A World of Hurt
Message Transcription
Well, if you have your Bible, I invite you to turn over to Habakkuk chapter one. We'll spend a few minutes there and we're going to be around a few places. Today we're launching into our Lenten series. In fact, if you would, I'd love for you to read this passage. That is Dallas Willard's translation of Mark's opening gospel, his words of Jesus proclamation. But let's read these words together, if you would. All the preliminaries have been taken care of and the rule of God is now accessible to everyone. Review your plans for living and base your life on this remarkable opportunity. The words of Jesus as he launches into his ministry to repent, to think again, to think again about our thinking about who we are and who God has called us to be. That is our hope During this Lenten series. I'm calling lament, repent and anticipate. We began last week by thinking about a little getting personal, about looking at the coastal redwoods and learning a few lessons from them. The passage that was our hinge passage for last week was found in Psalm 139. Search me O God and know my heart. Test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me and lead me in the way everlasting. We took a couple lessons from those redwood trees, right? By looking at the rings. The rings of a tree tell the story of our life.
They tell all that's happened, all that's gone before us and how it's impacted and shaped us. In fact, are there any patterns, trauma scripts that need our attention? God, would you search us and know us? We need to examine our rings. We also talked about how we need to extend our roots, how the roots of the tree are, what supply the nutrients. But as those roots grow, they begin to intertwine with other trees, providing strength in that sense of community and connection. How are we doing at extending our roots? We had a chance last week to think some about that this morning. I want us to think about this idea of lament, not just as a personal reflection time, but as a community. How do we learn to lament what's going on in the world around us? Next week we're going to reflect on as a church, how do we lament the church not being who the church was created to be, not always living out her mission? This week I want us to think about what do we do in a world that we know There's so much brokenness and suffering. It's actually a really biblical thing to learn how to lament and repent of the world around us. At the beginning of our scriptures, if you turn back to the very first chapter, we hear about this amazing creation story and we hear this beautiful rhythm playing all throughout the first two chapters of God said.
And it was so and God saw that it was good. God said, Let there be light. And there was light. And it was good. Let there be animals. Let there be stars and sun and moon and sky and dry ground. All of these amazing creation stories, these tales that were told that God saw. And it was good. He creates the entire world and everything in it. In chapter one culminates with the creation of humanity of human beings. Let us make man in our image. And it was so. And then Genesis chapter one ends with this verse. God saw all that He had made, and it was very good. This beautiful story of God's creation of Him dwelling with his people begins to deepen as we open into Chapter two and we see a richer telling of the story of of humanity. And by the end of chapter two, we see that that man and woman are together given as a gift to one another and into creation or called to lovingly have dominion over it, to care for it, to lead it. So chapter two ends again with this beautiful picture of harmony of God, with man of man, with woman of man, with creation. And then chapter three happens. There's always chapter three. Right. Chapter three opens with this lie. And all of a sudden now sin and brokenness into the world in a way it never had before.
In relationships are disjointed and broken, not only between God and His creation, but God and man and between man and woman and between man and creation. That brokenness now is a huge theme. And so the rest of the scriptures tell us the working out of this story of what happens as God continues to seek after pursuing his creation and how initially or at least for a while, they respond, but eventually they turn into themselves or they turn to someone or something else, and God's heart is broken. Those who are trying to be faithful felt the weight of that brokenness all around them. In fact, you hear it from the prophets like Habakkuk. The words that Cynthia read for us just a few moments ago. How long, Lord, must I call for help? But you do not listen. Or cry out to you. Violence. But you do not save. Why do you make me look at injustice? Why do you tolerate wrongdoing? Destruction and violence are before me. There is strife and conflict abounds. Therefore, the law is paralyzed and justice never prevails. The wicked him in the righteous so that justice is perverted. And one of our prophet's job is not only to confront God's people in particular, but the world in general. That they're not the way God intended them to be.
Turns out profits aren't the only ones lamenting this brokenness. What we learn also is that God laments this brokenness. God's heart was broken for his people and his world. And so God laments. Back in March of 2020. N.t. Wright was asked to write an article for Time magazine, and he entitled that article, Christianity Offers No Answers about the Coronavirus. It's not supposed to. In this article, Wright comments, rather than giving simplistic answers or meaningless platitudes, he says, what we need most was to recover the biblical tradition of lament. Here is what he says. Lament is what happens when people ask why and don't get an answer. It's where we get to when we move beyond our self-centered worry about our sins and failings and look more broadly at the suffering of the world. The mystery of the biblical story is that God also laments. Some Christians like to think of God as above all that knowing everything in charge of everything calm and unaffected by the troubles of his world. But that's not the picture we get in the Bible. God was grieved to his heart. Genesis declares, over the violent wickedness of human creatures. He was devastated when his own bride, the people of Israel, turned away from him. And when God came back to his people in person, the story of Jesus is meaningless unless that's what it's about. He wept at the tomb of his friend.
Saint Paul, speaks of the Holy Spirit, groaning within us as we ourselves groan within the pain of the whole creation. The ancient doctrine of the Trinity teaches us to recognize the One God and the tears of Jesus and the anguish of the Spirit. God is not above suffering or exempt from it, so he chooses to enter into it. Jesus came not to condemn the world, but to save it. John tells us Jesus took on flesh, and in doing so, he had a front row seat to experience all that it means to suffer and to encounter a world filled with suffering and brokenness. He identified with the marginalized and the oppressed, not just because it was part of his mission, but because he chose to be one of them, to be marginalized and oppressed. He didn't just hear about it or see it in someone else's life. He experienced it firsthand. Thus, it shouldn't surprise us when we discover Jesus, lamented. He lamented of the brokenness in the world around him. John, Chapter 11 tells us the story of Jesus going to his dear friend Lazarus Tomb, where he has died. And when Lazarus Sister Mary comes out to greet him, Jesus sees how distraught she is. John tells us this When Jesus saw her weeping and the Jews who had come along with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled. Where have you laid him?
He asked.
Come and.
See.
They replied.
And Jesus wept. Then the Jews said, See how he loved him. Shortest verse in the Bible. Jesus wept. Or maybe on his final trip into Jerusalem as Jesus is about to walk in and enter the city for the last time the week of his death. You may have heard the story of the triumphal entry. This happens, right? Either before that or perhaps even during it. Luke's version, he tells us in Luke 19, as Jesus approached Jerusalem and saw the city.
He wept over it. And he said if you even you had only known on this day what would bring you peace. But now it's hidden from your eyes.
The days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment against you and encircle you and him. You in on every side. They will dash you to the ground, you and the children within your walls. They will not leave one stone on another because you did notrillionecognize the time of God's coming to you. That word Jesus wept over the city. That translation we have doesn't quite capture that word. It's it's actually translated lament, Jesus lamented over the city and the brokenness and knowing all of those who were in that city, who were blinded by the sin and the destruction and the wickedness of this world. Jesus looks out over the city and it isn't like that image perhaps you've seen on a commercial of that one tear coming down, but rather this picture of Jesus breaking down and weeping over the destruction he knows is coming that he wishes would not come.
Or maybe as.
He hung on the cross, perhaps the lament.
You may remember best.
Matthew tells us at 3:00, Jesus cried out with a loud voice. Eli Eli Lama Sabachthani. That is. My God.
My God.
Why have you forsaken me? Words that Jesus learned as a young man. Psalm 22. These words are the first two verses of Psalm 22 that that Jesus had memorized as a young man, and now he was experiencing them. Hanging on a cross. The Hebrew preacher reminds us that there were other times not recorded in our gospels that Jesus lamented. Chapter five, verse seven. We're told during the days of Jesus life on Earth, he offered up prayers and petitions with fervent cries and tears to the one who could save him from death. And he was heard because of his reverent submission. Jesus lamented over a world that was broken, a world that was far from its creator that that he longed to see restored back. You may recognize the name of Charles Spurgeon. He's a famous 19th century evangelist and preacher. He wrote a sermon entitled The Lamentations of Jesus, where he recounts about three different times where Jesus wept, but he said these words, Thus, our savior wept in sympathy with domestic sorrow and sanctified the tears of the bereaved.
We, too, may weep when brothers.
And friends lie dead.
For Jesus wept.
There need not be rebellion in our mourning for Jesus fully consented to the divine will.
And yet he wept. We may weep at the.
Graves of those we love.
And yet be guiltless of unbelief.
As to their resurrection. For Jesus knew that Lazarus would rise again.
And yet he wept.
Our Lord, in weeping over Jerusalem, showed his sympathy.
With national troubles, his.
Distress at the.
Evils which awaited his countrymen.
Men should not cease to be patriots when they become believers. Saints should bemoan the ills which come upon the guilty people among whom they are numbered and do so all the more because they are saints. Our Lord's third. Weeping was induced by the great burden of human.
Guilt which.
Pressed upon him.
This shows us how.
We too, should look upon the guilt of men and mourn over it.
Before God.
Charles and others before him challenge us to join our tears with the tears of the prophets and of the Psalmists and of Habakkuk and Jeremiah of David, who cried out to God on behalf of broken.
People on.
Broken and fallen world because of grief and loss and pain and suffering. Psalm 13 David writes these words How long, Lord? Will you forget me? Forever. How long will you hide your face from me? How long must I wrestle with my thoughts and day after day have sorrow in my heart? How long will my enemy triumph over me? See, one of the things we learn about God and from.
His Word is that.
God's heart breaks over his world.
Has lost children.
I think too often those of us who grew up in church, as I did, or or those of us who've been around church for a while, we like N.T. Wright, have have lost our ability to lament.
And in doing so, we've also lost.
Our ability to experience true joy.
We've been told that to lament is to.
Lack faith or to somehow second guess or question God's sovereignty in the world, His ability to have work, to have power, to control, to to make a difference.
We've been told to lament it's disrespectful. But the truth is.
It takes a lot of faith to lament.
Think about it this way.
You only ask for help from people you think can actually help you. I mean, generally speaking, the only time that you go to someone and ask them to help you is because you think they could actually do something about your situation or your circumstance or the trouble that you're facing.
If you don't think someone.
Can help you, you're not going to talk to.
Them. You won't waste your time asking.
Lament is crying out to God because you believe he can help. God, you can do something. That's why the prophets and the psalmist would cry out how long, Lord, because they believed God could make a change. He could do something about the situation that they were facing.
He believed that the father.
Can and will help, Jesus lamented. He lamented over a broken world, crying out to his Heavenly Father.
Knowing.
God can do something about this and God will do something about this.
When we see the world.
Around us broken.
Read the stories of war in Ukraine. Of the famine in Africa.
Of superstorms and sex trafficking. Of racism and violence and terrorism. We know things are not the way they're supposed to be. It doesn't take long for us to survey our world and see it is broken. It is not the way that God intended at the very beginning. If you come this morning because you felt the weight of a broken world in some way, shape or form. I want you to know you're in good company. You're in good company with the prophets of old.
You're in good company with the Psalmists. You're in good company.
With.
Jesus.
If things aren't the way they should be.
And you can feel it.
There's a reason it's not supposed to be this way.
Parents aren't supposed to outlive their kids.
Cancer and heart disease and.
Addiction are not.
Supposed to be ravaging.
Humanity. Broken levees and broken.
Promises and broken promises, or rather, relationships and broken dreams. They're not the way God designed things to be from the very beginning. And what the laments of Scripture teach us is we don't have to just deal with it. Suck it up, buttercup. We don't have to just pretend that everything is just going to be okay. We don't have to give one another these false platitudes like, I guess God just needed another angel. Or well, you know, everything happens for a reason. Instead, like Paul, we join our lament over a world of hurt.
With the laments of Jesus.
And the prophets and countless other saints who've gone before us. And we do so because we believe God is the one who can do.
Something about it. He can make things right.
We hold on to God's promise that His desire is to be with us. And as we read the revelation of John, in the end of the revelation 21 and 22, we hear that promise of and God will be with his people.
We hold on to that.
Promise that one day we.
Anticipate.
One day God will bring about his reconciling and redeeming work. But between that day and this, we will not pretend.
We will not lose heart. We will. Hold on. We will lament.
Let's pray.
Father. So many of us are very aware. Of the brokenness in the world around us. We're very aware because we've been touched by it. In a relationship that has meant so much to us. God has broken. And we're not sure if it will ever be repaired. The loss of someone that we love so dearly. Too soon.
In a calling of vocation.
We thought was from you is only.
Falling apart at the.
Seams.
That the job, the promotion, the hope that we had placed in our work. God, it's not coming to pass.
I would see that. The disunity, the disharmony in our country. Of people who claim to be about freedom and justice for all are so willing to slander one another. To be violent toward one another. God. We have centuries of history that have shown us just how terrible. We can be to one another. Based on something as simple as the color of our skin. How long, Lord? Have you forgotten? Where are you?
God, we know you care. We know you care deeply about your world, that you formed humanity in your very own image.
We know you care when that image is tarnished, when that image. Broken. Yeah, we feel the weight of the brokenness of our world. Things have happened that we don't understand. And we're not sure if we ever will. Oh, God. Where are you?
Yeah. Would you give us the courage to lament?
That this world is not the way it should be. Would you give us the courage to repent of the ways that we've contributed? That we've contributed to the disharmony and disunity of relationships. The ways that that we have, as your people did long ago, have turned.
Away from your call.
And your purpose and your mission for us and instead have chosen selfishness. We've chosen anger.
And hatred.
Over love and peace. Yeah. Would you help us to. Participate once again in your ministry of reconciliation.
To receive the great gift that Jesus.
Has given to us of forgiveness. Of hope for a different way. And God, would you help us to begin living that way again? Lord, you remind us that the reason we feel that deep pain in our soul is because. Things are not the way they were supposed to be. We got your promises. One day they will. And one day you will return and set all things right. That you will make all things new. That you will wipe away every tear. And that we will be with you and one another in eternity. Forever. But God, between that day and this, would you give.
Us the courage to be your people? To be able to engage in a world that is broken and far from you, full of your lost children that are so precious to you that you would send your one and only son.
Yeah, but you help us to be people who will speak the truth about what's happening in our world. The ways in which it's not like you intended. And would you give us courage to take a step toward helping to become. A solution. To allow the kingdom your kingdom to break through. Just a little more each day. It might make a difference in the world.
Father, thank you for choosing us to.
Be your ambassadors. Your ambassadors to a world that's far from you. That we might show them in the way that we live, in the way that we speak, the way that we.
Work and go to school and build.
Relationships in the way that we live as neighbors and citizens. Yeah, that there is a different kingdom that is breaking through. Gab, would you bring us comfort in the midst of the brokenness that we see and experience? Would you remind us again of your promise that you are with us? And would you strengthen us for the days ahead? God, we love you so much. We are so thankful for Jesus, for His way that he was willing to lament of the broken.
Things around him.
Not because he was hopeless, but because he was hopeful. Knowing that you got. You can make a difference. God, would you make a difference in our lives? We pray in Jesus name. Amen.