"Yesterday"

7-5-15

Lexington UMC                                          “Yesterday”

Psalm 137: 1-6

Yesterday is one of the best-loved, most famous Beatles songs of all time.  You don’t even have to be a Beatles fan to appreciate its beautiful melody.  But have you paid attention to the words?  Can’t you just feel the anguish in this song?

Yesterday all my troubles seemed so far away. Now it looks as though they're here to stay. Oh, I believe in yesterday. How I long for yesterday!

This is a different sermon series from any I have ever preached.  It’s just a way of seeing how we can learn godly principles from just about anywhere – including secular songs.  You may be a big fan of Beatles music, or you may not like it at all.  You might be somewhere in between.  But I hope we all can grab on to these life lessons.  Today I want us to see a healthy way of looking at the past.  Three things we need to know:

I.                We need to know that it is natural for us to long for yesterday; especially when our today is painful!

“By the rivers of Babyon – there we sat down and there we wept when we remembered Zion.”

Do you know what is going on here?  The Israelites are looking to - and longing for -  yesterday.  Who could blame them?  King Nebuchadnezzar had marched on Jerusalem with his army.  He had laid siege to Jerusalem.  For 2 years he laid siege to Jerusalem, cutting off their supplies until the people started to starve to death.  In 586 B.C. he took the city.

Listen to the account from 2 Kings 24…

The king of Babylon took him (King Jehoichin) prisoner in the eighth year of his reign.  He carried off all the treasures of the house of the Lord, and the treasures of the king’s house; he cut in pieces all the vessels of gold in the temple of the Lord, which King Solomon of Israel had made, all this as the Lord had foretold.  He carried away all Jerusalem, all the officials, all the warriors, ten thousand captives, all the artisans and the smiths; no one remained, except the poorest people of the land.  (2 Kings 24: 12-14)

So the people sat down, hung their harps on the willow trees, and wept.  And they longed for the good old days.  There is a word for this feeling…nostalgia!

Did you know that nostalgia is big business?  That’s why antiques are so popular and so expensive.  You ever watch Antiques Roadshow or American Pickers?  What are people really paying for?  Just old stuff?  No – they are paying good money to be taken back to yesterday.

Nostalgia is an interesting word.  It comes from combining two Greek words…  The Greek word for “return” is nostsos. Algos means suffering.  Put them together and you have the suffering caused by a longing to return.

This wasn’t the first time that the Israelites wanted to go back to the past.  Remember when they were delivered from Egypt?  They got out into the wilderness and discovered that the going was tough.  Then, as we read in Exodus 16, they grumbled and complained against Moses and Aaron. 

“If only we were back in Egypt by the fleshpots, eating our fill of bread.  You have brought us out into the wilderness to kill us with hunger.”

It is natural to look for, and to long for yesterday…especially when our “today” is painful.

I was appointed to a church several years ago.  I was talking with the church’s leadership about their plans for the coming year.  I discovered that they didn’t have any plans for the coming year.  What they had was nostalgia for years gone by.

One guy – and I can still picture his face – said, “Preacher, we used to have a lot of children, and youth.  And that choir loft used to be full.  We had a good choir.” 

Well the only problem was - that was yesterday – yesteryear, really.  The reality of today was that there were no children (except mine), no youth at all, and four people in the choir.  Literally four people.  And the people were grieving, you see?

Have you ever heard of the stages of grief?  Elisabeth Kubler-Ross wrote a book in 1969 called, On Death and Dying, and in it she named 5 Stages of grief.

(1) Denial – “This can’t be happening!”

(2) Anger – When we realize that denial can’t continue, we get fighting mad.  “Why me?  This is not fair!  How could God let this happen?”

(3) Bargaining – After the anger wears off, we try to bargain.  We’ve made deals in the past.  Why not now?  This usually goes something like, “God if you will ____________, then I will __________.”

(4) Depression – “What’s the point?  How can I go on?”

(5) Acceptance – “It’s going to be okay.  It may not be the same…but it will be okay.”

This church I was telling you about was cycling back and forth between the first four stages of grief…never making to the last one – acceptance.  I understood where they were and why.  But it was past time to move on, you see?  Something else we need to know about looking to yesterday…

II.             We need to know that hindsight is not always 20/20.

Did you know that?  Hindsight is not always 20/20?  Why?  Because we don’t always remember yesterday the way it really was.  Again, we look at Israel for our example.

They said, “Oh, that we could go back to Egypt…where we sat by the fleshpots and ate our fill”…  And someone in the back row raises a hand and says, “But Dude…we were slaves!”

They said, “Oh, how we wish we could go back to Jerusalem!  Here we are carried off into captivity!  It is so unfair!”

And prophets like Jeremiah raise their hand and say, “Well…God warned you for over 100 years to turn away from idols and turn back to him.  But you didn’t listen!”

Another problem we have when it comes to seeing 20/20 in hindsight is that we have a tendency to romanticize yesterday.  Don’t we?  We call them the “good old days.”  But the good old days may not have been good for everybody.  They might have felt good for the “insiders,” but bad for the “outsiders.”  For instance…

·      I can say, “I want to go back to my grandpa’s day.  Those were the good old days.”  Grandpa – tell me ‘bout the good old days.  Remember that song from several years ago – a song by the Judds?

Grandpa

Tell me 'bout the good old days.

Sometimes it feels like

This world's gone crazy.

Grandpa, take me back to yesterday,

Where the line between right and wrong

Didn't seem so hazy.

OK - so let’s go back to the good old days of my grandpa.  100 years ago.  Those were the good old days…unless you were a woman.  Then you didn’t even have the right to vote…not until 1920, that is.

·      I can say, “I want to go back to my dad and mom’s day.  They got married in the 50’s.  Man, those were the days!”

OK – Let’s go back 60 years.  Those were the good old days!  Well…maybe.  Unless you were black.  Then you had to go to the back of the bus.

Before we start wishing for yesterday…let’s make sure that we ask the Holy Spirit to help us really see yesterday with 20/20 clarity.  Maybe there was something terribly wrong with our yesterday…maybe our yesterday wasn’t all that great for those who were on the outside looking in.  Maybe the today we are having is a result of us not listening to God yesterday.

Now close your eyes and remember some of the changes that have happened over the last couple of weeks.  Ask yourself…were the good old days – before these changes – were the good old days really good…for everyone?  For people who might be different from us?  For those on the outside looking in?  Was there something God was trying to tell us yesterday that just didn’t realize until today? 

Holy Spirit – give us eyes to see yesterday with 20/20 clarity.  Amen.  One more thing about yesterday…

III.           We need to know that we can’t go back to yesterday…because God’s plan always moves forward – not backward.

God had a plan for Israel, and it was a good plan.  He would bring them back out of exile.  Maybe you have heard this verse – it is a great verse.  It may be on a refrigerator magnet in your kitchen.  It is Jeremiah 29: 11…

For surely I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope.

Beautiful words…but so often taken out of context.  Yes, God would bring the people back from exile, but listen to what God says back in v. 5…

Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat what they produce.  Take wives and have sons and daughters…multiply there (in Babylon) and do not decrease.  But seek the welfare of the city (Babylon) where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its (Babylon’s) welfare you will find your welfare…only when Babylon’s seventy years are completed will I visit you, and I will fulfill to you my promise and bring you back to this place.

“I’ve got plans for you…to prosper you and give you a future,” God says.  Yes!  But my plans are not to take you back to yesterday, but to take you into tomorrow.  OK, God! 

Then God says, “But here’s the thing…So in the meantime…here’s what I want you to do.  I want you to multiply and bless the place where I have planted you.  In its welfare will be your welfare.”

But God – we’re in a foreign land here!  We want to go back to Jerusalem!  And God says, “Well…maybe after the seventy years are up.”  70 years??  Do you know how old I’ll be in 70 years?  (Some of us are reading the writing on the wall to read – man it ain’t gonna happen in your lifetime!)  You literally may not see God’s wonderful plan unfold in your lifetime.

Here’s a sobering thought:  What if our welfare is tied to the welfare of a bunch of people who are very different from us?  Guess what?  It is.  It really is.

Can we be OK with that?  Can we still sing our song?

The Israelites had hung up their harps on the trees.  They refused to sing the songs of Zion to their captors.

Church – we’ve got a song to sing.  And our song doesn’t need to be a mournful song about yesterday.  If all we can sing about is yesterday, we will become less and less relevant to the very ones who need the good news the most.

We need to remember.  Every time we come to the Lord’s table for Holy Communion, we do so “In Remembrance.”  But let’s remember… Life can be remembered backwards, but can only be lived forward.