Special

Passage: Lamentations 1:1-7

The character at the center of the film Polish Wedding is the matriarch of a working-class immigrant family living in a suburb of Detroit.  The mother of five young-adult children, she is comfortable in her role as head of her household.  Her hard-working husband is devoted to her.  And she’s involved in a longtime affair with her boss.  At a certain point this boss points out that she holds herself in surprisingly high esteem for a low-paid cleaning lady.  She responds, “At home, I am queen.” And in that moment she realizes the truth.  To her boss she’s merely a plaything.  A disposable object who is nothing special.   She thinks of herself as a queen because her husband – the one at home while she’s out fooling around – has always treated her as his prize.

The Book of Lamentations begins at this very moment of recognition for God’s chosen people.  Jeremiah the prophet pours out his grief as his people are carried off to slavery in Babylon.  In the words of his lament Jeremiah captures the truth: Israel is a tiny nation in a world full of tiny nations.  And as is the lot of every tiny nation, Israel has become the plaything of a much more powerful empire. 

This is a devastating wake-up call for a nation that has always thought of itself as a crown jewel.  As the most important people on earth.  Given their numbers and their obvious vulnerability, why in the world would the Israelites think that they’re so special?

Because this is what God has always told them.  In Deuteronomy 7, God tells the Israelites that they are the object of his affection.  And he tells them why:

The Lord did not set his affection on you and choose you because you were more numerous than other peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples. But it was because the Lord loved you and kept the oath he swore to your ancestors that he brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the land of slavery, from the power of Pharaoh king of Egypt. Know therefore that the Lord your God is God; he is the faithful God, keeping his covenant of love to a thousand generations of those who love him and keep his commandments. (Deuteronomy 7:7-9)

The Israelites are where they are because they’ve let God’s marvelous love go to their heads.  They’ve concluded, “God loves us because we’re so special.”  This assumption has led them to toy with God’s affection, and flirt with neighbors that seem a little more flashy and glamorous than their faithful, attentive, steady God.  Too late they’ve realized that to their substitute – their lover – sees them as a disposable object.

God doesn’t love them because they’re special.  They’re special because God loves them.  The thing is, in spite of their repeated infidelities, God never stops loving his people.  He continues to invite them to come back and be special again.  Through Jeremiah God says,

“You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you,” declares the Lord, “and will bring you back from captivity. I will gather you from all the nations and places where I have banished you,” declares the Lord, “and will bring you back to the place from which I carried you into exile.” (Jeremiah 29:13-14)

This is God’s invitation to all of us.  Stop trying to be special by proving you’re better than the people around you.  Stop believing that the only way you’ll be loved is by being more special than anyone else.  Discover anew that you are cherished by God – the object of his affection – and learn what it means to be special because he loves you.