Lamentations 3.13-33 Possibly written by Jeremiah, set in the period following the fall of Jerusalem and the temple to the Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar in 586 BC, each chapter (except for 5) written as ‘acrostic’ every line begins with a different letter in alphabetical order (cf different sections of Psalm 119), C 3 takes this further by doing it three times, each line of each 3 verse section begins with the same letter If you’ve ever tried to write poetry and make lines rhyme you will something of the hard work the writer has endured to give a complete treatment of his theme of deep suffering and yet hope shines . It sits there near our front door, a black box with two green lights. It’s called a ‘router’ and when three green lights shine I’m told then we will have our broadband switched on. We are signed on, we are connected up, we have paid the initial price but we have to wait ‘up to ten working days’ for the system to come live and then we shall have our different computers able to access the internet and for someone to use the phone at the same time. No more sad messages from a voice saying something about the mailbox not being set up. No more family fights about getting off line so that Dad can use the phone. How wonderful all that will be, but we have to wait. The ten working days are not yet up. This is a picture of what the Bible means by hope, a confident expectant waiting. The commitment is there; the promises are clear. The price has been paid. But we have to wait for the full reality of our salvation the wonderful meeting in heaven with Jesus Christ. Or I could use the picture of a holiday or a new car. You have made your booking, the price is paid, the deal agreed but you have to wait but your state of waiting is quite different from your friend who hasn’t booked a holiday or a car or the broadband. You have something to look forward to, they have nothing. … Now if you want to tell me that my pictures are far too materialistic, I agree: yes, broadband soon enough will be replaced by something else; yes, a holiday comes and goes and a new car gets scratched. All around us we see the misery of people who have everything they could dream of even without waiting Their SSIA has come in and they can have a car, a holiday, a new kitchen, broadband But something’s missing ... Two people with a lot of experience of Asia one Protestant, one Catholic Bishop Leslie Newbigin, and Mother Teresa made the same observation about coming to Western Europe after a long period away in a much poorer society. They saw a society where people might have everything they wanted, whenever they wanted it. but they both noticed the same missing ingredient in the West: hope, that people don’t look forward to anything any more., The deprived at the bottom of the pile have a sickening despair and even for those who have plenty of money there’s a sense of futility and emptiness. This should be a massive opportunity for Christians to say something. because hope is one of the distinctive things we offer Hope is well described as an essential vitamin for the Christian life: if it is missing we will struggle and grow sluggish.; if we have hope then we can put up with a lot of trouble, because we have something to look forward to which is precisely what Christian hope is: something or someone to look forward to meeting. Christian hope is not a vague optimism as when we say ‘I hope the sun will shine tomorrow’ it’s much more a sure expectancy; it is a confidence that no matter how dark the situation God can heal that despair and fill that emptiness. We see this in our reading from Lamentations 3 Lamentations is the cry of a community abandoned by God and knowing that it deserves to be; it is the grief of a people desolated by the destruction of the Temple. (3.17-18) ‘I have been deprived of peace; I have forgotten what prosperity is, So I say “My splendour is gone and all that I had hoped for from the Lord.”’ The writer’s mind is understandably full of bitter hurtful memories which make him depressed ‘I well remember them and my soul is downcast within me.’ (20) At v 21 however it as if he has changed tapes in his mind. He has taken out the recording that goes over and over how bad things are, how badly he has been treated and he puts in one that plays a message of hope a message of ‘the Lord’s great love’ Or it’s as if he has changed channels to get something more constructive We got a booklet recently about what to do in case of a huge disaster. A lot of it is just common sense, almost unnecessary to say but one wise thing I noticed it said that people should avoid constantly looking at traumatic footage on the TV news. Going over and over again on all the dreadful details would be unwise. Better they advise to get someone just to listen to the hourly bulletins to get updates about what to do next. How far are we playing the wrong tapes, watching the wrong channel receiving the negative destructive messages. The writer of Lamentations was playing the wrong tapes, he was locked into the wrong channel of how awful everything was, how devastated and lost the people were. ‘19 I remember my affliction and my wandering, the bitterness and the gall. 20 I well remember them, and my soul is downcast within me. ‘ But at v 21 he makes the switch 21 Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope: Quite deliberately, he doesn’t react with his feelings which would tell him to despair but he stands back and thinks the situation through. Rather than going on remembering all the doom and gloom he remembers something else. ‘The Lord’s great love’ is the Hebrew word hesed steadfast covenant love and mercy in fact it is in the plural to suggest that there is lots of the Lord’s great love, an inexhaustible supply ‘his compassions never fail, they are new every morning, great is your faithfulness.’ If we would be people of hope we need to keep playing those tapes that remind us every day of the reality of God and his purposes. In August 1998 the Omagh bomb was one of the worst atrocities in over 30 years of violence . A radio interviewer asked our moderator Dr John Dixon: ‘How can you speak of hope in this situation?’ As I listened I was very glad I wasn’t being asked that question because I don’t know how I would have answered at that point. But God gave Dr Dixon a simple but strong reply. He said that although humanly there was little reason for hope yet with God there is always reason to hope. He played a tape of hope. And so can we. We need to answer the bad news we so easily receive with the good news of Christ we so often forget. How? We need to bring the Bible to mind, read it, reflect on it and remember some of it by memorising it. Look at vv 22-24 22 Because of the LORD's great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. 23 They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. 24 I say to myself, The LORD is my portion; therefore I will wait for him. Even within those verses is a clue to what we need to do: in v 24 ‘I say to myself’ repeat over and over some great simple truth: ‘God is love’ ‘Jesus is the resurrection and the life’ ‘While we were still sinners. Christ died for us.’ ‘The LORD is my portion’ Say it to yourself, again and again. We need to appreciate the Lord’s Supper because it helps us to eat and drink in remembrance of Jesus Christ; it brings us back to the heart of our faith, that Jesus gave himself for us on the cross. We need to sing hymns of praise to remind ourselves who God really is which is why I suppose it is so good to sing hymns at funerals. The act of praise lifts us beyond ourselves and restores our hope. And in such living hope be prepared to do something that is not congenial to our instant demand age and mentality WAIT 3.24 ‘I say to myself, the Lord is my portion; therefore I will wait for him.’ ‘The LORD is my portion.’ What does that mean? Those words were spoken originally to the Levites, members of the tribe of Moses and Aaron who were not granted a share of territory like the other tribes. Their comfort was in their special relationship with God as they lead his worship. But now the tribes are in disarray, driven from some of their land, their capital city captured, the temple destroyed, many people exiled. This is the anguish of Lamentations. All that the people of God had put their hope in has crumbled, all except God himself. The LORD is my portion, not just for Levites but for all God’s people. The LORD is my portion. I will wait for him ‘When other helpers fail and comforts flee, help of the helpless, O abide with me.’ Or we could say ‘When other hopes have failed and comforts flee, ‘Hope for the hopeless O abide with me.’ And if the Lord is our true hope and our portion, our delight we will wait for him. No more quick fixes and instant answers: are we prepared to take the long view in difficult situations and persevere? That’s what Paul expects from Christians of his day in Romans 5. 1 Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, For those who believe God is their portion, Jesus reconciles them to God. 2 through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. If God is your portion you will rejoice in the hope of seeing his glory And you will even rejoice when things go wrong today. 3 Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; 4 perseverance, character; and character, hope. 5 And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us. Hope is backed up by knowing in our hearts that God loves us And then Paul reminds them of God’s hesed, his mercy his gracious undeserved love for unlovely ungodly people like us. 6 You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. 7 Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. 8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. There is a version of Christianity abroad which is a perversion. It goes like this. Jesus can help you with your problems, which is true, but then it suggests If you trust in Jesus, you will have no problems, which is not true. What we should be saying is: Jesus died to put things right between you and God because that is the big problem And if you trust in Jesus, the Lord is your portion. Whatever happens to you in this life - Sickness, disappointment, failure and (most of all) persecution all of that can be so painful and yet if the Lord is our portion, we are people of hope and we will wait for him. We will be people in whom suffering forms character and character hope. Like the frog in this poem: Two frogs fell into a can of cream , or so I’ve heard it told. The sides of the can were shiny and steep, the cream was deep and cold Oh what’s the use croaked No 1, ‘tis fate, no help’s around. Goodbye my friends, goodbye sad world, And weeping still he drowned. But no 2 of sterner stuff, dog paddled in surprise. The while he wiped his creamy face, and dried his creamy eyes. ‘I’ll swim a while at least ,’ he said, Or so I’ve heard he said. It wouldn’t really help the world, if one more frog were dead. An hour or two he kicked and swam, not once he stopped to mutter, but kicked and kicked and swam and kicked and hopped out by the butter. Have we not more reason for our hope than the brave frog had? Two reasons at least one is in v 5 ‘hope does not disappoint us because God has poured out his love in to our hearts by the Holy Spirit whom he has given us.’ the other is in v 8: ‘God demonstrates his own love for us in this, while we were still sinners Christ died for us.’ One is on the inside: the Holy Spirit gives us that reassurance that sense of peace and joy in now belonging to God when we believe in Jesus Christ: when we hear him say ‘I love you’. And for those times when that is a very dim and distant feeling there is an outside reason also the reminder that God loves us not because we are good but because Jesus Christ has died that we might be forgiven. 5.8 ‘God demonstrates his own love for us in this; while we were still sinners Christ died for us.’ The cross is the ultimate demonstration of God’s hesed God’s steadfast covenant love Keep calling that steadfast love to mind, the promise is there, the price is paid (and not by us) Keep going, keep waiting, keep looking forward. Your jar of cream can become a platform of butter. Lord we confess we so easily lose hope, we look around, we look within and we play the negative tapes, we believe the lies of despair. Forgive us; bring us to look to Jesus today; remind us of him in every way, help us to call to mind your steadfast love that never fails that love shown supremely on the cross that Christ shall be our portion and we will wait for him. May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. Romans 15.13