Redemption

I called upon thy name, O Lord, out of the low dungeon.... Thou drewest near in the day that I called upon thee: thou saidst, Fear not. O Lord, thou hast pleaded the causes of my soul; thou hast redeemed my life. Lamentations 3:55, 57, 58 (KJV)

The Living Bible translates verse 58: O Lord, you are my lawyer! Plead my case! For you have redeemed my life.

The Oxford dictionary offers several meanings of the word redeem:

1. compensate for the faults or bad aspects of; do something that compensates for poor past performance or behaviour; atone or make amends for sin, error, or evil; save (someone) from sin, error, or evil;
2. gain or regain possession of (something) in exchange for payment; repay at the maturity date; exchange for goods, a discount, or money; pay the necessary money to clear a debt; free oneself or another from bondage by paying a ransom.
3. fulfil or carry out a pledge or promise.

Here is a passage which shows indisputably that Christian Science does not ignore the need of redemption. The Founder of Christian Science, Mary Baker Eddy, here answers a pertinent question:

Is healing the sick the whole of Science?

Healing physical sickness is the smallest part of Christian Science. It is only the bugle-call to thought and action, in the higher range of infinite goodness. The emphatic purpose of Christian Science is the healing of sin; and this task, sometimes, may be harder than the cure of disease; because, while mortals love to sin, they do not love to be sick. Hence their comparative acquiescence in your endeavors to heal them of bodily ills, and their obstinate resistance to all efforts to save them from sin through Christ, spiritual Truth and Love, which redeem them, and become their Saviour, through the flesh, from the flesh, — the material world and evil.
(Rudimental Divine Science, Mary Baker Eddy, pp. 2:22–7)

Let's review that passage from Lamentations once more - it is so poignant: 

I called upon thy name, O Lord, out of the low dungeon.... Thou drewest near in the day that I called upon thee: thou saidst, Fear not. O Lord, thou hast pleaded the causes of my soul; thou hast redeemed my life. Lamentations 3:55, 57, 58 (KJV)

No-one is outside Love's liberating embrace.

Julie Swannell

"His compassions fail not"

Eugene Peterson gives an eloquent introduction to the book of Lamentations. He writes of the "two polar events in the history of the Hebrew people: the Exodus from Egypt and the Exile into Babylon" (The Message, p, 1477). The Exodus is the story of freedom and joy. It takes place around 1200BC. The Exile is "the definitive story of judgment accompanied by immense suffering" with the destruction of Jerusalem, its people removed to Babylon in 587BC. 

Some seventy years of exile in Babylon followed, until the great Persian king Cyrus overthrows Babylon and releases the Hebrews. But that is another story.

Second Kings 25 and Jeremiah 52 provide background on the fall of Jerusalem. The account in Second Kings explains that the Babylonian king, Nebuchadnezzar, set fire to the whole city of Jerusalem, starting with the temple, from which they first looted everything made of bronze, silver and gold. There was a lot. We recall the splendour and wealth of the temple built by Solomon. The account in Jeremiah recounts a 19-month siege of Jerusalem, devastating famine, and the final overthrow of king Zedekiah's army by the Babylonians.

Lamentations, written out of the Exile, provides a language in which to process the horror, shock, suffering and sadness of that horrific experience. The Message paraphrases (Lamentations 1): "Oh, oh, oh ... / How empty the city, once teeming with people."

As I read the first chapters of Lamentations, it reminded me of a sorrowful song in a minor key. For example, hear the grief and anger in the author's processing of events as the narrator reasons with God in Lamentations 2: 21 (KJV): "The young and old lie on the ground in the streets: my virgins and my young men are fallen by the sword; thou hast slain them in the day of thine anger; thou hast killed, and not pitied."

But suddenly, midway through chapter 3, there is a switch to an optimistic major key. Lamentations 3: 17-23:

[Plaintive minor key]:

And thou hast removed my soul far off from peace: I forgat prosperity.

And I said, My strength and my hope is perished from the Lord:

Remembering mine affliction and my misery, the wormwood and the gall.

[Transitional passage]:

My soul hath them still in remembrance, and is humbled in me. 

[Hopeful]:

This I recall to my mind, therefore have I hope.

[Joyous major key]:

It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not.

They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness.

Two hymns come to mind: 97 and 487.

Composer Frank Isley (1831-1887) and author Thomas Hastings (1784-1872) provide an excellent example of a change of mood in hymn 97, which has an explicit key change from a minor to A major –

[Minor key]:

He that goeth forth with weeping, Bearing still the precious seed, Never tiring, never sleeping, Soon shall see his toil succeed;

[Major key]:

Showers of rain will fall from heaven, Then the cheering sun will shine; So shall plenteous fruit be given, Through an influence all divine.

Hymn 487 (words by Thomas Chisholm, music by William Runyan) offers a splendid assurance of God’s “morning by morning” enduring and reliable faithfulness and unfailing compassion. This is surely what we need to hear in the world right now. Shall we sing it today?

Julie Swannell

Eye-opener

A comment in response to the previous post-

What an eye-opener that is! I love the transformation that occurs when we read it in the NRSV. It really is poetic and lyrical in this version, and becomes such an arresting opening stanza to set the tone for what is to follow.

Marie Fox

Hebrew poetry

It's helpful to know that Lamentations is written, not in prose, but in poetry. Lyrical poetry in fact.

This does not mean that it rhymes, either in the original Hebrew or in the translated English. It does mean that we can look for the rhythm of a recurring thought. Let's have a look. Perhaps the very first verse gives us an example. Using the King James Version, I'll set it out line by line, even though the translators chose not to set it out in this fashion. I wonder why.

How doth the city sit solitary,

  that was full of people!

How is she become as a widow!

  she that was great among the provinces,

 And princess among the provinces,

  how is she become tributary!

the NRSVue version (New Revised Standard Version updated edition) has it:

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 subject to forced labor.

Thomas Leishman’s article The Genius of Hebrew Poetry (see The Christian Science Journal Feb. 1940) is excellent on this subject. 

I love this opening. It is engaging…one wonders what has caused this state of affairs. Let's read on in our Bibles, dear friends.

Julie Swannell

 

Starting out with Lamentations

My New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) of the Bible gives me some introductory facts about the book of Lamentations.  

1. The Book of Lamentations consists of a series of five mournful poems.  Together they constitute a moving expression of grief over the destruction of Jerusalem and exile of its people by King Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonians in 586 B.C.E.  A concise summary of this historical background can be found in 2 Kings 25: 8-21.  (Introduction) 

2. The authorship of Lamentations is disputed. The introductory section Authorship and Date of Composition ends thus:  "...it is best to seek to understand Lamentations not as an utterance of Jeremiah, but rather as the composition of an anonymous exilic author (or authors) who gave eloquent poetic expression to the sense of bewilderment, anguish, and loss felt by many of the people.  The vividness and local color found in this book, as well as the freshness and intensity of feeling expressed in it, suggest that the author was a Judean survivor remaining behind in the land and writing in close proximity to the catastrophic demise of the nation in 586 B.C.E." 

II Kings 25:8-21 itemises the precious temple furnishings which were taken away to Babylon: the bronze, gold, and silver, all of which are itemised in the account of the building of Solomon's Temple. See I Kings 6:1-38, 7:1-51, II Chron. 3:1-17, 4:1-22, 5:1-14.  (These are listed in Garland's Subject Guide to Bible Stories.)

Joyce Voysey