We encourage you to read and reflect on these scriptures, songs, notes, and prayers as we look forward to our time of worship together this coming Sunday.

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Please print this guide or have it handy in digital format for use during the service.

CALL TO WORSHIP

Please join in on the bolded lines.

The heavens are telling the glory of God
May our worship reflect God’s glory.
The firmament proclaims God’s handiwork.
May we see each other as the handiwork of God.
Let our prayer and praise, our singing and proclamation project the love of God.
We commune with Christians around the world, with Christians throughout time.
With Christians across geography and across time,
Let us worship!

MUSIC: COME HOLY ONE

CCLI #6291516 | Eric J. Marshall © 2011
Performed by Emmaus Road Worship Team

CORPORATE PRAYER

Please join in on the bolded lines.

Heavenly Father, you have made us for yourself,
and our hearts are restless until they rest in you:
Look with compassion upon the heartfelt desires of your servants,
and purify our disordered affections,
that we may behold your eternal glory in the face of Christ Jesus;
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.  Amen.

MUSIC: O LOVE THAT WILL NOT LET ME GO

CCLI #7098754 | Susan Veira, Jonathan Veira, and George Matheson © 2017
Performed by Emmaus Road Worship Team

MUSIC: CHRIST BE ALL AROUND ME

CCLI #7016414 | David Leonard, Jack Mooring, Leeland Mooring, and Leslie Jordan
Performed by Emmaus Road Worship Team

WORD

Download Sermon Notes (PDF)Download

Lamentations: The Second Poem
Lamentations 2:1-9 (NLT)

INTRO
We are discovering that Lamentations has a lot to teach us about what it means to be people of faith through the whole human experience.

Last week, we learned that in the first poem, the city of Jerusalem is personified as a widow. This widow attributes her suffering to her own sin while also feeling shame from that sin. We learned that the redemptive purposes of God are intended to release us from the guilt of personal sin AND rescue us from the shame of sin.

This week, we explore the second poem.

THE SECOND POEM
In the first poem, the widow saw her sin as the primary cause of suffering. In this poem, God is portrayed as angry, retributive, and clearly to blame for the suffering of Jerusalem.

How are we to understand passages in the Bible like this? Are we to take our cues about the character of God from passages like this? Are we to understand that God is actually angry and retributive? Does God punish us for sin in order to teach us a lesson? These are important interpretive questions. How do you square these passages with passages that speak of God’s love, patience, mercy, and forgiveness?

We need an interpretive center of the Bible to help us make sense of things. The Bible itself points to Jesus as that interpretive center.

Hebrews 1:3 says that Jesus is the “radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of God’s being.” Jesus reveals the character and nature of God to us. If that is the case (and it is), then what do passages like this show us?

This poem shows us that to express anger at God is not blasphemous or unfitting for prayer. In fact, it shows us that anger, in times of suffering, can be a sign of fidelity to God! In fact, to be angry with God and lament is to have faith that God is a God of justice and will act to make things right and bring redemption to the situation.

Let that sink in: To lament is to have faith that God will act to make things right.

The Bible is not a book that reflects perfect life and tidy doctrine. It is a book that reflects the grittiness of life.

EXCEPTIONALISM
The language in Lamentations 2 reveals a bit about how Jerusalem saw itself. Look at vss. 1 & 3:
“…thrown down from the heights of heaven” (vs. 1)
“All the strength of Israel vanishes…” (vs. 3)

Jerusalem saw itself as exceptional. Who could blame them? They were the nation chosen by God to carry the message of hope and salvation to the world. And yet, they found themselves experiencing unimaginable loss.

The American Evangelical Church has been caught in a narrative of exceptionalism. We have come to believe that we are the standard-bearers for what it means to be Christian.

Idolizing narratives of success from our “brand” of Christianity runs the risk of considering evangelicalism over and above all other forms of Christianity.

“Non-Western expressions of Christianity can be portrayed as inferior to the successful formula for ministry put forth by many white evangelicals in mainstream Christian culture.” -Soong-Chan Rah, Prophetic Lament, pg. 96

Lament helps keep us from these attitudes of exceptionalism because it requires humility. Lament calls us into a proper view of ourselves. May we, who might think ourselves exceptional by any standard, see ourselves simply as recipients of God’s grace.

TABLE

Prepare the elements of “bread” and “wine” for use as we gather around The Lord’s Table. These can be any items convenient around the home that symbolize these for you. 

CONFESSION OF THE MYSTERY OF FAITH

Christ has died.
Christ is risen. 
Christ will come again.

PRAYERS OF THE PEOPLE

As we pray together, we invite you to share your own requests and testimonies with us this week. If you have a request you can share it live in our video stream chat, or you may email us at emmausroadfc@gmail.com

THE LORD’S PRAYER

Our Father in heaven,
        hallowed be your Name,
        your kingdom come,
        your will be done,
        on earth as in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our sins
        as we forgive those
        who sin against us.
Lead us not into temptation, 
        and deliver us from evil.
For yours is the kingdom, 
        and the power,
        and the glory for ever and ever.
Amen.

BENEDICTION

You are invited to hold your hands out, palm-up as we receive this benediction.

Creator God—
as we go out into our community, workplaces, and homes,
may Your Spirit open our eyes anew
to the vastness and splendor of Your beauty all around us.

May we hear, and smell, and see, and touch
Your glory evident in all of Your creation.

Above all, let us see Your beauty
even in the brokenness of our brothers and sisters—
all of them, created in Your image,
and waiting to experience that redemption that comes
only through Christ Jesus our Lord.

We go now to love and serve our Lord—Amen.