Lament and Faith

This week, 2 shoter reflection, starting wiht PSalm 137 then a brief relfection on Lament

The people of Israel were in exile. Their stories of God all revolved around the promised land, and now, defeated and in a foreign place, they struggled. Parts  of this psalm are quite shocking, but one thing about the psalms is their realism. The psalms are prayers from deep within the heart, written to express the things we struggle to name. I think most people have felt lonely, lost, confused, angry, devastated. Have you ever felt like you could not sing? Here the people  of Israel mourned their loss; the sense of alienation and the longing for the familiar. This is a psalm of Lament. At times I have heard people say, that you can’t scream at God, you can’t be angry with God. We can, and at times we should be.

When life doesn’t make sense, when violence cripples our cities, when children grow up in poverty, when people die in floods, when people are left homeless by earthquakes, when cyclones and tsunamis, bushfires and droughts bring despair and pain – we can avoid the news, we can pretend this is the way the world should be, and get on with our own lives.

Or we can be aware, we can hurt with those who are hurting and weep those who weep, and raise our fist to heaven, asking Why God!, when will your reign of peace and justice come? Why do you let this happen!

Maybe if we were angrier with God, if we told God through our tears and anger and pain, maybe we would stop looking for revenge, and trust God to bring about peace and justice.

Shortly we bring a prayer of lament.  Take some time to think about the areas of your life where there is despair or alienation, anger or pain.

silence

followed by a Prayer of Lament

Part 2 on Timothy and Luke

The disciples asked for more faith.

The disciples request shows they misunderstood the nature of faith, they think of an amount of faith. They show that they fear that they will not have enough, that faith is a scarce and limited commodity.

The disciples asked for more faith, and Jesus tells some stories.

The first is the story of the seeds of the mustard weed, a weed that was difficult to eradicate. Mustard weed grew wild and was the scourge of farmers in Palestine.  Birds would eat the seeds and distribute them, and even if you pulled up the mustard weed, the birds would drop more.  It was persistent, irritating, and fast-spreading. It would be there whether you liked it or not.

Jesus is telling the disciples, and us, that this is the kind of faith we need. This isn’t about amount of faith, but faith that is small enough to be carried everywhere, faith that is contagious and takes root into any space it can find.

If you have any faith, even as tiny as a mustard weed seed, you can do amazing things. It isn’t about how much, but having any faith at all. Any amount of faith in God is enough. Faith in God, faith that God is God, that God is able to act in the world. If we believe in God even just a little bit, it is enough.

Faith is about what we do, rather than how much we have. Jesus changes the discussion from how much faith, to what faith can do, and what we do with the faith we have.

The second story Jesus tells is of a servant come in from working on the farm, and it is dinner time. The servant will cook dinner and clean up, before they get to eat a meal themselves. This isn’t about how to treat people in  a HR sense, but about how we expect to be treated. We are servants of God, why expect a reward for doing what God asks and requires of us?

Just as the master does not reward the slave for doing his job, so we should not expect  a reward, a gold medal, for doing our job as Christians. We don’t get a bonus for being the people God calls us to be. Our reward is serving God.

Looking at the second letter to Timothy, a few things stand out for me. This was likely written in the early part of the second century, that means we are looking at second and third generation Christians. The church is struggling, many thought that Jesus would have returned quickly, but this had not happened, and now how to hold fast to what is true, how to not be discouraged when living in a hostile environment.

The author of this letter is writing to encourage Timothy, but not in a sweet or soft way. The encouragement is to stand firm, to maintain correct teaching. The letter starts by telling Timothy how much he respects Timothy, calls him beloved, and how grateful to God he is for Timothy. How Timothy comes from a family tradition of faith, handed down from Grandmother to mother to Timothy.

Then the strong part, rekindle the faith that is in you, stand firm in the faith, trust in the Holy Spirit, guard the treasure God has given you. Sounds to me like the encouragement you give someone going through a difficult time. When you or someone you know is struggling, how do you offer encouragement?

Faith is a heart thing, it is trust and acting in obedience to God. It is honest sadness, tenacious remembering, performance of duty, a holy calling, and holding fast to sound teaching. Living in faith requires everything of us. Being grounded in awareness of the holiness and sovereignty of God; reflecting the grace of God in all our living; knowing our purpose is in serving God.

We are equipped with the promise that our faith will be sufficient, and the assurance that "God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline."

The second letter of Timothy is one of encouraging Timothy to live the faith. We have another letter, a letter from God in the from of Jesus. What is this letter from God saying to you?

HOPE
If I asked what you are hoping for, it may be the safe arrival of a new child into the family, it may the return of a loved one from overseas, you might talk about visiting family, or a special gift you are hoping for this Christmas.

According the dictionary on my computer - To hope is to have a wish to get or do something or for something to happen or be true, especially something that seems possible or likely.

To hope is a confident desire – such as when a medical research team finds something that offers hope to people with a certain medical condition.

Hope is also a wish or the likelihood of success – as in there’s not much hope of that happening. Or when we say this is our last hope.

In the dictionary the last meaning of hope is a feeling of trust then in brackets [archaic].

So often when we talk about what we hope for, it is about a wish , a desire, an expectation, a dream, something we anticipate will happen.

When we talk about hope in the church it is more than a wish, more than anticipation. When we talk about hope, once again the church is labelled archaic; because for us hope is in Jesus Christ, this no idle wish, no dream regardless of how likely or unlikely it is to happen. Hope is trust in God, hope is something we live.

In the book of Jeremiah,  Jeremiah has come full circle, he begins by telling the people of Israel that because of their sinfulness, they will be ruled by a foreign power, they will go into exile. In the middle of the siege of Jerusalem and the impending destruction that Jeremiah had been talking about for 40 years, he shifts the focus of his message rather abruptly. In Jeremiah 32, Jeremiah is instructed to buy a seemingly worthless piece of land in what is soon to be a devastated city. Now, at the time when Jerusalem is surrounded and about to be overthrown by the Babylonians, Jeremiah buys a field.

Jeremiah knew this was what God wanted him to do, because he heard from God, then his cousin came and asked him to buy the field from him. This appears to be a flawed real estate transaction. The cousin is likely pleased to be rid of a piece of ground he will soon be unable to access. But Jeremiah buys the field, hopeful, trusting, in God’s promise of a time when the people of Israel will return to this land.

You may heard the saying – actions speak louder then words – and I think this applies to Jeremiah. He knew the people were wondering about their future, he knew the city was about to be in Babylonian hands, but still he bought the field.

Sometimes we need signs and symbols that actually do something. We need signs and symbols that make a statement more clearly than words alone can. When we come to the communion table, we eat and drink, a sign of nourishment, as well as remembering the sacrifice of Jesus, the meals Jesus ate with people and symbolically eats with us. The eating of communion elements is about remembering and retelling a story, but it is also including ourselves in the ongoing story of discipleship.

Our actions speak louder then words, our caring speaks of God’s love far more eloquently than quoting Bible verses, our spending habits speak more than our statements about justice, our living speaks more about our faith than saying the creeds.

In the epistle reading this week, the writer of the letter to Timothy, writes we should pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance, gentleness.  This and the gospel reading are about how we live, and what we value.

The parable in the gospel is a story that was familiar in this middle east region.  Lazarus and the rich man has its origin as an Egyptian folk tale, that made its way into Jewish folklore, it was familiar to the audience Jesus was speaking to. In this culture it was common to explore behaviour by imagining what happened after you died. This parable is exploring the effect of living in a world  with huge discrepancies between people, where some have more than they need, and others have too little. It is not about God’s response to our sin. It is about the way the gulf between people, leads to a gulf between people. When we value our own needs before the needs of others, we too will get caught up in that. When our focus is on acquiring wealth, food, servants, we are unable to pursue godliness, faith, love and gentleness.

The rich man acted as if he alone was responsible for the good fortune he had in life. There is nothing here about wealth being incompatible with faith. It is possible to be rich and faithful. There were members of the early church with some measure of wealth, and they were still included in the life of the church. It seems that Jesus had rich friends and enjoyed feasts whenever he could.

This is about where our energy goes – is it in pursuing godliness or chasing after wealth. Do we trust in God or do we trust our own ability. And regardless of how we answer that question, the way we live, the way we treat people, even people we don’t know, will say much more about our values and the basis of our hope than our words.  

Walter Brueggemann, a Biblical scholar writes:

“There are two ways in the world: the way of trustful obedience or the way of self-reliant ambition.” 

“Jeremiah relies on the deep promises of God that God’s intent for the future will outlast present devastation. Thus the “other way” is to believe that the future is governed by God. It is a way that evokes concrete, risky action. Jeremiah quite literally “buys in” on a future yet to be given.” 

The rich man in the parable shows what happens we base our life on self-reliant ambition. Sometimes in the media you will hear that someone is a self-made man – I know they are meaning this person worked hard, but it gives the impression that our life is our own to control. Jeremiah shows another way to live - trusting in God. The writer of the letter to Timothy encourages a way of living that is focussed on God, regardless of our level of wealth or education or status.  We strive for godliness, because we were made for it, but in order to desire godliness, we need to free our attention from wealth or fame or whatever else uses our energy and clouds our vision. 

Yes, this all sounds counter-cultural, just as it did in the days of Jeremiah and Jesus and Timothy. It is still counter-cultural. In a society where he or she  who has the most toys wins, the idea of pursuing righteousness rather than wealth, of being gentle rather than forceful, of being faithful rather then self-reliant, of endurance rather than a quick fix, this is still counter cultural. Relying on God, trusting in God, placing our hope in God.

Let us reflect on the ways our hope in God is shown in our living.

Jeremiah 32:selected verses 

1 Timothy 6:6-19 Luke 16:19-31