"Restore us, O LORD God Almighty; make your face shine upon us, that we may be saved."

The angel went to Mary and said, "Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you."

         Our final Advent Psalm is again a lament. A broken people are seeking restoration. Some feel this is written about the people from the Northern tribes that were swept away by Assyria. Many of them may have fled south to Jerusalem. They cry out to God in their pain.

         Donald Miller has written an interesting book called "Blue Like Jazz." He writes about when he was a student at Reed College in Portland, Oregon. Reed is a very exclusive school, and one that for many years has had the reputation of being filled with free-thinkers, and as a place that is quite hostile to Christianity. So Miller says he did something rather revolutionary for Reed: he began an informal and very small group of Christians. Then he relays this incident.

         "Everybody at Reed was telling me something was wrong with Laura. They said she was depressed or something. I ran into her one day. I could tell she was sad about something.

         "How are you?" I asked.

         "I am not good." She turned to face me. I could see in her eyes she had spent the morning crying.

         "What is wrong?"

         "Everything."

         "Boy stuff?"

         "No."

         "School stuff?"

         "No."

         "God stuff?"

         Laura just looked at me. Her eyes were sore and moist. "I guess so, Don. I feel like my life is a mess. I can't explain it. It's just a mess. I feel like He is after me. "

         "Who is after you?"

         "God."

         "What do you think he wants?"

         "I don't know. I can't do this, Don. You don't understand. I can't do this."

         "Can't do what, Laura?'

         "Be a Christian."

         "Why can't you be a Christian?"

         "There is part of me that wants to believe. I feel as though I need to believe. I feel like I want to confess. I feel like I am going to die if I don't believe. But it is all so stupid. So completely stupid . . .You are not dumb, Don. I just don't understand how you can believe this stuff."

         "I don't know either, really. But I believe in God, Laura. There is something inside of me that causes me to believe. And now I believe God is after you, that God wants you to believe too. I believe that God wants a relationship with you and that starts by confessing directly to him. He is offering forgiveness."

         "You are not making this easy, Don. I don't exactly believe I need a God to forgive me of anything."

         Laura's story is one of brokenness in a context of a cultural defiance of God, a way of thinking in which forgiveness is not needed or welcomed. She eventually did come to faith, but only after moving past this obstacle. God offers us what our culture tells us we do not need. He starts with forgiveness for our sins. Yet, we want him to accept us, to affirm our good qualities. We often stay broken, when we could be restored.

         We pick this up in the self-perception of Israel in Psalm 80. They seem to have forgotten their long history of idolatry, of injustice, of drunkenness. They feel their brokenness, they know they need God, but sense their own goodness, their righteous praying, their obedient worship, their study of the scriptures. They don't exactly need a God to forgive them of anything.

         So they cry out to God.

                  "Hear us, O Shepherd of Israel."

                  "Awaken your might. Come and save us."

                  "Restore us, O God."

                  "How long will your anger smolder against the prayers of your people?"

          They tell their story using the image of a farmer who finds an insignificant vine in Egypt, and transplants it where he has cleared land. This fragile vine took root and became a great tree, a mighty cedar with boughs stretching to the sea and shoots to the river. This was the condition of Israel under King David. But now the walls are broken down, and anyone can pick its grapes, including wild animals. In fact, the vine is cut down and burned.

         "Why have you broken down is walls?" The story is told without mention of the sins of the people, or the rebellion of the kings.

         In their broken condition, they call out to God to be restored; they call out for God to shine his face upon them. The Psalm ends with that cry. There does not seem to be resolution. They look for a reversal of fortunes, and not for a God who comes to offer them forgiveness.

         I think we often come to expect the shining face of God, the ever increasing blessing of God, almost as a birthright. When we tell our story, we tell it very much in our favor. But restoration does not come through the rehearsal of our virtues. If we are aware of our sin, and confess it, if we are aware of our blindness and ask for mercy, if we are aware of our illness of soul and call out to be saved, we will experience the restoration of God.

         When the time was right, God sent his only son, and restored the people in a way not anticipated or asked for. God brought to them the forgiveness they did not seek. That is what is in the manger; the one who forgives our sins and heals our soul diseases.

         An angel comes to a righteous young woman, a woman who prays, who hopes for the consolation of Israel, one who is prepared to receive the salvation that God has prepared for her. The angel says, "The Lord is with you."

Scot McKnight writes that Mary comes from the people known as the "Anawim," the pious poor. "These people suffer because they are poor, but they express their hope by gathering at the temple in Jerusalem. There they express to God their yearning for justice, for the end of oppression, and for the coming of the Messiah."

         The angel tells Mary that she will give birth to a son who will be great and will be called the "Son of the Most High." This is the restoration that God offers. This is the restoration that begins in forgiveness, the salvation that God has prepared.

         This is how our brokenness is healed. It is healed when we are willing to receive the salvation that God has prepared for us. Open your hearts to Jesus this Christmas. Confess your sin and need of the savior. Let him give you what he has to offer. Let him restore you with his grace.

         Amen.