Sermon by Rev. Dr. Daesun Chung Hope in the Midst of Disaster 1

Hope in the Midst of Disaster Lamentations 3:19-24 January 28, 2018

Many of the popular gospel songs and some hymns use Bible verses as their lyrics and when we sing them, they speak to us in a meaningful way. A part of our passage in Lamentations, particularly verses 22 and 23, are very well known and popular verses. “The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is thy faithfulness.” These verses have been used in various hymns and praise songs. The amazing thing is these verses are a part of the psalter of laments. They are a part of songs of sorrow and anguish. In fact, these verses are at the center of the Book of Lamentations. There are five chapters in the Book of Lamentations and these verses are in the middle of the third chapter.

The structure of the Book of Lamentations is interesting. The five chapters are five different poems. The first four chapters are written as acrostics – chapters 1, 2, and 4 each have 22 verses, corresponding to the 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet. The first line begins with the first letter of the alphabet, the second line with the second letter, and so on. Chapter 3 has 66 verses, so that each letter begins three lines. The fifth chapter, the fifth poem, is not an acrostic but still has 22 lines.1 It is an interesting format. The scholars do not seem to know the purpose or the function of this format.2

What is known about the Book of Lamentations is that it is a collection of poetic laments about the destruction of Jerusalem. You don’t read Lamentations. You feel it. As you read it, you can feel the pain of Jeremiah, grieving over the loss of his homeland. The special places he grew up with had been destroyed. Many of his friends had been killed. Everything he knew and loved had been demolished.

Take a look at the verses 19 and 20. Jeremiah expresses his pain:

“The thought of my suffering and homelessness is bitter beyond words. I will never forget this awful time, as I grieve over my loss.”3

1 Clines, David J.A., “Lamentations” In Dunn, James D.G; Rogerson, John William, Eerdmans Commentary on the Bible, (Eerdmans: 2003), p.617. 2 Hillers, Delbert R., “Lamentations of Jeremiah” In Metzger, Bruce M.; Googan, Michael D., The Oxford Companion to the Bible, (Oxford University Press: 1993), p. 420. 3 The New Living Translation (NLT).

East Whittier United Methodist Church 562-698-2241 www.ewumc.org 10005 South Cole Road, Whittier, CA 90603 Sunday Worship: 10 AM Sermon by Rev. Dr. Daesun Chung Hope in the Midst of Disaster 2

Have you ever felt like that? Have you ever felt so much pain that you are bitter inside? Not just sad or angry, but so pained that your inside, your physical body, is literally hurting. Have you ever felt that way? Have you ever lost something or someone so special that your grief was almost unbearable? That’s how Jeremiah felt. Maybe that is how you feel today.

The Bible is filled with people crying, agonizing, grieving over the pain they have in life. It is filled with the people who feel helpless and hopeless. That is how Jeremiah felt, but the amazing thing is that in the midst of his pain he still held on to his faith and hope. In verse 21, Jeremiah says, “Yet I still dare to hope…”4

Jeremiah still had the audacity to hope in the midst of his agony and hopelessness. Why? He gives the reason. He says, “The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, his mercies never come to an end. They are new every morning. O Lord, great is your faithfulness.” That is faith!

Faith is holding on to the Lord when it is difficult to hold on to what we have believed and what we have held on to. When life is easy, believing that God is good and God is in control is easy, but when everything falls apart, when life is in shambles, holding on to our trust in God is not easy. Yet still holding on to it is faith. Holding on to hope that one day you will find help, healing, and relief from your pain, your agony – that is faith!

And we can do that because the steadfast love of the Lord doesn’t stop, his mercies never come to an end. Jeremiah confessed that remembering this, remembering the fact that God never stops loving, never stops showing mercy, gave him hope; renewed hope; and re-strengthened his faith.

It is easy to read about Jeremiah’s hope and his trust in God. It is easy to talk about trusting in God. I think most of us would agree that God is ever ready to help us. I suppose it is not difficult to agree with it. What’s difficult is actually trusting it when life gets tough. It is hard to hold on to hope when hopelessness overwhelms us. Even remembering God’s help in the past doesn’t always cut it when we are faced with unfamiliar agony and devastation.

Jeremiah was facing exactly that. He had never experienced such devastation before. He had never seen such annihilation, evil, and violence. It was all so foreign and frightening, and yet he still dared to hope, still dare to trust in God.

4 NLT.

East Whittier United Methodist Church 562-698-2241 www.ewumc.org 10005 South Cole Road, Whittier, CA 90603 Sunday Worship: 10 AM Sermon by Rev. Dr. Daesun Chung Hope in the Midst of Disaster 3

Are you or your loved ones facing unfamiliar pain and difficulty today? Maybe in the past when you got into trouble it was easy to trust God for help because you had been in a similar situation, but what you are facing now is the bigger problem than anything you’ve faced before and you are devastated. Maybe it is the loss of a job you’ve had for years. Maybe it is losing someone special. Maybe you are facing a health issue that no modern medicine can cure. Maybe it is the realization that you are not as young as you used to be and you can’t do some of the things you love anymore. Perhaps life has forced you into some change that is very scary and you don’t know how to respond.

How can we find the kind of faith and trust in God that empowered Jeremiah to proclaim hope? How can we find the confidence to believe that God will give us strength to endure? How can we find God in our darkness when we don’t feel God at all?

Jeremiah says it is good to have patience and wait for the Lord. The Lord is good to those who depend on him.5

Patiently enduring while holding on to hope is what builds our character and our faith. Even if God does not answer the way we want him to answer, his answers are always a blessing. Sometimes God does wonders for those who wait patiently.

Mary Ann Franco of Stuart, Florida had experienced God’s miracle that she never expected. Her story was so amazing that ABC News reported it. According to the news report, Mary Ann had a car accident twenty years before and was severely injured. She survived the accident; but the injury left her legally blind. Then twenty years after the car accident, she had another accident. This time it was not a car accident. Being legally blind, she miss-stepped, fell in her home, and injured her spine.

Mary Ann underwent surgery at the hospital to repair the damage, but the surgeon fixed more than he knew. She woke up and asked a nurse for pain medication – and realized she could actually see the nurse!

Dr. John Ashfar who performed the surgery at Martin Memorial Hospital couldn’t believe what happened. The surgery had nothing to do with the vision, but for some reason the it not only corrected her spinal injury but it also restored

5 Lamentations 3:25. NLT

East Whittier United Methodist Church 562-698-2241 www.ewumc.org 10005 South Cole Road, Whittier, CA 90603 Sunday Worship: 10 AM Sermon by Rev. Dr. Daesun Chung Hope in the Midst of Disaster 4 her vision. The doctor had no scientific explanation for it. He said the restoration of her vision was nothing less than a miracle.

Another amazing thing is Mary Ann was not only legally blind before the surgery, she was also colorblind, but now she is not. She has seen her grandchildren for the first time, and her beloved cat and dog. She’s experiencing life anew, a gift that can only be described as an “act of God.”

Mary Ann says, “In the morning, I get up, look out and the sun is coming through the trees, and the beams are coming down. Oh God, it’s so wonderful to see.”6

Now we may ask ourselves, “How come she was healed and others are not?” I don’t know. I don’t have any explanation. God does what God does. I don’t know why. I wish I knew. I know some people who have prayed for healing their whole lives and have never been healed. I also know folks who prayed for healing and were truly healed. I don’t know why that is, but I know this: God answers prayers. His answer may not be what we would like; but nevertheless, he does answer. More importantly, his love never fails us, so let us hold on to our faith and our trust in God, for He is good and his faithfulness is consistent and endures eternally.

6 Source: ABC News Affiliate WPBF of West Palm Beach. It is cited by Charley Reeb in his sermon, “Pop Verses: Lamentations 3:22-23”.

East Whittier United Methodist Church 562-698-2241 www.ewumc.org 10005 South Cole Road, Whittier, CA 90603 Sunday Worship: 10 AM