This week’s passage is the beginning of a lament over Jerusalem. The city has been devastated by the Babylonians and lies in ruin. Although some scholars link Lamentations with Jeremiah, most feel that it was written by an anonymous author. Whoever wrote it was someone who was witnessing their beloved city in ashes and was experiencing a deep sorrow. Later in the book, we hear words of hope, but this reading is simply the cry of a person who is feeling severe pain over seeing a once great city so completely destroyed. We hear the opening words of Chpt. 1, Verse 1, which says, “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.” (Lam. 1:1 NRSV).

How can the words of this section of Lamentations speak to us today? Healthcare professionals will tell you that it is not good to hold sorrow and grief inside ourselves. We need to be able to express that grief and sadness, but often we do not know what we want to say. We just know that the pain is so deep and intense that it seems to crush us. The words of laments from the Bible can help us to give expression to our pain or that which we feel for others who are suffering around us. Just recently we have seen pictures of the devastation that was wrought on Haiti. The words of Lamentations seem to fit this situation. Both as individuals and communities, we need these words from time to time.

Faith Like a Mustard Seed (Luke 17:5–10)

Our Gospel lesson begins with the apostles asking Christ to “increase their faith. Christ then goes into a discussion regarding faith and the responsibilities of the apostles (and for that matter all who follow him). He does not tell the apostles that they do not have enough faith. He indicates that they already have enough but just do not realize it. He says, “...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.” (Luke 17:6 NRSV).

What Christ is saying is that a little faith goes a long way when we use it, but often we are like the apostles and doubt our faith. The Greek word for faith can also mean believe or trust. We need to learn to trust God to give us the resources to do the work of God’s kingdom.

The second half of what Christ says to the apostles is about their expectations about rewards. He is telling them that they will be expected to do the work of the Kingdom of God and they (or we) should not expect special rewards for doing what is expected. A wise man once told me, “The reward for doing good is the opportunity to do good.”