Calling and Purpose: Being People of Lament and Comfort in the Face of Crisis and Loss
[This is my sermon from January 2, 2022 at Grace Commons Church Boulder, following the devastating Marshall Fire in Superior-Louisville, Colorado—which indirectly impacted all of us and directly affected many in our congregation-- including two on our church’s staff, burning down their properties. Three years later, our two staff members and their families have just moved back into rebuilt homes. Given the state of things here and elsewhere, it seemed appropriate to revisit these thoughts.]
Typically, today, January 2, would be a day of wishing one another Happy New Year…
In this moment, all that might have been said today pales in comparison with the events of Thursday.
Many if not most of us are still in shock. For others, that shock is beginning to wear off and reality is hitting hard. Hundreds and hundreds have lost everything. Thousands are still displaced waiting for news that it is safe to return to their homes. So much of this for me and for many of you still seems surreal.
How do we respond
When our world is upside down?
How do we console
When we ourselves need consolation?
How do we answer
When we, too, have questions?
As we and our community again find ourselves grieving…it’s important to name it. To acknowledge our shock and anger…our denial and attempts to make meaning…our cycles of despair and relief.
It’s helpful to accept that we will all react and respond differently—and those differences are not wrong. You may cycle through the grief stages of denial, anger, bargaining, depression, acceptance, and finding meaning—all in the course of a few minutes only to repeat it again and again throughout the day. You may experience one stage of grief for a long time before moving through another phase. There is no one way to grieve. On top of all we’ve experienced this past year, this is a complicated grief. Gentleness with self and one another is key.
We began today’s worship with Lamentations 3:19 and 20---here’s more of what Jeremiah says in that same chapter, beginning in verse 17
17 I have been deprived of peace; I have forgotten what prosperity is.
18 So I say, “My splendor is gone and all that I had hoped from the Lord.”:
19 I remember my affliction and my wandering, the bitterness and the gall.
20 I well remember them, and my soul is downcast within me.
Sounds like this past year…and this past week. It might be easier to just stay numb.
Jesus knows all about that. He knows what it’s like for darkness to pile on…not only at the end of His earthly life, but during less-normal-days:
We see in Matthew 14:
After Jesus’ cousin, John the Baptist dies at the hands of Herod, a grieving Jesus withdraws “privately to a solitary place.” In spite of His desire to be alone, the needy crowd follows and finds Him. Jesus’ response? he had compassion on them and healed their sick (v. 14). Jesus, in His grief, is not too tired to have compassion and to heal us. The next scene finds Jesus taking what looks like nothing—five loaves and two fish…and multiplying it to feed literally thousands of people whom the disciples suggested He send away. None of the Matthew 14 day allowed Jesus rest, peace, solace…But Isaiah 40:28 tells us the Lord will not grow tired or weary…He’s always FOR us.
To all of us today, most especially to those who have lost homes and treasured possessions:
Our Lord knows loss…and grief.
He knows.
He knows what it’s like to be human.
And, in these moments, He has compassion on us…and offers His tears and His healing and His Presence. In His care, He carries us. He renews our strength when we have none.
He, the Author of all things, also takes the little we have—even the nothing we have—and can transform it into His sustenance…into His provision.
To those of us perhaps less-affected:
As Christ-followers, we have been charged to behave in several ways toward those who are hurting…
Pray for them.
Tell them you are praying…and then do it.
With them and on your own.
Pray when they cannot pray for themselves…because they will find themselves with no words.
Ask the Lord to guide your prayers and your actions.
God’s power is infinite. Prayer invites His Presence and His power into this situation in ways we cannot understand. Be faithful on another’s behalf.
Be present with them…make yourself available.
Slow down. Really listen.
Sit in the hard space of hearing their needs and concerns and fears.
Provide a space of refuge.
Respond with comfort, compassion, empathy.
Serve:
Offer assistance without strings attached. Serve them—as they are able to receive--without expectation of return. Recognize that for many it will be very difficult for them to ask for what they need. Don’t make it harder.
We are to be an aroma, a fragrance of God wherever we may find ourselves.
Most importantly:
Carry hope FOR them.
In the earlier Lamentations 3 verses I read, Jeremiah is in despair, he itemizes his losses, he is afflicted and downcast…
Then, we see a pivot in verse 21 where Jeremiah says:
21 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.
24 I say to myself, “The Lord is my portion; therefore I will wait for him.”
In his despair, Jeremiah reminds himself of God’s GREAT LOVE…and the Lord’s unfailing compassion…his GREAT FAITHFULNESS.
In the moment of recalling…remembering…Jeremiah’s small ember of hope begins to be rekindled.
Many of us ARE waiting…in this liminal…this in-between space. Jeremiah was there too. His anchor is God—God’s character…God’s unwavering love and steadfast faithfulness. New every morning. One…day…at…a…time. One moment at a time. I can hold hope for you in the moments when you can’t see it yet. We can hold hope for each other, knowing that the Lord can, in fact, BE ENOUGH. We can hold each other while we wait for Him.
Today is Epiphany Sunday—marking the day the magi visited the baby in the manger. But today also fittingly commemorates the ensuing need for Mary, Joseph, and Jesus to make a hasty nighttime evacuation to Egypt, where, as outsiders, they lived until the threat was gone. Christ knows hasty evacuation…and threat. He knows displacement from His home. He knows displacement from his home country to a foreign one, and also knows the greater displacement from His place in heaven to come to earth.
He came to enter in exactly where you are…to minister to you…to carry the burden you are carrying. We know Him as a Lord who touches, who weeps, who mourns…and who is powerful enough to heal, to comfort, to multiply, and to transform. Come Lord Jesus, AMEN.
Benediction:
Isaiah 41:
“But you…whom I have chosen…you descendants of Abraham my friend,
9 I took you from the ends of the earth, from its farthest corners I called you.
I said, ‘You are my servant’; I have chosen you and have not rejected you.
10 So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God.
I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.
As you leave know that the Lord’s LOVE for you is great…He will strengthen you and help you and uphold you.
https://www.gracecommons.org/sermons/new-year-worship
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Naj4C2ubAQ&t=3085s
Important resources:
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Downloadable Resources--See Sample List of Interest Areas; Your Spiritual Gifts—A Study Guide; Knowing Your Unique Calling and Purpose Study Guide; Whole-Life Ministry: A Form of Worship, Grace-Giving, and Living into Your Calling.
Shirley Giles Davis, author of the God. Gifts. You. Your Unique Calling and Design workbook, Your Unique Design Class Guide, Your Unique Design Facilitator Guide, DIOS. DONES. TÚ.: Tu llamado y diseño único (Spanish Edition), and Gifts-Calling-Purpose blog, is a consultant, coach, facilitator who has worked with hundreds of faith-based organizations, nonprofit agencies, and executive leaders in a diversity of fields for four decades. She currently serves as Catalyst for Equipping at her church.
Photo © Shirley Giles Davis.
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