“You Will Find Joy in Divine Nostalgia”

Advent 3 – December 12th and 13th, 2009

Nehemiah 8:9-18

The Christmas season is full of nostalgic sights, sounds and traditions. I can’t walk into Bronner’s
Christmas Wonderland in Frankenmuth without thinking of the yearly excursion that our family would take to pick
out new Christmas ornaments and gifts. I can’t watch the annual airing of “Charlie Brown’s Christmas” on ABC
without remembering fondly the times I sat down with my mom and dad with a cup of hot chocolate to see Charlie
Brown pick out that scrawny little tree, to hear Lucy declare herself the “Christmas Queen” and to hear Linus tell
the Christmas story from Luke 2 – (the King James Version of course).
For the Christian, there is nothing more joy-filled and comforting than the divine nostalgia of the Christmas
gospel, those familiar words of Holy Scripture that reveal that the Christ-child has come to save us from our sins.
How could we not be joy-filled when we hear the Angel Gabriel declare: “Today in the city of David, a Savior has
been born to you. He is Christ the Lord,” or when we listen to the choir anthem of the angels: “Glory to God in the
highest and on earth, peace, goodwill toward men!”
As we approach the celebration of our Lord’s incarnation, we will find joy in divine nostalgia. Return to
God’s changeless Word, which brings the consistency and familiarity of God’s promises into our rather inconsistent
and transient lives. And when those promises of God’s unchanging Word are in our lives we will ache to go to our
eternal home, understanding, as the Israelites did, that this world is simply a temporary residence which produces in
us a longing for an eternal home.

I. Return to God’s changeless Word

When life becomes chaotic and/or out of control, it is natural for us to return to things that are consistent
and familiar. Here in Nehemiah 8, you have a group of about 40,000 exiles some 400 years before Jesus was born,
who returned to their homeland of Canaan from which they were plucked about 150 years before. But what they
returned to was certainly not the glorious Israel of David’s day. It was not the Israel of splendor and high worship,
as in the day of Solomon. It was a torn down Jerusalem, lying in shambles from the assaults of the enemy. To the
returning exiles, Jerusalem looked like and felt like a foreign country. It wasn’t home.
Maybe you’ve known that feeling. When I turned 18 and went off to college, my mother and father sold
the house that we grew up in and moved outside the city limits of Saginaw north toward Tri-City Airport. Now,
when we return to Saginaw for Thanksgiving or Christmas or for family functions, it just doesn’t feel the same. The
new house in Freeland just doesn’t capture that “nostalgic” feel like it would if our families were to gather at the
Delaware Blvd. house for holidays and functions. It’s not quite...home.
That’s what it was like for the Israelites. It was as if they were living in a foreign land, a land they didn’t
know. Yet in this land that they were rebuilding, there was something familiar, something nostalgic, something
from their past that would give them joy and strength – the unchanging Word of the LORD. “And Nehemiah, who
was the governor, and Ezra the priest and scribe, and the Levites who taught the people said to all the people, “This day is
holy to the LORD your God; do not mourn or weep.” For all the people wept as they heard the words of the Law. Then
he said to them, “Go your way. Eat the fat and drink the sweet wine and send portions to anyone who has nothing ready,
for this day is holy to our LORD. And do not be grieved, for the joy of the LORD is your strength.”
Nostalgia is often comforting to us because, while our lives can change dramatically in a short period of
time, we are reminded that there are certain things that do not change. At one time, the nation of Israel was a great,
powerful, wealthy nation, during the tenure of kings David and Solomon. But in the days of Ezra and Nehemiah,
about 500 years later, those glory days were gone. And as the Israelites looked at Jerusalem in dust and ruins, they
needed to be assured that, while their lives can change in a moment’s notice, there is one thing will never change –
God’s Word, which not only brought them to tears, as they realized how far from the Lord they had strayed in their
sins, but also brought them to joy, because his Word proclaims a Joy that would come to the World, who would
take away their sins and perfectly restore their covenant relationship with God in heaven!
Take a moment today to think of the many ways that your life has changed in just the last year. Maybe
you’ve had to transition into a new job or new position at your current workplace, or you’ve had to say “goodbye for
now” to someone you love, or you’ve had to endure some unforeseen emotional or physical challenges. When 2009
began, could you have imagined just how much your lives have changed in just one year?
What a comfort to know, in the midst of our lives that constantly change, that God and his Word do not
change – and that we can always return to God’s Word and the message will be consistent and familiar. The angel
Gabriel still sounds his same Christmas Eve message through the ages, “Today, in the city of David, a Savior has been
born to you, he is Christ the Lord.” The prophet Isaiah still proclaims to today’s generation, “For unto us a child is
born, to us a Son is given...” John the Baptist still cries out to people everywhere, “Look! The Lamb of God who takes
away the sin of the world.” In this ever-changing world, in your ever-changing life, isn’t it wonderful to know, as
the Lord himself declares in Malachi 3, “I the Lord, do not change!”
And because he does not change, neither do his promises. Even though each and every one of us can look
into the past and see the many ways that we have broken God’s commands and damaged our relationship with him
through selfishness, ignorance and rebellious behavior, the fact remains that he sent a Savior, the Christ-child of
Bethlehem, who came into the world to suffer and die for us, so that our relationship with our heavenly Father
would be restored to perfection. Nothing will ever change that truth! Keep coming back to it – because even when
our lives change dramatically, God will never change – and neither will his Word, neither will his promises.

II. Ache to go to your eternal home

When we speak of nostalgia, we are describing things that not only have familiar qualities and take our
hearts and minds into the past, but also we are talking about things that create in us a desire to go home –
homesickness, if you will, which is another definition of nostalgia. Now, when I read for you verses 13-18, which
describe the Israelite commemoration of the Feast of Tabernacles, you probably asked yourself, “What in the world
does this have to do with anything, let alone Advent and Christmas, and what in the world does this have to do with
me?” Remember that part of the focus of Advent is to remind us that our time in this world is short and that at any
time our Lord Jesus can come for us to end our earthly pilgrimage and bring us to our permanent place in heaven.
Thus we are always to be prepared for that day by remaining steadfast and firm in our Christian faith.
The Israelites in Nehemiah’s day were taught that truth during the Feast of Booths or Tabernacles, where
the people went out and built themselves huts out of mud and leaves in which they lived for 7 days. And during
those 7 festival days to the Lord, three things were stressed: 1) a commemorate the wandering of the Israelites in the
wilderness for 40 years, 2) a giving of thanks to God for bringing them to the land of Canaan and blessing them
abundantly, and 3) to call to mind that their earthly pilgrimage was short and that each one of them should always
be homesick for heaven.
I’m sure you’ve had that feeling of being homesick before. Prep school students, college students, military
personnel, children who have grown up and moved out of the house often get that homesick ache! In fact, just
about every single person has had a point in their life when they ached for the peace, safety, security and joy of
home.
During our earthly pilgrimage, the Lord has given us his joyful divine nostalgia, his gospel promises which
make us homesick for heaven. While the devil wants us to yearn for the here and now, to long for the temporary
and transitory, our Savior calls for us to long for that which is permanent – our heavenly dwelling, for it is not far
away at all! With each passing day we are one day closer to the choir of angels, singing, “Glory to God in the
Highest!” With each new dawn, we are one day closer to our brother, Jesus, and the day when we will see with our
own eyes the One who was pierced for our transgressions and raised to life for our justification. With every rising of
the sun, you and I are one day nearer to “Forever with the Lord!” And what a wonderful joy to know that, by God’s
grace through faith in Jesus Christ our Savior, the home which we ache for, our heavenly home, will be our
permanent dwelling place forever and ever.
The Christmas season is full of all kinds of nostalgic things – TV shows, songs on the radio, Christmas
decorations and the like, things that take us back to days gone by and create in us a longing for home. During this
Advent season, leading up to the celebration of our Savior’s birth, find joy not just in earthly nostalgia, but
especially in the divine nostalgia of the Christmas gospel. Keep coming back to it, because it never changes, and
God’s faithfulness to his promises of forgiveness and salvation, which is our joy and our strength will also never
change. And in faith, long for the day when you will leave this temporary pilgrimage behind, with all its troubles
and turmoil, to join the assembly of believers who have been brought to their permanent Promised Land. Amen.