I know that this is a
little odd to go into this type of topic, especially right after I have
celebrated the joy of a wedding, and since it is the first time many of you
have seen me since; but today I want to talk about an often overlook, and a an
extremely underutilized book of the Bible, Lamentations. This scripture is actually from last week’s
lectionary reading, but I found it to be so powerful that I wanted to speak
about it today. As I said, Lamentations
is a wonderful book of the Bible that is far too often glanced over and
forgotten about. Why is that? Maybe it
is because it is part of the Old Testament, but we still love to read from
Genesis and Exodus, Isaiah and the Psalms.
Maybe it’s because it deals with difficult issues, and yet we find many
of these issues in the prophets and in the psalms. The reason I believe that we often overlook
the book of Lamentations is because of the name itself. Lamentations, lament, sadness; these are not
issues that we want to deal with. In fact too often in the church these are
feeling that we are not supposed to have. We have been told that we are always
supposed to be happy. We have been told not to be sad because God is with us.
It is true that God provides us with comfort, but isn’t possible that one way
in which God comforts us is by simply listening to our lamentations? For the most part this book of the Bible is
just the people of God voicing their sadness, something that for many seems
counterproductive and for others seems ridiculous because if you have God why
should you be sad; and yet this book is here in our Bible, part of our historic
canon. Maybe the truly is power in lamentation.
Our passage for today is an especially powerful passage;
this lamentation is not an individual lament, but instead it is a communal
lament, for the lost city of Jerusalem. The reason for these letters was
because the once proud and powerful nation of Israel had been conquered by the
Babylonians. The Babylonians then took many of the wisest, wealthiest members
of Israel and kept them captive in Babylon forcing them to be part of that
society. Finally, the city and the Temple in Jerusalem were destroyed. This book is a response to this horrible
event in the life of Israel. “ 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. 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.” These words are not words of comfort in the
midst of the destruction, these words are not an attempt to explain or to fix
the problem, these words are simply a lament, and that is why they are so
powerful. Especially in our times today,
and let me be the first to say that I am the biggest culprit of this, we often
want to find ways to explain away all of our problems, we want to find ways to
fix it, we want to move on, and all of those things are great, but do we every
allow ourselves time to actually grieve?
Do we ever truly let ourselves lament?
 |
| Photo courtesy of Christart.com |
Luckily many of us will never have to face the
destruction of our homeland, most of us will never become captives in a foreign
land, and yet all of us will face grief some time in our lives. Many of us have lost loved ones, and the sad
truth is that we will likely lose more. Some of us have been through extremely
difficult situations, the loss of a job, a failing marriage, addiction, abuse,
some may even be going through a tough situation and now and all the world is
telling you is to get over it, that it will all be ok, but this morning let us
learn from the Israelites, let us learn from the book of Lamentations and say,
I will try to beat, I have faith, but right now I need to grieve. Right now I
need to let God know how much I hurt. There is power in lamenting.
Not only is there power in lamenting for the one who
feels desolate and lost, but there is a power for all of the body of Christ.
When we gather each week for worship, we gather as a body that celebrates the
work of God, but we also gather as a body that embraces, takes on the pain of
those around them. It is as Paul told us, “rejoice with those who rejoice, weep
with those who weep.” Lamentations are a way for the church, for the body of
Christ to share in the lives of those around, that means sharing in the joy,
but yes also sharing in sorrow. It is why we are able to come together this
morning and in a few moments gather around the table, gathering as a people who
are broken, gathering as a people in need of mercy and grace, but gathering as
one body, the body of Christ. As we take from the bread and from the cup we are
reminded of that unity as we all partake of the same body. We are all able to
come to the table, to let out our deepest cries, our darkest laments, and at
the same time experience the grace of Christ even through that very pain and
brokenness. There is power in our lamentations, when we need to, let us pour
them out before the Lord. The Lord can handle it, the question is are we brave
enough to lament?
No comments:
Post a Comment