Grief, Hope, and the Community of Faith

Devotional

Day 1: Grief as an Expression of Love

Grief is a profound expression of love, not a denial of faith. It acknowledges the depth of our relationships and the temporary separation from those we cherish. In the Christian journey, grief is not something to be avoided or suppressed but embraced as a natural response to loss. The Apostle Paul, in 1 Thessalonians 4, encourages believers not to grieve as those without hope. This hope is rooted in the promise of reunion and the comforting presence of the Holy Spirit, who holds our loved ones in life and continues to shape us. The comfort we find in our faith is not in the absence of grief but in the assurance of God's presence and the hope of eternal life. [03:45]

1 Thessalonians 4:13-14 (ESV): "But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep."

Reflection: Think of a loved one you have lost. How can you honor their memory today by expressing your love and hope in the promise of reunion?

Day 2: Lament as a Pathway to Trust

The Psalms of lament teach us to bring our sorrows before God, expressing our pain and confusion while trusting in His presence. Lament is not just a personal practice but a communal one, as the church shares in the grief of God's heart for the world. This practice allows us to be honest with God about our struggles and to find solace in His unwavering presence. Jesus Himself demonstrated divine empathy by weeping at the tomb of Lazarus, showing us the importance of acknowledging sorrow. Through lament, we learn to trust in God's presence even when solutions are not apparent. [15:30]

Psalm 13:1-2 (ESV): "How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? How long must I take counsel in my soul and have sorrow in my heart all the day? How long shall my enemy be exalted over me?"

Reflection: What sorrow or confusion are you currently facing? How can you bring this before God in a prayer of lament today?

Day 3: The Indwelling Presence of God

Jesus' teaching in John 14 about His Father's house emphasizes the indwelling presence of God with His people, not an escape to a distant heaven. This presence is a reality now, as God dwells with us through the Holy Spirit. The Spirit's role is to convict the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment, and the church is called to be a community of truth-tellers. As believers, we are invited to live out the values of the kingdom of God, holding the world accountable and speaking truth to power. This calling is not about escaping the world but transforming it through the presence of God within us. [31:09]

John 14:23 (ESV): "Jesus answered him, 'If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.'"

Reflection: How can you be more aware of God's indwelling presence in your daily life? What steps can you take to live out the values of the kingdom of God today?

Day 4: Celebrating Unity and Diversity

The unity and diversity within the body of Christ reflect the rich tapestry of God's creation. This unity is not about erasing differences but celebrating them as expressions of God's glory. Just as a family is made up of unique individuals, so the church is a diverse community united in Christ. The challenge is to maintain this unity while honoring the diversity that God has created. By embracing our differences, we can better reflect the image of God and fulfill our calling as His people. [54:17]

1 Corinthians 12:12-14 (ESV): "For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit. For the body does not consist of one member but of many."

Reflection: In what ways can you celebrate the diversity within your church community? How can you contribute to the unity of the body of Christ today?

Day 5: Speaking Truth to Power

The church's vocation is to speak truth to power, living out the values of the kingdom of God and holding the world accountable. This involves being a community of truth-tellers, empowered by the Spirit to bring truth to birth through our words and actions. As followers of Christ, we are called to challenge injustice and advocate for righteousness, embodying the transformative power of the gospel in our world. This calling requires courage and conviction, as we seek to align our lives with the truth of God's Word and the leading of His Spirit. [01:05:00]

Micah 6:8 (ESV): "He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?"

Reflection: What is one area of injustice or unrighteousness in your community that you feel called to address? How can you take a step today to speak truth to power in that area?

Sermon Summary

In reflecting on the profound nature of grief and its place in the Christian journey, I am reminded of the Apostle Paul's words in 1 Thessalonians 4, where he encourages believers not to grieve as those without hope. Grief is a natural response to loss, a shadow side of love that acknowledges the depth of our relationships. It is not a denial of faith to grieve; rather, it is an expression of love and a recognition of the temporary separation from those we cherish. The comfort we find in our faith is not in the absence of grief but in the hope of reunion and the presence of the Holy Spirit, who holds our loved ones in life and continues to shape us.

The Psalms, particularly those of lament, offer a rich resource for navigating grief. They teach us to bring our sorrows before God, to express our confusion and pain, and to trust in His presence even when solutions are not apparent. This practice of lament is not just personal but communal, as the church is called to share in the grief of God's heart for the world. Jesus Himself, God incarnate, wept at the tomb of Lazarus, demonstrating that divine empathy and the importance of acknowledging sorrow.

In John 14, Jesus speaks of His Father's house, a metaphor for the new temple where God dwells with His people. This is not about escaping to a distant heaven but about the indwelling presence of God with us now. The Spirit's role is to convict the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment, a task that involves the church as a community of truth-tellers. We are called to speak truth to power, to live out the values of the kingdom of God, and to hold the world accountable.

The unity and diversity within the body of Christ reflect the rich tapestry of God's creation. Just as a family is made up of unique individuals, so the church is a diverse community united in Christ. This unity is not about erasing differences but celebrating them as expressions of God's glory. The challenge is to maintain this unity while honoring the diversity that God has created.

Key Takeaways

1. Grief is a natural and necessary part of love, not a denial of faith. It is through grief that we express our love and acknowledge the temporary separation from those we cherish. The hope of reunion and the presence of the Holy Spirit provide comfort in our sorrow. [03:45]
2. The Psalms of lament teach us to bring our sorrows before God, expressing our pain and confusion while trusting in His presence. This practice is both personal and communal, as the church shares in the grief of God's heart for the world. [15:30]
3. Jesus' teaching in John 14 about His Father's house emphasizes the indwelling presence of God with His people, not an escape to a distant heaven. The Spirit's role is to convict the world, and the church is called to be a community of truth-tellers. [31:09]
4. The unity and diversity within the body of Christ reflect the rich tapestry of God's creation. This unity is not about erasing differences but celebrating them as expressions of God's glory, maintaining unity while honoring diversity. [54:17]
5. The church's vocation is to speak truth to power, living out the values of the kingdom of God and holding the world accountable. This involves being a community of truth-tellers, empowered by the Spirit to bring truth to birth through our words and actions. [65:00]

Youtube Chapters

[00:00] - Welcome
[03:45] - Understanding Grief and Hope
[15:30] - The Role of Lament in Faith
[31:09] - The Indwelling Presence of God
[40:00] - The Spirit's Conviction and the Church's Role
[54:17] - Unity and Diversity in the Body of Christ
[65:00] - Speaking Truth to Power
[75:00] - The Church's Vocation in the World
[85:00] - The Rich Tapestry of God's Creation
[95:00] - Conclusion and Reflections

Sermon Clips

"Grief is a funny thing many of you will know only too well what I'm talking about some of you much more than I do because I haven't had a huge amount of grief in my life even though I'm quite old now but grief comes in waves and attacks you when you didn't expect it and you suddenly in the middle of doing something else find yourself in floods of tears and think why am I why is this happening and the answer is it's just coming back at you because of all the memories all the stuff all that's going on." [00:09:35]

"Grief is okay it's hopeless grief that the Christian has to avoid some Christians think that when they go to a funeral they shouldn't be grieving we should be happy because he's he or she is with the Lord and the answer is no you grieve not to grieve is to deny love grief is the shadow side of love and when you grieve you are loving that person while missing them and missing them terribly because you know that on this side of your death you're not going to see them again." [00:10:55]

"I thank God that the spirit who indwelt him is holding him in life, and that same spirit, please God, is indwelling and shaping me. So, that doesn't give comfort, i.e., oh, so grief doesn't matter. No, the grief does matter. That's real. It has to be acknowledged. It has to be worked through prayerfully, et cetera. But there is the comfort through that. I hope that makes sense." [00:12:36]

"I think one of the first and most important things that it does is it sends me back to the Psalms. I haven't done the numbers, but I'm guessing that maybe a quarter of the Psalms are the Psalms of Lament. Tim, you probably know the statistics, and I don't. Well... About one-third. Hmm? One-third." [00:14:31]

"And, I mean, from the tradition that I come from, praying the Psalms day by day has just been a lifelong thing that I've done. I don't know where I would be without them. And so, again and again and again, in my regular reading and praying of the Psalms, sometimes I come to a Psalm of Lament on a day when I'm feeling great and when my life is really going well, and then I make a practice of putting myself in the position of, say, somebody I've seen on the television in the wrong part of Ukraine or Gaza or wherever it is." [00:14:51]

"There's lots of other terrible things going on around the world as well and I've realized that there are many times when in praying the psalms all you can do is just say ah why are you so heavy oh my innermost being and why are you so disquieted within me put your trust in God because I will yet praise him and even when you don't feel like that so it's the discipline of going through those psalms and then just holding it in the presence of God without being able to see what the solution is." [00:18:33]

"Jesus is saying, I'm going off to heaven, I'm getting a place ready, and you can come and join me. Because it's very clear later in the chapter, he's quite explicit that if anyone loves me, they will keep my word, and my father and I will come and make our home with that person. So that it isn't about us going to be with Jesus somewhere else, and that's it. It's about belonging to God's people in the present, and that that's okay, despite the fact that Jesus himself is going away, and that that will then mean that Jesus and the Father will come through the person and work of the Spirit and make their home with us." [00:22:32]

"Jesus sees God the father as already building the new temple the new temple which as we find throughout John but also in Paul is the human beings in whom the holy spirit is going to come and dwell and I'm not sure I can parse all of that out from John 14 straight off the top but there's something going on there which means that we have misunderstood the text if we think that theメディable the old translated simply means is." [00:20:36]

"Jesus in good biblical judaic fashion believes that god will one day call the whole world and especially its leaders and rulers to account but then it's the church's job in the power of the spirit to anticipate that that's a bit of inaugurated eschatology what god is going to do by holding the whole world to account at the end the church has to learn how to do in the present for the last 250 years the western church has largely backed off because the secular world has said no you go and teach people how to say their prayers and go to heaven we will run the world and the church has said okay okay we'll do that we'll go and hide in a corner." [00:48:50]

"Jesus' teaching in John 14 about His Father's house emphasizes the indwelling presence of God with His people, not an escape to a distant heaven. The Spirit's role is to convict the world, and the church is called to be a community of truth-tellers." [00:31:09]

"The church's vocation is to speak truth to power, living out the values of the kingdom of God and holding the world accountable. This involves being a community of truth-tellers, empowered by the Spirit to bring truth to birth through our words and actions." [00:54:17]

"The unity and diversity within the body of Christ reflect the rich tapestry of God's creation. This unity is not about erasing differences but celebrating them as expressions of God's glory, maintaining unity while honoring diversity." [01:05:00]

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