The Limestone Cries Out In This Place
Have you ever been in a place where there is deep sorrow present? Have you ever felt like the sadness reaches out and touches you? There are some stories so full of heartache, some songs so sad, so pregnant with longing they seem to have the power to pull our hearts away like they were attached to some ancient kite on a string. There are some places where it seems the rocks even tremble to the tune. And they seem to join the groaning chorus of Creation, crying out for renewal.
Clinton Iowa is one of these places. How many stories can a person here that begin with “Isn’t it a shame that…” Or, “Yeah this used to be…” How many stories of loss can a person endure. What if that story of loss is your story.
In the Bible there is a story about an ancient Jewish leader named Nehemia. He was a member of the community of Israel. But he was displaced. He didn’t live with his kin. He was living in a foreign land. He was actually very close to the ruler of that land, the king of Persia. And one day Nehemia received news that his Jewish brothers and sisters living in his home city of Jerusalem were living in “great trouble and shame” (Neh 1:3). And no doubt he would have been reminded of the story of his people’s humiliating defeat at the hands of the Babylonians; and how their people were exiled to live away from their homes; and how Jerusalem, the city of king David, whose throne was supposed to last forever, lay in ruins. Hearing the news of his people’s trouble, caused him to fall on his face and weep. He wept because he feels a sense of homelessness, even if it's just from the stories he’s heard. He wept because he feels the sadness of the glory days that have come and gone.
The king notices Nehemia’s sadness and he asks him why he’s so sad. Nehemia answers, “why should not my face be sad, when the city, the place of my father’s graves, lies in ruins, and the gates have been destroyed by fire” (Neh 2:3). This moves the king and so Nehemia is commissioned by the king to go and rebuild his homeland, Jerusalem.
It doesn’t take much interpretive work to feel the heartache of Nehemia. He felt an ancient sadness that we all feel. We all feel a sense of, “this isn’t the way things were supposed to be.” “This isn't the way things used to be.” This is because the sadness of The Fall reaches out and touches us. The Fall was that heartbreaking moment when our ancient mother and father, Adam and Eve, sinned. In their disobedience, they severed the relationship between heaven and earth. And what was their home, became a memory of the glory days—a time when they were in the presence of real joy.
The song of The Fall still echoes into our day. Every time we pass an abandoned house that has an overgrown play-set and broken family room windows we hear the tune. Every time we travel the rough contours of a highway that passes through a midwest ghost town, that was once home to a flourishing local life, we hear the echo. All around us the sprawling decay of dead limbs, rotting flesh, and crumbling structures cry out the anthem of homelessness we all feel, reminding us that we’ve lost Eden.
As a Jew, the apostle Paul would have also felt the groanings of this sadness. He would have felt displaced and homeless. He knew the story of Eden. And he knew he lost it. And yet, he longed for renewal.
Acknowledging the suffering and the sadness this world brings, he also longed for more. He even wrote that the creation waits with eager longing” (Rom 8:19). The eroding rocks and the drooping tree limbs cry out in longing for renewal. Even creation knows that things are not the way they ought to be. This place is cursed—subjected to futility, Paul says. No matter how well the craftsman sets the doors on its hinges, they will bind in the rust and fall off in the decay of rot. The ruin is unstoppable. And in the obviously broken places of our lives we feel the tangible nature of this curse. We have sinned and fallen short of God’s glory. And yet, there is hope for renewal.
What ties the sadness of Nehemia, Paul, and ourselves together is that it is all a byproduct of living under a curse. But it is not an unbreakable curse. Our destiny to return to the dust of this earth is not a fixed reality. This is because a man named Jesus broke the curse by becoming a curse for us. He took the load of all the world's misery, and most importantly, the sin that separates humans from God. The homelessness that the fall wrought for all people is reversed in Jesus. Accused people can actually be freed from the bondage of rehearsing sad stories and sad songs. Joy is possible.
We see this in the book of Nehemia. As the people were weeping under the weight of this ancient sadness, God tells them to take heart. They are to be happy instead. And the reason is that the joy of the Lord is their strength. God himself wants to be near to us once again. And in this broken world, with homeless people, he makes a home in us by giving us his spiritual presence.
Paul reiterates this in Romans that the Spirit sets us free. It is the presence of God that fills us out and makes us whole. And it is the Spirit that brings true renewal. We are given a spiritual renewal on the inside. In our hearts the sadness is transformed into joy because God now lives here. And we are home again.
And yet we still long. Buildings still crumble, people still hurt each other, and things die. So is fixing the walls and tidying up our city enough? Does rehabbing our old houses satisfy the deep longing in our hearts for total renewal? If I patch the mortar in my foundation, why does it still feel like the limestone cries out? Why do I still hear the sad groanings of longing?
This is because we only have the firstfruits. The renewal that comes to a Jesus follower, through repentance and faith in Jesus, is only the first taste of what is to come. We have the Spirit of God in us making his home spiritually. But we still wait eagerly for Jesus to come back bodily. And when he comes back he will renew our bodies as well as our spirit. And he will restore all things, reasserting the goodness of his creation.
So when you pass by a broken building, hear a story of a broken marriage, see the crooked lines of this world, listen for the sad song. Let the kite take your heart to a place of eager longing. And in faith wait patiently for the One who will come again in judgment, to judge the quick and the dead. Jesus is coming back to turn your sadness into joy. He’s already started. Stick close to his presence and everything will be alright again.