Lord of the Law

Great is Thy Faithfulness*

Dr. Larry Thorson
November 4, 2007

Today’s Scripture reading takes us back to a time when Israel must have felt like southern Californians after a wildfire. Jerusalem their capital was destroyed. Solomon’s grand and beautiful temple leveled. Babylonians had tried to destroy everything Hebrew, including what little hope they might have left in the world. Almost the whole book of Lamentations in the Old Testament is a lament for the deep disappointments they were feeling at that moment. But in the midst of their deep sorrow and lament we read…

Scripture: Lamentations 3:22-24

22 Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed,
for his compassions never fail.

23 They are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness.

24 I say to myself, "The LORD is my portion;
therefore I will wait for him."

Last year the Associated Press ran a story about a man and his son who were fishing in Atlantic City and caught a plastic bag containing 300 letters written to God. Most of them were unopened. With a little investigation it was discovered that a recently deceased pastor in New Jersey had invited people to mail their prayers to God to his church where they would be placed on the altar and prayed over again. Apparently after the pastor’s death, someone cleaned out his house and for some reason cast the letters into the ocean.

The AP article quoted from some of the letters. A few prayed to God for things like hitting the lottery or getting the IRS to back off. But most of the letters were filled with requests from people whose lives were in shambles. A woman who was about to give birth prayed that God would make the father of the baby fall in love with her and propose marriage. Others prayed to be forgiven sins for which they had not forgiven themselves. Still others were written by family members who begged God to help loved ones who were addicted, or very sick, or in harm’s way. And all of the prayers ended up in the ocean.

That’s what a lot of people fear about our prayers, that they never make it to God and are simply cast upon the waters, unopened. When Jeremiah wrote the Scripture we just read in Lamentations and Jerusalem was in shambles with their best and brightest citizens taken captive they wondered what happened to their prayers. Listen to how he began his third chapter of Lamentations: “I have seen affliction” (3:1); “I am enveloped in bitterness and tribulation” (3:5); “My soul is bereft of peace. I’ve forgotten what happiness is” (3:17). He tells it like he sees it; “All is in shambles.”

Have you ever prayed because your life felt like it was in shambles? Even if you and your family skirted the fires, missed the winds, every day we face a world which feels like it’s simply in shambles. The cover story for Newsweek magazine last week was about what they called the most dangerous nation in the world, a nuclear armed Pakistan. Iraq, Gaza, Afghanistan, Sudan... the list goes on and on. There’s a new disaster being born everyday. Seldom does a Sunday go by in our worship services when we don’t pray for God to put life back together again for someone. What happens to these prayers? Are they just cast upon the waters?

As Jeremiah continues to make his way through his third chapter, something happens to him beginning in verse 21-23. “Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope: 22 Because of the LORD's great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. 23 They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.”

Here he is with everything in his life falling apart all around him and what does Jeremiah do but start singing Great Is Thy Faithfulness. How did he get there? By “calling to mind” his firm conviction that God hears us. Jeremiah knew that we don’t need letters sent to a pastor, and we don’t need them set upon an altar. God hears the lament of human hearts because his steadfast love never ceases, or as a more literal translation of the Hebrew states, “His love is never cut off from us” even though it may look and feel otherwise.

So the Hebrews are called to live hopeful lives not because things are improving, and not because they can work hard enough to improve their lives. They have hope because they are not cut off from the love of God. And being loved by God gives us all the hope we need.

The cross of Jesus Christ is an eternal proclamation that no matter what you have done and no matter what has been done to you, nothing can cut you off from the love of God. It is the one thing you can never, ever lose.

Do you know who best teaches me this over and over? People who are dying. People who have spent too much time in hospitals. And people who have lost everything they spent a lifetime building. I look at those whose lives are in shambles for something they didn’t deserve and wonder why they don’t get angry at God. Well some do and it’s ok to be angry for awhile. Even the Bible has an example of that in this book of Lamentations. But those who have spent their lives paying attention to the love of God consistently say, “Why would I get angry at God? Love is never dependent on getting what you want. Love is the thing that keeps you together when everything else is falling apart.”

The love of God is the most powerful force in the world. It was love that created the world, your life and all life, and it was love that created for you a future filled with hope. We don’t earn this love—or deserve it. No one ever deserves love. It just comes as a mercy that originates in the heart of God. And according to Jeremiah, this mercy keeps showing up as new and faithful as the morning.

Each day, in more ways than we can see, God is breaking through with mercies that never end. Who of us made the sun rise by our hard work? Who earned the breath in their lungs? Who deserves the love they enjoy from the people closest to their hearts? None of us. It all comes as daily, unceasing mercies. But we are so busy trying to create and secure our own lives that we rush past all of the love letters God keeps sending.

Think about when you say, “I love you,” to someone. You look for a response. And it is a very particular response. You don’t want to hear “Well, thank you for sharing,” or “I knew that.” The only acceptable response is “I love you, too.” And that is what is at the heart of stewardship.

Stewardship is not about money, it’s about saying back to God, “I love you, too.” Stewardship is a way of proclaiming, “Your faithfulness to me, O God, has been great—when life was good and when it was a shambles. And so, now, will my faithfulness to you be great.”

This week you will receive a letter with a pledge carrd from our Discipleship Ministry which oversees our stewardship program. When you receive the pledge card in the mail this week, treat it as the holy covenant that it is. If you have other family members in your home, talk to them about this card. Pray over your response to it and “call to mind” the great faithfulness of God in your life. Then fill out the pledge card and bring it with you to church or mail it in. On Sunday November 18 we will dedicate the pledge cards in worship and then afterwards enjoy lunch together.

But please don’t set the pledge card in the pile of junk mail and catalogues on the kitchen counter. It is too important for that. This is an opportunity for you to say to God, “I love you, too.”

*This sermon was adapted from a sermon written and delivered by Dr. Craig Barnes at the Shadyside Presbyterian Church in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, November 5, 2006. Used with permission.