Lamentations: Look Upon My Sorrow

The book of Lamentations is a record of the prophet Jeremiah’s sorrow and grief over Jerusalem when it was captured and God’s people were exiled from his presence. Jeremiah’s words have often been seen as pointing to Jesus’ unique suffering on our behalf, bearing the wrath and judgment of God for our sins. We also find in Lamentations the hope of restoration through repentance and faith as we turn to God.

The central message of Lamentations is that of God’s sustaining grace in the midst of suffering. It’s a book that deals with the reality of pain, the destruction sin brings, and the certainty of God’s mercy. God draws near to his suffering saints. In Jesus Christ, God has drawn closer to us than could have been imagined—he has become one of us, sharing in all that we suffer in this fallen world. Remembering him and his cross, and the glory into which he entered (and into which we too shall enter), we trustingly submit to him and his fatherly governance of our lives with hope. Lamentations is a book of mourning, where we see the terrible aftermath of our rebellion against God, yet also find hope and healing.

Lent provides us a specific “appointed time” where we can tell God we hurt. We can come clean over failed relationships, broken promises, selfish greed, destructive pride, the times we have failed to love and cherish God and others. It is in confessing that we join with others before God in need of his renewal and his healing. Lament opens us up to not only healing but renewal.

Purchase an Illuminated Journal of the Book of Lamentations at the Info Desk for $5.

 

Follow along with us as we worship!

You can follow our Spotify Playlist. We’ll update it each week with the songs we are singing during this series and the season of Lent.

Sermons in this series

Easter Sunday Service
March 30, 2024Pastor:Joey Woestman

Sermon Notes

Celebrating our risen savior, Jesus! We conclude our study of Lamentations and are renewed by the good news of the gospel.

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Good Friday Service
March 29, 2024Pastor:Jeff Schultz

Sermon Notes

Our annual Good Friday service, remembering the death of our savior.

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Restore Us To Yourself, O Lord
March 24, 2024Pastor:Jeff Schultz

Sermon Notes

For the first time, the suffering people speak for themselves, but there’s no “closure” – just the first steps beyond suffering in silence towards perspective and hope. How does this final poem help us identify and express our suffering? What hope is there in “raw” prayers like the one offered in Lamentations 5? Join us as we cry out “Restore us to yourself, O God.”

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Exile No Longer
March 17, 2024Pastor:Joey Woestman

Sermon Notes

After the preacher’s call to prayer and his modeling of confession and repentance, we would expect the congregation to respond with their own voice, putting their grief, their guilt, and their grievance into their own prayer. But they need time, so the preacher re-narrates the siege and fall of Jerusalem, brining past pain into the light. He’s not just indulging in maudlin memories, he’s bringing the time for dwelling on the past to a close. It’s time to look to the future in hope of what God will do! Join us for “Exile No Longer” from Lamentations 4:1-22.

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Pray Like This...
March 10, 2024Pastor:Joey Woestman

Sermon Notes

After sharing his own personal reflections from his past experiences of grief, the pastor becomes preacher, shifting into sermon mode. He wants to help the congregation take responsibility for their unfaithfulness, so he models a prayer of repentance they can use. His own experience, and his own prayers, become the pattern in which the congregation can learn to express their guilt and their anger to God, in their own words. Join us as we learn to “Pray Like This…” from Lamentations 3:25-66.

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The Wounded Healer
March 3, 2024Pastor:Jeff Schultz

Sermon Notes

At the center of Lamentations, the focus and the structure shift. The narrator recounts his personal experience of suffering – what if felt like, and what his suffering seemed to tell him about God. But for the first time there’s hope – the narrator also remembers God’s kindness, love, and faithfulness, and he becomes a source of hope for others. It’s a patten we can emulate in our suffering. Join us as we look at “The Wounded Healer” from Lamentations 3:1-33.

 

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The Wrecked and The Wrecker
February 25, 2024Pastor:Jeff Schultz

Sermon Notes

It’s one thing to suffer hurts, losses, and griefs – but what do we do when it feels like God is the one who’s caused the pain? Where do we turn? Join us as we explore how lament helps give voice to our pain in “The Wrecked and the Wrecker” from Lamentations 2.

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How Lonely Sits the City
February 18, 2024Pastor:Joey Woestman

Sermon Notes

In a world beset by griefs, how do followers of Jesus learn to faithfully and appropriately bring these griefs to God? Or are we being unfaithful when we tell God we hurt? Is God big enough to handle our pain? These questions and more are at the core of our Lenten series through Lamentations. Join us as we begin the healing process of rehearsing our griefs before God, as we study Lamentations 1:1-22, “How Lonely Sits the City.”

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Ash Wednesday Service
February 14, 2024Pastor:Jeff Schultz

Sermon Notes

Start this year’s Lenten season with a service of prayer, humility, and the reminder of our frailty and need of a savior. Have you ever wondered why our church has made the decision to observe Ash Wednesday with this service? Pastor Joey talks about the intention behind it all in his 2023 EFCA blog post, “Remember, You Are Dust.”

 

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