In Your Hands

IN YOUR HANDS Lamentations 2:1-11 June 27, 2021 Among preachers there is constant give and take between those who write their sermons down, and those who preach extemporaneously. It kind of reminds me of early conflict in the church between those who had the spiritual gift of healing, and those with the gift of speaking in tongues. Healing is amazing, and people really benefit from that gift. But, there was a perception that speaking in tongues was somehow a little bit better. Among preachers it is recognized that preparing a well written sermon benefits the church. But, just standing up and winging it is somehow a little bit better. It must be obvious to you, which camp I fall in to. I write my sermons down. I do that for several reasons. The first reason is to be respectful of your time. If I preach for 10 minutes one week, and an hour and a half the next, that doesn't respect you. But, more importantly, I write sermons down so I stay on topic (so I won't get lost down a rabbit hole) and so I can be sure everything I say is exactly what I mean. Frequently, someone will come up after worship and say - did I just hear you say blah, blah, blah? And, I can definitively say - no, what I said was - and then I show them word for word what I said. This is especially effective when someone tries to reference something I said 6 months ago. Writing it down ensures I say exactly what I believe, and allows me to revisit that topic later. In the early days of the United States, all respected preachers wrote their sermons down. Partly because they traveled from church to church, and preached the same sermon over and over for weeks or months at a time. But, even if a preacher stayed at just one church, they wrote their sermons down. You never knew when you were going to deliver a real prize winner. Occasionally a preacher would really knock one out of the park. When that happened, they wanted to be able to preach it again later, or even have it published. This is Jonathan Edwards, and on July 8, 1741 he killed it. And, we know exactly what he said, because the sermon was written down.1 The sermon was titled, "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God." How do you like that title? And, the sermon contained all the darkness and angst the title implies. There are some amazing quotes to come from the sermon. You contribute nothing to your salvation, except the sin that made it necessary. How can you expect to dwell with God forever, when you neglect and forsake him here? Your attempts to keep yourself from Hell are as insufficient as a spider's web to stop a falling boulder. Only the will of God keeps you from being caught by the Devil and his demons and cast into Hell right now. He was not a Methodist. During the sermon, which lasted about 26 minutes, people began crying out and shouting, where is my hope? What must I do to be saved? And, you would think the crowd left that day in complete and utter despair. Not so! The public perception was very, very positive. What a great sermon! I don't want to go to Hell. So, I am motivated and encouraged to love Jesus with all my heart, strength and soul. In fact, 'Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God' is credited as one of the key moments in the Great Awakening - a revival of Christian emphasis which sweeps across America. This sermon positively influenced an entire generation. This morning we read the first half of Jeremiah's second poem, Lamentations 2. And, it was filled with verse after verse of God's wrath and anger.2 You probably sat there wondering - Rocky, why are you making us hear this? Because you are vile sinners and you deserve it. No! In Jeremiah's day, this poem had the same effect as Jonathan Edwards' sermon. This poem provided much of the motivation for' Israel in exile' to renew and rebuild their relationship with God. Israel had come to believe it really doesn't matter what we do. God loves us more than anyone else, and nothing bad can ever happen. We're the chosen ones. We can live any way we want, and the skies will open up and pour out blessings. The fall of Jerusalem was a real eye opener. What we do, how we live, matters. The people struggled to define what was God's role in this disaster. In chapter 2 Jeremiah defines God as a fire from Heaven.3 A holy fire. In the first few verses he writes, "The fairest of Israel's cities lies in the dust, burned from the heights of heaven. He consumes the whole land of Israel like a raging fire. His fury is poured out like fire on beautiful Jerusalem." Now, to an ancient Israelite, fire is how you get rid of bad things. Fire purifies. Burn the field to get rid of the weeds, and now it's ready to plant again. Something really good can come after the fire removes the waste. In this case, the fire is focused on bad leaders and the Holy Temple.4 The King, and the Priests, and the prophets really misled the average citizens of Israel. They were the ones who promoted this idea of - we can do no wrong. This arrogance originated at the highest levels of society. The king was convinced he could do anything he wanted with treaties and alliances. And, it was God's job to bless the king's decisions. The priests decided they were the ones who determined who is good enough to be loved by God. If you want God to love you, you must make us happy first. The prophets were obsequious seekers of fame and favor. I will lie right to the king's face about 'what God says' in order to get the life I deserve. So, holy fire from Heaven destroying the government, and the religion was not a bad thing. It wasn't pleasant. None of the regular people who lived through the tragedy were happy about it. But, it made sense. God is not evil, if he uses his omnipotence to eliminate evil. Getting rid of a bad king, bad priests, and bad prophets is not evil. It's not pleasant, but it doesn't make God bad. In 'Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God', Edwards beats the crowd with how horrible Hell is. But, he presents God as a holy and loving alternative. Jeremiah does the same thing here. You are now slaves in Babylon. That's terrible. But, how much worse would it be if God didn't love you enough to fix what is wrong. Jeremiah carefully describes God's actions as calculated and planned.5 He describes the devastation as deliberately engineered. Why? Because he doesn't want us to think of God as an all-powerful entity, with the hair trigger temper of a child. God didn't get up one morning and decide - you people make me angry. And, just like that Jerusalem is destroyed. Wouldn't you be terrified to worship a God like that? Instead, Jeremiah portrays God as a righteous planner. I told three kings in a row to trust me, and they trusted the lying ambassador of Egypt instead. Check. I had the people bring tithes to the Temple, to support the widow, the orphan, the disabled. And, the priests used the money to build new homes. Check. I sent Jeremiah, a real prophet, to warn the kings of coming disaster. They put him in jail, and listened to liars instead. Check. It's time for holy fire to burn down these weeds, so we can plant a new crop. Although it makes life hard for the average Israelite, they see the sense of it. True, some of the people saw this as betrayal by God. God promised us we would be his people. He promised us victory in war, and riches in peace. He promised us he loved us more than the Babylonians. Letting the bad guys win is a broken promise by an untrustworthy God. Jeremiah reverses the perspective.6 He reminds the people their relationship with God is a covenant. There are two parties in this agreement. God is not the only one with obligations and expectations. Listen to the words of Deuteronomy 28:15-20, "But if you refuse to listen to the LORD your God and do not obey all the commands and decrees I am giving you today, all these curses will come and overwhelm you: Your towns and your fields will be cursed. Your children and your crops will be cursed. Wherever you go and whatever you do, you will be cursed. The LORD himself will send on you curses, confusion, and frustration in everything you do, until at last you are completely destroyed for doing evil and abandoning me. The LORD will cause you to be defeated by your enemies. The LORD will exile you and your king to a nation unknown to you and your ancestors." Now, that is exactly what happened. Every word of that promise happened exactly like God said it would. The devastation of Jerusalem wasn't a knee-jerk reaction by an arbitrary God. It was a promise, perfectly kept. Here's why that's a good thing. If God kept that promise, then we can trust him to keep the good promises as well. Nehemiah 1:9, "But if you return to me and obey my commands and live by them, then even if you are exiled to the ends of the earth, I will bring you back to the place I have chosen for my name to be honored." Jeremiah chapter 2 is a positive message for those who believe God can bring good from bad. We are Methodists. We attempt to focus on the positive. We like to draw a distinction between ourselves and the Baptists by saying - Methodists lead people to Heaven, Baptists beat them away from Hell. "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" would probably not be well received in a contemporary Methodist church. But, there is no denying the truth in Edwards' sermon. And, there is no denying that for a segment of society, that is the best way to get their attention and encourage them to change for the better. And, while you and I may struggle to see a positive message in Lamentations, for the exiled Israelites, poem number 2 was exactly what the doctor ordered. The life you live matters. Whether or not you love God, and treat others like yourself, matters. Whether or not you seek to live righteously, with honesty and integrity, matters. Whether or not you live your faith for the world to see, or keep it hidden and secret, matters. We live our lives, entirely in God's hands. And, everything that happens, even the bad, serves God's holy purpose. With increasing maturity comes the ability to see a good outcome from a bad event. The Israelites exiled to Babylon developed that maturity. Jesus challenges us to get up every morning, and be more like him, and develop that maturity as well. 1 Stephen Richard Turley, "Awakened to the Holy: 'Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God' in Ritualized Context," Christianity and Literature, 57 no. 4 (Summer 2008), 507-530. 2 Raymond B. Dillard & Tremper Longman III. An Introduction to the Old Testament (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1994), 310. 3 Antje Labahn, "Fire From Above: Metaphors and Images of God's Actions in Lamentations 2.1-9," Journal for the Study of the Old Testament, 31 no. 2 (December 2006), 239-256. 4 Norman Gottwald, New Interpreter's Study Bible (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2003), 1146. 5 NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2016), 1324. 6 R. C. Sproul, general editor. New Geneva Study Bible (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1995), 1244. --------------- ------------------------------------------------------------ --------------- ------------------------------------------------------------ 2