Mourning, Lamenting and Moving On

This message was first delivered at Court Street United Methodist Church in Lynchburg, Virginia on June 27, 2015. It is based on the lectionary text of Psalm 130.

Last week your choir did the most glorious rendition of Psalm 130. Just like today, this choir does not fail to deliver! It is really quite an extraordinary text – let me read it for you now:

Out of the depths I cry to you, O LORD.

Lord, hear my voice! Let your ears be attentive to the voice of my supplications!

If you, O LORD, should mark iniquities, Lord, who could stand?

But there is forgiveness with you, so that you may be revered.

I wait for the LORD, my soul waits, and in his word I hope;

my soul waits for the Lord more than those who watch for the morning, more than those who watch for the morning.

O Israel, hope in the LORD! For with the LORD there is steadfast love, and with him is great power to redeem.

It is he who will redeem Israel from all its iniquities.

Powerful stuff. And a very similar message was delivered in the scripture reading from Lamentations: Thank God that the Lord is steadfast in his love because between the challenges of life and the ways we willfully walk away – if he was keeping score, we'd all be ashes.

Life sometimes just – doesn't seem to be going our way. Sometimes we are incredibly overwhelmed by life. But since the writer of Lamentations reminds us that God does not “willingly afflict or grieve anyone” - why then, does life sometimes just...suck?

You know what I'm talking about. Sometimes it is just little things in life: the washer breaks down and the fridge stops making ice. The Maple Leafs don't win the Stanley Cup. Feeling annoyed and frustrated. Then there are the bigger things: loss of a job, the house in foreclosure, betrayal of a friend, feeling alone. Challenges ramping up past a simmer – death in your closest circle of friends, cancer diagnosis, homelessness, feeling desperate. And past the boil – abuse, loss of a child, feeling devastated. What do we do then?

Over and over in scripture we see people experiencing overwhelming challenges and the suffering makes them cry out to God. Out of the depths I cry to you, O LORD. Lord, hear my voice! Let your ears be attentive to the voice of my supplications! They – cry out – TO God.

One of the hardest things I have to remember to do – is to stop relying on myself. I can't seem to get it through my thick head – when I'm overwhelmed...I need to lean on God. I know, I know...it seems simple. Turn it over to the one who is in control. I'm like a crazy person trying to drive the car from the passenger seat! The driver keeps saying, “no Chris, I've got this...the wheel is over here” and I'm just a'grabbin' away trying to wrestle the wheel over to me. The worst part is – I'm also partially blindfolded! At least with blinders on – knowing that I'm right and if this fool would just hand me the wheel...

Cry out – to GOD. He's an incredibly powerful God. He's got mad skills – made the world in 6 days and then was smart enough to kick back for rest. (another one of my problems for another time).

The Bible is full of people crying out, lamenting, and asking why: the people in the desert asking Moses WHY he brought them out here to die in the wilderness, Job cried out and lamented for CHAPTERS (the original Blues - Obliterate the day I was born. Blank out the night I was conceived! Let it be a black hole in space. May God above forget it ever happened. Erase it from the books! - even teenage angst has nothing on Job!). One of my favorite tales of crying out is from 1 Kings – Elijah is on the run. Jezebel wants him dead after his showdown with the prophets of Baal.

He flees and after leaving his servant in Beersheba, he goes another day into the wilderness finally coming to rest under a solitary broom tree. Further into seclusion. There – this mighty prayer warrior of God, the one only recently prayed fire from the skies to prove the power of Yaweh...prays that he might die.

It is enough; now, O Lord, take away my life, for I am no better than my ancestors. Elijah is in a serious state of depression. He has had enough. He is saying “I can't do this any more Lord.” The work was stressful, exhausting, and it seemed to have accomplished nothing. The great miracle at Mount Carmel did not result in a lasting national revival or return to the Lord. Elijah probably hoped that the events on Mount Carmel would turn around Ahab and Jezebel and the leadership of Israel. But Elijah forgot that people reject God despite the evidence, not because of the evidence.

He says he is no better than his ancestors. When he looks at the apparent failure of his ministry he instinctively blames his own unworthiness.

I think we can all relate to Elijah's despair. At some point in our lives we've all gotten to the point where we say, “what's the point? I can't go on. I don't want to go on.” Most of us have gotten to the end of our rope at some point in our lives. Maybe we were overwhelmed by a family issue or something at work or even felt burned out in our faith or church ministry. Perhaps you or someone you know has even lay under the broom tree and wanted to give up completely. Prayed for death.

God didn't grant Elijah's prayer for death. He gave him something else.

In the midst of this great despair, God sent an angel. Not with a pep talk...he took care of Elijah's physical needs first. This is not always His order, but physical needs are important. Sometimes the most spiritual thing a person can do is get enough rest and replenishment.

God sent Elijah on a 200 mile, 40 day trip to Mount Horeb, also known as Mount Sinai. God didn't demand an immediate recovery – he allowed his prophet time to recover from his spiritual depression. Lamenting and mourning. They are a natural response to challenges in life.

Then the word of the Lord came to him, saying, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” How often have we heard that? Sometimes when we think things are starting to smooth out – God says, “What are you doing here?” God knew the answer, but he allowed Elijah to speak freely and unburden his heart:

Elijah answered, “I have been very zealous for the Lord, the God of hosts; for the Israelites have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword. I alone am left, and they are seeking my life, to take it away. He protests to God, “I have faithfully served You and now look at the danger I'm in!” To Elijah – and many servants of God since – it seemed unfair that a faithful servant of God should be made to suffer. And strangely, the reasons that Elijah provided for wanting to give up, are actually the critical reasons he should stay alive! If he really was the last prophet or believer alive, should he not seek to live as long as possible? If the enemies of God like Jezebel wanted him dead, shouldn't he seek to defeat her wicked ways? But this is what fear and unbelief will cause in us!

So, what did God do after he let Elijah vent? After Elijah said, “I've served you faithfully but now I'm running for my life and the children of Israel have broken their covenant, torn down your altars and killed your prophets and I'm all that's left...” “I'm really, really good and they're really, really bad. Life isn't fair. Nobody loves me, everybody hates me, I think I'll eat a worm....”

God says, “Go out and stand on the mountain before the Lord, for the Lord is about to pass by.” Oh man. Get ready. Daddy's home and now you're gonna get it. The last time God manifested himself on this mountain Moses' face glowed so much that people were frightened of him.

Now there was a great wind, so strong that it was splitting mountains and breaking rocks in pieces before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake, but theLord was not in the earthquake; and after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire; and after the fire a sound of sheer silence.

Elijah cried out to the Lord and Lord let him know who was in the driver's seat.

Elijah knew. He sensed the presence. He wrapped his face in his mantle and stood at the entrance of the cave. He knew that God was present in the still small voice, the gentle whisper – in a way that He was not in the more dramatic phenomenon. Because of that special presence of God, Elijah humbled himself by covering his face. He was subdued. He was awe-stricken. Full of reverence. Oh, what a wondrous thing. To be humble enough to admit that we are human. Sinners. In need of grace.

And then the voice of God asked again, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”

I'm not sure that after a wind that was breaking rocks or an earthquake or fire...that I would have had the guts to give the same answer as before...but Elijah says again, perhaps more humbly? “I have been very zealous for the Lord, the God of hosts; for the Israelites have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword. I alone am left, and they are seeking my life, to take it away.”

There is nothing wrong with his answer. It is an honest answer. “I've been working for you faithfully, I feel all alone and I fear for my life.” I think we all agree that we have felt this way – maybe we don't have the death threat over our heads from Jezebel. Maybe we fear something else for our lives. Maybe we are afraid that our friends won't understand if we are a prophet for the Lord. Maybe we are afraid that our lives will change if we become zealous about our faith. Maybe there is something that we don't want to give up in our lives.

Perhaps we are feeling all alone in our walk. Perhaps we think nobody cares enough about the ministry of the church that we are most passionate about. Maybe we are still laying under the broom tree hoping for an angel to come and give us hope and encouragement.

God's answer to Elijah was not what I expected. If I were Elijah I would have been hoping for a “well done my good and faithful servant, here's your cushy arm chair and an unlimited supply of snacks.” I might have settled for “you poor thing. Why don't you take a vacation and go contemplate the stars and the vastness of the universe?” I sure wouldn't have wanted God's answer to Elijah.

“Go, return on your way to the wilderness of Damascus; when you arrive, you shall anoint Hazael as king over Aram”...and so on, and so on...

A work assignment? Really?

But that is exactly what Elijah needed. Something to do. He needed a task to focus on so he could avoid excessive introspection. He needed to stop looking at himself and his own (admittedly difficult) circumstances. He needed to get on with what God wanted him to do. He sent him off about his Master's business again. I will bet you that when he went back over that road, it was with a different step than what brought him down to Beersheba. He came along terrified and depressed; now he goes back having witnessed majesty. He's not going to be afraid of Jezebel now!

Elijah is like all of us – we can be overwhelmed and burned out. We can feel lost and alone. God provided exactly what Elijah needed. Rest and rejuvenation, time for reflection, a glimpse of his majesty and power – and then the last piece: a kick in the pants.

Lament – sure. Life is hard sometimes.

Cry out – recognize there is something more powerful than you at work here.

Mourn – but then you've got to go to the next step.

Move on. Get back to why we are here. Show love to everyone you meet. Take the gift of God's love and spread it all around. Love – it's the KEY!

In his commentary on Galatians 6:10, Jerome tells a famous story of "blessed John the evangelist" in extreme old age at Ephesus. He used to be carried into the congregation in the arms of his disciples and was unable to say anything except, "Little children, love one another." At last, wearied that he always spoke the same words, they asked: "Master, why do you always say this?" "Because," he replied, "it is the Lord's command, and if this only is done, it is enough."

Listen again to Psalm 130 from Eugene Peterson's The Message:

Help, God—the bottom has fallen out of my life!
Master, hear my cry for help!
Listen hard! Open your ears!
Listen to my cries for mercy.

If you, God, kept records on wrongdoings,
who would stand a chance?
As it turns out, forgiveness is your habit,
and that’s why you’re worshiped.

I pray to God—my life a prayer—
and wait for what he’ll say and do.
My life’s on the line before God, my Lord,
waiting and watching till morning,
waiting and watching till morning.

O my people, wait and watch for God—
with God’s arrival comes love,
with God’s arrival comes generous redemption.
No doubt about it—he’ll redeem his people,
buy back us all from captivity to sin.

O Father, thank you for being so in love with us. Even though we are a big old mess. Forgive us when we whine and want our way. Help us to believe in your power and your unconditional love. Help us to be patient with each other. Let your church be a shining beacon reflecting your love.