Singing God's Song in Exile...

Jeremiah 39:1-10; Psalm 137...

Sermon #8

DRIVING THEME:

Eternity moves through time, and immortality is an ever-present potential. We have already passed from death unto life when we love.

PROPOSITION:

In the midst of life's adversities it is possible to retain a clear witness of God's promises and stay centered on God's presence and omniscience.

ANTITHESIS:

In the movie Forrest Gump, Jenny and Forrest--now adults--are wandering through the paths they had traveled together as children. Suddenly, Jenny is confronted by a battered building. It is the house where she grew up … the house where her father abused and violated her … the house where she lost the ability to love. Enraged, Jenny hurls her shoes at the house. She grovels in the dirt, grabbing rocks and heaving them at the windows. Finally, one window shatters, and Jenny collapses. Forrest slowly remarks, "Sometimes, I guess there aren't enough rocks." Forrest was right: Sometimes the rocks of hatred run out, and we still hurt like hell.

The passage from Jeremiah and that of the Psalmist are linked because the latter gives the state of mind of the exiled few after the Babylonian destruction of Jerusalem (587 BC). The request of the captors was designed to rob the Jews of their identity, their dignity, and their hope. This scandalous scene was repeated in Treblinka, where Jews were forced to sing and dance of their Jewishness. The result is bitterness and hatred against the captors. We are often exiled by the treatment we receive from persons and systems. Our reaction could be:

Hatred toward those who offend us.
Commitment to vengeance
Dependence on means other than God to right the wrong done against us.
Refusal to be God's mouthpiece and witness in the midst of exile.

THESIS:

Life lessons from some saints could teach us that we could maintain our singing through the pain. Alongside our sweet hours of praise-filled prayers, there are often hours of pain-filled pleas for relief.

Nelson Mandela sang his song for twenty-seven years in a darkened prison.
Martin Luther King Jr., sang the song of human and civil rights, justice for all, and equality in the sight of God. King held on to an ethic of nonviolence in the midst of the most violent society.

Joseph refused to be drawn into a base response of vengeance even though his brothers repeated acts of hatred against him. (Gen. 45:1-5; 50:15-26)

Stephen refused to be bitter against those who were stoning him, praying instead for God's forgiveness.

Christ demonstrated for us that it is possible to maintain sight of the vision, refusing to become like the venomous crowd that surrounded him.
We must sing God's song in the strange land of dashed hopes, unexpected tragedies, racial discrimination, gender bias, and governmental neglect.

RELEVANT QUESTION:

How do we sing God's song when the climate is not right and the music cannot be heard?

SYNTHESIS:

We must never allow our location and our situation to determine our destination. Don't let what you're going through stop you from what you're going to. People who commit suicide think they have come to something instead of going through something. We can wait with patience on the Lord.
You can't carry a lot of mess with you and still sing your song (Psalm 137: 8,9). Don't worry about getting back at the one(s) who intends your demise. Get on with your life.
The Lord's songs are meant for strange land situations. The good news is that the Lord's song will not deliver you, but they will sustain you until deliverance comes.

Suffering does not have the last word, God does! God didn't answer their question in their lifetime. But, eventually, God did answer. And God's answer was Jesus. In Jesus Christ, God lived among us. God experienced from our perspective. And, on the cross, God was violated, humiliated, abandoned, abused (Isa. 53:3-7). God's people never suffer alone.
William Sloane Coffin, Jr. spoke eloquently about God in the midst of suffering in a sermon he preached at Riverside Church shortly after the death of his son, Alex, who died in an automobile accident. Coffin said, " My consolation lies in knowing that it was not the will of God that Alex die; that when the waves closed over his sinking car, God's heart was the first of all our hearts to break." Coffin went on to say that God is not present in our lives for our protection but rather for our unending support.