Lament: Lamentations part 1

As a teenager, I distinctly remember this conversation. A family friend had recently returned from a trip to Europe. As they recounted all the things they visited, they mentioned taking a tour of a concentration camp. This floored me. After all, it was about this time that my mother took me to see Schindler’s List in the movie theatre. Why would anyone want to take a tour of a concentration camp? Who has preserved those sites? Why not tear every building down? Who wants to remember that? As I’ve gotten older though, I have begun to understand. We visit the past, even the dark aspects of our past, to remember. “Let’s not do this again,” we say. We visit in hope, to celebrate in some small way that in the end, death does not win. Good outlasts evil. 

I read a travel blog recently from someone who visited Auschwitz, perhaps the most infamous of the concentration camps where Jews were tortured and exterminated. The writer describes what it was like to walk the dreary halls and enter the ominous building. The author describes entering the room which served as the gas chamber. In the middle of the room, on the floor, there lay one single vase of flowers. It seemed so out of place.  Too little. Too late. Yet someone had come here, likely in memory of a lost relative. They had brought a total and complete contrast to a space of death and evil. They brought flowers, symbols of beauty and hope.  They visited the past to find the future. 

This is what laments do. In lament, we revisit our worst moments in search of God. This morning, after looking at looking at Psalm 13 and 22 the past two weeks, we begin two weeks looking at Lamentations. We won’t finish Lamentations today, so don’t look for completion in today’s message. 

Arguably, the highpoint of the Old Testament comes in the reign of David, the preparation of the temple, and the building of the temple by his son Solomon. The low point was roughly 400 years later when the Babylonians burned it all to the ground. Lamentations visits that worst moment in search of God.

Let me give some additional background before we read some of it today. God made a covenant with Israel. God would protect them. They would serve the Lord and worship Yahweh only. However, as we see throughout the Old Testament, they’re unable to do that. Solomon falls prey to idolatry shortly after building the temple. His son Rehoboam is a real piece of work, leading to a political coup and divided kingdom. You may remember stories about wicked leaders like Ahab and Jezebel. Prophets like Isaiah, Micah, and Amos warn both the northern and southern kingdom. If you do not follow the Lord, God will judge you by allowing other nations to conquer you.  What were their sins? Besides idolatry, the prophets regularly warn them about a lack of justice primarily seen in unfair court proceedings and a refusal to take care of widows, orphans, and immigrants. The prophets speak out against sexual immorality and widespread hypocrisy among the leaders and the elites. Eventually, the northern kingdom falls to the Assyrians in 722/721 BC.   However, the southern kingdom known as Judah, with the prize city of Jerusalem, holds out longer due to some good kings and some revival along the way. However, around the year 600 BC, we see things falling apart.

Judah is surrounded by far greater military powers, such as the Egyptians and the Babylonians who had conquered the Assyrians. The southern kingdom makes political agreements for protection, which involved agreeing to paying tributes and taxes. When they go back on their deal, Babylon comes around 597. They don’t destroy the city, but they do take some of the best and brightest back to Babylon, such as Daniel and his friends. They install a new king, Zedekiah, and warn them. Next time, they’ll destroy the city.  A decade goes by and Zedekiah tries to strike a deal with the Egyptians. King Nebuchadnezzar sends his army back to Jerusalem. They lay siege to the city for about two years.  Imagine what conditions in the city would have been like. Consider our supply chain during the pandemic and quarantine.  A two-year siege? You’d run out of toilet paper really fast.  

Eventually, the Babylonians penetrate the wall. They burn the city. They burn the temple. Zedekiah runs, but they catch him. Before blinding him, they murder his sons, making that the last thing he ever sees. Then, they march him off to Babylon and keep him as an example for the duration of his life.

The book of Lamentations commemorates this great tragedy. Every year, Jews still read this on the 9th of Av, which was July 29ththis year. Most every day, if you visit the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem (the only remaining portion of the Second Temple), you will hear someone reading Lamentations out loud beside the wall. Traditionally, we attribute Lamentations to the prophet Jeremiah, but we don’t know for sure. Lamentations is made up of 5 poems, each being its own chapter. The first four verses are acrostic poem, where the first letter of each sentence lists the letters of the Hebrew alphabet in order. We think they did this to make it easier to remember. Many scholars believe the structure of the 5 poems lends itself to a climax in the middle, not at the end. We’ll come back to that.

Before reading some lines, let me emphasize one more thing. The Israelites interpreted the destruction of Jerusalem as divine judgment. The prophets warned them of this for years. We should be careful about interpreting present day pain and suffering as judgment, especially interpreting other people’s pain and suffering. Yet, the prophets had made this particular situation and interpretation clear to them. 

Let’s enter into this dark period by reading a few excerpts. 

1:11 All her people groan as they search for bread; they barter their treasures for food to keep themselves alive. “Look, Lord, and consider, for I am despised.”  In any type of siege, food and water become rare. Starvation sets in. People trade their most valuable possessions for a loaf of bread. That family heirloom passed down for generations, suddenly you’re willing to part with it. One thing about this tragedy was how it affected all classes of society, rich and poor. All were devastated.

1:16 “This is why I weep and my eyes overflow with tears. No one is near to comfort me, no one to restore my spirit. My children are destitute because the enemy has prevailed.” The tragedy of this affected children as well. They were cooped up in the city for two years with limited rations. Crying becomes a daily reality for all ages and classes.

2:11 My eyes are spent with weeping; my stomach churns; my bile is poured out to the ground because of the destruction of the daughter of my people, because infants and babies faint in the streets of the city. 12 They cry to their mothers, “Where is bread and wine?” as they faint like a wounded man in the streets of the city, as their life is poured out on their mothers' bosom.  Kids start to pass out because they don’t have what they need. Over time, children begin to die of starvation. Most likely, like our current situation, this affected the most vulnerable first.

2:20 “Look, Lord, and consider: Whom have you ever treated like this? Should women eat their offspring, the children they have cared for? Should priest and prophet be killed in the sanctuary of the Lord? 21 “Young and old lie together in the dust of the streets; my young men and young women have fallen by the sword. You have slain them in the day of your anger; you have slaughtered them without pity.”  This verse gives us our first description of what haunts me the most. It appears that some people resorted to cannibalism. Reflect on how hard things would have to become for that to even cross your mind. On top of that, their religious leaders were murdered in the temple. This brought difficulty for two reasons. First, they looked up to them and trusted them. Second, this revealed that the temple was not a place of protection. If God wouldn’t protect them in the temple, nowhere seemed safe.  Last, we see that the Babylonians killed men, women, and children. They didn’t just fight the soldiers. Innocent civilians were murdered.

4:5 Those who once ate delicacies are destitute in the streets. Those brought up in royal purple now lie on ash heaps.  Once again, this show how this affected the wealthy. All groups were affected.

4:9 Happier were the victims of the sword than the victims of hunger, who wasted away, pierced by lack of the fruits of the field. 10 The hands of compassionate women have boiled their own children; they became their food during the destruction of the daughter of my people.  In this passage, we have a more direct reference to cannibalism. It’s devastating to think about it.

5:11 Women have been violated in Zion, and virgins in the towns of Judah. 12 Princes have been hung up by their hands; elders are shown no respect. 13 Young men toil at the millstones; boys stagger under loads of wood. 14 The elders are gone from the city gate; the young men have stopped their music. 15 Joy is gone from our hearts; our dancing has turned to mourning.  This further describes the atrocities committed by the Babylonians. Innocent people suffered. Those not murdered were made into slaves.  The last verse sums it up. No more joy. No dancing. Only mourning, crying, and weeping.

5:21 Restore us to yourself, Lord, that we may return; renew our days as of old 22 unless you have utterly rejected us and are angry with us beyond measure.  Of course, Lamentations was written by the survivors, those enslaved and taken into captivity. They hope and pray they’ll return. But maybe, God’s rejection is final.  Maybe, they’ll be in Babylon forever. Maybe the Jewish people will fade into history. Maybe this is the end.

They wrote these laments in exile. They kept reciting them to each other. They kept reading them. They kept revisiting their worst moment. They kept going back to the worst thing that ever happened, so that they would remember. They kept visiting the dark memories in hopes that God would change it. They kept looking for a sign of light in the darkness, like a small vase of flowers in a gas chamber. 

Here’s an essential part of lament that we need to know. We need to face our darkest moments. We don’t need to focus on them forever. We don’t need to wallow in them and let them define us. But we do need to name our pain. We need to visit the concentration camp. Healing will only come on the other side of naming the pain, naming the hurt, naming the darkness. 

Lamentations contains some of the most difficult things I can possibly imagine. For 2500 years, people of faith have clung to these words. Why? They believe saying it out loud is an act of faith, not a lack of faith. They believe that you find your future by naming your past.

What would it look like to name your pain?  Maybe you buried someone long before their time, and you think of them every day. Maybe you did something that’s eating you up but you’re afraid to tell anyone. Maybe you were abused, harassed, or violated. Maybe your spouse cheated on you, maybe you cheated on your spouse. Maybe a close friend betrayed your confidence.  Maybe you work for people far less qualified who don’t work as hard as you do. Maybe you had a miscarriage, and no one cared.  Maybe an authority figure mistreated you-a coach, teacher, or boss.  Maybe you experienced racism and every time we witness another tragedy, such as the recent shooting of Jacob Blake, it just rips that wound open again. Maybe someone you loved left you.  Maybe you felt scared and no one understood. Maybe you got really sick or really hurt and thought you were gonna die. Maybe you went through deep pain, and the silence of God felt overwhelming.

Let me share mine. I’m hesitant to share it because I’ve talked about it before. I don’t want to act like my pain is unique. I don’t want my pain to overshadow anyone else’s pain. We all have pain. But today happens to be the 34th anniversary of the worst day of my life, when my mother died in a car accident.  A few years back, I met with a counselor for a few months. We were processing some emotional pain I was experiencing in the present, but it quickly went back to the past. Eventually, it all traced back to one moment on that worst day ever.

I was on a hospital stretcher in the hallway of the emergency room.  People were all running by. I didn’t think anyone was listening to me. I was all alone. I’ve never felt more abandoned in my entire life. When things get really bad in my life, when I’m really overwhelmed, I go back to that hallway. 

I told that to my counselor. And he responded, if you could go back to that hallway now, what would say. If you could talk to that 8-year old boy, what would you say?

I’ll tell you what I said next week. But, now, I want you to think about that. If you could go back to your worst moment now, what would you tell your past self?  If you could revisit your past self in your darkest hour, what would you say?

This is what lament is. You go back to your worst moment. You name your pain. You admit you feel disoriented. Everything is wobbly. You admit. You say it. You get it all out. And then, you listen.  You wait for God to show up.

Here’s the hard thing about laments though. They don’t easily resolve. They don’t quickly resolve. This sermon does not resolve today. But there is a healing on the other side. I promise. Jesus promises. There is a healing on the other side. But to get there, you have to be willing to name your pain. You have to be honest and vulnerable. You have to be willing to put a vase of flowers on the floor of an old gas chamber, even if that seems ridiculous. Even if it seems futile. Even if it seems foolish. This is lament.