Today we draw on Lamentations 1:1-6; Lamentations 3:19-26
Lamentations 1:1-6 Jerusalem empty and destroyed
1:1How 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 subject to forced labor. 1:2She 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.
1:3Judah has gone into exile with suffering and hard servitude; she lives now among the nations; she finds no resting place; her pursuers have all overtaken her in the midst of her distress. 1:4The 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.
1:5Her 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. 1:6From daughter Zion has departed all her majesty. Her princes have become like stags that find no pasture; they fled without strength before the pursuer.
Lamentations 3:19-26 Great is your faithfulness
The thought of my affliction and my homelessness is wormwood and gall! My soul continually thinks of it and is bowed down within me.
But 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; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.
“The LORD is my portion,” says my soul, “therefore I will hope in him.
“The LORD is good to those who wait for him, to the soul that seeks him. It is good that one should wait quietly for the salvation of the LORD
Lamentations is a hard read. There is so much despair. For those who lived through the sacking of Jerusalem and all the terrible things that had happened, they felt surely God must be punishing them for their poor behavior and their hard heartedness. Whether that idea is true or not, is debatable. However, sandwiched in the middle of these 5 very heavy poems is a great big, BUT. It seems as though the people of Jerusalem may find Hope among the ruins.
We are so ready to discount the God of the Old Testament, and claim that we hardly recognize him, but here in the midst of total devastation God is named as Steadfast. Today we recognize the steadfast love of the lord, and all that would become manifest in the person of Jesus, the living word, do we not?
So we read these words, Great is thy Faithfulness, as sons and daughters that have been engrafted onto this bigger family tree. But even with our hope in Christ sometimes we find ourselves struggling and in dark places because we are only human. So, we’re going to talk about that, and talk about how to keep our hearts open in difficult times.
Have you ever walked through a valley in your life? I thought about the Book Anne of Green Gables. Anne, who is an orphan, upon finding out that Marilla Cuthbert doesn’t intend to keep her, to adopt her, she says,
“…. I am in depths of despair” and she then asks Marilla if she could imagine feeling that way.
Marilla, replies stoically “No I cannot, to despair, is to turn your back against God.”
It reminds me of a time in my own life not so very long ago. 2019 was a really bad year. About New Years I had a falling out with my eldest child. It turned into over a year of silent treatment. Estrangement, if you don’t want to be estranged, is horrible and painful. It’s also socially taboo, because is someone cuts you out of their life, well, you must have done something really horrible. I spent a lot of time crying and self-analyzing. It was during that year; we sold our house and moved in with my parents, which was another adjustment. I felt like the only thing that got me through it all was God, and my supportive husband. But even still, it took a toll. And then covid shut everything down.
Strange to say that Covid helped, but it did. First, a pandemic is the kind of thing that prompts loved ones to reach out to each other, and so my child reached out to me, thank you, God. And then the shutdown gave me the rest I needed to heal and lay in the grass and watch the baby goats frolic and spend quality time with my younger children and open my heart further to God’s call on my life.
Our Scripture today reminds me and probably reminds you of the hymn Great is thy Faithfulness.
“Great is Thy faithfulness!” “Great is Thy faithfulness!”
Morning by morning new mercies I see;
All I have needed Thy hand hath provided—
“Great is Thy faithfulness,” Lord, unto me!
According to Hymncharts, this poem was written by Thomas Chisholm, who was a Methodist minister from Kentucky was a lover of poetry.
“Thomas experienced a decline in health during his time as a minister, and in 1909, those health issues forced him to leave his congregation. In the years that followed, financial issues arose as well from numerous hospital bills. Many people would have become bitter with God during a time of health and financial crisis, but Thomas became quite the opposite.
Yes, he was no longer a minister but now he had more time to focus on writing hymns. Yes, he had health problems but also had loving support from his wife and two daughters. Yes, he faced financial struggles but found a job selling life insurance, allowing him to keep up with the bills.”
No matter the struggle, Thomas always chose to see God’s faithfulness.
“Thomas’ positive outlook on life never shifted, and in 1923, he took up pen and paper and wrote his most famous poem: Great Is Thy Faithfulness. He sent the poem to Reverend William Runyan, musician of Moody Bible Institute and editor of Hope Publishing Company in Chicago.”
“Summer and winter, and springtime and harvest,
Sun, moon and stars in their courses above,
Join with all nature in manifold witness
To Thy great faithfulness, mercy and love.”
While walking as I always do on Thursdays, I got to thinking about the power of memory. Memory is what draws us back when we get lost in the present. Memory gives us hope for the future.
While walking I thought about all the ways every living thing is rooted in memory. The birds that fly south for the winter, the butterflies that migrate to Mexico. The fish that swim up stream to the spawning ground from which they came. The Mountain Lion that travels the wide boundaries of its territory. The way we remember until the day we die the house where we spent our formative years.
Memories can be painful, and memories can be sweet. But it is in the times of despair that memories of God’s mercies in our lives will ground us in hope. It is in the midst of troubles that we remember that the world keeps turning, and the birds keep singing and the steadfast love of God never ceases.
“Great is Thy faithfulness,” O God my Father,
There is no shadow of turning with Thee;
Thou changest not, Thy compassions, they fail not
As Thou hast been Thou forever wilt be.”
And we can remember too, the great clouds of witnesses, all the generations of believers who came before us, we can remember their pain. The terrible things that they endured in their time. We can remember all the voices crying in the wilderness, who remained steadfast.
Memory is so important in the Jewish Faith. They honor in their festivals the memory of what God has done for the people of Israel. They remember in the Celebration of Passover their deliverance out of slavery in Egypt.
In Hanukkah, the re-dedication of the Holy Temple in Jerusalem is celebrated and the miraculous oil that lasted for eight days to keep the Temple menorah lit.
The Feast of Tabernacles celebrates God’s provision and faithfulness by commemorating the Israelites’ 40-year journey in the desert. During the festival, families build temporary shelters as a reminder of God’s protection in the wilderness.
As Christians we too remember. We mark the Birth of Christ, His crucifixion and resurrection, we mark the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. We remember Jesus’ life-giving nature and the Grace of God every time we take communion, and we remember the new life we have in Christ through our baptism.
We Remember……
“Pardon for sin and a peace that endureth,
Thine own dear presence to cheer and to guide;
Strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow,
Blessings all mine, with ten thousand beside!”
Valleys will come to us all. Valleys are those times when God is not far from us, but because of the pain and hardness of our own hearts we push God away. As Marilla Cuthbert said, it is a time where we turn our backs on God.
And it is during those times that we must have a storehouse of memories from which to draw. We must remember our own stories of God’s mercy and love. Like times of shame in our lives because of poor choices where God has given us the strength to overcome and be free. We remember his forgiveness, and the new life that we have found. We remember his hand in our lives, when we didn’t know which way to go, but he whispered in our ears. We remember the joy we felt the hour that we first believed. We remember the God sightings, when we knew he was right there. We remember our dear brothers and sisters in Christ who have nurtured us and shown us the living face of Jesus.
Store up those memories like treasures, and write them down if you have to, so that when a valley comes, you can remember to open up your heart again to the one who loves you.
Gracious God,
We sit in gratitude for your steadfast presence in our lives. We thank you for memory, the memory of your creation, the shared memory of the generations that have come before us, we thank you for our personal memories of your call on our lives. We rest in those memories now. We give thanks that your mercies are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.
3:24″The LORD is my portion,” says my soul, “therefore I will hope in him.”
3:25The LORD is good to those who wait for him, to the soul that seeks him.
3:26It is good that one should wait quietly for the salvation of the LORD.
Fill us with your memory as we give you all praise.
In Jesus name, Amen