Homecoming and Worldwide Communion Sunday
~Lamentations 3:19-26~
Dr. William S. Epps, Senior Pastor
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19I remember my affliction and my wandering, the bitterness and the gall. 20I well remember them, and my soul is downcast within me. 21Yet this I call to mind
and therefore I have hope: 22Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. 23They are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness. 24I say to myself, “The Lord is my portion; therefore, I will wait for him.” 25The Lord is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him; 26it is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord.
Lamentations 3:19-26 NIV
Introduction
World Communion Sunday is something which all Christians- regardless of denomination, ethnicity, geographical location, diverse ecclesiology, practices, policies and procedures - can agree that we all do what Jesus asked us to do as a way of remembering the sacrifice that was made for our salvation. We can unite and observe the bread and the fruit of the vine as the expression of Jesus’ broken body and the blood that was shed for our redemption.
Consider what it means that Christians worldwide despite their
diversity of denominational affiliations, and ecclesiology
(the beliefs and the way churches function as they practice and
structure their faith tradition), all observe Communion, Eucharist,
and/or the Lord’s Table as an expression of their unity in Christ.
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The central feature of biblical faith is the faithfulness of God. The bible is a book about God. Without sacred literature we would be at a loss about God. We have the record of the testimony of witnesses who share their discovery of God’s who-ness, how-ness, and where-ness. God’s faithfulness is disclosed in the relationships that God establishes with those through whom God’s purpose and will are made known. We learn that God is eternal, from everlasting to everlasting. We learn that God is omnipotent, omnipresent and omniscience. We learn that God is compassionate, loving and merciful. We learn that God can be trusted. These are some of the qualities that we find about God in sacred writ.
The book of Lamentations is read aloud in the synagogues on the 9th of Ab (in July or August on the Roman calendar), a Jewish national holiday that commemorates the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple by the Babylonians in 587-586 B.C.,
as well as the subsequent destruction by the Roman armies under Titus in A.D. 70.
The book consists of Jeremiah’s bitter lament and grief over the annihilation of Judah’s capital city Jerusalem and the burning of the temple.
Lamentation expresses with passionate tenderness the prophet’s grief for the desolation of the city and Temple of Jerusalem, the captivity of the people, the miseries of famine, the cessation of public worship, and the other calamities with which his countrymen had been visited for their sins. What was happening was due to the choices the people had made which resulted in calamitous consequences. Hopefully, they will turn to God with repentance and confession, looking to God for pardon and deliverance.
Jeremiah is called the lamenting prophet because he felt deeply for his people, pouring out his innermost feelings to God. His expressions of grief are demonstrated throughout Lamentations and also in various other passages such as 2nd Chronicles 35:25 and Jeremiah 9:1.
Consider what it means to lament as a natural way to
express grief about tragedies in life.
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Firstly, the lament of affliction is expressed concerning the reality of what has happened.
19I remember my affliction and my wandering, the bitterness and the gall.
20I well remember them, and my soul is downcast within me.
Acknowledging reality is the first step in seeking to get through what you are facing. A lament is an expression of grief, of mourning, of sorrow. Surely we have each been there at one time or another. Some of us more than others. We feel as if life is one continual lament. Things go from bad to worst. You know the feeling, don’t you? The pain of protracted predicaments. The guilt for what we have done and the negligence of not doing what we could have done, as well as the excuses we make for avoiding accountability for our actions. Then there is the crippling sorrow that comes with life’s losses. Loss of assurance, loss of certainty, loss of meaning, loss of purpose, loss of safety and security, loss of understanding. Then follows a sense of disappointment and disruption. And to make matters worse, we think there is no loss like our loss—and a twinge of envy creeps into our hearts as we look at those who have what we’ve dreamed and missed.
The growing inconsistency, inhumanity and immorality that is so prevalent today just continues to escalate in creating division, disruption and distress. We lament the loss of unity, the loss of civility and courtesy, the loss of coalescing together to seek the common good. The projected uncertainty about the security and safety of our democracy looms largely as we approach another election season. The concerns about inflation, the midterm elections, and the future of our democracy create an atmosphere which affects and afflicts us all. Acknowledging the reality with which we are living is a reminder that the affliction is a result of our choices which have brought the consequences we are experiencing.
Jeremiah reminded the people that what was happening was due to the choices the people had made which resulted in calamitous consequences. Hopefully, they will turn to God with confession and repentance, and look to God for pardon and deliverance.
Consider what it means to lament the calamitous consequences
of choices that bring about assorted afflictions.
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Wednesday, October 5, 2022 |
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Secondly, yet we have hope.
21Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope.
Despite the appalling developments, in verse 21 the writer says: “Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope.” In the midst of everything bad, Jeremiah has found something good and it gives him hope.
Hope is something of great value. Thankfully, what the writer of Lamentations found was good hope and not empty hope. This hope is not the hope of chance like a gambler, who says: I’ll play a variety of games until my luck changes. -slots, roulette wheel, poker and you name it. That gambler hopes, but it’s empty hope. It’s trusting in chance; it's imagining that the odds will change, that a host of random factors will somehow suddenly all fall into a fortuitous place. They won’t. That kind of hope ends in crushing disappointment and loss.
Nor is this hope of the naïve optimist, the person who believes against all evidence that a better day is coming. That’s the person who says: “We’ve fallen so far, we can’t fall any further. The worst must be over.” But falling far can be followed by falling more, and no amount of positive thinking takes away the cruel fact that the worst may be yet to come.
These are both empty forms of hope. One is based on chance, the other on wishful thinking.
Consider what it means to have hope based on
chance and/or wishful thinking.
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Thursday, October 6, 2022 |
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Thankfully, neither chance nor wishful thinking are the hope in the heart of the writer of Lamentations. He has called to mind something with far more substance for a better future.
John Parsi, executive director of the Hope Center, a Center for the Advanced Study and Practice of Hope. Parsi says:
"... because optimism doesn’t require a person to do anything, it can be a form of toxic positivity. For me, hope means allowing yourself to look forward. It means imagining a future that doesn’t follow the only trajectory you can imagine at a particular point in time. When life is really crap, it’s believing the things people tell you that seem impossible or unlikely: that ‘this too shall pass’, or that you are capable of change.
In the past I have seen hope as simply a philosophy – wishful thinking to keep you going. But I’m realizing that hope is more than a comforting placebo – when we act on it, it is a powerful force for change. It is something we can grab hold of and put into practice. We can’t always force circumstances to shift in our favor, and we can allow ourselves to invest in searching for something better.
Hope is an active process. Hopeful people cannot just wish things into existence. Hope requires a person to take responsibility for their wants and desires and take action in working towards them. Optimistic people see the glass as half full, but hopeful people ask how they can fill the glass full.”
The prophet has hope 22Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. 23They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.
Verse 22 details what has come to mind: “Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail.” The writer’s hope is based on “the Lord’s great love.” The key Hebrew word here is ḥeseḏ. ‘Great love’ doesn’t do justice to the richness of its meaning. This is a very deep and committed love, a love that stays loyal, one that accepts responsibilities. It is a covenant love with obligations of caring and commitment for another person.
That’s love as ḥeseḏ describes it, a love that isn’t about give and take, but give and give and give. It’s the love, the writer of Lamentations says, that “the Lord” shows. This ḥeseḏ love has its source in God’s character. God is the God who is love through and through, whose love is not dependent on deserving, but is poured out even on the weakest and worst.
And ḥeseḏ love is shown to his people because of God’s commitment. The Lord brought Israel into existence, made them his own, and though they have failed, and though that failure has caused dire consequences, God will not give up on them.
It’s a love that’s unflinching and unending, a firm love that never gives up on people.
Hesed, love flows because of God’s compassion. As the writer says: “his compassions never fail.”
That’s the love the Lamentations writer knew God had for his people, and therefore he had hope. He wasn’t gambling on things getting better; he wasn’t simply being optimistic that a better day would come. He knew God’s great love, a love that flowed from the heart of a God who is love, a God who remained firmly committed to people, a God whose compassions would never be exhausted.
We have hope, 22Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. 23They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.
We are given another chance to right our wrongs, make up for our mistakes, continue beyond failures and chart a new direction for our live.
Help Overcoming Painful Experiences
Consider what it means to have hope rooted in the love of the Lord,
the character of the Lord, the compassion of the Lord and
the commitment of the Lord.
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Finally, a word about the faithfulness of the Lord.
From such committed love comes the certainty that good times are ahead because there will be no less love tomorrow than today, as the writer says of God’s compassions in verse 23:
Jeremiah reflected on God’s desire to bless rather than afflict: “This I recall to my mind therefore I have hope. Through the LORD’s mercies we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness. ‘The LORD is my portion,’ says my soul, ‘therefore I hope in Him!’ The LORD is good to those who wait for Him, to the soul who seeks Him” (3:21-25).
The prophet continues to demonstrate God’s unfailing love and compassion.
“Though there is grief, yet God will show compassion according to the multitude of God’s mercies. For He does not afflict willingly, nor [willingly] grieve the children of men” (3:32-33).
The Expositor’s Bible Commentary (Revised Edition) states with reference to this verse: “The grounds of this confident expectation are the many manifestations of God’s hesed—his “loyal love”—and rahmim—“compassions”—which never expire
or wear out. To the contrary, they are constantly being renewed” (p. 618).
“They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.”
Consider what it means that the Lord’s mercies are
new and fresh every morning.
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Saturday, October 8, 2022 |
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God never fails, and we can trust God’s compassion each day for two important reasons.
One is because God’s compassions are consistent. God will not love us today and forget us tomorrow. The writer of Hebrews described the Lord Jesus as “the same yesterday and today and forever” (Heb. 13:8). God’s consistent character is expressed in God’s faithfulness.
The other reason is we can trust God’s goodness. Because God’s love for us will be the same tomorrow as today, the blessings we have known in the past will be matched with the blessings the Lord gives us in the future. Some people seem to imagine God has a limited store of good things for their lives, and perhaps the Lord’s stock has been exhausted and therefore the future for them will be inevitably less. But their ideas are wrong. God’s store is not limited, and the goodness of God we have known before we will know again.
These particular words are at the center of a wonderful hymn written by Thomas Chisholm (1866-1960). It says there is no shadow of turning with God, and because God never changes the Lord’s compassions never fail and every morning brings new mercies.
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.
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!
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.
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!
Consider what it means to trust in the consistency and goodness of the Lord’s mercies which are inexhaustible and fresh every morning.
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Great is Thy Faithfulness
~Carrie Underwood featuring CeCe Winans
with string orchestra
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2412 Griffith Ave
Los Angeles, CA 90011
Phone: (213) 748-0318
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