Sermon - Psalms of complaint (Psalm 22)

I know you've all been waiting (whoever you are), so here's my latest sermon.

Psalm 22: Psalms of complaint

#3 Complaining to God is legitimate

#4 Sometimes we need to initiate – God then accommodates

#2 Saying that something is not right with the world is true!

#5 Prayers of complaint always end in trust in God and praise for God

#5 Articulation, submission, relinquishment

#1 God's word is not just about God, but also about us and how we relate with God

#3 The world is not a good place – we have a right to complain about it

Words

Last weekend, millions of people would have been sitting in churches somewhere in the world and heard the words of Jesus when he was on the cross, “Eloi, eloi, lama sabachthani”, and they would have heard that this means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”. And I dare say that a number of them, hearing those words, wonder at why Jesus said them. Perhaps you have wondered at those words before. I know when I first became a Christian, and probably for several years, I didn't really understand what those words meant. I mean, didn't Jesus know what he was getting into? Isn't that the point of the garden of Gethsemane, where he says, “Not my will, but yours be done”? So why does he now have to ask this question? Doesn't he know why God is forsaking him? It's the whole point of his mission to earth, so we hear at Easter – that Jesus comes to die on the cross, paying the price of death that we deserve for our rebellion against God. Our sin went onto Jesus, and God turned his face away from him, treated him as the criminal, punished him instead of us. Jesus was forsaken, as he had to be. So why ask, “Why have you forsaken me”?

If it doesn't seem obvious to you, then chances are you don't know your psalms as well as the Jews who were around at the time of Jesus' death would have known them. For us, the cry, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” sounds like a cry for understanding. But for a Jew who knows their psalms, it is the first line of King David's psalm 22. “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, so far from the words of my groaning?” In fact, when we read this psalm, looking back on the events of Good Friday, we see that any Jew who knew their psalms would have been shocked at the similarity between what was happening to Jesus, and what is in that psalm. In verse 6 we read that the psalmist is scorned and despised. In verse 7 the people mock him and throw insults at him. In verse 8 we read words that are so similar to those used to mock Jesus, it is uncanny, “He trusts in the LORD," they say, "let the LORD rescue him. Let him deliver him, since he delights in him.” Later in verse 16 it says, “They pierce my hands and my feet” - wounds of a crucifixion. Verse 17 says, “I can count all my bones” - not a bone of Jesus' body was broken as he was crucified. Verse 18 says, “They divide my clothes among them and cast lots for my garments.” And we see the very thing happening to Jesus' clothes while he is on the cross.

You could be forgiven for thinking that this psalm was written by someone watching the sufferings of Jesus. But rather, it was written nearly some 1,000 years before by the king God chose over Israel, King David. When David wrote it, he had little conception of a messiah coming after him. He wrote from his own sufferings, his own persecution, his own bad situation. He wrote it as a complaint to God. David had his own fair share of bad experiences in life, and at one such time he penned this psalm, complaining to God about his situation.

Now when I say the word “complaint”, I think the first picture that would pop into our minds is that of a crying child saying something like, “It's not fair!” or “I don't wanna!” I think as a culture we tell people not to complain. When a child doesn't like its vegetables, we tell them, “Don't complain. You are much better off than those starving kids in . They would love to eat what you're eating,” and so we tell them that you're not allowed to complain if there is someone in a situation worse than yours. If they get beaten up at school, we tell them, “Don't complain, do something about it,” and so we tell them that complaining is not an active response to something bad happening. If they get bad marks in an exam, we tell them, “Don't complain, it's your own fault. You should have worked harder,” so telling them that the bad things that happen in life are generally your own fault, and its up to you to solve them. If they make a bad decision or someone takes advantage of them, we say, “Don't complain. That's the way life is. Get used to it,” so telling them that there's sometimes nothing you can do to change a situation – that life is just full of sorrow and pain. And if something really bad happens, we tell them, “Don't complain, God has everything under control,” and so we tell them that God wants it to happen that way, and if it's God's will, we shouldn't complain about it.

Yet, when someone does something that we are not happy with, or we think is wrong, or when we think we have been hard done by or we deserve a second chance, what do we grown ups do? We complain! If we are served something in a restaurant we don't like, we complain to the cook, we complain to the waiter, we complain to the other customers around us. If we get beaten up, we complain to the police, we complain to the government, we complain to the newspapers! If we aren't happy with our marks, we complain to our lecturer, we complain to a moderator, we complain to the university department, we complain to an appeals board. If we feel like we've been ripped off by someone, we go to court and we complain to a judge! And if we don't think the judge made the right decision, we appeal the decision and complain some more!

In Australia, we have a technical term for such a person – whinger. Being called a whinger is not a flattering term, is it? But when someone faces a situation of injustice or something is happening that we don't like, we always complain about it. We let people know that we think it's wrong and that we think it should change. Do we call those of us who protested against the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan whingers? Those who protested against Aboriginal discrimination, whingers? Who protested for women's rights, whingers? Who protested for worker's rights, whingers? Who protested against slavery – was Willam Wilberforce a whinger? So we will complain to our governments for change. But can we complain to God? Isn't it disrespectful to do so? Aren't we meant to just praise God and thank him? Aren't we objects of God's mercy?

Well, you might be surprised to learn, as I was, that the book of psalms contains more complaints to God than any other kind of psalm. There are more complaints than there are songs about God as king. There are more complaints than there are praises. There are more complaints than there are thanksgiving psalms. More complaints than blessings, than curses, than victory psalms – as one scholar (Gunkel) has said, complaints make up the 'basic material' of the psalms! Psalms 3, 5, 6, 7, 13, 17, 22, 25, 26, 27, 28, 31, 35, 38, 39, 40, 42, 43, 51, 54, 55, 56, 57, 59, 61, 63, 64, 69, 70, 71, 86, 88, 102, 108, 109, 120, 130, 139, 140, 141, 142, and 143 are all psalms of individual complaint to God. These are only the psalms that follow the specific model of being a complaint made by an individual. If we include the communal complaints of Israel as a whole, and the psalms which contain elements of complaint, we would have an even longer list.

The very existence of these psalms in the Bible tells us four things that are important for us to know. First and foremost, their existence tells us that God's word is not just about God. It is also about how we humans relate to God. We as humans feature large in God's book! He wants us to know about him, but he also wants us to know how to relate to him! We don't just read the Bible to find out about God, his character, his will and his promises. We also read about how God wants us to relate to him. God doesn't just want us to be full of information about him – he wants us to be deep in relationship with him. The psalms are a vision to us of how we can relate to the God we learn about in the Bible.

The second thing we need to know from the existence of these psalms is that there is something wrong with the world. If there was nothing wrong, why would we complain so much? The truth is that the world is broken. Whether it be illness or natural disaster, where the natural brokenness off the world hurts us, or whether it be mocking, hatred and persecution inflicted on us by enemies, where other people hurt us, the fact is that there is something wrong with the world. You might say, “But doesn't God say he created the world, and it is very good?” Yes! But then we came along with sin and we messed it up. It's a good world – but broken. The broken bits are sharp, like a broken bottle, and they hurt us.

The third thing we need to know from these psalms is that we have a right to complain to God about the sharp, broken bits of the world. This is a huge, huge thing. And I don't know about you, but for me it can seem daunting, disrespectful. Who are we to complain about the world? God created us! Without him we wouldn't even exist! He put us in this world, which he made for us. Whose fault is it that it's broken? Our fault! What right do we have to complain? None! But God gives us the right. He listens. He writes the rules, and he says, “I give you the right to complain to me about the brokenness of the world.” This is part of the relationship that God wants us to have with him. He wants us to recognise that the world is broken, he wants us to mourn it, and he wants us to come to him about it. It's not whinging! God has made in us a longing for a perfect world where there won't be any hunger, or suffering, or pain, or persecution, or evil of any kind. He wants us to know that this ain't it.

Finally, the fourth thing we learn from the existence of these complaining psalms in the Bible is that God wants us to initiate the conversation. He wants us to come and ask for help. Now, you might think this is harsh. And sometimes, sometimes it feels really awful. The first verse of psalm 22 wrenches the heart, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, so far from the words of my groaning?” You might picture a little child in a supermarket who has hurt themselves and is crying, and the parent is standing just a few feet away, but doesn't step over to help the child. The child wails and cries, but until it asks for help, the parent stays back and lets the child suffer. It's a terrible picture. Why is no-one helping that child? But God wants us to realise that we have to have faith in him, we have to call out to him. We have to learn to know that he is in charge, and that only he can make things better. We have to initiate – God will then accommodate.

Keep these four things in mind when reading these psalms of complaint. They exist to help show us how we can relate to God, they affirm that there is something wrong with the world, they show us that God has given us a right to complain to him about the wrong things in the world, and they tell us that we have to initiate the conversation with God. These psalms really are a gift to us, to all Christians, and when you think about why they exist, it is little wonder that there are so many, and that they are so appealing and can be so comforting.

I said before that these psalms of complaint follow a model, and they do. They are poetic, and like all (good) poetry they follow a pattern that can be distinguished. For your interest, that poetic pattern looks like this (thank you Lasor, Hubbard and Bush) – all psalms of complaint contain these elements: (1) A cry to God for help; (2) A stylised description of the crisis that is being complained about – so like the bulls of Bashan surround me, or the lions tear at my flesh, or I am being poured out like water; (3)An affirmation of trust; (4) A series of petitions to God for help; (5) An additional argument or appeal to God; (6) A vow or promise of praise for God's help; and (7) An assurance of being heard by God.

This is a fine model, and if we were all going to go away and write a psalm of complaint, I would look at this more deeply. But what I would like to look at instead this morning is how we actually should complain to God, and what will happen when we do. Because I think that while I know there are one or two gifted poets here, the rest of us will struggle simply to put this stuff into practice in our own prayer lives, let alone to shape it into a poetic form that we can share with others. Of course, if you are gifted in poetry or song writing, perhaps you would give thought to writing such a complaint? As churches, I think we have lost something of our communal relationship with God by not having modern songs and psalms of lament and complaint that we can share together. The vast majority of modern Christian songs are, I think, praise and worship, and that is great! But I think the occasional song of lament, of complaint - asking why, petitioning God for help, affirming our trust in him and displaying our assurance that we are heard by God – would be of huge benefit to the church. So I won't name any names, but you songwriters out there know who you are, so get cracking.

For the rest of us, though, how do we use these psalms of complaint to help us reach God with our laments, our complaints, or pains and sufferings? For this, I want to use a much simpler model for complaint psalms that is given by a scholar called Walter Brugemann. He says that the key to understanding the complaint psalms is to recognise that when we complaint to God, we must follow three steps – articulation, submission and relinquishment. Brugemann is a scholar, so he likes big words. I prefer to say that we need to follow three steps – we need to let it out, then we need to put it down, and then we need to give it up.

So firstly, we have to let it out. These are prayers of complaint! They contain our hurt, our anger, our upset, our pain. We are complaining to God that this is not the way it should be! We are complaining that we are going through all this hurt and suffering, and God is nowhere to be seen! Day after day the pain continues, and yet God seems to just let it keep happening! We are complaining that the world is broken, that its sharp edges hurt, and we want something done about it! This step of articulation means we have to come to terms with the way we feel. Yes, of course God is there, and yes, we know he loves us, and yes, we know he is all mighty, and we know we are saved. But it still hurts! We still feel bad! Anyone can tell you that just because you know something is true doesn't make the pain or emotional anguish go away. So articulate it. Let it out. Tell God how you feel. Ask him those hard questions. Why are you suffering? Why did this bad thing happen? Why hasn't he come back yet to make it all better?

It might sound terrible to us, but this is how the psalms do it. This is how David did it. This is how Jesus did it. “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Jesus knew full well why he was forsaken – it was God's plan! But he still lets it out. He articulates the pain and the hurt that he feels there on the cross. Verse 2 says, “My God, I cry out by day, but you do not answer, by night, but I find no rest.” David feels like God is not listening, so he lets God know that's how he feels. He tells God in verse 6 he feels like a worm, because of the scorns and insults people are heaping on him. He feels like he's under attack by powerful bulls, like he's being torn apart by hungry lions. He feels beset on every side, and he lets God know. He even tells God that he feels like God himself is laying him down in the dust to die, like he feels there is no-one to help him. He tells God what he wishes God would do - “Don't be far from me, come quickly to help me, deliver me, rescue me, save me!” He lets it all out to God.

So go ahead and let it out to God! Tell God how you feel. Tell him how you see the situation. Tell him what's happening to you, how you wish it was different. Tell him what you wish he would do. God knows you are hurting, he knows you are angry. He knows the world is broken, and he wants you to initiate the conversation. He wants you to approach him with it. If all we ever do is praise God and thank him and worship him and never approach him with how we really feel, the problems we really face, the hurt we really have, we aren't in relationship with God. We're being fake. God doesn't want fake. He wants us to let it out.

You might think that sounds hard, but really, it's the easy part. Because after we let it out to God, we then have to put it down before God. We have to submit to God. We have to accept that God is in charge over this issue. We can tell him how we wish he would deal with it. We can tell him what we want. But we have to put our hurt and our pain down at God's feet and say, “This hurts, and I want you to take care of it, because I can't.” When we look at psalm 22, we can see how this takes shape for David, how he puts down his troubles before God. To him, God feels far away. But in verses 3, 4 and 5 we see the truth of the matter, “Yet you are enthroned as the Holy One; you are the praise of Israel. In you our ancestors put their trust; they trusted and you delivered them. They cried to you and were saved; in you they trusted and were not disappointed.” David feels forsaken, but he knows that God delivers his people, and so he has to has to submit to that truth. You have to take the anger and hurt and pain of your circumstances, and put them down before a God who you know is all powerful, and all loving, and you have to accept that he is the only one who can deal with them. You have to submit to God's authority in the matter, recognise his pre-eminence over you - even your pain and suffering. In our prayers of complaint to God, we are not demanding that God resign his position as if it is somehow his fault. Your suffering and your pain are not some scandal that God must feel responsible for. God is in charge, and you are coming to God to set wrong things right. You don't go to court to blame the judge for your problems. You complain about what has happened to you, then you look to her to set things right. You have let out your feelings, now you must accept God's authority to take action.

Is that how you see God? Do you see him as a judge in authority who can arbitrate between you and a broken world, heal the wounds, make sure justice is done? Or do you see God as some politician on whom to heap blame, and try and make responsible, and push for his resignation? Because that is wrong. God is not beholden to us. Realise that if you are complaining to God about your life, you are also putting God in authority to be in charge of that life. We have to all learn to submit our lives to God, and accept that he is the one in charge, not us. That's what Jesus did on Good Friday.

Finally, we are told that the last step in the prayer of complaint is relinquishment. I've said that after we let it out, and we put it down, we finally have to give it up. For many of us I think this is the hardest step of all, because it means letting go of that situation which is causing us to suffer, and accepting that it belongs to God, and he will take care of it now. In the Bible, prayers of complaint always end in trust in God and praise for God. Complaining to God is a step of faith. We are taking it on faith that if we step out before God and bring him our problems, that he will accommodate us and deal with those problems. We have let it all out – all the anger, the pain, the suffering, the tragedy of our circumstances. We have then put it down at the feet of God, accepting his authority to deal with our life as he sees fit. In this final step, we give it up – we have to be prepared to walk away from that problem, trusting that God has it now, and will deal with it. So much faith should we have in God to deal with that problem, that we should be able to say, like David in the psalm in verse 24, “For he has not despised or scorned the suffering of the afflicted one; he has not hidden his face from him but has listened to his cry for help.” We should be so assured of God's action in our circumstance that we can say, as in verse 31 that future generations “will proclaim his righteousness, declaring to a people yet unborn: He has done it!”

Imagine you were in significant financial trouble. You can't pay your mortgage, or your credit card bills. You're in debt up to your ears. You even, in a panic, borrowed some money from some shady criminal types. The day is coming when all these debts are going to fall due, and you know you just can't pay. So you call out to someone for help. You pour out to them all the woes and troubles that you have had, and you beg them to help you with your trouble. Imagine they don't say anything back, but you know that every time someone has come to them, every single time, they have been helped. You know that whenever you've needed this person, they have been there for you. How well are you going to sleep that night? It all depends on how much you trust that person to be able to deal with that problem, doesn't it? How likely is it they can solve the problem, and how likely is it that they actually want to help you? That's what will determine whether you stay up worrying all night, or whether you sleep like a baby. And when someone asks you, “Hey Ben, how are things with you? How are your financial troubles?” if you really trust that person to solve the problem, you'll say, “They're fine. Been taken care of,” because they are as good as solved.

How many Christians do you think lost their jobs and their homes in the recent global financial crisis? For them, this would have been a real life situation, not just an imaginary story. How well did they sleep, I wonder. How well would I sleep? Could I give it up - my painful, worrisome situation - knowing that God has it under control? Some scholars think that the Israelites were so sure of God's answering their prayers that they would give thanksgiving offerings at the tabernacle or temple before they had even received the answer to their prayer. They would say, “He has done it!” Would you be prepared to put money down in expectation that God will surely answer your prayer, your complaint? That's what it means to relinquish – to give it up.

Let it out, put it down, give it up. That is how we should complain to God, how we should acknowledge his authority, and how we should expect action from him.

To close, I'm going to read a poem that I wrote in the form of a complaint to God. Seeing as I told all songwriters here to write one, I figured I should at least try. This is my complaint to God, but I hope that, like other individual complaints, it might help us all.

I call you my God,

but you're so far away.

Yet I know you are there,

so I ask every day.

Sometimes they attack me,

those who don't believe.

They jeer and they sneer,

but no help I receive.

Why is there suffering?

Why is there pain?

It's a fair enough question,

why don't you explain?

You, God, have made things

so hidden and vague,

while they ask, "Why the crusades?"

or "Why the black plague?"

Please, open your mouth, God!

To them, make it plain.

Help them see that a Christian

can still have a brain.

Show them they're mistaken,

When they say I'm a beast,

Like a greedy tele-evangelist,

or a paedophile priest.

Give me strength to continue

to stand up for what's right,

and not fall for the dark things

in which they delight.

I call out to you, father,

to make these blind ones see.

And I know that you'll do it,

because you did it for me.

Nothing to see here. Move along. There will probably be a sermon in this space soon.

Lamentations chapter 5

vs 12

The terrors of war that get forced on the losers quite regularly, unfortunately. Morale plays such a huge part in war. And Israel lost, and now their morale is being shot. God wants that, of course - let them be miserable in their punishment.

vs 13

Doing slave work. Because they are slaves. No longer free people with their own land.

vs 14

Nothing to celebrate, and nothing to lead.

vs 15

Little wonder. It's hard to do anything but mourn in such a circumstance.

vs 16

And that is the crux of the matter. They sinned. They're copping it. They've lost their treasured status, or at least they are seeing what it's like to have God turn his face away. And it's nasty.

vs 17 and 18

I put these two verses together so they make sense. Like I said earlier, their morale is broken, they have faced terrible things, they begin to lose hope from it.

vs 19

This is not simple praise in my opinion. This is a build up to the next verse. This is a true statement about God, but it is going to be used for the basis of a question. So God's throne is eternal...

vs 20

Always! That is emotive language. Although if anyone can say it, I guess it's Jeremiah. And the truth is that Jeremiah knows that God doesn't 'always' forget, and he knows why God has forsaken them. But at this moment, when he writes, it doesn't seem fair. He's just being honest about how he feels, probably how lots of people feel.

vs 21

Jeremiah knows that only God can restore this relationship, and the people desperately want it. They realise now that the good old days of God's rule were actually good. Too late, of course. But at least the lesson is learned. They will be returned to God, although nothing like the good old days will come for 70 or so years.

vs 22

This could be an option, and this is always the scary thing. God has no force to compel him to love us or look after us beyond his own nature. We don't do anything to endear ourselves to him most of the time, and we certainly don't live up to his standards of perfection. The thought that this might be the end - that God might have another people chosen for himself, and that the relationship is broken - I can't think of anything worse.

Lamentations chapter 5

Feels good to get back t Lamentations, even if only for a day, before I start stressing about my next sermon. Good might not be the right word for Lamentations, obviously.

vs 1

I doubt the Lord will have trouble remembering, since he was the one that caused it. But I suppose that if God remembers what happened to them, he is also remembering them.

vs 2

Not just their homes, but their inheritance. And not just what they would pass to their own children, but what they indeed were provided with by God himself. The land promised to Israel is now in the hands of non-Israel.

vs 3

Often happens in times of war. Especially to the losing side.

vs 4

We might say, "Wood, what?" They mean for cooking fires. So they can't even draw from wells or chop down trees - everything has been taken from them and is now sold back at a price.

vs 5

When you are fleeing for your life, and being pursued, you can't really afford to stop, no matter how tired you get. Why are they fleeing? It could be the group that Jeremiah got caught up in that are fleeing to Egypt, or it could just be that people want to kill themselves an Israeli every now and again.

vs 6

Oh, well, dog my cats if I didn't just mention that!

vs 7

Well, come now Jeremiah. I mean, in a sense we know what you say is true - and certainly God has held back his judgment for some time, even though the previous generations were still sinful. This is quite a painful truth, isn't it?

But the fact is that every generation's sin deserves this punishment. So it's not like they didn't cop something they deserved. Still, why one and not the other? Obviously God feels that we are in some way responsible for the sins of our parents, Mr Howard.

vs 8

Now that has got to suck. I mean, if you are under the control of a slave, how low are you? "Yeah, I'm a slave." "Oh, who is your master?" "That slave." Wow.

vs 9

That sounds like arabic marauders, if you'll pardon my saying so. I suppose they fled into the desert to escape the attacking army, only to find that the desert really isn't all that safe.

vs 10

Fleeing into the desert must suck.

vs 11

An unfortunate but ever-present, it seems, mark of war. I really can't stand the thought of it. Glad my reading ends here.

Sermon: Luke 19: 28-48 - Triumphal Entry and Temple Cleansing

P.S. - One of the most difficult topics I've had in a long time. Narrative passages are always difficult, and this was no exception.

Jesus as king – Zechariah 9:9 (the whole point of the entry)

- riding a donkey means riding in peace

People's acceptance (based on prophecy, also on Jesus' miracles)

Jesus as Lord (God calls items to need when he needs them)

What is Jesus' opinion – despite the greeting, they have not recognised the Christ “that will bring them peace”

Jesus drives traders out of the temple – evidence of the city's attitude to God

Religious leaders have denied him – trying to kill him

Words

If you have someone important coming over to your house, do you prepare for it? Your parents, perhaps, or your boss, or some important business partner, maybe a member of parliament – whoever the important people are that you generally have around for dinner, when you know they're coming, do you change anything in your house? Clean up a bit, perhaps? Cook something special? Use the best glasses and silverware? We might call this the red carpet treatment, and although we don't see red carpets used a lot any more, one place you still see them regularly is at big movie premieres. When the movie is showing for the first time, and all the movie stars and directors and producers are going in their best dresses and suits, pulling up in their limousines, they roll out the red carpet for them. And you know it's just for them, because if you go and see the movie the next day, they don't roll out any carpet for you. They just rip your ticket in half, point you towards the cinema your movie is in, and charge you an excessively large price for popcorn.

Important people are treated importantly, and there is nothing wrong with that. It is all part of how we show that we respect and admire those people for what they do. Political leaders, for example, deserve to be respected because they work hard at their jobs of leading and managing our country. We are not fantastic at such respect here in Australia. We call our Prime Minister Kev, you can just walk up and shake his hand, and if you want to argue with him or make fun of him in a TV interview, you just do it. America is really good at respecting their leaders though – everyone always addresses the president as Mr President, everyone must stand when he enters the room, you are even restricted in the sorts of questions you can ask him and how you treat him – no yelling at the president or making bad jokes at his expense on television.

Now, these days with private planes and helicopters and such, our leaders travel around a lot more than they used to. It used to be that if your country's leader left to go somewhere, that was a big deal. Usually it was only for a war or for an important political matter that they would leave, because the travel could take weeks or months, and so when they would return people would come out in groups to greet them, because it was quite an event. So now imagine this – that instead of your country's leader being away for weeks, or months, or even years, imagine he has been away for centuries. A leader who you knew would one day come and lead your people into a time of peace and wealth and happiness. A king that God himself promised he would send.

In Luke's gospel in chapter 19, we read of exactly this happening. A man called Jesus has spent several years moving around the towns and villages of the land, preaching, teaching, even performing miracles, and generally bringing the message that God's promised king has arrived, and that he is that king. Now, as he has always planned, Jesus finally makes his way to Jerusalem, his nation's capital. There is an air of anticipation as to how he is going to be received there. He is followed by a large group of people, hundreds of people who call themselves his disciples, his students. But he stops just outside the city, on a hill, because there is a problem. As king, one does not simply walk into Jerusalem. He should be properly mounted, and properly greeted. Jesus, of course, is not your regular sort of king. He wasn't born in a palace, he was born in a stable. He wasn't rich, he was the son of a carpenter. And he didn't travel around mounted on a noble steed, he walked around like a common man.

But this was going to be his grand entrance, so he tells two of his disciples to go into town and fetch him a colt, in this case it turns out to be a young donkey. Jesus doesn't want just any colt, though. Jesus wants a specific colt. He tells his disciples where they will find it tied, and what is so special about it. It has never been ridden before . Requesting such a thing is very bold, because only powerful royalty, or in fact God himself, can request to use something that has never before been used. To claim the first ride of a young donkey is quite an honour – especially when it's not even your donkey!

Imagine if you'd just bought a new car, had it delivered to your front yard, it has never been driven before, you're aching to take it out for a spin, see how it handles, enjoy that new car smell. But then, a couple of guys turn up and take the keys and hop in, about to drive it off. What would you do? You'd say, “Oi! What do you think you're doing with my brand new car?” And rightly so. Jesus had thought of this eventuality, though. He told his disciples that if anyone is to ask why they are untying this donkey and leading it away, they are to respond, “The Lord needs it.” God needs it. So sure enough, they head down into the village, and they see the donkey exactly where Jesus said it would be. They start untying it, and the owner comes out and says, “Hey, what do you think you're doing with my brand new donkey?” and the disciples say, “Well, the Lord needs it.”

What if God was to call some precious thing of yours into his service? What would your response be? You see, you don't get told that it will be returned to you unscathed, or even at all. You might never see it again. You don't get told whether it's going to be used to achieve some special purpose, or if it's just going to be used as a symbol for God's power to take it away from you. You might say, “Well, of course, if God asked me to give it, I would give it gladly – my car, my house, my money, whatever.” Well, let me tell you something. I have seen several Christian parents, and grandparents, disagree with their children's decision to go and serve God overseas in difficult or dangerous places, because they are afraid of never seeing their grandchildren again, of something bad happening to them, or even of just seeing them less regularly. Think about that – if God called your children to become missionaries to a deadly place, if God was calling them to die in a faraway land, or to have one of their children die, one of your grandchildren die, what would you say to God? He comes and says, “The Lord needs it.” How would you respond?

The owners of this colt relent to this request, and the disciples come back to Jesus with his special, never-before-ridden donkey. It's important that it's a donkey, too. You might say, well, what difference does it make? Think of it like this – if a king enters a city at the head of his troops, inside a tank or an armoured car with a big gun on top, what sort of message is he sending? That is obviously a warrior king, ready for war and conquering. So, instead of riding a brilliant, large warhorse into Jerusalem, Jesus opts for the peaceful vehicle of the time – a donkey – an animal used by merchants, not soldiers. Jesus is the king that brings peace to his people, not war. There is another reason, too. This entry into Jerusalem was promised by God, prophesied beforehand in the book of Zechariah, 400 years earlier. In Zechariah 9:9 it states, “Rejoice greatly, O Daughter of Zion! Shout, Daughter of Jerusalem! See, your king comes to you, righteous and having salvation, gentle and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.” The king will come in peace, on a donkey, not warlike on a warhorse. That is how God has planned it, that is how Jesus does it.

And as Jesus rode into the city of Jerusalem, he was welcomed like a king. The Bible says that people were taking off their coats and laying them on the ground as his donkey approached, the ancient equivalent of rolling out the red carpet. They were also, as the prophecy of Zechariah says, joyfully praising God in loud voices, for all the miracles that they had seen Jesus do. Some shouted, “Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!”, others quoted Psalm 118 and said, “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord!” It's quite a fine procession, really – Jesus on someone's brand new donkey, disciples rolling out the red carpet by putting coats down on the road for him to travel over, and the shouts of praise and blessing as he rides towards the nation's capital, Jerusalem.

But then, some people come to try and ruin it. Specifically, these people are the ruling religious leaders in Jerusalem, the Pharisees. They don't like the fact that Jesus is proclaiming to have been sent by God. They don't appreciate the challenge that he is giving to their position as leaders by calling himself king, nor do they appreciate the trouble he might stir up with the ruling Roman governor by riding into Jerusalem as if he owns the place. So they come out and they tell Jesus, “Hey, teacher, tell your students to keep quiet. You're going to cause trouble.” The Pharisees might not be happy that their country is currently being ruled by a foreign power, but they also don't want unnecessary trouble being caused so close to the yearly passover feast. Besides, as far as they know, this Jesus can't be the promised king from God – he disagrees with the Pharisees too much. So they come out and tell him to make his disciples stop causing such a racket.

And they would be perfectly in their rights to do so, as well, except for one thing – Jesus really is the promised king from God. So no matter how much trouble it might cause, no matter how much they might disagree, Jesus is the king, and he must be greeted and welcomed on his way into the city. God demands it. And so Jesus says to the Pharisees, “I tell you, if they keep quiet, the stones themselves will cry out.” Jesus, the king from God, has come, and if the people do not sing his praises, the very stones will do it, because no-one can get in the way of the will of God. Things will happen the way God wants them to happen no matter what we do.

Now we imagine this picture – Jesus riding on someone else's brand new donkey, the disciples laying down their coats as a red carpet, and singing God's praises and blessings on Jesus as he rides into the city – and it sounds like an important procession. But unfortunately, it is fake. The king isn't fake – Jesus really is the king of the world, sent by God. The respect and admiration of the disciples isn't fake – no doubt they really believe what they were shouting. The fake part is the response of the city itself. They did not roll out the carpet. They did not sing God's praises. The only response Jesus got from the city was a bunch of Pharisees telling the disciples to keep the noise down. Jesus knows the ignorance of the people, and it upsets him. He weeps over the city and its rejection of the peace he offers them. These were his words as he approached the walls:

“If you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace—but now it is hidden from your eyes. The days will come on you when your enemies will build an embankment against you and encircle you and hem you in on every side. They will dash you to the ground, you and the children within your walls. They will not leave one stone on another, because you did not recognise the time of God's coming to you.”

Because Jesus' entry into the city of Jerusalem was not just the entry of a chosen king into a nation's capital. It was the time of God's coming – the entry of God himself, on earth, into his chosen city. Jesus, Son of God, has arrived at the city, offering peace. Not just peace from war, peace from other nations, or peace from internal dissent. God, in Jesus, is offering an eternal peace, peace with God forever, that we might no longer be God's enemies through our rebellion against him. But the people of the world, represented by those in Jerusalem, didn't accept him. They rejected or ignored him and his peaceful entry. And so Jesus wept for them, because when you make yourself an enemy of God, God always wins the fight, and you always lose.

The next day, Jesus entered the temple courts, and he found a gross example of the fact that the people were ignoring God. Inside the temple to God, merchants had set up shop. They were selling animals, oil, bread, salt and wine temple for sacrifices, offering money changing for paying of the temple tax, and possibly even selling trinkets or souvenirs to visitors. Now there is nothing wrong with selling these things. I mean, there's no rule saying you have to bring your sacrificial stuff all the way from your house a hundred miles away. You can buy it in town, of course. At the beginning of the book of Luke, Joseph and Mary take the baby Jesus to Jerusalem and make a sacrifice for him of two doves – which I'll bet they bought beforehand. But there is a difference between selling things that are needed, and taking up an area in the temple set aside for prayer as a marketplace. There is a difference between being a lawyer (a respectable profession) and chasing an ambulance to offer the person inside injury compensation. It's the difference between having a Christian bookstall outside the church hall, and having the preacher sell copies of his latest book in the middle of his sermon.

There is a place for doing such things, and the temple area set aside for prayer was not the right place. So Jesus goes in there and starts throwing tables over, driving out the businesspeople who are prepared to do their trading inside the temple. In doing this, he is setting out his authority. He's the one who the day before rode into town like a king. Now he's cleaning out the temple, showing his God-given authority over the place where God resides with his people. He's doing what the high priest or the Pharisees should have done, but were not doing. And as he turns the tables over and shoos the merchants out, he shouts at them God's words from the Bible. “My house will be a house of prayer” he says, quoting Isaiah regarding the future promise that God will call people to himself to worship him, but these merchants have made his house “a den of robbers”, now quoting Jeremiah when he stood at the temple gates and shouted at people for their false religion, for pretending to worship God.

This is exactly the situation Jesus found on arriving in Jerusalem – he came to bring peace to the people, peace with God so that they might be able to come into his presence and worship. What he found instead were people pretending to worship God, but really just doing their own thing. Jesus would stay in Jerusalem one more week, telling the people who he was, angering the leadership so much that they would plot to kill him. But people enjoyed listening to him, so it took a week until finally the leaders seize their chance and have him killed by nailing him to a cross. But he is the Son of God, so not even death can defeat him. Instead, he was raised to life three days later, to prove that everything he said was true – that he is the king sent by God, that he is God's son, and that he comes offering peace with God to those who will accept his authority.

How will you react to his approach? Jesus isn't just asking for your donkey. He is demanding your allegiance. He is king over the whole world, he is God, and he demands that you drop down on one knee and obey him. You might have lived your whole life like one of those people in the city, who was just ignorant about Jesus, or maybe a little bit interested to hear what he had to say, but never really thought about it too much, never took it seriously. Well, Jesus is offering you peace with God forever. Perhaps you have lived your life like one of the Pharisees – plotting against God, angry with him, working against his plan, telling him to keep the noise down so that you can get on with living your life the way you think it should be. Remember what I said – when you make an enemy of God, God always wins, and you always lose. But Jesus is riding his donkey of peace, and he is offering you amnesty for your rebellion against him. If you accept his authority as God, and change your attitude to be like one of the disciples, giving up things for him, laying down your coat for him, singing praise to him, then you, even you, can receive the peace that he has on offer.

Jesus promised he would return, and he said when he comes back, it won't be on a donkey. It will be on a warhorse. When he comes back, it's too late for peace. If you are his enemy, he will dash you to the ground. So take the offer of peace while it is still good, and surrender to Jesus, the Christ, the king of God. Pray with me now,

Heavenly father,

I acknowledge that you are the ruler over all the universe, over everything and everyone, including me. I recognise that you sent Jesus into this world as your king, God on earth, to bring us a message of peace. I apologise for rebelling against him, for ignoring him, or for not taking him seriously. I want to accept your offer of eternal peace with you, your offer of amnesty. I want to roll out the red carpet and welcome Jesus as Lord. Help me to become one of your disciples, to give up my donkey, to lay down my coat, to sing your praises and welcome Jesus in his rightful place as ruler over my life. By his authority I pray to you,

Amen

You may have prayed prayers like that many times, and there is no harm in doing it again. But if that was the first time you have ever seriously prayed to God to accept you as a disciple, then I would urge you to come and talk to me, or one of the members of this church, to find out more about what it means to be a student of Jesus. Peace in heaven and glory in the highest. Thanks for listening.

Lamentations chapter 4

vs 12

And of course they never could have, without God allowing it. It's interesting that Jerusalem had such a reputation across the world, or at the very least the Israelites thought they did.

vs 13

He still calls them prophets and priests, because they filled that office, despite the fact that they were totally doing the wrong thing and were not righteous.

vs 14

Whether they themselves recognise the huge role they have had to play in the fall of Jeruslam isn't quite clear from this verse, but what is damn clear is that other people recognise it.

vs 15

See, again, the idea that the Israelites know that it was the priests' fault is fine (Jeremiah was telling them as much all along), but how do the other nations know? Did the word of the prophets travel so far?

vs 16

The leaders and teachers are being judged more harshly than the common people. Paul doesn't pluck that concept out of the air.

vs 17

Everyone was waiting for someone, probably Egypt, to step in and help. It was never going to happen. They should have known better. They were just as blind.

vs 18

Not exactly sure what this means. Perhaps this is post-invasion, the marauders are still there, and when they see locals walking around they stalk them to see if they have anything left worth looting, or just to kill them for fun.

vs 19

Apparently they were really keen to make sure that whoever was from Jerusalem was killed or captured. Having them flee isn't good enough - they need to be flung to the far end of the empire to make sure they don't cause trouble.

vs 20

I assume he means the king. So not only are the priests and prophets for the most part useless, but even the king, in David's line, has been captured, possibly killed. Because apparently now they won't be living under him in the nations.

vs 21

Wait, Uz? You mean where Job lived? Anyway, I think the idea is that Edom, long a land of animosity to Israel, can cheer that their old enemy is gone, but the thing is Israel always acted as a bit of a northern shield for them, so now Edom is next. Ha ha ha, suck it, as it were.

vs 22

So while Israel and Edom might both get stomped, Jeremiah reminds his people that their punishment won't last forever. God will save them eventually. As for Edom? Tough. Punishment is all they can see.

Lamentations chapter 4

Back to the nice, safe, 22 verse chapters

vs 1

All that valuable stuff - I'm guessing that was inside the temple - it's not that it's lost its hard currency value, but it's been stripped from the temple, so it's lost its shininess. Or it might be the next verse explains what the gold is.

vs 2

See, perhaps it's the people of Zion that have lost their lustre. They always thought of themselves as a jewel in God's crown, as it were, living in David's City, with the temple. Now they realise that God has dumped his precious jewelled gold crown on the street - doesn't look like it's worth so much.

vs 3

Ostriches in the desert are heartless? See, this is why we need the Bible to point this out. I assume there is something about ostriches in the desert, like they don't feed their young or something.

vs 4

Children now find themselves suffering, as they are the dependents, unable to fend for themselves, and yet those who should look after them cannot, or do not.

vs 5

The transformation of lifestyle is stark, especially for the rich. It always is in these situations.

vs 6

Is he saying the punishment is worse because it is stretched out? Because the remnant is allowed to linger?

vs 7

I assume he's talking about Sodom?

vs 8

So Sodom didn't have a long suffering - everything got turned to ash and blown away. Even their princes.

vs 9

And that's exactly what those left alive are doing now - racking with hunger, wishing they were dead.

vs 10

Can you even imagine being so hungry? This was a reality of ancient life! I wonder what children's rights activists would say to this? I wonder if this still happens? I mean, we have lots of famine and starvation in the world still, but I never saw women cooking their children on TV.

vs 11

Damn right he did. At least, in pouring it out, it's out, as it were.

Lamentations chapter 3

vs 56

Can you just imagine the feeling of relief even just knowing that the Lord is listening to you cries, after this whole experience? Makes me feel just that little bit more special, thinking that God listens.

vs 57

What better comfort to the man in the pit of despair, and quite possibly the pit where they threw him? God is near. Everything else is details. If God is near, we need not fear.

vs 58

Redeem takes up a rather forceful meaning here, especially when used with the language, 'took up my case.' Who's the guilty one here? Isn't it the rampaging army of killers? No, it's Israel! It's Jeremiah too! They are the ones that need redemption. Jeremiah sees it, at least. No doubt, after this whole thing, Israel is opening its eyes too.

vs 59

Obviously nothing God does to people is wrong. But Jeremiah has actually been faithful to the Lord, and of course just because God allows a rampaging horde of warriors to ransack your town doesn't mean they are all righteous about it.

vs 60

Sounds like they really did pick on him because he was a prophet. Unless... oh, hell no. Could it be Israelites picking on him? Like, "Damn it, you should have told us! More often! And dragged us! You should have used powerpoint! You brought this on us!" I wonder.

vs 61

Now I really want to know who his enemies were. But anyway, it may become clear, and right now it is certainly clear that they are enemies. What is also clear to Jeremiah is that their antagonism hasn't gone unseen - God knows about it. God knows he's not lying.

vs 62

Not only does God know that Jeremiah is truthful, he also knows their plans. So he can foil them. Muhaha.

Hmm, evil laughs perhaps are not supposed to accompany God's plan.

vs 63

They write songs about him! I guess being a prophet is a bit like being a politician - a celebrity by necessity. I wonder what their mocking songs were like. Anything like Weird Al?

vs 64

Revenge is a dish best served up by an immortal omnipotent God who is on your side, bitches.

vs 65

That really does sound like it could be Israelites, but I suppose it still could mean both. The punishment of a veil over their hearts sounds more like something to use on the people of God, but then God hardened Pharoah's heart too.

vs 66

And this makes it sound more like they aren't God's people, for surely Jeremiah wouldn't want them destroyed. So still a mystery really, but with this verse in hand I'll vote foreign powers rather than locals for the moment.

Lamentations chapter 3

vs 45

Bam. Needed a bit of a reality check, it seems. From the apple of God's eye to the scum of the nations.

vs 46

I assume that means they laugh at you, rather than, you know, trying to eat you. But it could equally be a symbol of mockery or destruction in the context.

vs 47

All those things that Proverbs tells us happen to those who take the wrong path, interestingly. They certainly have suffered from it.

vs 48

The nation is such an important concept to them. At a time when most people really only had loyalty to their own city-state, this is quite a big difference. The understanding of the position of the community before God, and so your place in the community, and the suffering that comes on you when they suffer, is quite incredible. God made his promises to a people, so to see that people destroyed, even while you live, is heart-rending.

vs 49

Quite heart-rending.

vs 50

So wait, are you tears only there to get God's attention? Or is the suggestion that God will wipe the tears away, once he deigns to see it? I'm going for the second one.

vs 51

And I feel grief at that too, when I think about it. Women so often get punished unnecessarily in the ravages of war. Men at least die with a weapon in their hands. But there is something so often about war that brings out the beast in people, and rape and looting are way too common.

vs 52

Well, without cause except that they were invading, God was using them as a rod to punish his people, and he is one of the people. Still, scary stuff, no doubt, and I'd say Jeremiah feels he hasn't really done anything to make the Babylonians his enemies personally.

vs 53

Pit might even mean well, considering the next verse. They caught him, obviously, and throwing someone in a pit and throwing rocks at them is really quite awful. I wonder if they did this because he's a prophet?

vs 54

Much like Jonah, really. Or, I guess they could have been dunking his head in a trough or something.

vs 55

Very much like Jonah! Damn us humans, always waiting till we're in the depth of a pit or the bottom of the sea before we call out to God. Now, Jeremiah no doubt called to God many times before the seige, and probably during. And he knew nothing would save him. But I'm just talking about us generally.

Lamentations chapter 3

vs 34

We start here with a few questions about justice and fairness. Crushing prisoners, underfoot, for example - does this seem fair? Like something God wants to happen?

vs 35

Rights - what an interesting concept. I wonder how old the concept of rights is? The NASB gives 'justice', but even the KJV says, 'right'. Even the idea that there is a right to justice is interesting. Must one have a fundamental understanding of an authoritative just God for this belief?

vs 36

Uselessly, the three translating traditions I use all have something quite different here. The NASB I fear is too literal, though I haven't looked into it, merely compared it to the other two. You get the feeling they used the word 'justice' the verse before, and so now they're stumped. "Defraud a man of his lawsuit" just seems to not fit well. "Subvert a man in his cause" (KJV) again stumbles off the mind, as it were. The idea of rights might not be totally historically correct (it might!), but if it makes it understandable, then at least we get a sense of the meaning here.

And the point, we get to here as well. God sees these things! They are not going on behind his back.

vs 37

Not only do things happen with God's knowledge, but they also occur with his decree. We start getting into sticky territory here, active and permissive wills and such. I think we tend to make it too sticky. For Israel right at this second, God's will, decree, demand and direct power took the form of an army that smashed their city, killed their people, and took them into exile. Behind those murderers is God. He told them so. They have to accept that.

vs 38

The answer of course is yes. Calamity comes from God. Why are we so afraid of this? It is a hard truth, but once you accept it, at least you're not worried about what the 'other' power is that keeps doing bad to you.

vs 39

They shouldn't, obviously. Because it is, by its nature, a fair cop.

vs 40

Because that was the big problem - turning away from God. And if you make it so that it takes an army to drag you back, then God will use it. Painful thought.

vs 41

A useless verse on its own, really. But the fact is that God must be approached in their situation. It does them no good to just sit and speculate, as in the last verse. They must then come before God.

vs 42

Right on all three counts, although 'not forgiven yet' might be more correct.

vs 43

What a picture - covering oneself with anger. God harnesses the rage, as it were, and lets his anger do the talking with Israel for a while. Not even long, really - but long enough that they feel it pretty bad.

vs 44

I can't imagine anything scarier than God taking his phone off the hook. Damn, you did something bad.

Lamentations chapter 3

vs 23

Jeremiah has just started telling us how great God's compassion, love and faithfulness are, even in the face of tragedy.

The idea that compassion is new every day is really nice. Even though we might stuff up daily, God looks at us with fresh, shiny, new love. And he is faithful, which is really quite important in a god. Who wants a god who you can't trust?

vs 24

Portion is more like inheritance and less like part of a meal, I think. The idea that God is your inheritance, something that is undeserved and not worked for, that all you can do is wait on him, that's a very strong picture. Doubly so for the jew, who feels that inheritance strongly through the land and historic relationship with God.

vs 25

At this point Israel might say, "But we cried out to God, and he let our city fall to the enemy? How is that good? We had hoped he would save us!" Nice try. But Israel's hope wasn't in God at all, by this point. Hence the punishment. They didn't seek him until the army were knocking the walls down. You've got to follow God's rules of hope and faith and waiting and trusting. Doing it when convenient is a nice way to have God rip the carpet out from under you.

vs 26

Jeremiah is probably feeling pretty quiet at the moment. I mean, humble quiet. He may well be wailing and lamenting, but he's not about to get all, "Told you so" preachy.

vs 27

The yoke of this lesson of humility and suffering, I think. Better to understand God's discipline while young, rather than learn the misery of it when old, when they are your children who are dying.

vs 28

The silence has come from God. It's a pretty awful silence - the silence of defeat. But it should help them to recognise the importance, the potency, of God's discipline, help them to recognise the evil that led them to this spot.

vs 29

Let them mourn, then. Let them realise how sad it is that they have come to a place where they need to be punished this hard. And let them see that they are still alive, and while God's people exist, there is hope for them.

vs 30

Turn the other cheek, eh? Jesus was a lot of things, but creative isn't one of them. It's interesting to see it in this context, though - the idea of non-retaliation is in the context of accepting the pain of the exile for the purpose of realising their fault.

vs 31

This is a big idea. Without realising that people can be separated from God, but he won't leave them languishing forever, we could feel that his discipline is really him telling us to go away, pushing us away. But it's not. God treats us like children so that he might accept us as family.

vs 32

Grief, compassion, and love, all from God. Hard to fathom, sometimes. The more and more I read this, the more and more I realise that there are others who need this message so much more than I do. I'm thankful to be being equipped with it.

vs 33

Willingly... he still does it, but it's not like he wants to? I think that's the idea that they're going with here. There is so much tied up in this idea of what God wants, and what he doesn't really want but still does. The thing is, he wants a result, and he knows perfectly how to get it. The means aren't justified because of the ends - but they are justified because of the perfect wisdom of God.

Lamentations chapter 3

vs 12

God's attack has really been relentless.

vs 13

Obviously, someone only attacks their enemies, and so God here has made Jeremiah an enemy for his purposes.

vs 14

Who's laughing now?

vs 15

No doubt that means something. It sounds rather awful. Does it mean he's being dressed up as if to be cooked? Or buried? Or just that he feels ill? Can't say.

vs 16

Ouch. A picture of quite malicious destruction if you ask me.

vs 17

What an awful position to be in. How can you have hope when you can't even remember what to hope for? This is where God put him! To suffer this, for the sake of being a picture for the people.

vs 18

What did I say about hope? There it is, exactly so. That's the picture God wanted from Jeremiah. He got such the ass end of prophecy. I'm surprised he stuck to his guns. He must have doubted so often that what he had was from God. It was so awful.

vs 19

No doubt he remembers it, now that he sees what it was meant to represent.

vs 20

Not just because they were depressing, but they were a preparation for the reality, which he now sees.

vs 21

There is something that calls forth hope! Gosh. It's almost surprising to hear.

vs 22

It hurts, it hurts like a bitch, they are down... but they are not out. And that shows that God still cares. An army marched through their land. It could have just wiped them off the face of the earth. But no, God has kept his people, even through punishment.

Lamentations chapter 3

Whillikers! 66 verses!

vs 1

Meaning perhaps both that he was there to see the city fall, but he's also been a picture of suffering for Jerusalem's people too.

vs 2

That could be a reference to him having to leave Jerusalem when he got dragged off to Egypt. Could be a reference to just how black he feels having seen his beloved city fall.

vs 3

Jeremiah has every right to say that. He has had one of the most dogged of times as a prophet. And he knows it's from God. He's done things that are woeful and depressing and painful, to send God's message, which he was told beforehand they wouldn't listen to.

vs 4

Well, everyone gets old. I don't remember Jeremiah getting any broken bones, though. I guess I know what I'll be reading next. Oh boy.

vs 5

Jeremiah was an example to the people, in the same way that Jerusalem falling was. Instead of being beseiged by an army, he was beseiged by bitterness and hardship.

vs 6

Darkness of despair at knowing what's coming, I'm guessing.

vs 7

Poor guy - he did exactly what God wanted, knowing how bad it was going to be, but almost out of a sense of being caught up in it, and not being able to do anything else.

vs 8

That's how all of Israel feels now. By now, I mean right at this moment in history of Lamentations.

vs 9

Talk about railroading.

vs 10

Oh dear, they're not nice pictures.

vs 11

Eep! What an awful picture. God jumps out, grabs you, drags you off your path, and mangles you, leaving you in pain, suffering, and helpless. How do you fight that? You can't obviously, and that's what Jeremiah is talking about.

Lamentations chapter 2

vs 12

Little starving children - Jeremiah knew the secrets of heart rending emotional pull way back then.

vs 13

Normally you try and say something, but this is just so bad. God has torn himself from you, there really isn't curative words for that.

vs 14

The hidden message here is, "EXCEPT FOR MINE, AND YOU DIDN'T LISTEN TO ME YOU DAFT BUGGERS!"

vs 15

Hard to judge a city by its ruins, especially so soon after, when the smoke is still clearing and the bodies still lying around. It's interesting to think that Jerusalem had such a reputation, still.

vs 16

Of course they're happy. Jerusalem historically was a thorn in the ass of a few big nations for way too long. It's like a border city between two warring empires. That it existed free as long as it did is really a huge miracle all its own.

vs 17

Israel thus descends, and the power of another nation ascends. That won't last, but the mark of this exile, the time when God finally called in a promise he made oh so many generations ago, will stick with his people forever.

vs 18

This was the whole point, wasn't it? To make the people call out to God? I guess it depends what they're calling out. Then he gives this picture of the very walls of the city itself weeping for what has happened. The city, in that sense, is a hapless bystander. It did what it could.

vs 19

Not sure if this is still talking to the walls, or to the people now.

The children starving are quite important to Jeremiah. And I think God would want his people not to forget their responsibility to such. I know it's a hard time, and mostly I'm sure it's just painting a picture for us of the devestation. But I think there is still that godly concern for the weak there.

vs 20

Well, in fact, any city that sat under a lengthy seige has suffered thusly. And Israel killed a bunch of priests and prophets in their time, and laid seige to many cities too.

When has Israel ever had to do it, though? I think that's his point.

vs 21

This bit of the prayer makes me think the walls are praying this prayer. It really does sound like a mega slaughter. It's awful.

vs 22

The destruction is so thorough that the walls weep for the destruction that has been wrought inside them. They couldn't protect their people, but that wasn't really their job. It was only ever God who would protect them. And he decided, finally, to stop.

Lamentations chapter 2

vs 1

So God is really angry with Israel. Not sure about the footstool thing. There are other passages of Scripture that describe God as using the evil nations as his footstool, I believe. So it could be that God is angry, but instead of taking it out on the evil nations, like he would normally, he is taking it out on Israel. The problem with this picture of course is it makes God sound like a drunk father. Unless the kids deserve it, of course.

vs 2

He has really gone to town. This isn't one of those times when you threaten your kids that they aren't going to get dessert if they don't clean their room. This is where you've warned them three times, and you throw all their toys away.

vs 3

God has left them with no mighty leaders or great warriors. God has lifted his shield from the nation and told the enemy nations to 'go to town'. He has set a fire that has destroyed everything around them.

vs 4

God has acted in every way to show that he is the enemy of his people. But he isn't - he has just treated them as such in punishment for their actions. This is what it is like to be the enemy of God. They are learning a lesson - that God is much better as a friend than an enemy.

vs 5

Heh, what I said. They have so much to mourn and lament - the loss of their wealth, their power, their position... but mostly, you would hope, their God.

vs 6

Two institutions set up by God - a political leader and spiritual leaders for his people, and God has trashed them both. Now yes, I know the delineation isn't has strict as all that. My point being God has taken away those relationships that he gave. He's really stripping Israel of everything.

vs 7

Now enemies are where Israel thought they would never, ever be. They thought, "Surely God will protect his people and his temple - he would never let it be disgraced by pagans." But God is bigger than that. It's Israel who gets the sucky end of the stick, not God. He remains awesome.

vs 8

Walls were not Jerusalem's defence anyway - God was. And this is how they write it, as if they only now realise that that's how it works. God didn't uphold their walls, because he wanted them to fall.

vs 9

No walls, no nobility, not even any prophets. The silence, after generations of prophets yelling at them to not let this happen, must be deafening. "Give us another prophet, we'll listen this time!" Yes, too late now.

vs 10

Because now they realise. They weren't the ones being killed in the battles, so they had time instead to watch the carnage, watch the fall, and mourn. But they do more than mourn, it seems. Many of them are acknowledging that they've screwed up.

vs 11

It is such a sad picture. Poor Jeremiah. He had to watch all this, after knowing it was going to happen, and having to preach it beforehand. He looks around and sees his beloved city, God's beloved city, laid waste, and he knew it, and he tried to stop it, sort of. Even if he really really knew that it was going to happen, that God wouldn't save them at the last minute, it's still sad to see the awful reality.

Sermon: Philippians 1:9:11

This is from a series of talks at our church about the prayers of Paul.

Phil 1:9-11 sermon

If you have ever worked in retail, then you will know what I mean when I talk about an indecisive customer. Even if you haven't worked in retail, if you've ever been to Subway I'm sure you know the kind of person who I'm talking about. Last year when Penny and I went to Brisbane to attend a conference with some friends, we made the mistake of going to the nearest Subway at lunchtime – along with hundreds of the other conference attendees. The line stretched out the door, across the frontage of a business park, and down onto the street. But it was better food than the convention centre offered, so we waited. After over 30 minutes of waiting in line, when you finally get close to the register, what can draw your ire more than seeing the customer ahead of you, who has waited the same amount of time as you, stare up at the menu board as if for the first time, and spend precious minutes saying, “Ummmm, errrrrr, hmmmmmm”? You're thinking, “Have you never been to Subway before? Did you not have half an hour to decide what you wanted? Is it so hard to just pick a sandwich?” and you cringe because every time the Subway sandwich artist asks, “What bread would you like? Would you like avocado? What kind of cheese? All salads? What sauces? Salt and pepper? Anything else?” the answer is always a long, drawn out, “Ummmmmm.”. Subway is not the food place to go if you are indecisive!

Now you might think that I'm being mean, and that this person possibly has never been in a Subway before. But in Brisbane, Subway is like the national dish. There's a Subway on every street corner. People know the Subway menu off by heart. In the biggest shopping centre in Brisbane, there are two Subways, and only one McDonalds! They have electronic Subway service lanes! The reason a Queenslander walks into a Subway and says “Um” is not through lack of experience. It's through lack of forethought. They know they're hungry, they know they like Subway, and they know what's on the menu, so they walk in, but never switch their brain on and think what they're doing.

I think that sometimes we can be like this in our prayers. It's not that we don't pray fairly regularly. It's not that we don't think God will listen. It's not even that we don't know what needs praying for, really. But when we come to pray, so often we do it without really thinking. And so we come before God, seated on his throne that overlooks the whole of creation and all of eternity, we bow before this mighty figure and we say, “Ummmm.”

We can so easily fall into the practice of repeating stock standard prayers for regular day to day occurrences in life. When people travel, we pray for safety. When people are sick, we pray for them to be well. When they are unemployed, we pray for a job. When they are mourning, we pray for comfort. When they are young, we pray for guidance. Prayer for guidance was so common in a Bible study Penny and I attended in Queensland that it was known as the “auto-prayer”. When there's a problem, we pray for its solution. And that's well and good. But what happens when things are going well for someone? We suddenly find ourselves standing before God going “um”. Do we mutter a quick word of thanks? Pray that the good times keep on rolling? What about when you're in a prayer group and nothing really is happening with you? Have you ever said the words, “Oh, I don't really have anything to pray for”?

Well, when Paul was writing his letter to the Philippians, he was thinking. He may have even known that what he was writing would be of enduring importance. He certainly knew it would be circulated amongst churches at the time. So he wanted to make sure that what he wrote down would be well thought out and meaningful. Little wonder then that when we come to Paul's prayer for the Philippian church, we find a prayer that is expertly crafted, not only to bring encouragement to its readers, but to help shape their own prayers, especially in times where they are not struggling with a major challenge, or straying from the faith, or acting inappropriately. It's a forward-looking prayer, a pro-active prayer, a prayer for all seasons. It's a prayer that sets our minds in the right direction, and ensures our focus is where it's meant to be.

The prayer is in Philippians 1, verses 9 to 11. Open it with me, if you have your Bibles, and lets work through it one step at a time. If you have my bible, it's on page 804. Paul prays “that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, 10 so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, 11 filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God.” Wow. Every word rings with incredible depth of meaning that only comes from significant forethought. And before we look any further, there is a lesson for us there. We should put thought into our prayers. Often when we pray publicly, in church for example, we will put thought into our prayers and write them down. There is nothing stopping us from doing this as part of our regular prayer lives. I think it's so easy for us to rush our prayer. And sometimes that's appropriate – when a car swerves out of control, you don't really have time to write a psalm. But when we are settling into time with God, let's think about what we say to him. We should never be afraid of approaching God in prayer, but let's do it in a way that is respectful and diligent.

Sometimes we might be tempted by verses like Romans 8:26, which say, “In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express.” We think, “I don't know what to pray for, I'll just leave it up to the Holy Spirit.” But prayer is one of those times where we can really struggle with issues surrounding God's will, put some deep thought into what God wants, get to grips with how that will be played out in our lives, and strengthen our relationship with God by pouring out our misunderstandings and our worries. If we aren't taking those opportunities of serious, thoughtful, diligent prayer, we shouldn't be surprised if our relationship with God is not deepening like we might hope it would.

The next thing I'd like us to recognise as we look at this prayer is its structure – Paul only asks for one thing for the Philippians. He makes one request, and he sees that request as having four outcomes. His request is that their love will abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight. Flowing out of this he sees four outcomes – that they will discern what is best, that they will be pure and blameless, that they will be filled with righteousness, and that God will be praised and glorified. All of these things come together into one prayer. Now, Paul may be expanding these outcomes for the reader's benefit. But exploring the outcomes you would like to see come from your prayer also gives insight into the reasons you are praying that prayer. What are you hoping for this prayer to achieve? Do you think it will achieve anything at all? Are the expectations you have for this prayer in line with God's will?

Because Paul's certainly are, as we will see when we look at the four outcomes that he sees flowing from his request. One of the rookie mistakes people make in prayer is that they think, “I prayed for it, but God didn't do it.” Prayer is about aligning ourselves with what God wants, not demanding from him what we want. Once you start to understand that, prayer becomes a very different thing. We see the world in terms of problems that need to be solved. But it's not like that for God. To God, there is no such thing as a problem. He creates everything, allows everything its place – even things that we see as bad, wrong, painful or unjust. To everything, there is a season. As I am so fond of saying, God shows just how powerful he is by being able to transform bad into good – by taking evil and turning it into something that serves his purposes, even as he punishes it for being evil.

When we realise that prayer isn't about problems and solutions, but about God's will and seeing it done, we stop looking for answers to prayer in shapes we'd expect or desire, but instead look for God's transforming of situations for his glory. Paul will say later in this book, in chapter 4, “Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.” And then what does he say? That those things that are making you anxious will go away? That God will zap them with lightning for you? No! When you present your request to God, God's response is this, “And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” The situation doesn't change – you change. Sometimes situations will change. But far more often things play out exactly as you'd expect them to, and we are the ones who change to become more reliant on God's strength to get us through. The more we are seeking God's will in our prayers, the more we will realise his will is to change us into what he wants – that in fact God's primary goal for people's lives is to see them changed, moulded, transformed into the people he wants us to be for eternity. He wants that more than he wants us fed, or educated, or wealthy. Is that what we want?

Lets look at what Paul is hoping to achieve in his prayer to God on behalf of the Philippian church. Four outcomes – that they will discern what is best, that they will be pure and blameless, that they will be filled with righteousness, and that God will be praised and glorified. This is where God's will is at. Paul wants them to be changed for the better in their decision-making, to be changed for the better in their standing before God, to be changed for the better in the things they do, and he wants God to be glorified by it all. That's a lot of change. You ready for that? Am I ready for that? Are we as a church ready for the idea that by our prayers we may be seeking to transform each other? If I were to walk up and say, “Morning Mike, I've been praying that you're able to make more godly decisions,” then he's likely to turnaround and say, “Well, Ben, I've been praying that you might live a somewhat more righteous life,” and I might then reply, “Well, I'll certainly be praying that you're found pure and blameless in time for heaven”, to which he might reply, “Your face,” and we both walk off in a huff.

We have to be honest with ourselves. There is always room for improvement in these areas. Who here went their whole week without making one bad decision? Who can say that every single thing they did in every way was righteous, that is totally right before God? Who does not need God to purify them and free them from accusation of wrongdoing? We're all in the same boat! We should all want to be changed, and we should all want it for each other. On family camp last weekend we looked at encouragement, and we decided that encouragement is those things we do to help someone deal with dangerous or difficult situations with firmness. We should want to see each other built up, strengthened, made better, made perfect!

And we know that's not going to happen here on this planet. But that doesn't mean we shouldn't be striving for it, hoping for it, and praying for it all the same. Penny asked me a very interesting question that came out of her Bible college studies last week – should Christians strive for perfection they can't reach, or accept that we never will in this life? Because whether we strive or not will obviously have an impact on how we live our lives. I remember when I'd just been at this church a couple of years, still a pretty wet behind the ears Christian, one of the elders who will remain nameless said to me, “Ben, you know what they say. If you're a realist when you're 20, you've got no heart. But if you're an idealist when you're 40, you've got no brain.” Okay, he didn't use those exact words – he said capitalist instead of realist, and socialist instead of idealist. But the truth is that Christians are in the eyes of the world idealists (chasing a perfection that can never be attained), but in truth, understanding God and eternity, we are realists (knowing that God will make us perfect). It is by this means that God has chosen to be glorified, and this is what we praise him for – that he works in us, changes us, transforms us into the perfect people we are meant to be, so we can in turn strengthen and encourage others as we walk that path to living that perfect life with him in heaven.

And what is it that Paul seeks for us, that we might display these wonderful fruits of godly decision-making, right living, and shamelessness before God's judgement? He prays that our love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight. He doesn't pray just for knowledge and insight. We live in a time where so many people think education is the balm to soothe the ills of the world. Teach young people to drive better, and they'll have less accidents. Teach bankers how to read the market better, and they'll cause less financial collapse. Teach warring people more about each other, and they'll stop fighting. That does not solve the problems. Teach young people how to drive better, and some will take even bigger risks to feed their pride. Teach bankers how to read the market better, and some will strive to generate even more profit to feed their greed. Teach warring people more about each other, and some will use that information to hurt their enemies more deeply.

Now education is good! We should strive to know more and have a better understanding of the world, life and God. Paul prays so! But we must understand that the problem isn't lack of education – it is lack of love. If our actions are not motivated by love, then they are motivated by pride, and we wrap our car around a tree; they are motivated by greed, and we thrust millions of people into poverty; they are motivated by hate, and people die – and our knowledge and insight becomes a tool by which we sin faster and more efficiently. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 13, “If I speak in human or angelic tongues, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body [to hardship] that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.”

That is why Paul prays that “your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight.” God wants us to use what you know to love one another. At the end of the day, the crux of this prayer is all about how we love each other. It's that love for each other that should be informed by all that knowledge and insight we strive so hard for. It's that love for each other that will help us to discern what is best. It's that love for each other that will fill us with the fruits of righteousness. Love for each other will show that God is transforming us, through Christ, to be pure and blameless in his sight. Our love for each other will bring glory and praise to God. John recorded these words of Christ, “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. 35 By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” And John was so struck with it, that he never stopped repeating it all the days of his life. “This is the message you heard from the beginning: We should love one another.” “This is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us.” “Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.” “Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.” “No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.” “And now, dear lady [church], I am not writing you a new command but one we have had from the beginning. I ask that we love one another.”

Next time you're waiting in line in Subway, do me a favour and know what you're going to order before you get to the checkout. And next time you pray for someone, and you're not sure what their needs are, do them a favour and pray that their love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, because that will lead to them making better decisions, living a more fruitful, righteous life, will speed their path to purity and blamelessness before God, and will bring God glory and praise. May we all love each other enough for that to be our prayer for each other.

Amen

Lamentations chapter 1

vs 12

In their suffering, the people of God seem to have suddenly seen how special their God is, and now they can talk with the nations about him - about how vengeful and powerful and jealous he is, as born out by their sufferings.

vs 13

Interestingly, God didn't actually send a fire from heaven to just burn then to a crisp. Instead, he is attacking their insides, making them feel weary, despondent, captured and it would seem rejected. Which is all exactly how they should feel.

vs 14

Only now do the sins of the people begin to have the light of day shone on them. I don't mean revealed, or even bemoaned - God had told them many times, given many warnings through prophets and the like. But now the sin is crystal clear - those who lament can see how their sin has brought this situation on, and it weighs heavily on them. As it does for all of us when we have to live with the consequences of our sin.

vs 15

They fought, but God would refuse victory to them. Their exile is a punishment - they weren't going to be able to fight their way out of this one. I wonder how many died, how many lost their sons, how many daughters were raped, for the sake of such a punshment to the people as a community.

vs 16

When we mourn, often we receive help from those that are currently okay. They might 'mourn with us', but they also show us that there's an end in sight. Who do you mourn with when the whole nation is punished?

vs 17

Even as a nation, they have no friends to turn to. Not to mention that the Israelites are a bunch of racist superior gits or anything... but you can see why no-one wants to help them.

vs 18

This is the message of the book right here. I don't think it gets clearer than that.

vs 19

No-one came to the aid of the people of God, and their priests died looking for food, because no-one looked after them. Talk about being cut off from God.

vs 20

They see now that their rebellion has brought this on. This just makes me feel sick to the stomach. How might God punish me for my wrongdoing? I just don't know. I pray that I never need such a harsh lesson, nor that any communityof which I am a member does.

vs 21

That's the way - wish your misery on everyone. His friends can't help, because they're also miserable. His enemies, they laugh at him. He knows God has promised to defeat them too... and so he just waits for that, calls for it, in an effort to stop their gloating.

vs 22

Okay, so that's kind of mean, but he's just pouring out how he feels. Why should the wicked of the other nations get off scot free when the wicked of God's nation are being punished? Judgement starts with the house of God, says Peter. And if the righteous find it hard, how will the sinner feel?

Lamentations chapter 1

vs 1

The pride of place that Jeremiah feels for Jerusalem is so powerful here. Though Jeremiah never saw Israel under the splendor of Solomon, I suppose he would have seen it possibly under Josiah, when its borders were expanded to take in the full promised land. But now, the last remnants of God's promise to his people for a land of rest have been taken away. They are utterly defeated.

vs 2

The painting here of the woman who has had a lot of lovers, but now finds herself scorned, all those nations who were previously looked to for help are now enemies. Indeed, Jeremiah ends up being forced to flee to Egypt - what a disgrace.

vs 3

Judah has lost. She won't be fighting back against her enemies any more. Judah is of course the people. The land didn't go into exile - the people were forced away. They are the ones who were worked harshly, who now dwell among the nations, where Jeremiah guesses there will be no rest for them. Not because it will be uncomfortable - but because the land brings with it shalom, the rest in God that he promised.

vs 4

Jerusalem may never have another religious feast dedicated to God. How can they really know? Even if they will, when will it be? Not so long as their captors don't allow it. It cuts them to the heart to think about this - that they have been separated from their God so strongly, so obviously. Not sure why the young women grieve.

vs 5

The enemies of God's people seem to have won. How demoralising, it's hard to imagine. What's worse is knowing that it has all happened because of the many and varied and constant and continual sins of the people. The only thing worse than having your enemies totally defeat you is knowing that it's your fault.

vs 6

There is now nothing good left in the city of God. Wealth has left, the aristocracy has left. All because God has left.

vs 7

The wealth is gone, God refuses to help, and now the nations laugh. They scorn the enemy that has been a thorn in the side of the surrounding nations for hundreds of years, who have always said, "God will protect us." Imagine their shame at feeling that they have let God down, and now his name is mocked.

vs 8

It is such a disgusting sight that no-one wants to look at the disgrace of Jerusalem. Not even she can stand it, and she groans at it. It's so cringeworthy that those who once were friends now shake their heads and turn away too.

vs 9

It was an astounding fall. The people didn't think about the consequences of their actions, they just went ahead with them. By the time the fall actually took place, there was nobody that the people could turn to for help. Even God had left them. That's how far they fell. I wonder how many people thought that their enemies, who they thought were God's enemies, would ever really win.

vs 10

After God had so jealously guarded his sanctuary, who would think that they could just waltz in and steal his precious golden lampstand and stuff? But without God there it just became a pretty, pointless room; the temple a large, useless building.

vs 11

Utter defeat - they don't even have food. They need to trade everything they have just for their day-to-day living, because the land is no longer theirs to provide for them. And of course they are the losers, so they are despised by all.