Lamentations 1:1–6; 3:19–26 and Luke 17:5–10
Esther Epp, Western Tract Mission
“Increase Our Faith!” They Said
I had spoken at my uncle’s memorial service,
Saying the things you might expect,
The kind of guy he was, etc.
I referred to an old oral letter
He’d sent to me on cassette tape which,
On the way back to my pew,
I handed to his only child, his daughter, my cousin.
“You will love it,” I said.
And then I sat down,
Satisfied that perhaps in some way,
I had increased their faith
(In God, if not in me?)
Then we sang a hymn that I didn’t know
(Long before its inclusion
In the Presbyterian hymnal).
But my younger brother, standing next to me,
Belted it out from memory.
His different theological route from mine
Had taken him to this place I did not know.
“Great is thy faithfulness, O God my Father,
There is no shadow of turning with thee.”
I can still hear and picture him in that congregation,
Even moreso as he, himself, recently dead,
Still brings tears to my eyes.
And I like to think I learned then,
As maybe the apostles learned,
If they listened that day,
A new theology,
Or new analogy,
Some new hymnology,
Sung way back in Lamentations,
And later served up at table,
In life and in words (the tape of which we still play)
By a Master of such increased faithfulness
You can hardly believe it.
Scott L. Barton
How lonely sits the city that once was full of people!
How like a widow she has become,
she that was great among the nations!
She that was a princess among the provinces
has become a vassal.
She weeps bitterly in the night,
with tears on her cheeks;
among all her lovers
she has no one to comfort her;
all her friends have dealt treacherously with her,
they have become her enemies.
Judah has gone into exile with suffering
and hard servitude;
she lives now among the nations,
and finds no resting place;
her pursuers have all overtaken her
in the midst of her distress.
The roads to Zion mourn,
for no one comes to the festivals;
all her gates are desolate,
her priests groan;
her young girls grieve,
and her lot is bitter.
Her foes have become the masters,
her enemies prosper,
because the LORD has made her suffer
for the multitude of her transgressions;
her children have gone away,
captives before the foe.
From daughter Zion has departed all her majesty.
Her princes have become like stags that find no pasture;
they fled without strength before the pursuer.
...
The thought of my affliction and my homelessness
is wormwood and gall!
My soul continually thinks of it
and is bowed down within me.
But this I call to mind,
and therefore I have hope:
The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases,
his mercies never come to an end;
they are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness.
"The LORD is my portion," says my soul,
"therefore I will hope in him."
The LORD is good to those who wait for him,
to the soul that seeks him.
It is good that one should wait quietly
for the salvation of the LORD.
+ + +
The apostles said to the Lord, "Increase our faith!" The Lord
replied, "If you had faith the size of a mustard seed, you could say to
this mulberry tree, 'Be uprooted and planted in the sea,' and it would obey
you.
"Who among you would say to your slave who has just come in from plowing
or tending sheep in the field, 'Come here at once and take your place at the
table'? Would you not rather say to him, 'Prepare supper for me, put on
your apron and serve me while I eat and drink; later you may eat and
drink'? Do you thank the slave for doing what was commanded? So you
also, when you have done all that you were ordered to do, say, 'We are
worthless slaves; we have done only what we ought to have done!'"
+ + +
2 Timothy 1:1–14
Edmund Pettus Bridge, "Bloody Sunday," March 7, 1965
’Til Every Foe Is Vanquished
God did not give us cowardice,
A timid spirit holding back;
Bystanding’s not the mark
Of Christ, whose grace for all, attacks
The powers that would thwart
The love for which he gave his all;
He asks us that we follow him:
Can you stand up? Be brave?
Your call.
Scott L. Barton
Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, for the sake of the
promise of life that is in Christ Jesus, To Timothy, my beloved child: Grace,
mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord. I am grateful
to God—whom I worship with a clear conscience, as my ancestors did—when I
remember you constantly in my prayers night and day. Recalling your tears, I
long to see you so that I may be filled with joy. I am reminded of your sincere
faith, a faith that lived first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice
and now, I am sure, lives in you.
For this reason I remind you to rekindle the gift of God that is within you
through the laying on of my hands; for God did not give us a spirit of
cowardice, but rather a spirit of power and of love and of self-discipline.Do
not be ashamed, then, of the testimony about our Lord or of me his prisoner,
but join with me in suffering for the gospel, relying on the power of God, who
saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works but
according to his own purpose and grace. This grace was given to us in Christ
Jesus before the ages began, but it has now been revealed through the appearing
of our Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and
immortality to light through the gospel. For this gospel I was appointed a
herald and an apostle and a teacher, and for this reason I suffer as I do. But
I am not ashamed, for I know the one in whom I have put my trust, and I am sure
that he is able to guard until that day what I have entrusted to him. Hold to
the standard of sound teaching that you have heard from me, in the faith and
love that are in Christ Jesus. Guard the good treasure entrusted to you, with
the help of the Holy Spirit living in us.
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