Observation: In the wake of the Babylonian invasion and exile, a national disaster affecting generations of Judahites, the author does something modern readers are uncomfortable with reading in a religious text. He laments. He despairs. He let's himself feel what he feels: that hope is gone. It's not about pointing fingers...in fact twice the author himself (believed to be the prophet Jeremiah) says this has happened because "I was rebellious".
Application: As I write this I'm in a pretty good place for hope. I'm in Houston, Texas with 31,000 high school students and leaders for the ELCA youth gathering. There's a lot of energy, a lot of faith, a lot of hope here. But I know there's still a lot of despair in the world. A lot of people are feeling as Jeremiah did, that hope is losing and injustice is prevailing. As a Christian believer, trained to "welcome the stranger" (Matt. 25:35) it would be wrong of me to rejoice, dance and sing without remembering those who are in despair because our nation has turned legal refugees away.
But I have to say, being here in a time of despair, while strange, is a reminder that God is still writing this story, and if you think this generation of young people in Houston isn't going to be a big part of that, think again. We hold despair and hope, the cross and Resurrection, in tension as believers. It's a huge part of what faith is: lamenting in what we see yet believing in what we don't yet see. Houston is a good place for that.
Prayer: God, be with refugees. Be with people in despair. Be with my neighbors who weep. And be with my neighbors who hope. Make us a people who can hold both despair and hope in our hearts. Amen.
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