boys of Sudan and his mother. She was so overwhelmed - it seemed like more emotion than her body could contain, and she fell on the floor weeping. Why? Wasn't she happy to see him? Of course, but there's a lot more to it... it's complicated.
Experiences of pain, grief, loss, suffering - these can crush us in ways that change us internally. We are not the same, so experiencing joy afterwards is also not the same - it can be a complex mixture of things - or something else not defined by the simple words we have.
This kind of complex mix of emotions is, I think, what Jeremiah is describing when the people will come back to their homeland after several generations in exile and captivity: shouts of joy, weeping, laughter, consolations...
Last time, I talked about the crumple zone of a car allowing for a controlled crush in a life-threatening crisis.
Another form of controlled destruction is the process offermentation.
How is cheese different from milk?
...kimchi or saurkraut from cabbage?
Fermentation or pickling is a controlled process of decay that changes the nature of the food. Somewhat counter-intuitively, this controlled decay actually makes the food more stable - and in many ways is considered to enhance it.
However - it would not seem that way if you were the grape.
Imagine that you've blossomed out into the sun and started growing, soaking up gentle rain, becoming sweet and radiant.
Then a hand pulls you off the vine...
You're disconnected and disoriented. And the next thing you know, you're getting the guts stomped out of you...
Then it's into a barrel - locked away in the dark.
For YEARS
where it's silent and cold...
Making bread is also a controlled process of destruction and fermentation, but instead of going into the dark and cold, it's baked in a fire.
As it swells, it gets punched back down and then thrown in an oven.
If you are feeling like you're getting the life stomped out of you or shut up silently in a dark night of the soul - or you're being pounded and crushed, eaten from inside, and put through a fire, see if the metaphor of fermentation has any resonance for you.This may be a way you can ask God about it - whether the process of destruction you're experiencing is one of fermentation, one that he is in control of. If so, try to allow yourself to be changed, accepting that you can't go back.
This may also be a way to engage the gift of the Eucharist. Knowing what has to happen for grain to become bread and for fruit to become wine, what does it mean for Jesus to give us these gifts and say
"This is my body"
"This is my blood"