Longings, Hope - Lamentations 3

Back in the 1950’s there was a professor at John Hopkins University name Curt Richter who did some famous experiments. Now I’ll warn you, the experiments are a little bit horrible - a little bit mean to animals and I’m very glad we hopefully don’t do this sort of thing anymore, but they show us something so important that I wanted to tell you about it to start out this morning. Professor Richter did a series of experiments on hope, by using drowning rats. It went like this, in the first set - he took some rats and put them in a bucket of water to see how long they could last swimming. All the rats drowned, after roughly two minutes of swimming. They could tread water for a minute or so, but after they had circled the bucket a couple of times, realized there’s no way out, there’s no hope - they would just give up. 2 minutes in the first group. In the second group, Professor Curt would watch them, and when it looked like the rat was about to give up he would pull the rat out of the bucket, dry it off, hold them for a little while, help them recover and then put them back in the bucket and leave them alone. When he did this, after they had been saved one time, the second set of rats swam for over 24 hours. Just to give you a little perspective - that’s 1,200% longer. His conclusions were that the first set of rats had the strength to keep going - apparently rats have the ability to tread water for hours and hours, but the only difference was hope.

Today we are continuing our series called LONGINGS, and we’re exploring this Christmas season guided by the longings expressed in the advent candle. I had a pastor friend say a few weeks ago that “Christmas really is a strange time of year where the deepest longings of the human heart and a culture’s cheapest solutions to those longings collide.” I think a lot of us enjoy the pieces of the Christmas season - presents and stockings, gingerbread and caroling - the spectacle of lights. We love all that stuff - but underneath it is a deeper longing. Our world is SO good at distraction and temporary happiness. Little doses of dopamine that get us through the hard times. But when the gingerbread is stale and the candles burn low, the garbages are full of wrapping paper and all the distractions are spent - there is a deeper longing that has yet to be fulfilled. All this month we are asking the question - what are you really longing for? And today, we’re going to talk about hope.

Now, normally in a Christmas series - we’re supposed to talk about shepherds, and angels and wise men - you know, all the funny little characters in the nativity set. But we’re not going to do that. This morning we are going to dive into the book of Lamentations that is in the old testament. But as you’re looking that up, I’ll make you a promise - by the end of this message, I WILL show you how it all ties together. One of the coolest things about the bible is that all the pieces are incredibly interwoven into a single story that God is telling humanity. So Lamentations is written by the prophet Jeremiah. You might remember Jeremiah, we’ve talked about him before. He is known as the weeping prophet. “Lament” is defined as a passionate expression of grief or sorrow. Lamentations is a book full of weeping and lament. The short version of the story is that Jeremiah had a really hard life, and he cried about it a LOT. The long version is that a prophet’s job is to give God’s word to the people. And for his entire life Jeremiah warned the king and all the people of Israel - hey, if you don’t stop it, destruction is coming. The stuff you’re doing is going to have consequences. Then the destruction that Jeremiah had predicted - it all came true! He actually watched the city of Jerusalem get sacked, and saw all the warnings come true. This is the fall of Jerusalem to the Babylonians in 586 BC - this is a true historical event. And all of that is the backdrop for this book Jeremiah writes called Lamentations. 

Now, I don’t want to go too far down the rabbit trail, but this is so important because in the modern world we have lost the art of lament. And as it turns out, reclaiming lament is one of the keys to hope. Let me ask you - have you had something bad happen in your life, but you feel like you can’t complain about it, because then God will be mad at you? I was talking with a friend just this past week, and he’s had a rough year - he was talking about some medical complications, and insurance coverage and shifting jobs. But as he talked he kept saying, “I don’t mean to complain, the Lord’s been so good to me.” And I totally understood where he was coming from - he didn’t want to be ungrateful, he has so many good things in his life - but he’d also been through some real hardships this past year. And I could feel this tension in the conversation. Have you ever had that, where something is off, something is wrong or bad, but you feel like you’re not allowed to name it? Maybe God will get mad if you complain too much? Well let’s check in with Jeremiah and see some of the things he says. Lamentations, chapter 3, verse 7, he’s talking about God and Jeremiah says, [read v.7-13]. Now I have whined and complained about a thing or two in my day - but I never said anything like that about God. God has mauled me like a bear, mangled me like a lion, shot my heart with arrows. But here’s why this is so important. This is the first major teaching from the text this morning - you are allowed to cry out to God. You are allowed to tell God when life hurts. The gift of lament is the realization that it is okay to call the darkness dark. The path to joy, the path to hope is not running away from the darkness, but moving through it. When you are going through something - a struggle with family, a burden with your kids, pressure at work, car trouble, anxiety and stress about the future, or whatever it may be - it is okay to call the darkness dark. To tell God about your troubles. Even Jesus Christ when he hung on the cross cried out to God, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?” If you feel left behind by God, tell him that. If you feel hopeless and alone, deserted and abandoned, or unloved - tell him that. If you doubt, and you’re not sure God real, that he’s really there, that he really loves you - tell him that. You are allowed to cry out to God. It is okay to call the darkness dark. The whole book of lamentations is poetry, five poems in a row of crying out to God, we’re just reading the third one - but what I want you to see is that we have a rich history of people crying out to God when life gets hard. When we are suffering, when we are going through something hard and we don’t understand and we don’t see the whole picture - it is okay to cry out to God. I’m not going to read all the stuff Jeremiah says, I’ll let you read that on your own, but the first 18 verses of the chapter are all like that. God has trampled me in the dust, people are mocking me, etc, etc. But you see, one of the reasons books like Lamentations are so important is that lament restores a sacred dignity to human suffering. Bible scholar Timothy Mackie says it like this, Lament poems are a form of protest, a way to process emotion and a place to voice confusion.

Then we make a shift in verse 19. It says, [read v.19-20]. I remember my afflictions, I well remember them. BUT do you see what’s happening? My soul is downcast within me. It’s a good thing to lament, to call the darkness dark - but if you spend too much time in that, it can lead you to despair. You move from lament into wallowing.You know what I mean when I say “wallowing”, right? Rather than moving through the darkness, we get stuck in it. Verse 21, [read 21] Ready? [read v.22-24]. Because of the Lord’s great love, we are not consumed. His compassions never fail. It is okay for us to call the darkness dark - in fact I encourage it. It is healthy to name it when we are suffering. But to avoid slipping into despair, we have to remember who God is. And here is what is so incredible about this - it is not your compassion that gets you through the darkness. It is not YOUR hard work. YOUR effort that gets you through. It is God’s good work. This is the second big teaching I want you to hold onto this morning. When we are sitting in the darkness, we do not create the light, we wait for it. It is not our light, our effort, our endorphins and our positive attitude that overcomes the darkness - it is God. If you are walking through the cold dark night of the soul, sometimes we don’t need a box of matches or a flashlight - we have to wait for the light of dawn.

And here’s the thing - I think sometimes we are tempted to take good things in life, and try to put our hope in those things. If I could just get my family life set - then I could have hope for a better future. If I could just get everything squared at work - then I could finally be satisfied and feel confident about tomorrow. If I could just have my favorite political candidate and my favorite laws - then I could finally have hope for the future. If I could just… have this much money, or take this vacation, or buy this perfect gift… if I could just… if I could just… And what’s really unfair is that if our ultimate hope is in God, in his power, in his love - the rest of that stuff becomes lovely pieces to a well rounded life. They’re not bad things - wanting a good work life or family life or nice stuff or whatever. but when we try to put our hope in those lesser things, they will always crumple under the pressure. They will always disappoint us. When you put your hope in your favorite team winning or losing - your life will rise and fall based on a game. When you put your hope in the stocks or your bank account - you will see the world through a lens of dollars and cents rather than the souls of the people in front of you. When we fill our lives with false hopes that will never truly meet our deepest desires, then we will have starving souls wanting more in a world that is not designed to satisfy or even come close to filling us. Only God can fill us with a hope that matches the deepest longing of our soul. 

Verse 22 again, [read v.22-23]. His compassions never fail, they are new every morning. So we start in a place of darkness - a place of lament. And that’s a great place for us to process emotion and voice our confusion - but we don’t want to stay there, because that turns into wallowing and despair. And we don’t want to put our hope in lesser things, because even if they’re good things - they will always disappoint us. But then Jeremiah tells us, God’s compassions never fail. Another translation says that his mercies are new every morning. When I was growing up in the church, I was in a pretty traditional  type of church - and we used to have this phrase, I wonder if any of you have heard it. It was sort of a call and response. The guy up front would say, “God is good” and then the people would respond, “all the time.” God is good, all the time. AND, if you were extra special, if you grew up in a fancy church, you might switch it up and say, “God is good, all the time, And all the time” and the people would respond, “God is good.” We actually used to use it as a way to quiet large groups of kids. All the kids are gathered, and making a bunch of noise and then the leaders would yell, “GOD IS GOOD” and the kids knew to respond, “ALL THE TIME” which was sort of the way to get everyone to calm down. And it’s a silly little practice, but I also think it gets at EXACTLY the third thing that Jeremiah is trying to teach us this morning. [verse 22-23]. And so I have a question for you, that I want to give to you as a gift. It’s a question you can ask yourself, any time you are starting to wallow or give up hope. It’s simply this - When is God good? And the answer, of course, is “all the time”. Will you help me out with this? Let’s try it - when is God good? (All the time). When your kids brings home YET ANOTHER school assignment that you don’t have time for ask, “When is God good?” (All the time) When your job passes over you for the promotion AGAIN, or you get that call from the interview committee that they’re going in another direction ask, When is God good? (All the time). When your niece falls off the wagon again, or your kiddo has a reaction to the medication and causes all kinds of family drama ask, When is God good? (All the time). When you get in that fender bender that insurance won’t cover and the stove goes on the fritz and you could already barely afford to pay for your groceries ask, When is God good? (All the time). When you are walking in the valley of the shadow of death - I want you to turn and shake your finger at the darkness and say, “You have no power there, because I am waiting for the dawn.” Every single night ends with the coming of dawn. His mercies are new every morning. When is God good? (All the time)

The good news that we see in God’s word this morning is that hope relies on GOD. It does not depend on your circumstances. It does not rely on your effort. It does not rely on your bank account or your marital status. It does not rely on your kids or their sports or their grades or even their good behavior. Hope doesn’t come from how good your Christmas decorations look or how many presents you fit under the Christmas tree. Hope relies on God. It is HIS compassion. HIS love. HIS mercy that will get you through every trial.

You see, what’s incredible is that the story of Jeremiah happened five, six hundred years before Jesus showed up, which was thousands of years before WE showed up. And yet it is the same message for every time, because it is the same human need, the same universal longing. A longing for hope. Picture the Jewish people in Jesus’ day. The last prophet came along and promised a messiah would come four HUNDRED years ago. They’re living under Roman occupation. Oppressed. Crushed. Defeated. The people of Israel are going through their own darkness, just like Jeremiah, just like you and I. When the angel shows up and announces to a bunch of shepherds that the messiah was coming, it is such incredible news. It is the dawn breaking upon humanity after a very long night. 

And this is where it all comes together - I promised, didn’t I, that all the pieces would come together. Jeremiah watched his city be destroyed and he cried out to God. He knew that God was good (all the time), that God was steadfast, that God was faithful and so he had hope. But at the same time - in the time of Jeremiah God was often seen as distant and far off. Do you remember talking about the Holy of Holies last week? God was separate and apart. But with the birth of Jesus, that hope is not some abstract concept that lives in a potential future. Hope has come. With Jesus, our hope is not “when” or “how” or “where” will the thing I want come to pass? Our hope is a who. Jesus Christ, the son of God and savior of the world - born of the virgin mary, who was laid in a manger, who ate and slept and suffered in his life - same as you have in your life. He loves you. He knows you. He knows every sin and shame, every dream and desire. He knows you better than you know yourself. He knows who you are, he knows who you wish you were. He knows what you need, better than anyone. Jesus came on that night all those years ago. He offers you the forgiveness of God for every mistake you’ve ever made. To climb into those baptism waters and be washed clean. He offers you a place in the kingdom of heaven, as a beloved child of God. If you have that, you have everything you need to get you through tomorrow. You see, hope isn’t a product of things turning out the way we want them to go. Hope is a product of understanding that we have Jesus. Our hope is a who. Our hope is Jesus.

And so I have two ways for you to apply this teaching for your life - two challenges that I want you to take from this morning and put it into your life this week. The first key to having hope is to wait. And that’s it. Just, wait. Sometimes we need to sit in the sadness. It’s okay to call a spade a spade, to call the darkness dark. It’s okay to lament. To cry out to God in those moments, but my first challenge for you, when you are walking in a season of darkness, the challenge is to wait. And I just want to be 100% honest with you, I know that might not be the advice you want to hear. That might not be the teaching from God you were hoping for. “Bah, come on Pastor JJ just give us the magic formula. Give us the special words to say so that God will just come into our hearts and fill us with hope.” And I could make something up - provide you with a couple of temporary candles in the dark of night, but none of it is the real answer. Sometimes we just have to wait on God. God is coming, so wait for him. 

This past week we had sort of a major snow storm start on Wednesday evening. And I remember, the band was really committed to meeting. We still wanted to practice even though events were starting to get cancelled. And so I didn’t leave here until probably 8:30-9pm. And I know Sara was worried because the roads were pretty rough. And I remember I needed to take Clyde Park up to Meijer, to stop and grab a couple things on my way home. And the roads were really rough, and my car didn’t have a scraper in it. And I didn’t KNOW my car didn’t have a scraper in it, and so I added one more thing to my meijer list. And so I brushed off the car as best I could - but my rearview mirrors were like caked in ice, and it was really hard to see and it was late and it was dark and I’m driving super slow on terrible roads in the midst of a storm. Now I’m born and raised in Michigan, I know how to drive in snow - no big deal. But I remember a stretch of road where it was really rough and I was slipping around a little bit and  I was just thinking, “well I don’t like this at all.” I don’t want to do this. I wish I was at home already. I wish I was done with this darkness. Not to give you too much information, but I’ve got these new flannel pajama pants and they are so warm you guys, they are the best. And as I travelled through the darkness, grumping about how I wished I was already home, all warm and cozy on my couch - I realized, if I were to pull over and wallow, that wouldn’t get me any closer to home. I couldn’t stay still in the darkness, all I could do was move through the darkness until I found the light of home. I just had to wait. In the same way, in each of our lives - we wait for God.

But that’s not all. My second challenge for you comes from the realization that waiting does not mean doing nothing. You can do a lot of things while you wait. Jeremiah back in Lamentations 3, verse 22, hear this again, [read v.22-25]. There’s a lot of stuff about waiting in there, but did you hear that last part? The lord is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who SEEKS him. So this is my second challenge for you this week. While you are sitting in darkness. While you are going through a valley and a struggle - wait on God. but while you are waiting, SEEK him. It is okay to cry out to God. And this is going to look different for different people - but here’s a couple of…options. Number 1 - prayer. Talk to God about the things going on in your life. And I want to give you two encouragements on this. First - talk like you normally talk. You don’t have to use fancy words or a specific formula to engage with God. Just talk to him, tell him what’s going on. Second - make half your prayer time silence. Tell him everything that’s going on, cry out like Jeremiah did - but then also, wait in silence. Don’t have your phone out, don’t have a podcast on or the TV in the background. Just sit in the silence and let the presence of God come into your spirit and give you peace. But not just prayer, journaling is a great way to go. I recommend you read Lamentations, or Psalms - and then grab a notebook and write some reflections on it. You might write “wow, I feel like David was going through the same stuff I am” or you might end up with “wow, that David guy was totally different than me.” But processing lament through journaling is a really useful practice. Last but not least - while you are waiting, connect with the people around you. As Christians we are called to “bear one another’s burdens” - now I’m not saying you should go whining to your neighbor everyday about all the things. But I would say in our culture, especially in Byron Center, we are much more likely to keep our problems to ourselves. But when you come alongside someone and share your struggles - you have given them an opportunity to pray for you. It is an incredible gift to let someone into your story, so they can walk alongside you. We wait on God, and while we are waiting - we pray, journal, read the bible and walk together in community. These are the perks of waiting. 

I’ll close with this last note. I hope you realize that all this stuff about hope and longings is not about feelings. Hope is not a warm fuzzy that makes you feel cozy inside. Another way to spell hope is GRIT. Hope gives you power. Hope makes you strong. I think about Professor Richter with those poor rats swimming in a bucket at John Hopkins University. Those rats lasted 720 times longer, an increase of 1,200%, when they had hope. You will last longer in this life if you have hope. And the only true source of hope in this world is Jesus. If you will put your trust in Jesus, make him the bedrock of your life - you will make it through every darkness to the dawn. Let’s pray.