December 20 – A distant star, a single candle
For the Lord will not
cast off forever,
but, though he cause grief, he will have compassion
according to the abundance of his steadfast love;
for he does not afflict from his heart
or grieve the children of men. –Lamentations 3.31-33
It is the middle line of the middle chapter of Lamentations. Lamentations is 5 chapters long, each chapter is a funeral elegy. Elegy, not eulogy. A eulogy is a speech or writing offered in praise of a person, usually deceased. An elegy is a poem or song of mourning for a person, usually deceased.
Five elegies. Five songs of mourning. Songs 1-4 are acrostics. 1, 2, and 4 each are 22 verses long. Songs 1 and 2 are made up of verses three lines long, with the first line beginning with the next letter in the Hebrew alphabet. If they were an English poem, they would look like A – -, B – -, C – -, etc. The fourth song differs by only containing two lines per stanza (A -, B -, C -, etc.) The third song is 66 verses long because each line in the three-line stanzas begins with the letter. So, A A A, B B B, C C C, etc. The fifth song is still 22 verses long but only one line per verse and no longer an acrostic. I believe the songs getting shorter and abandoning the orderliness of the acrostic is itself a statement on grief. It does not always flow in a predictable orderly manner.
All that to explain what I stated at the beginning. Verses 31-33 are the middle three verses of the middle song of mourning. They are beautiful. They are hopeful. The Lord has compassion (to suffer with). The Lord feels our suffering and grieves our losses with us. The Lord has abundant steadfast love. The Lord does not afflict us from his heart. God’s default setting, if you will, is compassion and steadfast love, not affliction.
This is amazing. This is good news. Also, this is not my point. Not really.
Five laments. Five elegies. Five songs of loss and grief and mourning. And in the middle a pin prick of hope.
Amy and I used to assume, and maybe you do to, that the normal operating level of life is joy, peace, contentment, pleasantness. Certainly, hard things happen, but those are dips in the road, anomalies intended to make you more grateful, but not the way itself. As it has been said, “grief is a place to visit, not a place to live.”
What if that is backwards? What if blessings on earth are a kind mercy that are out of the ordinary in a fallen world? What if, when Paul says that hope that you can see is not really hope, he meant it?
The offer of Hope when life is going well is unnecessary.
The offer of Peace during times of peace is odd.
The offer of Joy during glad and happy days is confusing.
The hope and peace and joy of Advent are for those who dwell in the land of deep darkness. On them, a light has shone.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. –John 1.1-5
The people who walked in darkness
have seen a great light;
those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness,
on them has light shone. –Isaiah 9.2
Left Unsaid... for better or worse 