THE service at Crediton Methodist Church on Sunday, October 27 was led by our minister, Rev Ben Haslam.

The reading from Samuel 2 told of David’s lament over Saul and Jonathan’s death and includes “How are the mighty fallen”.

Jonathan was a close and trusted friend of David, but Saul repeatedly tried to have David killed. David laments for them both equally.

There is a lot of character in lamenting for someone who was a sworn enemy. At the same time, it is not just a lament for Saul, but a lament for Saul’s potential because despite his early potential, Saul had hardened his heart to God and when someone hardens their heart to God, God cannot get in.

God cannot do His work in the human heart that can help us become what we are meant to become.

David laments for Saul as much as Jonathan. So this is not about his personal feelings.

This is inspired by the Spirit because it is almost a lament from God’s point of view – a lament for what could have been. Because when God looks at us He does not just see the people we have been or that we are now, He sees all we can be in Christ and gives us everything we need to become that person.

This is a lament but it is not entirely depressing. Laments in scripture are never bleak and hopeless.

In Shakespeare’s play “King Leah” we see King Leah carry his youngest daughter Cordelia who has been killed on to the stage and he lets out a roar of pain and anguish.

There is such a sense of bleakness that Cordelia’s death is pointless andthat life is pointless. This is not a Biblical lament.

David’s lament has more of the feeling of Good Friday. There is unspeakable horror and grief at what is happening, but there is an undercurrent of triumph because, despite what is happening and the hideous and brutal death, God’s purposes are happening and God is still in charge.

The lament in the Biblical sense is quite hopeful. We have noted that the lament is for what Saul could have been – things could have been different.

If things could have been different in the past, that means there must be potential for things to be different in the future. If we can imagine how things could be different, then we can change course and shape our lives differently.

Imagining things being different is the first step to things actually being different.

That does not mean that the Bible calls us to ignore the pain of the world. Jesus weeps on hearing of Lazarus’s death.

He knows how it will end and that He will bring him back from the grave.At that moment Jesus shares the grief of Martha and Mary and weeps genuine tears.

Jesus cries out in anguish before the crucifiction. He takes the pain and complexity of the world, but taking life seriously also means not just saying that everything is meaningless and nothing really matters, but it means acknowledging deeper realities, it means holding difficult experiences in one hand and the promises of God in the other.

We could, if we are not careful, take our feelings as a guide to how things actually are. Sometimes we have to remind ourselves that God is there and that God’s purposes are good even though we do not feel like that are.

Sometimes we need to remind ourselves so that we do not drift into the pessimism and despair of the culture around us.

Someone said “most people think their lives are of quiet despair and their lives do not matter”.

Laments in the Bible seem to take life more seriously and that means taking hope seriously too. In the book of Lamentations there is a lot of pain and unbearable grief, but there are also glimpses of real hope- “Great is Thy faithfulness”.

In Psalms there are real cries of anguish and also expressions of trust in the same psalm.

In the reading from Corinthians 1 we were reminded God is a god of resurrection. For resurrection to happen there has to be death first. That is difficult and painful.

God is a god of resurrection even in such a world as ours. That is why scripture says “do not grieve as the world grieves”.

It does not mean pretend all is well when it is not. It means that yes, you should feel pain and heartache butgrieve as people who have a real and lasting hope.

Lament in the Bible has four parts:

1. Address – we come before God confident that He is there and we can address Him as our father

2. Complaint – going before God with the real pain in our hearts because the things we have seen around us and in the news

3. Request – because we are confident and able through Jesus Christ to come into God’s presence, we can bring requests. Our prayers are one of the ways by which God works in the world. Our prayers can actually bring God’s power and presence to situations.

4. Trust – there is always an expression of trust. Whatever is happening to uswe know that we can trust God completely.

So, when people lament in the Bible, they are pouring out their hearts but not just having a good moan, they are going before God whom they completely trust. They are going before a god of new life and new chances and hope and ultimately a god of resurrection.

We are not to grieve – we are to be a people of hope, a people who take the pain of the world seriously but who are sure that God is present.

We have the ultimate example that Jesus endured pain and an agonising death and in doing so broke the stronghold of sin and death over us and rose from the dead.

Paul describes the resurrection of Jesus as “the first fruits”. First fruits were the gleanings of the harvest which were offered to God as a thanksgiving.

Paul is saying Jesus’s resurrection is the first example of what will one day happen to all of God’s people. We too will be resurrected and share God’s new creation.

We have a future hope that is better than we could imagine but we also have God’s real and sustaining presence in the here and now.

We have God’s permission to lament but we are called to lament as people of hope.

People that hope in their hearts that the world can take what comes with hope that is rooted in God and in what God has done in Christ Jesus and in God’s purposes for us, for others and for the whole world.

Bronwyn Nott