As we consider what 2025 might hold in store, there’s much to make us concerned in regards to the months ahead. In the broader world there are the continuing wars and unrest in Ukraine, the Middle East and Sudan, plus continuing attacks by militant Islamic groups in North and Central Africa, and ongoing tensions between China and Taiwan.
In addition, there’s uncertainty about what a second Donald Trump presidency will mean for each the United States and the world normally. In Germany there’s concern in regards to the implications of the growing support for the right-wing AfD party, and in South Korea the president has just been arrested. Across the world there’s also a growing wave of antisemitism fuelled by the conflict in Gaza.
In this country there’s continued worry in regards to the state of the economy, the NHS and social care, immigration levels, the prevalence of sexual abuse, the housing crisis and the effect of more house constructing on the countryside, and proposals to legalise assisted suicide.
More generally there’s a widespread feeling of unease in regards to the way forward for the country amid what appears to be growing tensions between different social, ethnic and spiritual groups – the riots last summer being an expression of this.
For those within the Church of England there’s worry in regards to the continuing fallout from past cases of sexual abuse within the wake of the resignation of the Archbishop of Canterbury within the aftermath of the Makin Review in regards to the handling of abuses committed by John Smyth and division about the very best method to handle problems with sexual abuse in the longer term.
There can be continuing division about tips on how to resolve differences over same-sex relationships and same-sex marriages because the House of Bishops continues to provide recent proposals as a part of the Prayers of Love and Faith process. Generally there’s a sense that the Church is in a state of great decline and there’s uncertainty about tips on how to address this.
For people across the country, there are worries about income, employment, housing, relationships with family and friends, mental and physical health, and the prospect of death.
The query all these concerns raise is where we will find hope for the 12 months ahead and in this text I would like to suggest that we will find hope by taking a look at what at first sight could seem a impossible source, the Old Testament book of Lamentations.
Lamentations, which Christian and Jewish traditions hold to have been written by the prophet Jeremiah, is as its name suggests a book of lament. Specifically, it’s a book which laments the destruction of town of Jerusalem and the temple built by Solomon by the armies of the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar in 587 BC.
In Jewish tradition it’s recited on the ninth day of the Jewish month of Ab, the day on which Jews mourn the destruction of the primary temple by the armies of Nebuchadnezzar and the destruction of the second temple by the armies of the Roman Emperor Titus in AD 70.
In the primary two chapters of Lamentations, and in the primary twenty verses of chapter three, the creator of the book laments each the calamities which have befallen town of Jerusalem consequently of God’s infliction of judgement upon it and the afflictions that God has caused him to suffer as a person.
Thus, in Chapter 2:5-6 we read concerning Judah and Jerusalem:
“The Lord has develop into like an enemy,
he has destroyed Israel;
he has destroyed all its palaces,
laid in ruins its strongholds;
and he has multiplied within the daughter of Judah
mourning and lamentation.
“He has broken down his booth like that of a garden,
laid in ruins the place of his appointed feasts;
the Lord has dropped at an end in Zion
appointed feast and sabbath,
and in his fierce indignation has spurned
king and priest.”
Then in chapter 3:1 we read in regards to the author of Lamentations: “I’m the person who has seen affliction under the rod of his wrath; he has driven and brought me into darkness with none light; surely against me he turns his hand many times the entire day long.”
If all we had from the author of Lamentations were verses like those just quoted it would appear that he was someone totally without hope. However, if we proceed on in chapter 3 we discover twelve verses (21-33) during which he re-affirms his trust in God and consequent hope for the longer term.
As scholars who’ve studied the literary structure of Lamentations have noted, the position of those verses inside that structure is critical. These verses are situated right in the midst of the book. The book as an entire consists of 5 chapters, so chapter three is the central chapter and these verses are in the midst of chapter three. They are, in structural terms, the centre of the book. Furthermore, all the things that comes before them is lament and all the things that comes after them can be lament.
The point of this structure is to make the purpose that it is feasible to trust God and have hope for the longer term even when all you possibly can see around you is calamity. Even within the centre of the storm you possibly can (and may) go on trusting and hoping.
If we have a look at the verses themselves we discover that they may be divided into two sections, verses 21-24 and 25-33.
Verses 21-24 run as follows: “But this I bring to mind, and due to this fact I actually have hope: The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases,his mercies never come to an end; they’re recent every morning; great is thy faithfulness. ‘The Lord is my portion,’ says my soul, ‘due to this fact I’ll hope in him.”’
The very first thing to notice about these verses is that they begin with the word ‘but’. The author of Lamentations has previously said that his soul is bowed down under the burden of his afflictions (3:19-20), but now something else happens. What happens is that he makes a deliberate decision to recall what he knows to be true about God. In the words of esteemed Bible scholar Chris Wright in his commentary on Lamentations: “He makes it come back into his conscious considering, in order to vary his whole perspective.”
The second thing to notice is that what the author recalls is God’s “steadfast love” and “faithfulness”, his unbreakable, unchanging love and mercy towards the people of Israel and the world as an entire, and his commitment to send a divine messiah descended from the road of King David to make all things right.
The third thing to notice is that recalling this stuff brings hope. If this God is on his side (his ‘portion’) then he can have hope for the longer term even amid present catastrophe. Because God is at all times loving and merciful then things will work out for the very best even when he cannot currently see how.
Verses 25-33 then go on to declare:
“The Lord is nice to those that wait for him,
to the soul that seeks him.
It is nice that one should wait quietly
for the salvation of the Lord.
It is nice for a person that he bear
the yoke in his youth.
“Let him sit alone in silence
when he has laid it on him;
let him put his mouth within the dust—
there may yet be hope;
let him give his cheek to the smiter,
and be crammed with insults.
“For the Lord won’t
forged off for ever,
but, though he cause grief, he could have compassion
based on the abundance of his steadfast love;
for he doesn’t willingly afflict
or grieve the sons of men.”
The very first thing to notice in these verses is that the author affirms that, within the words of the commentator Matthew Henry, ” … afflictions are really good for us, and, if we bear them aright, will work very much for our good. It shouldn’t be only good to hope and wait for the salvation, nevertheless it is nice to be under the difficulty for the time being.”
If we ask why the author believes this counter-intuitive message, the reply is two-fold. To start off with, he understands that God “doesn’t willingly afflict or grieve the sons of men”. God shouldn’t be a cosmic sadist who enjoys seeing people suffer. He is, as the author repeats, a God of “steadfast love”, and when he causes his people to suffer and be griefstricken it’s because he has a very good and merciful purpose in doing so (though this will not be apparent on the time).
Furthermore, he knows that because God is God, suffering and grief won’t have the last word: “The Lord won’t forged off for ever … though he cause grief, he could have compassion.” To quote Matthew Henry again, it’s God “that causes grief, and due to this fact we could also be assured it’s ordered correctly and graciously; and it’s but for a season, and when need is, that we’re in heaviness”. Or, because the Psalmist puts it:
“For his anger is but for a moment,
and his favour is for a lifetime.
Weeping may tarry for the night,
but joy comes with the morning” (Psalm 30:5).
The message of Lamentations for us as 2025 gets entering into earnest is that terrible things could occur – on this planet, within the Church, and to us personally, just as calamity befell Jerusalem and its inhabitants in 587.
If and when terrible things do occur, it would be right to lament as the author of Lamentations does. It is a superbly proper human response to answer suffering and death with grief and lamentation. We could be inhuman if we didn’t.
However, even within the midst of our sorrow we also have to follow the instance of the author of Lamentations by deliberately recalling what we learn about God, namely that he’s a God of steadfast love and mercy, who only allows bad things to occur for a very good purpose and who won’t ever let evil and death have the last word.
If we do that, we are going to then give you the chance to have hope. Hope not in us but in God. We will give you the chance to affirm with the Psalmist that because God is God joy will are available in the morning.
