Working through the unimaginable

Alexander Hamilton

On Saturday evening I’m going to see the musical Hamilton. For those of you who don’t Hamilton is a retelling of the life of Alexander Hamilton one of the founding fathers of America and first treasury secretary of America.

Hamilton was a man aquainted with grief and loss his mother died when he was young, his good friend John Laurens died in battle but perhaps the death that effected him the most was of his son Philip.

Philip was killed in a duel. On hearing the news of his son’s injury Alexander Hamilton rushed to the doctors practice where Philip was being treated.

The doctor David Hosack recalls Alexander Hamilton’s reaction to the sight of his dying son as this

"he instantly turned from the bed and, taking me by the hand, which he grasped with all the agony of grief, he exclaimed in a tone and manner that can never be effaced from my memory, 'Doctor, I despair.'’

At Philip’s funeral Alexander is said to have been so full of grief that his friends and family had to physically hold him upright.

In the musical Linn-Manuel Miranda brilliantly and powerfully set this grief to music.

If you see him in the street Walking by himself, talking to himself, have pity Philip, you would like it uptown, it's quiet uptown He is working through the unimaginable

His hair has gone grey He passes every day They say he walks the length of the city You knock me out, I fall apart Can you imagine?

I think this speaks powerfully of the out of body despair that any of us can experience, when someone we know, someone we love has died.

Today we gather to remember those who’s faith have been a great example to us in Jesus Christ and those whose faith is known only to God.

Of course we look back with joy and thanksgiving that these wonderul people were in our lives.

We also may have times where we have have to work through the unimaginable or as

Lamentations 3:17–18 ESV

my soul is bereft of peace; I have forgotten what happiness is; so I say, “My endurance has perished; so has my hope from the Lord.”

I have forgotten what hapiness is. Perhaps you are feeling like that today. Perhaps you feel like that some of the time. I’m sure most people will feel this at some time.

However, we have come to remember before God those for whom we have eternal hope. For whom the promise of the ressurection of Jesus Christ is realised.

The author of Lamentations wants to draw the reader in this moment of despair back to the promises of God

Lamentations 3:21–24 ESV

But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope: The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. “The Lord is my portion,” says my soul, “therefore I will hope in him.”

Riff on this

But how do we turn from despair from hope. I am struck in Lamentations by how this is clearly a journey and it doesn’t happen in an instant

Lamentations 3:25–26 ESV

The Lord is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him. It is good that one should wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord.

I spend hours in the garden I walk alone to the store And it's quiet uptown I never liked the quiet before I take the children to church on Sunday A sign of the cross at the door And I pray That never used to happen before