Wait and Hope

Wednesday, April 22, 2020

Midweek Reflection, 2nd week of Easter

Lamentations 3:19-26

• ·         Scripture basis for “Great Is Thy Faithfulness”

• ·        Most positive section of Lamentations – most of it is more depressing. You need some scripture to match your mood when you’re down, read Lamentations. However, these few verses in chapter 3 are not depressing. They are the only ones that are uplifting – they’re about hope and God’s faithfulness and loving mercy, which never end and are new every morning!

• ·         “I call all this to mind – therefore, I will wait (have hope). The steadfast love of the Lord never ends. God’s compassion isn’t through! They are renewed every morning. Great is your faithfulness! The Lord is my portion, says my soul, therefore I will wait (hope). The Lord is good to those who hope (wait), to the soul who seeks him. It is good to wait in silence for the salvation of the Lord.” (CEB translation)

• ·         The CEB sounded a little different from what I remembered of this passage, so I compared with the NIV (the translation we use at LUMC). Everywhere CEB says “wait”, NIV says “have hope.” Everywhere CEB says “hope”, NIV says “wait.”

• ·         V. 21 – every transl. except CEB says hope, and AMPC says hope and expectation

• ·         V. 24 – mix of hope and wait – VOICE says both: “Hope in God; just wait”

• ·         V. 25 – most say wait, a few say hope; one says trust

• ·         V. 26 – most say wait, some say wait and hope

• ·         Isn’t that interesting, that the Hebrew word for “wait” can also be translated as “have hope”? To wait is to have hope. We don’t wait in vain. We don’t give up. We have hope. That’s why we wait. We have hope that whatever we’re waiting for will come to pass.

• ·         Usually we talk about waiting and hope during the season of Advent, as we prepare for Christmas, both in the church and at home. And we always talk about it as an active waiting, because we are doing all those preparations to get ready. Yet is there really such a thing as a passive waiting? Maybe in a doctor’s waiting room! (Although I always bring a book to read.)

• ·         Right now we are in a season of waiting. Waiting to see who will get sick, who will recover, who will die, how the virus will spread, when restrictions will be lifted, what life will look like on the other side. We are waiting. But I don’t think I’ve talked to anyone who’s sitting around twiddling their thumbs! Everyone is actively waiting – we’re doing a wide variety of crafts, we’re taking walks, we’re taking care of our families and animals, we’re checking on our neighbors.

• ·         We are also in a season of hope. And “hope does not disappoint, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us” (Romans 5:5).

• ·         We wait with hope – hope that we will make it thru, hope for our loved ones, hope for our community, country, and world – and yet our hope is not in leaders or government, our hope is in God. In my devotional last week there were two psalms, on two consecutive days, that both said don’t trust leaders. And I’ll admit, I was offended, because I consider myself a leader. The first one, Psalm 146:3 says, “Don’t trust leaders; don’t trust any human beings – there’s no saving help with them!” The second one, Psalm 118:9 says, “It’s far better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust any human leader.” What those both get at is that salvation is not found in our leaders, including me. I cannot save you. I cannot save the church. Saving is Jesus’s job. He’s the Savior, not me or anyone else. My job as a leader is to point to Jesus. I don’t point to myself; it’s not about me. I point to Jesus. He’s the one who saves. He’s the one in whom to place your hope. He’s the one you’re waiting for.

• ·         This Sunday we’ll read from Luke 24 the story of the road to Emmaus when the two disciples tell Jesus (before they know it’s him) that they “had hoped that he (Jesus) was the one to redeem Israel.” Israel had been waiting, and waiting and waiting and waiting, for a Savior. The disciples and other followers thought that was Jesus. But then he died, and their hopes died with him. That’s what made the resurrection so spectacular: not only did it revive their hope, it fulfilled their hope. The long-awaited Messiah was here, it was Jesus!

• ·         May you be blessed in your waiting and hoping this week. Make sure your hope isn’t misplaced (as in, it’s placed in the right things – in Jesus). Actively wait and work to prepare for when this time of waiting is over. Hymn writer Charles Tindley, “Beams of Heaven” (UMH 524) refrain – “I do not know how long 'twill be, nor what the future holds for me, but this I know: if Jesus leads me, I shall get home someday.” Amen.