If ever there were a Sunday to hear a message from the Weeping Prophet, it's this one. Jeremiah looked down at a society in free fall and lamented what was. Where he hoped to find truth seeking, he saw only power grabbing. Where he hoped to see justice, he only saw the oppression of the vulnerable.

Jeremiah describes the decadence of his culture in the strongest terms possible: the world had become "formless and void." Echoing the words of Genesis 1, Jeremiah gives us a de-creation story. We're given a vivid picture of societal degradation: as God's people live as if He isn't there, there is a plumet into the abyss.

No one saw the correlation between godlessness and this sort of cultural free falling better than the atheist Friedrich Nietzsche. Famous for his assertion, "God is dead and we have killed him," Nietzsche understood better than most what godless world entails. Describing cultural life post-God, Nietzsche cries a gruesome lament:

"What did we do when we unchained the earth from its sun? Whither is it moving now? Whither are we moving now? Away from all suns? Are we not perpetually falling? Backward, sideward, forward, in all directions? Is there any up or down left? Are we not straying as through an infinite nothing? Do we not feel the breath of empty space? Has it not become colder? Is it not more and more night coming on all the time?"

Sadly, we don't have to use our imagination to understand what such a world is like. On a near daily basis we're flooded with news of random acts of brutality, small children becoming victims of unspeakable violence at those places designed for their safety and flourishing. Just yesterday we all looked with horror as Charlie Kirk, a young father in his prime, was cut down on a college campus. Our culture has floated on the untended remains of Christianity. As the wood of Christendom rots, we find ourselves sinking into the great unknown. Has it not become colder?

One week from today, we'll host New York Times Columnist Ross Douthat for a conversation on precisely this topic. Ross was a friend of Kirk's and has an ability to contextualize and diagnose societal ailments better than anyone I know. Please RSVP today, it will be a conversation you won't want to miss.

Like Douthat, Jeremiah looked clear-eyed into the world and saw the pain and suffering brought by man's desire to take God's place as ruler. We need a message from Jeremiah because our eyes are no less damp in the face of tragedy. On Sunday, God will wipe our eyes with the very same gospel he used to comfort the Weeping Prophet.

As in the days of Noah, God announces his creation-wide mission of restoration. Yes, sin has brought a de-creation story, but God is bringing a re-creation story. He is making all things new. Despite our wickedness, despite our cruelty, despite our faithlessness, God pledges to not let sin have the last word. Have hope, Christian. God is not dead!