"Hear the Word of the Lord, O Nations; proclaim it in distant coastlands: 'He who scattered Israel will gather them and will watch over his flock like a shepherd.' "

"This mystery is that through the gospel the Gentiles are heirs together with Israel, members together of one body, and sharers together in the promise in Christ Jesus." --Ephesians 3:6

         The season of Christmas was just one day old when the tsunami hit the coast of Asia. During Christmas many in the Christian world take time for rest, for family, for a peaceful break before the rigors of the New Year begin. Yet just at that time came an event that brought tremendous loss to millions of people over a wide area. It is for us beyond comprehension to see so many who have now lost everything: life itself, or the lives of children, husbands, wives, parents, and close friends. People have also lost houses, businesses, and access to clean water, food, and gas. This great, powerful wave caused a scattering of people on the coastlands. For the survivors there has been no rest or peace.

         That is just one of many themes going on, the lack of rest for people who now have so much work to do. Those who died must be transported, buried or cremated. Supplies of water and food must be located and distributed. Streets and buildings and waterways must be cleaned up, the debris must go somewhere. Then the task of rebuilding begins. In the midst of all of this is the emotional work: grief, depression, a sense of truly being lost. It is this emotional work that can go on for a long time.

         When Jim Black was here before Christmas, he talked about the long-term effect of the hurricanes this fall in Florida upon the residents. It wears people out. We cannot begin to grasp the toll in Asia, the amount of physical, emotional and spiritual work that has now to be done for and with people whose lives were scattered by the great wave. We must pray for them, and help them as we are able.

         I have been thinking of how much people need God at such a time. In the season of Christmas, we think about how much we all need God in our lives. We consider the gift of Christ, what we call the Incarnation, the Word become flesh. God enters our world, our lives, as one of us, as Jesus. This He does in his work of saving people, of helping lost people, of restoring people worn out by sin and scattered by evil. It is an enormous task that God has taken on for our sakes. This is the great love of God.

         The prophet Jeremiah wrote a vision of scattered and worn-out Israel being gathered as a flock into the care of God. In these chapters, we find the theme of "weeping." Scattered people, people who have experienced loss, who are tired, who are hopeless, respond to their circumstances by weeping. Notice in verses 8 and 9, the scattered from the ends of the earth are brought together, a great throng returns, and included in them are the blind and the lame and expectant mothers and women in labor. In this group of gathered people are included those who are most vulnerable, but also those who carry the future generation.

Verse 9: "They will come with weeping; they will pray as I bring them back." The way to the restoration or salvation of God is characterized by weeping and prayer.

         Weeping is an indicator of our pain. But weeping not only expresses our pain, it can help to relieve our pain, and if we will pay attention to our tears, they will take us to the true place of our pain so that we can find healing. If we do not deny our tears, but rather listen to them, they will guide us to a place of prayer, to the place where we need God.

         So often the true reason for our tears is hidden. We may watch a movie and find ourselves crying and wonder why. Where did that come from? We try to shut off our tears, we try to escape from them, we try to "get over it." I would imagine that over the years about 80 per cent of the people who have come to talk to me about something important to them personally have expressed to me that they came determined not to shed any tears. But when we allow ourselves to cry, and then when we actually listen to our tears, we find they have something to say, they connect us to the heart, where we need God and where we will find Him. For it is at the source of our tears that God lives. Immanuel – God is with us.

         The manger is a place of tears. Mary and Joseph that night were very much scattered people, displaced people. There was "no room" for them in a strange place. They felt rejection. They had the physical needs of scattered people. Where would they find water and food? There was pain in childbirth, and even more the pain that comes from the inability to properly care for a new baby, even to the point to having to use a manger for a crib. The manger was a place of tears. That is where the Word became flesh!

         The cross is a place of tears. Golgotha, a place of pain, of evil deeds, of death. And in that place Jesus cries with tears, "My God, Why have you forsaken me?" Yet, we find that the cross is not a place of the absence of God. Rather it is at the cross that we find God. We sing the hymn, "Jesus, keep me near the cross." The second verse reads,

"Near the cross, a trembling soul,

love and mercy found me;

there the bright and morning star

shed its beams around me."

It is in the place of weeping where we find God.

         Jeremiah describes the road back from exile as a place of weeping, and of prayer. And there the people find God. Then, when they are in the shepherd's care, we hear these direct statements of what God will do for them.

         "I will lead them beside streams of water."

         "I will lead them on a level path."

         "I will turn their mourning into gladness."

         "I will give them comfort and joy instead of sorrow."

That is Jeremiah's vision of restoration. He sees a people walking, a gathered people, a people of prayer and faith, through their tears coming to salvation. This is a description of how people come to the Lord. There is humility and submission in coming to God. It cannot be done pridefully.

         Jeremiah's vision was not fully realized in the return from exile. He is describing something greater. Paul writes in Ephesians that the mystery in the plan of God is that the Gentiles are included in this gathering as well. This takes place "in Christ." We meet by faith "in Christ," and there people who know of their need for God, find him. In faith we can come to Christ, and be in Christ. There we find God, we experience God.

         The Communion table is a place of healing and salvation. Here we find grace, the mystery of the Gospel. When we come with weeping and prayer, we find God.

         Amen.