Preached · March 19, 2023
Series · Lament
Text · Lamentations 3
This may be hard to believe, but I used to be an insufferable know-it-all.
("Used to be?"!)
Tell background and deconstruction-in-college journey
Now, as we talked about a few weeks ago, the solution to be an insufferable know-it-all is not a form of moderate centrism that refuses to take a stand for anything or to make anyone uncomfortable. Particularly, when it comes to seeing the image of God in all people, in loving people as we love ourselves, treating them as we would want to be treated. Rabbi Hillel, "That which is hateful to you, do not do to another; that is the entire Torah, and the rest is its interpretation."
Whatever you would like your fellow to do to you were you in his place. Sforno (R’ Ovadiah Sforno 1468-1550)
Nor is it a form of nihilism, despair, or agnosticism that says nothing can be known.
Rather, I think we can have both conviction and humility.
I think need to normalize being wrong, being corrected, and learning.
And I think we need to normalize beliefs that we don't know how to bring in reconciliation.
I've been your pastor for three years now. And let me give you an observation. Many (not all) of you have de- and reconstructed your faith. You, thank God, have given up toxic and nasty beliefs and exchanged them for a more beautiful Gospel. Your theology is no longer repugnant to you or to others. It is not hateful. It does not seek to ruin other's lives or your own life.
Your theology is top shelf, well-reasoned stuff and...your relationship with God sucks.
You haven't felt God's presence in your life in forever. Prayer and worship seem dry and pointless. You're not sure if you believe in the Holy Spirit, in gifts, in the power of prayer
Top notch theology. And a dry-as-dust relationship with God to show for it.
Now, please don't twist my words. I love theology. I think talking truthfully about God is important. I think getting rid of toxic theology is good and necessary and literally life-saving. I've got lines of books and have made loads of TikToks about how to talk about God.
But, I think, sometimes that need for precision and certainty and perfection can squeeze the very life out of your soul.
Now what does this have to do with Lamentations?
Because this book dares to speak ugly truths about God right next to beautiful ones. It does not hold back from speaking forth a theology that is awful and violent. It makes claims that I, as your pastor, as a Christian teacher, would never make. And it makes claims that I think are gorgeous and revelatory.
And yet, here it is in the Bible. With all of its contradiction and uncertainty and doubt and bold claims and brashness. Lamentations is a tiny microcosm of the whole of Scripture. Scripture which wrestles with God's role in the evil of the world. Our role in it. God's response. And lack of response.
I'm grateful for this book, because it grants us permission to be unfinished. Messy. Contradictory. Uncertain. Blasphemous. And still call ourselves a person of faith.
Talk over the back and forth of the chapter
The center verse of the center chapter: For God does not willingly afflict or grieve anyone.
But that heart does not get the final word. It's present. The truth is spoken. But it's also allows others to speak.
Conclusion
I'd rather you speak angrily and accurately of your feelings than pretend they don't exist.
No need for toxic positivity or spiritual bypassing.
