Second Sunday in Lent | Day Twelve of Forty

Lament.  It has a ring of sadness to it.  It should since it is expressing sorrow or regret over something.  Associate Justice Antonin Scalia’s funeral Mass was yesterday.  People are still lamenting his death and will for some time to come.  The literary world is lamenting the death of Harper Lee, the famed author of To Kill A Mocking Bird.  She died on Friday in her hometown of Monroeville, Alabama at 89.

Lament is a part of life.   But who, really, wants to live life in the posture of lamentation?  I am unaware of anyone who wishes to be in a perpetual state of expressing sorrow for or over something or someone.

Quite often, though, it is the lament that energizes one’s steadfastness in a deplorable situation.  In the  enormous tragedy that befell Haitias a result of that massive earthquake just over six years ago on Tuesday, January 12, 2010, the media showed Haitians, who survived the ruin, walking together and singing fortifying songs.  Several individuals pulled from the rubble began tearfully singing in the midst of their plight—profound signs of human resilience.  What they were acting out while singing was lament.  The heart-wrenching situation of vast suffering and deaths in Haiti elevates the value of lament – so much so, that many Christians have participated in many missional journeys to that beleaguered nation in the Caribbean.

Jesus laments over Jerusalem as He is on a journey to that city.  Earlier, in Luke 9:51, the historian states that Jesus “…set his face to go to Jerusalem.”   It seems that He laments along the way.  But why?  Jerusalem doesn’t get it.  The Holy City just doesn’t understand.  It is more complex than this, but that is the gist of it.  The people, that Jerusalem symbolically represents, fail to connect with the things of God, especially those things that are connected with Jesus.  The story is told in Luke 13:31-35.

A group of Pharisees extend a warning to Him, which might also be an encouragement, to move on because Herod wants to kill Him.  He suggests they tell Herod that there’s nothing he can do to thwart God’s movement.  Jesus says, “Demons are being cast out.  People are being cured of their physical sicknesses and spiritual ones too.  It’s happening today and it will continue to happen.  I have a mission.  I have a goal to reach.  Something is to be completed.  I have a job to do and I am doing it.”  While Luke uses “three days” to allude to the Resurrection, it is not literal, but a way to say in a short period of time I will “finish my work” (v. 32b).  “So you,” Jesus says, “go and tell that fox…” (v. 32).  To call someone a fox in that culture was to degrade them.  Compared to God Herod is nothing.  Compared to God I am nothing.  Compared to God, none of us is.

And then Jesus laments over Jerusalem.   “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it!  How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!  See, your house is left to you.  And I tell you, you will not see me until the time comes when you say, ‘Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord.’” (vv. 34-35).

Why don’t we lament?  Oh we do some; but, probably not enough.  Perhaps we are afraid of lamentation.  It’s messy.  It creates frustration.  So we avoid it as much as possible.  But we are to lament.

We are to lament over the world situation.  Jesus laments.  So should we.

We are to lament over the national situation.  Jesus laments.  So should we.

We are to lament over the cities of the world.  Jesus laments.  So should we.

We are to lament over the church.  Jesus laments.  So should we.

We are to lament over ourselves.  Jesus laments.  So should we.

We are to lament with hope, though.  Change can happen.  The world situation can change.  The national mood can change.  The plight of people can change.  Cities can change.  The church can change.  I can change.  So can you.

“Pass Me Not, O Gentle Savior” is sung by the late and legendary Pop Winans.  It is a wonderful lament in song lasting three minutes twenty-nine seconds.

There are two worship gatherings at Garden Lakes Baptist Church Rome, GA – 8:45 a.m. and 11:00 a.m.  Bible Study is at 9:45 a.m.  My sermon this morning is an expansion of these reflections.  Titled “A Lamenting Community,”  it is the second in a series of five for five of the six Sundays in Lent under the theme, “Community Authentically Focused on Christ Jesus the Lord.”  It is based on Luke 13:31-35.