Scripture Text (NRSV)
Lamentations 1:1-6
1:1 How lonely sits the city that once was full of people! How like a widow she has
become, she that was great among the nations! She that was a princess among the provinces
has become a vassal.
1:2 She weeps bitterly in the night, with tears on her cheeks; among all her lovers she
has no one to comfort her; all her friends have dealt treacherously with her, they have
become her enemies.
1:3 Judah has gone into exile with suffering and hard servitude; she lives now among
the nations, and finds no resting place; her pursuers have all overtaken her in the midst
of her distress.
1:4 The roads to Zion mourn, for no one comes to the festivals; all her gates are
desolate, her priests groan; her young girls grieve, and her lot is bitter.
1:5 Her foes have become the masters, her enemies prosper, because the LORD has made
her suffer for the multitude of her transgressions; her children have gone away, captives
before the foe.
1:6 From daughter Zion has departed all her majesty. Her princes have become like stags
that find no pasture; they fled without strength before the pursuer.
Comments:
Jeremiah's announcement of destruction had become a reality. Now Israel is in exile. The book of Lamentations contains five poems mourning the exile. In this passage, Jerusalem is portrayed as a widow with no one to comfort her.
The desolation in this reading seems complete. Like a widow of the time left with no means of support, the people are destitute. The verses are full of hopelessness and all is lost. Except, of course, for that aspect of relationship with God that compels this crying out, this lament. Faith empowers the speaker to face the truth within the context of relationship with God. While the suffering is unmitigated within the context of this passage, the passage is embedded in a tradition of remembering the faithfulness and mercy of God.
The emptiness of Zion, the obscurity of God, desolation without comfort.
I have recently spent eight days in the hospital. No diagnosis. The loneliness of the nights, the unknowing that gripped me, the
sense of abandonment by God. Trying to find my grounding, my
hope in the midst of the fear that grippped me.
If only I had had faith the size of a mustard seed!
I realized how meaningless my homilies are, how powerful doubt is, and the fear that God is not listening.
tom in ga
Tom in Ga, I would argue that doubt has no power. It is only a shadow, holding no substance of itself but only able to try to hide the truth from sight in its darkness. In the valley of this shadow as well as the other, we need not fear anything. God is with us, though the shadow would hide Him from our sight. He hears, though doubt whispers that He does not. I know because He has heard me through my doubts on too many occasions. Mike in Soddy Daisy, TN
Tom,
I am praying for you and will not belittle your experience with empty council. My heart and tears reach to your brokenness. Lord, hold Tom and be his comfort and strength. Let Your grace be sufficient in this hour for him.
Bill
Tom (and Bill), I hope my statement was not taken as belittling your situation. It was not intended as such. I know that when rough times come, doubt is the first visitor in the door. I'm a bi-vocational pastor and right now I'm not sure if I will have a job 6 months from now. The team of 5 people I worked with a year ago is down to 2 and our primary task at the moment is to help move our jobs overseas. When that happens, my co-worker is definitely out of a job and my job may be reduced to where it could be merged with someone else's. If my job goes away, I will probably have to move to find a job. That would most likely move me not only away from the church I serve but out of my conference as well. At age 50 (almost), that is more than a little scary. It is a very depressing place to be at the moment. My options are to give up and moan about the situation (I am NOT saying that Tom is doing this but that I have been surrounded by a lot of people lately who have been doing exactly that) or to trust that God has gotten me this far and that He is still with me while I try to find someplace to land if my job does end. My church, my family, and my present employers deserve better of me than to give up so I look for God in the darkness and listen for His voice past the whispers of doubt and try to hang on. Faith as big as a mustard seed? I know myself better than that. More like confidence in a God who has proven faithful so far. Mike in Soddy Daisy
I would like to disagree in part with what Mr. Canada says regarding the
"laments" of the rest of the world and North America's role in creating these
troubles. As in the years of Babylonian rule over the lands of Judah, the ills of todays
people are not attributable directly to earthly causes but ultimately to the inability of
communities of people to come to know the Lord.
The Jews were handed over to Babylonians by God due to their blasphemy. People today
are met with similar trials in both the US and around the world. While we must continue to
be generous with our material gifts given to us by the Lord, we must also be will to share
the more important giftof all, Christianity
Someone said: "The Jews were handed over to Babylonians by God due to their
blasphemy. People today are met with similar trials in both the US and around the
world." Are you suggesting that God caused Atta et al to fly those planes into the
WTC and Pentagon, killing thousands of innocent people, as some sort of warning about our
country's "failure" to spread Christianity? You certainly seem to be... Eric in
KS
Other than the obsurd comments above, I cannot believe that there is no discussion on
this lament. It seems so appropriate that we lament what has happened, to uncover the root
causes of terrorism, i.e. fundalmentalism, and literalism of Holy Scripture that was
written nearly two millenia ago, do we really want to forget about Newton, Darwin and
Galileo? God help us all if we are reduced to understanding God in light of human error,
rather than the source of human love and compassion. And might I remind the first
contributor that Jesus was a Jew and so were most of the disciples(I think there might
have been a tax collector and a couple of sinners in there too) and don't forget the
orginator of Christianity, Paul...BB in IL
I'm using the first 3 verses, focusing on v. 3, about no resting place, living among
the nations. We now have been thrust out of our assumed safety, across oceans from where
bad things happen. Now we face the same daily doubts the folks in many nations have been
dealing with for decades. Yet throughout the world, in all nations, this Sunday people
will lift loaves and cups and pronounce,"This is my body...my blood" singing the
Lord's song in a forein world. Our world has changed, but our Kingdom is still strong.
Sing the Kingdom song! tom in TN(USA)
Help! What do we do with "the LORD has made her suffer"? kbc in sc
(And wouldn't you know it, we're singing "By Gracious Powers", and that has a
verse that says "And when the cup you give is filled to brimming/ with bitter
suffering (sorrow), hard to understand/ we take it gratefully and without trembling/ out
of so good and well-beloved a hand."
I'm preaching Psalm 137 but reading this, and I feel like it cries out for a word.
KJ, Like so many others, I waffle and skip that verse. This time I just read up to it
and quit at v.4, maybe v.3. Actually, If I was preaching this text solely I would honestly
address the issue of human perceptions in holy writ. That was the way fate was seen, good
or bad, it was all from God. I have a Church History professor who said the greatest
thing; "The Gospel trumps the bible." That is, when any other part of the
scriptures seem in conflict with the picture of God seen in the words and deeds of Jesus,
go with Jesus. I think likewise that the rest of the NT is a better understanding of God
than the OT, for having had the Jesus experience, and even in the OT, there are better
images of God. It is also important to admit that even though they (and we) often
attribute things to God erroneously, God allows us the honest expression of our feelings.
tom in TN(USA) kbc- right back at you!
Lamentations isn't a book we normally like to preach on. There are no bunny rabbits,
rainbows, or bright shining faces from which to draw light. Instead we have an honest
lament or appeal to God that is told by people too tired, too hungry, and too beaten down
to sugar coat anything. Perhaps the ready-made illustration for this Lamentations passage
is in the frail, tired bones of our oldest members of the church. Glory has passed, the
vision and memory fade quickly. As their body breaks down, their life slips past life a
muddy river what is faith? What is the faith they hold? Anyone ccan believe, like Boaz in
RUTH, when everything is going well. Anyone can just lay over and die, like Naomi also in
RUTH, but what of the one who continues to hold on; who continues to lament and appeal to
God for help and rescue? Unlike RUTH, we don't get a happy ending in a neat package.
Instead, Lamentations is a dreary, difficult statement of faith. These are the people who
have been left behind -- the poorest widows and orphans who must beg in the streets. While
the Exile may have passed tem all by as the leaders took off for other lands, as the
merchants packed up their wares.. Left behind are the weakest of society, and Lamentations
is thier book. As our Economy (USA) is bustling and booming the songs of Lament seem
foreign and out-of-place, but who in our country or world sings these songs? How many in
our midst know what it means to be destitute and unable to help themself? As you wonder
that, consider another thought: What lesson of the Lord, of faith in the midst of
darkness, do these outcasts in our society have that keeps them striving through troubles
unimaginable to the confortable and secure? The Lamentations are the songs of the people
without a future, without an ice cube's chance in Hell -- they are the songs of hope.
Lamentations' cries are to an absent God not to a non-existent one. How can someone get
made at God and still be called faithful? ... How can someone be faithful and not be angry
at times with God?
As I read this passage, one of the images that immediately comes to mind is many of our
churches, and the lament/nostalgia that many of our folks express (e.g. "back in my
day, we used to have 500 kids in Sunday School--now look at us! We could fit everybody
into one class room!") "How lonely sits the city that was once so full of
people!" "No one comes to the festivals." As the previous contributor
points out, there is no way to sugar coat the message of Lamentations, nor is there any
way to sugar coat the sad state of affairs in the main line churches of North American and
Europe. Our denominational leaders may speak of the fact that "the decline in
membership has slowed down," but that ought not to comfort us. In fact, as Loren Mead
points out (I think it is in his book, The Once and Future Church), the situation in main
line churches in the U.S. is even worse than we usually make it out to be. The population
of the U.S. has grown roughly by one third since WWII. That means our churches would have
had to increase their membership by one third just to keep even! Instead, we have net
losses of millions and millions of people. We need not hide from these realities, but in
order to face them, we need faith. I believe that Lamentations is a faith statement, in
that faith in God enables us to express all that we feel. We can let ourselves grieve, let
ourselves fall into the depths of our loss, knowing that there is someOne that will catch
us in our falling. Faith of that sort enables us to look at our situation with the clarity
that the writer of Lamentations exhibits--it enables us to avoid sugar coating, naivete,
putting our heads in the sand, etc. And so can we clearly look at our situation as
mainline churches, because our faith is in God, not in our institutions. TGL, N.H.
While the lament is a corporate crying out, I think I am going to make it more
individual. I see it generally as greif over broken dreams and how many of us do not have
broken dreams. I think of people in the pews who have had bright hopes for children
smashed by drugs. Wonderful dreams of marriages destroyed by divorce. I think these
laments echo the cries of our hearts in the face of the loss of dreams. The key of course
is to find God (very present while absent to our senses) in the midst of that loss.
Lamentations hangs on to God as the only hope left. And that is right where God wants
us. Not hoping in our strength, but in His alone. God help us if we have to go through
what Jerusalem went through to get to that place!
KenTucky
I think we do a disservice to Jeremiah's pain-filled words if we individualize them. I
also think we do them a disservice if we listen to them strictly as [North] Americans,
rather than citizens of the world; citizens, I might add, who form part of the 20% of the
world's population who consume 80% of the world's resources; citizens of the part of the
world which forces over $7.5 billion per month onto the $1.5 trillion which the poor part
of the world already "owes"; citizens of the same world in which 1500 children
die every minute from hunger-related diseases.
Much of the rest of the world is praying Jeremiah's lament, and we in North America
obsess ourselves with semen stains, and even the Church in North America laments only the
fact that our Sunday Schools are no longer full.
Come on, folks. We're not the victims here. The world was not created for North
America; we were created for the rest of the world. "To those who have much shall
much be required..."
The question is, how will we respond to the cries of today's Jeremiah's. Make no
mistake, they are out there. And make no mistake, God is listening to them!
Rick in Canada, eh?
As the first contributor over-joyed to see others praying over these Laments I want to
say AMEN to Rick for Canada and question another contributor. Lament is not the same as
Grief. I grieve over thedeath of a friend, a drunk driver grieves over the death of their
victim, a mother grieves over the death of thier child... To Lament, however, is more than
simply grieving as one naturally would. It is taking responsibility for our actions, it is
appealing tog God to be heard... Sorry to cut short but my son just woke uo
We are so terribly guilty of ignoring the laments of our brothers and sisters all over
the world. We try to tune it out by getting busier or by turning up the radio. Why can't
our generation sit still and listen for the voice of God? We might hear the cries and
agony of the dying children. Painful reminder.
RevArt in KY
To the Unnamed Parent:
Thank you for you words. I appreciate your distinction between grief and lament. But
lament doesn't come without grief. So I was focusing on the emotion rather than the
action. I agree that it is the action of taking the emotion to God that is crucial. Thanks
again.
To Rick in Canada:
Allow me to defend myself. First, I will be using the Lamentation text as more of a
supplement to the Psalm text which is a more personal lament (granted, over a corporate
loss.) You might want to check out my comments in the Psalm 137 section.
I appreciate your prophetic stance against our North American indifference to the REAL
poor. I preached such a sermon last week using the Dives & Lazarus text. You say,
"We're not victims, here." yet I am convinced that there is enough pain to go
around for both the rich and the poor. Wealth can insulate us from a lot of things, but it
doesn't free us from pain and grief. Remember, "...Richard Cory went home last night
and put a bullet through his head." I am concerned about the poor, I have a
responsibility to them, but I am not their pastor. As a pastor in North America I must
have a prophetic voice, but also a shepherd's heart. If the people in the pews don't know
that I care for them, that I can speak to their suffering, they will not listen to my
speaking for others they do not hear. The prophets were firey in condemning Judah, but
when the judgement came, they wept as loud as any. Sometimes the pain in the lives of the
wealthy is a consequence of their hard hearts. Sometimes it is not. Whichever the case,
their lament is real and deserves to be heard.
KenTucky
Ken in Tucky,
Thanks for your comments. I do not denigrate the pain that our parishioners experience
(in fact, I frequently share it!). But to be a pastor to people in pain does not just mean
saying "There, there, it will all get better." I am not saying you do this, nor
am I saying you even imply this. However, we have both had many visits with people who
desire this sort of pablum from their pastor.
A truly gospel/Christ/cross-centered response would be to put their pain (emptiness,
pointlessness, grief, whatever...) into the wider context of God's saving action for the
world. Yes, the rich experience pain, but it is not the pain of the poor, and we rich folk
have a cure readily available for our pain which the poor do not: to broaden our
individualized, self-absorbed life, and begin sharing what God has given us. No matter how
much financial "pain" would be caused by forgiving to debt of the poorest of the
poor, it would be a redemptive, freeing, life-giving pain. It would be one which joins us
to the poor, so that we would more truly become one with them.
Not a bad theme for World Communion Sunday!
May God bless all of our ministries, and may God increase the faith of ALL of us!
Rick in Canada, eh?
