Links for today’s readings:
Sep 30 Read: Lamentations 5 Listen: (2:03) Read: Romans 3 Listen: (4:30)
Scripture Focus: Lamentations 5:20-22
20 Why do you always forget us?
Why do you forsake us so long?
21 Restore us to yourself, Lord, that we may return;
renew our days as of old
22 unless you have utterly rejected us
and are angry with us beyond measure.
Reflection: A Terrifying, Absent God
By Erin Newton
I have been teaching a study on Job and horror. Initially the combination raises a lot of questions and concerns. How can these two things go together? Are we allowed to talk about the places in the Bible that absolutely terrify us?
As I prepare each week, it becomes increasingly clear that the emotions of being afraid or terrified are quite common in the Old Testament. We like to think that it was the raging seas or the catastrophic floods that encapsulate all that is terrifying in those books. But what I have found, and what has been pointed out by other scholars, is that one of the most terrifying realities, or at least perceptions, is the terror of being alone, forsaken by God himself.
When you think about the book of Lamentations, we often assume it’s just a long poem of sadness. We see it as a cry from the prophet to God about all that is wrong in the world. While that is not untrue, I want to highlight for a moment the scary aspect of a world where God does not see you.
Job often cries out asking God to look away, give him less attention. But there is also the terrified pleas for God to show up and give him an explanation. Lamentations has that same sense of terror. The book closes with this dreadful thought—what if God is done with us? What if we’ve gone too far? What if we have outrun his love? What if we are alone?
If this was our only book in the Bible, we’d all be a miserable lot. Thank God for the testimony of so many others! We know we are not alone. We know we cannot outrun the love of God. We know that Lamentations is voicing the terrifying doubts and worries we all have and we know that it is not the last word.
But the cry is familiar: Why do you forsake us for so long? When we are suffering, when the world continues its merciless series of catastrophes and abuse—it feels like time is at a standstill and that God is silent.
Do we close the book of our faith with these final words of Lamentations? Absolutely not! Immanuel has come. God With Us is here. Despite the dark nights and shrill winds that obscure our ability to hear God, we are not alone.
Divine Hours Prayer: The Call to Prayer
But I will call upon God, and the Lord will deliver me.
In the evening, in the morning, and at noonday, I will complain and lament,
He will bring me safely back…God, who is enthroned of old, will hear me… — Psalm 55.17
– From The Divine Hours: Prayers for Summertime by Phyllis Tickle.
Readers’ Choice is Here!
This month, we reshare your favorite Park Forum posts from this year. There’s still room for more. Tell us about one we should include.
What posts nourished your faith?
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Read more: Prescription for Peace
There are many saying the wounds of sin are not serious and “No harm will come to you.” Promising false peace is…deceptive and dangerous
