This morning our exhortation is twofold: lament and press. Lament and press.
Today we lament Iryna Zarutska, Charlie Kirk and in our congregation Jeanne Forbes. To lament means to mourn, to grieve, before God, to God. Lament is Christian. The Bible is full of lament. Lament allows us to bring our very real emotions to God, not pretending like they don't exist. Psalm 139 is one example.1
Lament is in fact required. For when we face darkness, we can choose one of three options. We can ignore it and effeminately pretend it doesn't exist. This has been the church's frequent response. Or we can take the bait and become enraged and violent ourselves. But God never lets us use the devil's weapons.
Or, we can look straight into the abyss and lament - and let that lament press us further in and further up into Christ. We can let it radicalize us, to die to that old coward within, and follow Christ more fully, in all His Word. Which is really to normalize us to where we should have been all along.
For in every video of Charlie Kirk on campus, you will see Acts 17:32 play out. Paul ended his words to the Aeropagus by saying that Jesus is the judge of all, by virtue of his resurrection from the dead. Verse 32 then says:
32 Now when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked.
Charlie Kirk did not fear being mocked. He was willing to be mocked, out of love. For perfect love casts out fear. Love for the other people listening:
But others said, “We will hear you again about this.” . . . 34 (S)ome men joined him and believed, among whom also were Dionysius the Areopagite and a woman named Damaris and others with them.
Today Dionysius and Damaris are still praising God because Paul was willing to be mocked for claiming absolute truth, grounded in the resurrection of Christ. So was Charlie, over and over again. For over the shoulder of every mocker you will see young men listening and smiling, silently wanting to hear more.
Thus the question before us is this: will we allow ourselves to lament? And then will we let it press us past our cowardly love of respectability to publicly proclaim Christ raised, out of love? For God is love, and Christianity is a public faith.
Psalm 83 expresses both lament and imprecation.
When I saw how upset Christians were about Charlie, I immediately looked up a couple of his college events. I’ never seen anyone like him, who could patiently listen to hatred being thrown at him because of his beliefs. His boldness to use the Bible as the foundation of truth inspired me. He was a common day picture of how I imagined the apostle Paul presented himself. I pray that the revival that has been spurred will bring God glory, so that Charlie didn’t die in vain. Yes, I have spent several days in my own lament about Charlie, the darkness trying to claim our country and the world. And when I leave the room I leave it with God, who is not surprised by our sorry state. I pray that people will also realize that as great as Charlie was, he would be the first to remind us that he was only a man, serving his Savior. He wouldn’t want to be worshiped. Our eyes need to be on our Lord.