"Holy Tears"

Jeremiah 8:18-9:1

John W. Wurster

September 23, 2001

Did you know there were more people in worship here last Sunday than were here last Easter? More people came in the wake of the terrorist acts of September 11 than showed up amidst the lilies and the tulips on the holiest day of the year last April. I understand that happened most everywhere.

I’ve wondered about that. Year after year, we stand up each spring and announce that the Lord is risen, and we celebrate the victory over death won for us by Jesus Christ. That is good news, but I guess it’s also old news and, well, at Easter we’ve got a lot of things going on, and it’s a holiday, of course. It’s nice to know that nothing can separate us from God’s love. Resurrection is great. Easter is great We’re all for it, but we sort of take it for granted. Or at least we used to. I think we used to take lots of things for granted.

Certainly last week we felt a special need to be together. Certainly last week we wanted to join in praying for the victims and the rescue workers and our nation and our leaders and ourselves. Certainly last week there was particular comfort and strength in being together in the presence of God in this space. But I think there was more than just those things which pulled so many to worship last Sunday.

Maybe so many came to church last week because in the smoking rubble in New York and Washington lie buried some very basic assumptions about life in this country. Safety and security and an attitude of it-can’t-happen-here were all exposed as illusions. Lots of things were stripped away last week. Maybe we came to church to make sure that God hadn’t left us, too

Maybe we came because we needed to hear again the good news of the gospel, really hear it, really hear that in Jesus Christ God has committed himself to us in every way, sharing our life, knowing our burdens, feeling our hurts, experiencing human suffering and even death. Maybe last week we especially needed to be reminded that death was not the end for Jesus, that God’s love is stronger than death’s grip, that in every circumstance God is with us and God is for us and nothing can ever separate us from God’s love.

We’ve heard those words before. Over and over again we have heard them. But last week, we really needed to believe them. Last week we really needed to know and trust that God has overcome every power that would hurt or destroy. Last week we really needed to hold fast to the God who has always been holding us. Maybe that’s why so many were here last week. Maybe that’s why we’re here today.

I believe we all have a longing for a spiritual relationship. I believe that, deep within, all of us have a longing for God. The psalm for today says it very well, "As a deer longs for flowing streams, so my soul longs for you , O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God" (Psalm 42:1-2). This longing lies at the core of our being. Often we are unaware of it. Often it gets covered with obligations and stresses and one thing after another. Often we’re just too busy or too distracted or too consumed by what seems to be important. That longing doesn’t go away, but we have found all kinds of ways to ignore it, all kinds of ways to cover it up.

Last week, some of those things on top lost their importance. Some of those things on top proved to be pretty insignificant. Some of those things on top crumbled. Underneath it all we again discovered our thirst for God. Still there, at the core of our being, is this longing for God, a longing for something beyond ourselves, something reliable, enduring. For many of us this tragedy uncovered that deep spiritual longing that we had been ignoring. Suddenly, we had feelings and questions and needs that before September 11 we had been able to deny. Not anymore. Our souls indeed thirst for God. Last week we felt that thirst, perhaps in ways that we had never felt it before. Maybe that’s why so many were here. Maybe that’s why we’re here today.

The power of scripture is the way that its story becomes our story, the way that our lives find meaning and purpose in these holy words. In this beautiful passage from Jeremiah, the prophet mourns for his people. Surely we join in his lament, "My joy is gone; grief is upon me, my heart is sick. . . . For the hurt of my poor people I am hurt, I mourn, and dismay has taken hold of me" (Jeremiah 8:18). Surely we know this feeling. We know about tears. We know about pouring out our hearts for people who are hurting. Jeremiah longs for a head full of water and eyes that would work like fountains because there are so many reasons to cry, so many people in pain.

Amidst his tears, Jeremiah knows there is healing to come. He knows there is a balm in Gilead. He knows there is something to make the wounded whole, someone to heal and save and redeem. Even as he weeps, Jeremiah believes in the healing power of God. I do, too. That’s why I’m here. Perhaps that’s why you’re here. Because you believe it. Or you want to believe it. Or you hope to believe it.

There is someone to bind up the wounds. God’s love will not fail. Jeremiah cries now, even as he looks for that love to comfort and mend and restore the people in days ahead. He cries holy tears, tears filled with sorrow for what has happened, tears filled with faith that the healing will come.

Holy tears feel the pain, but cling to the hope. Holy tears mourn the death, but anticipate the resurrection. Holy tears express the suffering, but embrace the future.

It is truly the grace of God that enables our tears to be sorrowful and hopeful at the same time. It is truly the grace of God that assures us even when so many things have been shaken, broken, destroyed. It is truly the grace of God which brings forth new life, even from death’s darkest corners. No wonder we call grace amazing.

It is God’s grace that gathers us for worship – last week, this week, every week. It is God’s grace that offers us a refuge in turbulent times. It is God’s grace that empowers us to resist evil in all of its forms. No wonder grace has such a sweet sound.

It is grace, amazing grace, sweet grace, that finds us, grace that strengthens us, grace that teaches us, grace that saves us, even in our tears, especially in our tear, our holy tears..