“Clutching onto straws?”

By Rev. Michael Stonhouse

Meditation – Saturday, April 16, 2022

Lamentations 3:1-9, 19-24

(Forward, p. 77) CEV p. 835

What do we say when everything is nasty and dismal and the future seems to be going down the river toward a precipitous waterfall, like a canoe without a paddle? Here the book of Lamentations is most appropriate. Traditionally ascribed to the prophet Jeremiah, it consists of five laments, and certainly, if its ascription is correct, fits in with what we know of that prophet. Jeremiah suffered through a myriad of trials and tribulations, the blame of which, for all of them, he laid firmly at the foot of God.

His viewpoint was that of many people, both then and now, that given their notion of the total sovereignty of God, saw Him as being in control of everything and solely responsible for everything that happens on earth. Somehow, these people do not factor in the notions of human choice and free will, or in the very logical idea that much of what happens today have nothing to do with the earth’s present inhabitants but more to do with choices and decisions made long ago.

So, if we discard these notions or ideas as not being applicable, how do we deal with what can easily be perceived as the studied nastiness of God? Even the writer of Lamentations, while acknowledging that the continued wickedness and rebellion of God’s people merited His judgment and His punishment, thought that it was perhaps a matter of ‘overkill’—that the devastations that the country had experienced were perhaps a bit much, a bit excessive, given their wrongdoing.

Our writer, in today’s passage right smack dab in the middle of the book, seizes on something that, at first glance, might even seem as somewhat contradictory. What he says may seem even like ‘clutching after straws’, holding on to something essentially unstable and unreliable. He asserts that, regardless of God’s judgments upon our sin, God is still kind and still merciful:

“Just thinking of my troubles and my lonely wandering makes me miserable. That’s all I ever think about, and I am depressed. Then I remember something that fills me with hope. The Lord’s kindness never fails! If he had not been merciful, we would have been destroyed. The Lord can always be trusted to show mercy each morning. Deep in my heart I say, ‘The Lord is all I need; I can depend on him’” (verses 19-24)

This is a passage that I have long used at funerals, for it reminds us that no matter what troubles we face, what tribulations we are undergoing, God is still there for us. So whether we attribute our problems directly to the hand of God or not, or just see them as the result of past or present choices and circumstances, we can know that our present worries are not the end of the story. God is there and God is with us in these things, and furthermore, He will see us through them and help us in the process. I can pretty well guess that the remaining disciples of Jesus did not see how God could do this on that first Easter Saturday—that would come later, after Easter and the Resurrection—but we, in the glorious hindsight of experience, can know for sure. And so, no matter what we can trust in Him and depend upon Him. Amen.

Forward notes: “The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness” (verses 22-23).

In the 1982 Episcopal Hymnal, the song, ‘Were You There When They Crucified My Lord?’ asks poignant questions: Were you there when they crucified my Lord? Were you there when they nailed him to the tree? Were you there when they pierced in the side? Were you there when they put him in the tomb?

As difficult as these words are to hear, the answer is even harder. We were there. And we have been there in similar situations in our lives, experiencing pain and the agony of dying. Perhaps we sat beside a loved one as they breathed their last. Or maybe we experienced the end of something precious without a sign of some new thing to come.

“We have all been there. As we stand in the dark, dark tomb on Holy Saturday, we await the sunrise on Easter morning. Perhaps it brings miraculous resurrection like Jesus gone from the tomb. Or perhaps just as miraculously, it brings a quiet assurance that God’s love is steadfast and never ceases.”

Moving Forward: “Light a candle tonight to remind you of Easter’s promise.”