Christ Church Sermon, Sorry: The Grace of Starting Again, August 9, 2026

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You're listening to a message from our

weekly worship at Christ Church in Bethl

Park, Pennsylvania. We're a United

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mission of building inclusive community,

sharing Christ's transforming [music]

love. To learn more about the church,

including how you can join us for

worship online or [music] in person,

visit christyouumc.net.

Thank you for listening.

Today's psalm is uh psalm number 27:es

1-4. Please join in the sung response

before and after the reading.

>> [music]

>> Lord,

lead [music] in thy rightous

thy

>> [music]

>> The Lord is my light and my salvation.

Whom shall I fear? The Lord is the

stronghold of my life. Of whom shall I

be afraid? When the wicked advanced

against me to devour me, it is my

enemies and my foes who will stumble and

fall. Though an army besiege me, my

heart will not fear. Though war break

out against me, even then I will be

confident. One thing I ask from the

Lord, this only do I seek, that I may

dwell in the house of the Lord all the

days of my life, to gaze on the beauty

of the Lord and to seek him in his

temple.

[music]

>> [music]

[music]

>> in thy right

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before [music]

today's scripture is from the book of

Lamentations 3:es 21-2.

Yet this I call to mind, and therefore I

have hope. Because of the Lord's great

love, we are not consumed. For his

compassions never fail. They are new

every morning. Great is your

faithfulness. I say to myself, the Lord

is my portion. Therefore, I will wait

for him. The Lord is good to those whose

hope is in him, to the one who seeks

him. hear what the spirit is saying to

the church.

>> Thanks be to God.

>> Thank you.

>> So, the board game that we are focusing

on today as we continue through our

summer sermon series called Game On. The

board game that we're focusing on is

sorry. This doesn't look exactly like

the sorry board you may remember, but

it's pretty close. They changed it a

little to make it a bigger version. But

the interesting thing to me about Sorry

is that it's not it's colorful, but it's

it's not as colorful and fun as

Candyland. It's got these slides that

you go down, but it's not nearly as fun

as shoots and ladders. What Sorry does

have that no other board game that I

could find does is this built-in attempt

at a manners lesson. In order to win,

just like in a lot of other games, so

you have these pieces, right? You have

four of these pieces. They start in your

start appropriately enough. And in order

to win, you need to make your way around

the board, all four of your pieces, and

get them back to home. That is the goal.

And in order to make your way around the

board, you draw cards. No dice, just

cards. And the cards will tell you how

many spaces to go, whether or not you

can get out of your start. It'll tell

you what direction you can move

backwards or forwards. And then there is

the one card in the deck, the sorry

card. And if you have played sorry,

anyone played sorry, I got a a fair

number of you, okay? You know that sorry

card is the card of death. It's the card

that when you draw it, you if you have a

a a what are these called? Tokens. If

you have a token or a game piece in

start, you can take that piece out of

start and you can replace any other

piece on the board with your token. So,

in other words, you just come along and

you do this and you put your piece right

where they are and then you say,

"Sorry."

It kind of reminds me of my kids when

they were little and they would be

fighting about something and we'd pull

them apart and we'd say, "Okay, now you

have to say sorry." And how would they

do it? Sorry. It didn't sound anything

like an actual apology, but their entire

goal was to get back to what they had

been doing before I pulled them apart.

But back to the game. You're cruising

along. Everything is going well. You're

getting close to home. And then bam,

you're right back to where you started

with this mocking sorry to accompany

you. And you have to begin the game all

over again. And then when you play the

game, you know that that restart, that

getting that sorry card is a distinct

possibility. But it still really stinks

when it happens to you.

Back in 587 BC, the Israelites were

forced to start over when the city of

Jerusalem was destroyed around them.

Prior to its fall, Jerusalem had this

been this big bustling place that was

full of life. There were um families

living together in it, merchants who

were selling their goods. And the

centerpiece of that city was the temple

of King Solomon. Everything was great.

But in reality that for as good as

everything looked on the outside,

everything was not good on the inside.

And not the inside of the city, but the

inside of the hearts of the Israelites.

They had turned away from God. They had

stopped caring for the poor the way that

God wanted them to. They had worship

false idols. In short, they were living

a life very far from the one that God

was calling them to live. And for years,

they were warned about this by the

prophets. in particular Jeremiah that

bad things were coming if they could not

obey God and follow God's commandments.

Several of these warnings are recorded

in the book of Jeremiah and among them

is Jeremiah 22:es 3-5 which says in part

do what is just and right rescue from

the hand of the oppressor the one who

has been robbed. Do not wrong or

violence do do not do wrong or violence

to the foreigner, the fatherless or the

widow. But if you do not obey these

commands, declares the Lord. I swear by

myself, I swear by my own name, that

this palace will become a ruin.

Here's the thing about warnings, though.

I think that we tend not to heed them

when things are going good or we feel

safe or everything seems okay. And it

was the same thing for the Israelites.

Everything was great. Their families

were prospering. Their businesses were

good. They were lulled into a false

sense of security that this is the way

that things would always be. So they

didn't listen to Jeremiah. They didn't

change their actions.

And because of that, no matter how

secure they felt, in reality, they were

the farthest thing from secure. In

Jeremiah 25, God told them in no

uncertain terms what the consequences

were for their disobedience.

This is what God said. But you did not

listen to me, declares the Lord, and you

have aroused my anger. Because you have

not listened to my words, I will summon

all the peoples of the north and my

servant Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon,

and I will bring them against this land

and its inhabitants and against all the

surrounding nations. I will completely

destroy them and make them an object of

horror and scorn and an everlasting

ruin. I will banish from them the sounds

of joy and gladness. This whole country

will become a desolate wasteland and

these nations will serve the king of

Babylon for 70 years.

That is a strongly worded prophecy and

message. And Jerusalem completely

ignored it. And guess what happened?

Exactly what God said would happen. In

came King Nebuchadnezzar and the

Babylonian army and they decimated

Jerusalem. They tore down the wall. They

killed the king. They brought the temple

down, destroyed that. They forced the

surviving towns people to march from the

ruins of the city to the city of Babylon

which was hundreds of miles away where

they would indeed live in slavery for

decades.

And what I want you to think about today

is those Israelites.

I want you to think about the Israelites

making that long march away from

everything they knew, turning around and

seeing the city that they loved in ruins

behind them and making that long march

towards uncertainty.

Some were probably in shock. I'm sure

all of them were experiencing some

degree of trauma.

And it was in response to the Israelites

having lived through this

that the book of Lamentations was

written.

Lament is by definition an expression of

grief. It's wailing and mourning. And

the book of Lamentations is five

chapters of lament.

Five chapters of people crying out for

God, being angry with God, wondering

where God was in the destruction of

their beloved city and why God would

allow that to happen.

Five full chapters of lament except for

the verses that we just heard for read.

We find these beautiful verses in the

middle chapter of the book, in the

middle of that middle chapter of the

book. And they remind us with this

insightful poetic language that is

antithetical to everything that was

written before and everything that will

be written in the remainder of this book

that God's love never ends. Even in the

midst of the ruins of cities and lives,

God is still present.

And this standout passage starts with

the word yet. Yet is such an

underestimated word. I love it. Much

like um I preached a sermon a few months

ago or I don't even know when it was but

a few months ago that uh I talked about

the phrase but God and how when you hear

but God that changes everything. Yet

functions much the same way. When you

hear the word yet, you know you're going

to have to do a mental 180 from wherever

it is you were. And so to that point in

scripture, we're hearing about the

destruction and the devastation of the

Israelites in the city of Jerusalem. And

then comes the word yet. So we do a

mental 180 and we see what Jeremiah is

going to say. Actually, what we hear is

what we'd want to figure out is when he

says, "Yet this I call to mind in

Lamentations." What is this? What is he

talking about? What are you calling to

mind? Yet this I call to mind. What he's

calling to mind is another prophecy that

Jeremiah gave. This one he gave after

the ones about the ruin of the city if

they didn't change their ways. And this

verse which we find in Jeremiah chapter

Jeremiah 29 · chapter mention

29 will probably sound very familiar to

you, especially on the heels of

graduation season. It says, "For I know

the plans I have for you, declares the

Lord. Plans to prosper you and not to

harm you. Plans to give you hope and a

future."

So God tells the es Israelites that yes,

your city is going to fall to your

enemies. Your families will be forced to

flee. The next few decades aren't going

to be fun. In fact, they're going to be

awful and you're going to be mad and

every at everything that has happened

and all that you have lost.

But in the midst of all of that,

God's instruction and God's invitation

to them is to cling to hope because the

Lord their God has plans for them. and

their good plans, their plans for

prosperity and safety, for them to

receive hope and a future beyond the

terrible situation in which they are

going to find themselves when their city

falls.

And it's that promise that the author of

Lamentations calls to mind and remembers

and stakes everything on when all else

seems lost.

Listen again to today's scripture.

Yet this I call to mind, and therefore I

have hope. Because of the Lord's great

love, we are not consumed. For his

compassions never fail. They are new

every morning. Great is your

faithfulness. I say to myself, the Lord

is my portion. Therefore, I will wait

for him. The Lord is good to those who

hope in him, to the one who seeks him.

Therefore, I have hope. Because of God's

love and God's plans, the Israelites

could have hope.

And because of God's love and God's

plans, we too have hope. The Lord was

and is good to those who hope in him,

those who continue to seek him when all

else seems lost.

Steven Curtis Chapman is a

Grammy-winning contemporary Christian

singer and songwriter who has sung about

and written about God's faithfulness

since the late 1980s. Last century,

people, last century. He and his wife

Mary Bess have six children. In the

spring of 2008, in a terrible accident

in the driveway of their home outside of

Nashville, Tennessee, the Chapman's then

17-year-old son struck his 5-year-old

sister, Maria, with his car. He was

coming home. She was excited to see him.

She ran out in front of him. He never

even saw her. Steven saw the entire

thing happen from the porch of his home

and was powerless to stop it.

Maria was airlifted to a hospital where

she would later die of her injuries.

And the man who to that point had sung

of God's love and God's faithfulness for

the better part of 20 years suddenly

found himself saying something entirely

different to God. And later on he would

go back and say that this is the

dialogue he had with God. Or rather this

is the thing he said to God. He said you

can't ask this of me. You cannot ask

this of my family. This is too much.

We can't do this.

Stephen and Mary Beth have talked openly

since their daughter passed away about

the dark days their family experienced

right after she died. They talked about

how silent their house was without their

youngest daughter and sister, who they

all said was the laughter of the Chapman

home. They talked about days where they

just wept for hours and how they

questioned why and how they sat around

and tried to figure out how they were

ever going to start again without Maria.

And they still today when they tell the

story of Maria's passing in the years

since talk about how the pain of losing

her has never gone away. They know it

never will.

But when they talk about that time, they

talk about how their faith saved them.

About how they clung to the belief that

God would work all things for good no

matter what. And in the months following

the accident, as they continued to

choose to cling to God, Steven said his

dialogue with God and his prayers to God

started to change, started to go back a

little to what they had been. And so

remember, his prayer had been initially,

"You can't ask this of me. You can't ask

this of my family.

And what it became, and I'm quoting him,

was this.

God, you are faithful

and you are good and I don't understand

any of this,

but I'm going to trust you

and I am going to continue to sing about

your faithfulness and your goodness.

And he has done just that. He has kept

his promise. He has released many songs

that talk about the grief that he

experienced and the presence of God in

the midst of that. One of the songs that

he released after Maria passed away had

a verse that had some really powerful

lyrics in it. This is what it says. I

have walked through death's valley

so deep and dark that I could barely

breathe. And I have let go of more than

I could bear. And I have questioned

everything that I've believed.

Still, even here in this great darkness,

a comfort and a hope come breaking

through. As I can say, in life or death,

God, we belong to you.

Over and over again, in the 18 years

since his daughter passed away, Steven

Curtis Chapman has sung on stages. He

has stood up there and he has sung about

God's faithfulness to him and his

family. He has talked about how God's

mercies were new every morning. He has

talked about how the compassions of God

got him and his family through their

darkest hours and how those compassions

never failed him. Because of God's great

love for the Chapman family, they were

not consumed by their grief.

But instead, they talk openly about how

they have clung to faith and how

clinging to that faith has reminded them

that their God was good before the

accident is still good and will always

be good.

So again, I want you to imagine

sitting stunned,

surrounded by the ruin of your life and

the loss of everything you've known and

everything you thought was going to

happen a certain way.

Imagine having to start all over again.

Some of us don't have to imagine it.

Some of us have lived it. Some of us are

currently living it. And all of us at

some point are going to be faced with

this moment.

When you have laid in the hospital bed

and heard a crushing diagnosis.

When you have sat at a kitchen table on

which sit a wedding ring and a set of

divorce papers waiting for a signature

that you don't want to scroll.

When you have stood at your living room

window and watched your adult child walk

away after they have said hurtful and

painful things to you and have promised

never to see you again.

When you have stood by a grave and

watched the body of your loved one

lowered into it.

When you have watched your job be

downsized, your children struggle,

addiction spiral. That is watching the

destruction of your city. That's the

decimation of your Jerusalem. And let me

tell you, as someone who has been there,

who has turned around to see her entire

city devastated,

when you are in those moments, it can be

really hard to find God.

It was hard for me. And I find God for a

living. That's what I do. That's my

whole job. I talk about Jesus. I read

about Jesus. And I have the incredible

privilege of standing up here in front

of you on a regular basis and talking

about the hopefilled gospel of Jesus

Christ. And still when it happened to

me, I struggled to find God.

Still I looked back at my city in ruins

and I wasn't sure where God was. And I

wasn't sure I could handle it. And I

found myself saying words that were very

similar to Steven Curtis Chapman's.

I can't do this. You can't ask this of

me. This This is too much.

When I sat in the devastation of life

and I looked around and I struggled to

see God, starting again

began with lament

began with grief and grieving what was

lost and then it continued with a

choice. Because remember lament is a

normal reaction to loss. There's nothing

fundamentally wrong with lament. When we

lament without hope, however, it's just

despair.

But when we lament with hope, in

particular the hope of God's victory of

over death and devastation and

destruction, when we hope when we lament

with hope, that that's faith.

So I lamented with hope and made a

choice. And the choice was to remember

the scripture that I don't think I even

realized had been imprinted on my brain

and in my heart until that moment, which

was that every single morning, God's

mercies somehow are new. Every single

day, God is still faithful and the Lord

is good to those who have hope.

And years later, because I had to start

again, I can stand here and I can tell

you that because of that, my faith is

stronger and my faith is better. Before

that happened, I don't think I fully

understand the depth and breadth of the

knowledge that the Lord is my shepherd

until I stood in that deepest valley.

And I had no idea how to get out without

a shepherd to guide me.

Now I have that guide in a different

way.

I did not fully trust God as way maker

until I could not see the way in front

of me. And now I trust differently.

I did not truly believe that God was a

miracle worker until I would say it, but

I'm not sure I truly believed it until I

couldn't fix it myself.

And I was forced to depend completely on

God and God's unfailing promises. And

now I believe differently.

Being forced to start again, to look at

the ruins of part of my life and to

acknowledge my part in their devastation

and struggle to find God in all of that

was not a fun experience. Last week,

Pastor Chris talked about GPS's and how

he likes to see all the different routes

that the GPS offers to him and read all

of the directions and then he can decide

for himself which is the best path

because, of course, he knows better than

GPS's and satellites and all that kind

of stuff. I have the same affliction. I

like to choose that for myself as well.

And when I think about the different

paths that my life can take, I would

never have chosen that path that I was

on. I would never have chosen

devastation over free and clear.

But like in the game of sorry, we don't

get the choice about starting again.

What we do get to choose is what we do

with that restart.

And so as you make that choice, whether

you are faced with it now or will be

faced with it in the future or you've

already dealt with it, my prayer is that

you remember this.

The God who saw the Israelites through

death, destruction, Babylonian rule,

exile, slavery. That God had plans for

the Israelites hope and for their

future. And those plans came to fruition

with the restoration of the temple and a

homecoming for the Israelites.

The same God who did that

has plans for our future and plans for

our hope. That same God is still

faithful. He still gives us new mercies

every single day. And when we choose

God, we are never consumed.

Instead, we are saved by the God who

always picks us up and carries us out of

devastation and destruction and gives us

hope for the future as we start over.

One more thing, just one last thing.

When you have sat in the devastation of

life,

when you have witnessed the rebuilding,

when you have clung to hope and you have

seen for yourself the new mercies of

God, when you have made it through to

the other side, share your story. Share

your story. Share how God met you where

you were but didn't leave you there.

share how God picked you up out of the

ruins and gave you hope because you

never know how God can use your story.

How God is waiting to use you to bring

hope to someone else.

And oh my gosh, I believe God is waiting

to use every single one of us.

Still, even here in this great darkness,

a comfort and hope come breaking

through. As I can say in life and death,

God we belong to you.

Let us pray.

God, none of us wants to start again.

None of us would choose that path if we

were given the choice. But we are not

given the choice.

And so today, I pray boldly that when we

are faced with devastation and ruin,

that we might choose to lament with

hope, to cling to you and to your

promises,

and to remember that you are always

faithful and always good, to hold on to

that no matter what happens, and trust

that you are going to take us through to

the other side.

In Jesus name we pray. Amen.