sermon slide deck: "honest to god" (lamentations 3:19-24)
TRANSCRIPT
A Sacred Sorrow
Studies in the book of
Lamentations
~ The Season of Lent 2017 ~
Finding Your Voice When Life Doesn’t Make Sense
19 Remember my afflictionsand my wanderings, the wormwood and the gall!
20 My soul continually remembers itand is bowed down within me.
21 But this I call to mind,and therefore I have hope:
Lamentations 3:19-24
22 The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end;
23 they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.
24 “The Lord is my portion” says my soul,“Therefore I will hope in him.”
Lamentations 3:19-24
12 Is it nothing to you, all you who pass by,look and see,
if there is any sorrow like my sorrow, which the Lord inflictedon the day of his fierce anger.
Lamentations 1:12
“Part of the horror of human suffering is to be unheard, forgotten and nameless… Lamenta-tions is a summons to
remember realities endured by real people like ourselves, to bear witness, and pay heed
to their voice.
Quick Fact # 2
Abraham’s family became known as the nation of Israel—
a nation who was supposed to be a model society.
Quick Fact # 3
Instead of being a blessing, Israel became exceedingly wicked, even teaching the nations new ways to sin.
Quick Fact # 4
God sent prophets to call them back to God in repentance, but they were ignored (& worse).
Quick Fact # 5
Israel thinking herself invincible provoked Babylon to war, and
Babylon utterly destroyed them.
This was unquestionably the most traumatic moment
in the whole history of the OT.
”~ Christopher Wright The Message ofLamentations
“
“And it came to pass after Israel had gone into captivity, and Jerusalem was laid waste, that Jeremiah sat
weeping and composed this lament over Jerusalem….”
Introduction to the Septuagint(the Greek Translation of the OT in 2BC)
Woven throughout Scripture is an unguarded type of
prayer known as lament. To lament is to ask ‘Why?’ and ‘Why not?’ as well as ‘What
are you doing God?’ and ‘Where are you?’ To lament is to pour out our hearts, holding
nothing back. It is to pray without trying to be more full of faith than we actually are.
“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from
saving me, from the words of my groaning? O my
God, I cry by day, but you do not answer, and by
night, but I find no rest.”~ Psalm 22:1
“Awake! Why are you sleeping Lord? Rouse yourself! Do not reject us forever! Why do you
hide your face? Why do you forget our affliction and oppression? For our soul is
bowed down to the dust; our belly clings to the ground. Rise up; come to our help! Redeem us
for the sake of your steadfast love!”
~ Psalm 44:23ff.
“It seems to me that we do not need to be taught how to lament.
What we need is simply the assurance that we can lament.”
~ Michael Card, A Sacred Sorrow
Is there a God? No. What is the purpose of the universe? There is none. What is the meaning of life? Ditto. Why
am I here? Just dumb luck…
Does history have any meaning or purpose?
It’s full of sound and fury, but signifies nothing.
Lament is prayer that honors the honesty of pain and anger while also honouring the truth
that God is the one who reigns and whose hesed love never fails. Lament holds in tension all the suffering that
seems to make no sense with a determination to believe
that God is just.
Lament draws us to God when we are tempted to turn away. Lament enables us to keep moving forward with
perseverance…; it is a way to remain deeply connected to the God who loves us and loves justice even when
injustice makes us ask the hardest questions of God.
“Why are Christians, of all people, embarrassed by tears,
uneasy in the presence of sorrow, unpracticed in the
language of lament? It certainly not a biblical heritage, for virtually all our ancestors in
the faith were thoroughly ‘acquainted with grief.’ And our
Saviour was, as everyone knows, ‘a Man of Sorrows.’”
~ Eugene Peterson, Author
“This I call to mind, and therefore I have hope: The steadfast love of the Lord
never ceases; his mercies never come to an end.”
other images used for educational purpose
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Image Credit: Hoach Le Dinhhttps://unsplash.com/@hoachld?photo=5DJqsjAYlmkhttps://unsplash.com/license
Image Credit
http://raphael-lacoste.deviantart.com/art/Sunset-on-Babylon-62864369
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