“I Hope You Dance”

A Sermon on Lamentations 3

Dr. Carolyn Gordon muses about how we survive “the next day,” that is the day after the day we never wanted to live through, when we wake up after a broken relationship, jobless, or bereft. She narrates Jeremiah’s story. His call from God was to prophesy from a life full of hardship and tragedy. And there were moments when he thought he could take no more, when he wanted to give up. So the words of Jeremiah 3 are words for when there are no words. He is introspective, clearly and honestly expressing his angst, retrospective, remembering when God and his work, and given a new perspective, which allows him to lean on God’s mercies and grace. He is an example of one who, even in the distress, dances in the showers of God’s mercies and grace.

Biography

Dr. Gordon is the associate professor of communication, and she chairs the Department of Preaching and Communication at Fuller Seminary. Dually ordained by both the Southern and the National Baptist conventions, Gordon has more than a decade of pastoral experience during which she preached regularly. She directed the Ministries in Higher Education department of the Washington D.C. Baptist convention for six years, and has experience as a television producer and host. She has also served on the executive boards of the Center for Urban Church Renewal, United Inner Cities Services, and Baptist Women in Ministry. Her current research interests include communication theology: what God intended for the spoken word, preaching to senior adults, preaching to those with disabilities, and vocal development and the maintenance of the preaching voice.