Proper 22
Preaching
Preaching and Reading the Old Testament Lessons:
With an Eye to the New
We are uncomfortable with tears and lamenting, aren't we? If someone breaks into tears, we try our best to get her to stop crying and to smile again. Or if an acquaintance has experienced some awful calamity, sometimes we don't even know what to say to him. Or if we do attempt to comfort, we try to assure that everything will work out for the best in the end.
We do not like sorrow. We either try to avoid it or we attempt to do away with it. And so a lot of preaching these days is simply therapeutic comfort, designed to make the worshipers feel good about themselves. Our religion, we think, should deal with the happy side of life and make us feel better. It should not be connected with lamenting and loss.
The scriptures, however, know better. The Bible is the most realistic book in the world. And so the authors of our Bible make a wide place in their writings for the sorrows and sufferings and pains of human life, because they know that those are part of our daily living and that there is a word from God about those experiences too.
In our text, which is made up of the first six verses of an acrostic poem, Jerusalem is pictured as a woman mourning over the death of her husband. The city was destroyed by the Babylonians in 587 B.C., and she who was a great princess among the nations has become a vassal slave to Babylonia. Betrayed by her allies and friends, she has no one to comfort her. Her children, that is, the population, has been taken into exile. Her leaders were exiled already in the deportation of 597 B.C. And even the roads to Zion are pictured as mourning, because no one now traverses them for the great pilgrimage feasts of Tabernacles, Passover, and Weeks.
Our text is very clear about the reason for Jerusalem's destruction. "The Lord," we read in verse 5, "has made her suffer for the multitude of her transgressions." As in the prophecies of Jeremiah and Ezekiel, Jerusalem and Judah have fallen to the foreign conqueror, because they have turned away from their God, broken their covenant with him, ignored his commandments for the order of their daily living, trusted in their own strength for security, and given their allegiance to the pagan fertility gods of other nations.
But the Holy One of Israel is a God whose lordship over all nations cannot be ignored. And when Judah tries to be free of that lordship, she is subjected to God's penalty. As it is written in Ezekiel, "As I live, says the Lord God, surely with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, and with wrath poured out, I will be king over you" (Ezekiel 20:33). The Lord is King over our lives, and we ignore that kingship at our peril. "God is not mocked," writes Paul, "for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap" (Galatians 6:7). And as our text shows, that applies not only to individual lives, but to the lives of nations as well. God allowed the Babylonians to destroy Jerusalem, because Judah had deserted her covenant with her Lord.
We squirm at those words, and they make us feel very uncomfortable. But they are words embedded in the actual history of Judah, who suffered for her sins against her God, just as they are also words embedded in our histories that are so pocked with suffering, because we ignore our God. All suffering and afflictions do not come from God's hand. Sometimes they are just the consequences of our own foolish actions. And God is very, very slow to bring distress upon us -- he is "slow to anger," says the prophet Nahum (1:3). The Bible tells us that he is more grieved than angry at our unrighteous ways (cf. Genesis 6:5). But can any one of us here this morning doubt that we also often suffer some blow, because we have not followed God's will for our lives? How often has our sin got us into some deep difficulty!
Our text from Lamentations is very instructive, then, on that score, because Jerusalem's lament in this text also leads her into confession that she has been wrong in turning from her God (cf. 1:18, 20, 22). And that is the first step on the way to forgiveness and to healing. God's judgments upon us are never meant to destroy us, as Judah and Jerusalem were not forever destroyed. Rather, God's judgments are meant to bring us to our senses, so that we seek the renewal of life that is found in turning from our sinful ways and committing ourselves anew to our Lord. "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just, and will forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness" (1 John 1:9). Indeed, God loves us so much and wants good for us so very, very much, that he gives his only begotten Son to forgive us and to give us new life. Troubles with their lamenting and tears can issue in joy, if they take us through repentance and turning to the Lord.
Lutheran Option: Habakkuk 1:1-4; 2:1-4
Do you ever grow weary of the constant struggle with evil? Every time we read a newspaper, we see that someone else has been murdered or robbed, or that young people have fallen victim to drugs and outlandish sexual exploits, or that some person in the government has been found to be a crook. Violence, chaos, evil seem to surround us on every side in our society. Indeed, even in our schools and churches, chaos seems to reign. Young people are not taught, scandals stain the ministry, and far from faithfulness to God, everyone seems just to be doing his or her own thing.
We seem helpless, moreover, to do anything about it. As our text in Habakkuk says, "The wicked surround the righteous," and when decent people try to restore order and goodness to our lives, they seem to get drowned out by the indecent. It makes us wonder just what our world is coming to.
That was the prophet Habakkuk's situation, too. In 598 B.C., that Judean prophet saw on every side wrongs, destruction, violence, and he cried out in anguish, "How long, O Lord?" How long are you going to put up with this state of affairs?
God replied to the prophet that the Babylonians were going to invade Judah and wipe out all her wrongs (1:5-11). But the Babylonians were even worse in their evil than Judah was and that didn't seem like much of a solution (1:12-17). So Habakkuk set himself to watch and listen to what God would say to him, like a man stationing himself on a watchtower. Habakkuk concentrated his prayers and attention on God. And God replied to him, as God always replies to sincere prayer (2:1-4).
The vision is coming, God told his prophet. It may seem slow in coming to you, but it is hastening in its progress, and it will surely come. In short, God assured Habakkuk that the kingdom of heaven would surely become reality -- that kingdom in which violence and evil are done away, and there is no pain or crying or death anymore; that kingdom in which God himself will wipe away all our tears and dwell forever in our midst.
The Kingdom of God is coming. Indeed, it began to come in the person of Jesus Christ, when he began his ministry and announced, "The time is fulfilled. The Kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe in the gospel" (Mark 1:15). God's new age of goodness has broken into human history, and it will come in its fullness, and evil and violence and death will be no more when Christ returns to be with us. Such is the certain hope of the scriptures and of the Christian Church. The evil we experience in our world is not the last word. God's Word, incarnate in Jesus Christ, will be all in all (cf. Ephesians 1:10).
In our meantime, therefore, while you and I await the coming of the kingdom in its fullness, God's word from our text tells us that if we will be steadfast in our faithfulness, we can live with whatever happens in the world around us. If we are puffed up and proud and try to go it on our own, we will fail. But if we persistently and continually cling to God, we cannot be defeated. Verse 4 of our text has often been read, "The righteous shall live by faith." But the word for faith is 'emunah in the Hebrew, from which comes our word "amen," and which has the meaning of steadfastness, day by day putting one foot in front of another to walk in God's ways and not our own. If we will be thus faithful, we will live, both now and in the eternal kingdom that is coming.
We do not like sorrow. We either try to avoid it or we attempt to do away with it. And so a lot of preaching these days is simply therapeutic comfort, designed to make the worshipers feel good about themselves. Our religion, we think, should deal with the happy side of life and make us feel better. It should not be connected with lamenting and loss.
The scriptures, however, know better. The Bible is the most realistic book in the world. And so the authors of our Bible make a wide place in their writings for the sorrows and sufferings and pains of human life, because they know that those are part of our daily living and that there is a word from God about those experiences too.
In our text, which is made up of the first six verses of an acrostic poem, Jerusalem is pictured as a woman mourning over the death of her husband. The city was destroyed by the Babylonians in 587 B.C., and she who was a great princess among the nations has become a vassal slave to Babylonia. Betrayed by her allies and friends, she has no one to comfort her. Her children, that is, the population, has been taken into exile. Her leaders were exiled already in the deportation of 597 B.C. And even the roads to Zion are pictured as mourning, because no one now traverses them for the great pilgrimage feasts of Tabernacles, Passover, and Weeks.
Our text is very clear about the reason for Jerusalem's destruction. "The Lord," we read in verse 5, "has made her suffer for the multitude of her transgressions." As in the prophecies of Jeremiah and Ezekiel, Jerusalem and Judah have fallen to the foreign conqueror, because they have turned away from their God, broken their covenant with him, ignored his commandments for the order of their daily living, trusted in their own strength for security, and given their allegiance to the pagan fertility gods of other nations.
But the Holy One of Israel is a God whose lordship over all nations cannot be ignored. And when Judah tries to be free of that lordship, she is subjected to God's penalty. As it is written in Ezekiel, "As I live, says the Lord God, surely with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, and with wrath poured out, I will be king over you" (Ezekiel 20:33). The Lord is King over our lives, and we ignore that kingship at our peril. "God is not mocked," writes Paul, "for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap" (Galatians 6:7). And as our text shows, that applies not only to individual lives, but to the lives of nations as well. God allowed the Babylonians to destroy Jerusalem, because Judah had deserted her covenant with her Lord.
We squirm at those words, and they make us feel very uncomfortable. But they are words embedded in the actual history of Judah, who suffered for her sins against her God, just as they are also words embedded in our histories that are so pocked with suffering, because we ignore our God. All suffering and afflictions do not come from God's hand. Sometimes they are just the consequences of our own foolish actions. And God is very, very slow to bring distress upon us -- he is "slow to anger," says the prophet Nahum (1:3). The Bible tells us that he is more grieved than angry at our unrighteous ways (cf. Genesis 6:5). But can any one of us here this morning doubt that we also often suffer some blow, because we have not followed God's will for our lives? How often has our sin got us into some deep difficulty!
Our text from Lamentations is very instructive, then, on that score, because Jerusalem's lament in this text also leads her into confession that she has been wrong in turning from her God (cf. 1:18, 20, 22). And that is the first step on the way to forgiveness and to healing. God's judgments upon us are never meant to destroy us, as Judah and Jerusalem were not forever destroyed. Rather, God's judgments are meant to bring us to our senses, so that we seek the renewal of life that is found in turning from our sinful ways and committing ourselves anew to our Lord. "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just, and will forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness" (1 John 1:9). Indeed, God loves us so much and wants good for us so very, very much, that he gives his only begotten Son to forgive us and to give us new life. Troubles with their lamenting and tears can issue in joy, if they take us through repentance and turning to the Lord.
Lutheran Option: Habakkuk 1:1-4; 2:1-4
Do you ever grow weary of the constant struggle with evil? Every time we read a newspaper, we see that someone else has been murdered or robbed, or that young people have fallen victim to drugs and outlandish sexual exploits, or that some person in the government has been found to be a crook. Violence, chaos, evil seem to surround us on every side in our society. Indeed, even in our schools and churches, chaos seems to reign. Young people are not taught, scandals stain the ministry, and far from faithfulness to God, everyone seems just to be doing his or her own thing.
We seem helpless, moreover, to do anything about it. As our text in Habakkuk says, "The wicked surround the righteous," and when decent people try to restore order and goodness to our lives, they seem to get drowned out by the indecent. It makes us wonder just what our world is coming to.
That was the prophet Habakkuk's situation, too. In 598 B.C., that Judean prophet saw on every side wrongs, destruction, violence, and he cried out in anguish, "How long, O Lord?" How long are you going to put up with this state of affairs?
God replied to the prophet that the Babylonians were going to invade Judah and wipe out all her wrongs (1:5-11). But the Babylonians were even worse in their evil than Judah was and that didn't seem like much of a solution (1:12-17). So Habakkuk set himself to watch and listen to what God would say to him, like a man stationing himself on a watchtower. Habakkuk concentrated his prayers and attention on God. And God replied to him, as God always replies to sincere prayer (2:1-4).
The vision is coming, God told his prophet. It may seem slow in coming to you, but it is hastening in its progress, and it will surely come. In short, God assured Habakkuk that the kingdom of heaven would surely become reality -- that kingdom in which violence and evil are done away, and there is no pain or crying or death anymore; that kingdom in which God himself will wipe away all our tears and dwell forever in our midst.
The Kingdom of God is coming. Indeed, it began to come in the person of Jesus Christ, when he began his ministry and announced, "The time is fulfilled. The Kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe in the gospel" (Mark 1:15). God's new age of goodness has broken into human history, and it will come in its fullness, and evil and violence and death will be no more when Christ returns to be with us. Such is the certain hope of the scriptures and of the Christian Church. The evil we experience in our world is not the last word. God's Word, incarnate in Jesus Christ, will be all in all (cf. Ephesians 1:10).
In our meantime, therefore, while you and I await the coming of the kingdom in its fullness, God's word from our text tells us that if we will be steadfast in our faithfulness, we can live with whatever happens in the world around us. If we are puffed up and proud and try to go it on our own, we will fail. But if we persistently and continually cling to God, we cannot be defeated. Verse 4 of our text has often been read, "The righteous shall live by faith." But the word for faith is 'emunah in the Hebrew, from which comes our word "amen," and which has the meaning of steadfastness, day by day putting one foot in front of another to walk in God's ways and not our own. If we will be thus faithful, we will live, both now and in the eternal kingdom that is coming.
