Ezra 3:8-13

8 In the second year after their arrival at the house of God at Jerusalem, in the second month, Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel and Jeshua son of Jozadak made a beginning, together with the rest of their people, the priests and the Levites and all who had come to Jerusalem from the captivity. They appointed the Levites, from twenty years old and upwards, to have the oversight of the work on the house of the Lord. 9 And Jeshua with his sons and his kin, and Kadmiel and his sons, Binnui and Hodaviah along with the sons of Henadad, the Levites, their sons and kin, together took charge of the workers in the house of God.

10 When the builders laid the foundation of the temple of the Lord, the priests in their vestments were stationed to praise the Lord with trumpets, and the Levites, the sons of Asaph, with cymbals, according to the directions of King David of Israel; 11 and they sang responsively, praising and giving thanks to the Lord,

‘For he is good,
for his steadfast love endures for ever towards Israel.’

And all the people responded with a great shout when they praised the Lord, because the foundation of the house of the Lord was laid. 12 But many of the priests and Levites and heads of families, old people who had seen the first house on its foundations, wept with a loud voice when they saw this house, though many shouted aloud for joy, 13 so that the people could not distinguish the sound of the joyful shout from the sound of the people’s weeping, for the people shouted so loudly that the sound was heard far away.

 Seventy years before the events we just read about, many of the people of Israel had been taken off into exile in Babylon. The temple was destroyed at that time and had lain in ruins for 70 years. Now many of the exiles had returned to the land of Israel and they were working at rebuilding the temple. But first they had to clear the rubble away so the building could begin.

 The laying of the foundation of the temple was a moment of deep thanksgiving and joy. The moment was marked with great fanfare and the singing of psalms. Maybe Psalm 136 was sung – it has the repeated refrain “for his steadfast love endures forever” (see vs. 11 above). With joyful songs and shouts of praise to God the returnees celebrated the start of the re-building of the temple.

There were those (now in their late 70’s, 80’s, even 90’s) who had seen the previous temple, had possibly even witnessed its destruction, who as the re-building began wept aloud. Wept because the re-building of the temple was something they never imagined would ever take place, never imagined it was something they would see in their lifetimes, and here it was happening. They were overcome with emotion, and they wept tears in this moment.

Gratitude is sometimes like that, so overwhelming it brings tears. The hoped-for is realized and tears, weeping, the overflow of emotion, follow. With both shouts of joy and hearts overwhelmed with emotion the crowd responds to this profound moment – a moment that God brought about. For only God could have orchestrated the people of Israel being allowed to return to their homeland, only God could have brought the leaders back to the land. In the face of such action by God – the tears rise up, that God would do this thing.

God continues to act, doing the amazing, the unimagined, the impossible – and we are flooded with emotion – shouts of joy mixed with tears flowing from an overwhelmed heart. Such is appropriate Thanksgiving to the Triune God of grace – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit who in sovereignty does all things well.          

PRAYER:

O Lord, our hearts are overwhelmed with thankful praise and tears of gratitude, for in your sovereign majesty you have done more than we could ever imagine, and we are filled with praise, wonder, and tears form overwhelmed hearts. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Colossians 3:12-17

12 As God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience. 13 Bear with one another and, if anyone has a complaint against another, forgive each other; just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. 14 Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. 15 And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in the one body. And be thankful. 16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly; teach and admonish one another in all wisdom; and with gratitude in your hearts sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs to God. 17 And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

The passage invites us to clothe ourselves with – among other things – patience.

Clothing oneself is a multi-step process. First, we need to have the clothing we are going to wear readily at hand. It is hard to put on clothing that is not in our closet or drawers. But God in great grace makes available to us the clothing of compassion, humility, and patience to name only a few. These traits, characteristics of the Jesus way are available to us.

That leads to the next step – clothing is not very helpful to us if we never wear it – if all it does is hang in our closet. We need to put it on. To dress ourselves in the clothing Jesus provides – the fruit of the Spriit – including patience. This means that we have a role to play – yes, the ability to be patient comes from the Spriit, but we have a role to play in letting our lives be shaped by what God is doing. We cannot actively resist putting on the clothing the Spriit has for us and expect our lives to show evidence of the fruit of the Spirit.

One more thing about clothing ourselves with the patterns of kindness, humility and patience and the other clothing the Spirit has available for us. We have to get dressed everyday, it is not as though we get up on Monday morning and put on our clothes for the whole week that we never take off. No, each morning we need to put on the clothing Jesus has for us, each morning we dress to be ready for the Spirit to live the Jesus way through us.  

One final comment on this passage – vs. 13 feels like Paul is explaining the heart of patience – to bear with each other, to forgive each other – following the example of Jesus Christ who forgave and showed forbearance to his followers.

PRAYER:

We rejoice, O Lord, in the clothing that the Holy Spirit has ready for us to wear, clothing that can change our lives for the better, clothing that leads us to live the Jesus way. Teach us to clothe ourselves in the clothing you have for us, make us humble enough to put on what you have chosen for us to wear. Make us patient, O Lord. In Jesus’ name. Amen.