Hope Lamentations3:1-26 6-21-09

Sermon 6-21-09 hope Lamentations 3:1-26

The sermon series: the greatest of these. Faith, hope. Love

The historical setting of the passage- what is this? Whose idea of a good one?
The Babylonian exile
5 chapters. Only words of hope
desperate time

what do we know of this desperation?
ww2 – rationing. Everyone served, everyone worked. The country was mobilized. No new tires. No new cars.

world trade center- brought us some despair, humility, politicians that stood side by side for the good of the country.

Desperation of our personal lives….. lost jobs, divorce, 401k, national debt
this is not good- parents are supposed to sacrifice their comfort for the future of their children. We however, in my life time, have sacrificed the future of our children for our comfort.

I fear that my parents left me a better America than we are leaving our children

hope defined
it is framed by hardship. No hardship, no understanding of hope
one way to speak of hope is that it is the light at the end of the tunnel-
no tunnel, no hope

Henri Nouwen, --Hope means to keep living amid desperation and to keep humming in the darkness. Hoping is knowing that there is love; it is trust in tomorrow; it is falling asleep and waking again when the sun rises. In the midst of a gale at sea, it is to discover land. In the eyes of another, it is to see that he understands you. --

One way to look at hope is the light at the end of the tunnel.

Another, more realistic, possibly more spiritual way to look at hope is
hope is not a release from hardship, but hope walks alongside hardship

it is not always the light at the end of the tunnel
more often, it is picking up a flashlight while you are in the tunnel

Sometimes there is no return to normal
ABC News- The new normal
Sometimes there is no fix
Lamentations…….no happy jesus party moment

If we hope circumstances will chge, then we’re hoping in circumstances But when we hope in God, there is a joy that lifts us past the circumstances
Romans 8:24-26 for in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has? 25But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently. 26In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness.
And so the scripture can be fulfilled:
When I am weak, then he is strong

These are times When strength comes alongside
Hope walks alongside despair
Hope does not erase the painful circumstances- but hope is the presence of God with us

The scriptures refer to such hope:
A good hope. 2 thess 2:16 a Lively hope. 1 peter 1:3 a Blessed hope. Titus 2:13 Rejoicing in hope. Rom 5:2 Abounding in hope. Ro 15:13 The full assurance of hope Heb 6:11 that god is with us

Do we live like we hope in God?
A story is told of a rabbi in a European village, who one day summoned the townspeople to the village square. He said he had an important announcement. The people gathered, but not without much grumbling at the inconvenience. The merchant resented having to leave his business. The wife complained because she had so many errands to run. But, out of respect, they went unwillingly to the town square. When all were present, the rabbi said, "I wish to announce there is a God in the world." That was all he said. But the people understood. They knew they had been acting as if God did not exist.

God is with us. That is the good news. That is hope enough. If that is not enough for you, I suggest to you that your God is too small.
The writer of lamentations says this: the lord is my portion. I will wait for him
According to Dante, [divine comedy] written over the gates of hell are these words: ABANDON HOPE, All YOU WHO ENTER.
What is hell. God is not in hell. Not true.
Maybe God is not acknowledged in hell.
And with that we understand that this life can be a living hell.

St. Augustine believed that hope was the best of the three virtues.
You see, Faith only tells us that God is,
Love only tells us that God is good.
But hope tells us that God is with us.

in the early 1600’s there was a Lutheran pastor named Martin Rinkart. He lived in Germany during the siege of the Thirty Years War. He lived in a walled city which was surrounded by the enemy. 800 homes were burned, and the people within the walls suffered from the plague, from starvation, and it got to the point where the pastors within that town, were burying 12 people a day. Pretty soon the pastors themselves started to die and Martin Rinckart was the only pastor left. Some days he was conducting 50 funerals a day, Fifty funerals a day. In 1647 He buried over 5,000 people, including his own wife. One day during this terrible time, he sat down, wrote these words to a familiar hymn:

Now thank we all our God, with heart and hands and voices,
Who wondrous things has done, in whom this world rejoices;
Who from our mothers’ arms has blessed us on our way
With countless gifts of love, and still is ours today.

It is 1941 and England is being destroyed by the German airforce. France has fallen, America is neutral and Prime minister Winston Churchill does not know if England will survive. Then on December 7th, pearl harbor. America enters the war. –he wrote in his journal, Being saturated and satiated with emotion and sensation, I went to bed and slept the sleep of the saved and thankful

We may not know the outcome, but we know that the greatest power in the universe walks with us hand in hand. God has come along side us in our weakness. And tonight, because of him, we sleep the sleep of the saved.
Let us pray.