Why Lament Lament in the Bible is a liturgical (think community, formal, expressed toward God) response to the reality of suffering and engages in the context of pain and trouble. The hope of lament is that God would respond to human suffering that is wholeheartedly communicated through lament…[Lament constitutes 40% of all psalms, but the majority of Psalms omitted from liturgical use are the laments]…The American church avoids lament. The power of lament is minimized and the underlying narrative of suffering that requires lament is lost. But absence doesn’t make the heart grow fonder. Absence makes the heart forget…We forget the reality of suffering and pain…American Christians that flourish under the existing system seek to maintain the existing dynamics of inequality and remain in the theology of celebration over and against the theology of suffering. Promoting one perspective over the other, however, diminishes our theological discourse. To only have a theology of celebration at the cost of the theology of suffering is incomplete. The intersection of the two threads provides the opportunity to engage in the fullness of the gospel message. Lament and praise must go hand in hand…We will seek to find contemporary application of the book of Lamentations within these current themes. --excerpted from “A Call to Lament” in Prophetic Lament by Soong-Chan Rah Introduction to the Book of Lamentations in the Old Testament

Lamentations is a sequence of five lyric poems that lament the destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonians in 586 bce (see 2 Kings 25.8–21 ). The dense and highly charged poetry constitutes some of the Bible's most violent and brutal pieces of writing. Though mostly lacking traditional statements of hope, the poems do manifest a stubborn and tenacious hold on life.

Several of the ancient versions (the Greek, Latin, and Aramaic translations) attribute the authorship of these poems to Jeremiah, which accounts for their placement after the book of Jeremiah in the Christian canon… The poems of Lamentations may be dated to the sixth century, probably between 586 and 520 bce, when the Temple was rebuilt. They were likely composed in Judah for the community that remained in the land after the catastrophe.

In later Jewish tradition Lamentations was counted as one of the five festival scrolls (Megillot), together with Song of Songs, Ruth, Ecclesiastes, and Esther. Lamentations is read as part of the liturgy of the “Ninth of Ab,” the day that commemorates the destruction of the Second Temple by the Romans in 70 ce. In Christian tradition readings from Lamentations are part of the liturgies of Holy Week…

The imagery of Lamentations evokes a sense of fragmentation and discontinuity, reflecting the suffering of the past. There is no narrative structure to give shape to the

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raw emotions expressed, nor even a clear rhetorical movement from grief to hope, such as one often finds in laments in Psalms... In counterpoint to such a sense of fragmentation, however, the formal structures of the poetic form itself produce a strong sense of coherence. The first four chapters of Lamentations are each composed as an alphabetic acrostic, a formal scheme in which the initial word of each stanza begins with successive letters of the Hebrew alphabet, twenty‐two in all…The alphabetic acrostic functions as the material, physical container of this poetry, literally holding each poem's component verses together and conveying a strong sense of closure through its clear structure and fixed length. Yet the acrostic conveys meaning symbolically as well. The poet's whole attempt to render the chaos of his world into language, to contain his fragmented lyrics within the frame of the alphabetic acrostic, thus becomes an attempt to control and contain, and ultimately transform, the suffering and hurt that engulfed Jerusalem and its inhabitants.

--excerpts from Introduction from the New Oxford Annotated Bible with the Apocrypha, Third Edition

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Week 1: Lament and Vulnerability The practice of lament is a practice in showing and sharing vulnerability. Society tells us that vulnerability is weakness, but Scripture reminds us that vulnerability can move us to strength, and that lament cannot be rushed. Prayer O God, you are our help and strength, Psalm 124:8 our refuge in the time of trouble. Psalm 37:39 In you our ancestors trusted; They trusted and you delivered them. Psalm 22:4 When we do not know how to pray as we ought, your very Spirit intercedes for us with sighs too deep for words. Romans 8:26 We plead for the intercession now, Gracious One.

For desolation and destruction are in our streets, Isaiah 59:7 and terror dances before us. Job 41:22 Our hearts faint; our knees tremble; our bodies quake; all faces grow pale. Nahum 2:10 Our eyes are spent from weeping and our stomachs churn. Lamentations 2:11 How long, O Lord, how long must we endure this devastation? Isaiah 6:11 How long will destruction lay waste at noonday? Psalm 91:6 Why does violence flourish while peace is taken prisoner? Rouse yourself! Do not cast us off in times of trouble. Psalm 44:23 Come to our help; redeem us for the sake of your steadfast love. Psalm 44:26 For you are a gracious God abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness. Exodus 34:6 By the power of the cross, 1 Corinthians 1:17 through which you redeemed the world, bring to an end hostility Ephesians 2:14 and establish justice in the gate. Amos 5:15 For you will gather together your people into that place where mourning and crying and pain will be no more, and tears will be wiped from every eye. Revelation 21:4 Hasten the day, O God for our salvation. Accomplish it quickly! Amen. Isaiah 60:22

From Let the Whole Church Say Amen !A Guide for Those Who Pray in Public by Laurence Hull Stookey, pp94-95 (Copyright 2001 by Abingdon Press) Reproduced by permission.

The publisher hereby grants permission to local churches to reproduce this prayer, provided it is not sold or distributed beyond the church and provided the credit line noted above is used on each copy.

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Passage from Prophetic Lament The fall of Jerusalem to the Babylonians meant complete devastation to the city and her residents…The remnant of Jerusalem stood in utter dismay at the destruction of their once-great city. Jerusalem had measured herself through worldly standards of wealth and prosperity. Now that Jerusalem lay in ruins, those standards area out of reach…When this tragedy occurs, the people of God tumble to the depths of despair…On the one hand, God’s people were tempted to withdraw from the world. On the other, they were tempted to return to their idolatrous ways (32-33)…The exiles wanted to embrace the false prophets’ offer of a quick resolution to their suffering, but these claims were made using the idolatrous practices of the times; divination and magic…Divination reflects a desire to know and control the future by removing uncertainty. So Jeremiah confronts the work of those who attempt to foretell an optimistic future through idolatrous and magical means rather than speaking the words of YHWH (38). American culture tends to hide the stories of guilt and shame and seeks to elevate stories of success. American culture gravitates toward narratives of exceptionalism and triumphalism, which results in amnesia about a tainted history. The reality of a shameful history undermines the narrative of exceptionalism, so it must remain hidden….The church should become the place where the fullness of suffering is expressed in a safe environment. Liturgy, worship, leadership, small groups and other aspects of church life should provide the safe place where the fullness of suffering can be set free. Stories of suffering can never be buried when lament is an important and central aspect of the church’s worship life. Lamentations reminds us that the proper response to tragedy and suffering is lament…This shame may be isolating, but it is essential to the honesty that is required in lament. (57-59) The book of Lamentations expresses the deep pain and suffering of God’s people. Lament dominates this moment in Israel’s history. However, the primacy of lament in this book does not preclude the possibility of praise…”[In] the psalms the lament is consistently followed by a petition, i.e., a supplication for help.” Lament leads to petition which leads to praise for God’s response to the petition…Praise, therefore, should follow lament. However, in a cultural context that upholds triumph and victory but fails to engage with suffering, praise replaces lament. We skip the important step of lament and offer supplication in a contextual vacuum. Praise, therefore, can seem hollow when neither lament nor petition has been sufficiently offered. (64-66)

Complementary Material: From On Being with Krista Tippet. Brene Brown: Strong Back, Soft Front, Wild Heart https://onbeing.org/programs/brene-brown-strong-back-soft-front-wild-heart/ Ms. Brene Brown: When people are in fear and uncertainty-and we live in a culture that has no capacity for the vulnerable conversations that have to come around that fear—

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Ms. Krista Tippett: For actually facing the fear. Ms. Brown: For actually facing it- that’s right Ms Tippett: For actually letting the pain and the fear show themselves as pain and fear. Ms Brown: That’s right. Ms Tippett: that fear is sitting there, waiting to be spoken to, somehow Ms. Brown: if it’s burrowed, metastasized, then it can be leveraged. Now, you hold fear in front of you, and you say, “We’re fearful. We’re in so much uncertainty. There’s so much change at such a rapid rate”-- if you hold fear in front of you, it doesn’t dictate your behavior. But I think, because we’ve lost our capacity for pain and discomfort, we have transformed that pain into hatred and blame. It’s like it’s so much easier for people to cause pain than it is for them to feel their own pain. Ms Tippett: [laughs] Yeah, right. You talk about that- that it takes courage to allow yourself to feel pain. It’s not a comfortable option. The other thing, I think, it that we reward outrage. And we don’t reward or create spaces where it would be actually trustworthy or reasonable to invite people to show their fear and their pain, just as that- that vulnerability. Suggested Questions In a time such as this, what are you lamenting right now? How can this (this small group, this church) become a safe space to share and show vulnerability? What might life be like if there was a space where you could share and show vulnerability? Psalm for closing Psalm 44 Deus, auribus 1 We have heard with our ears, O God, our ancestors have told us, * the deeds you did in their days, in the days of old. 2 How with your hand you drove the peoples out and planted our ancestors in the land; * how you destroyed nations and made your people flourish. 3 For they did not take the land by their sword, * nor did their arm win the victory for them; but your mighty hand, your arm, and the light of your countenance, * because you favoured them. 4 You are my Sovereign and my God; * you command victories for Jacob. 5 Through you we pushed back our adversaries; * through your name we trampled on those who rose up against us.

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6 For I do not rely on my bow, * and my sword does not give me the victory. 7 Surely, you gave us victory over our adversaries * and put those who hate us to shame. 8 Every day we gloried in God, * and we will praise your name for ever. 9 Nevertheless, you have rejected and humbled us * and do not go forth with our armies. 10 You have made us fall back before our adversary, * and our enemies have plundered us. 11 You have made us like sheep to be eaten * and have scattered us among the nations. 12 You are selling your people for a trifle * and are making no profit on the sale of them. 13 You have made us the scorn of our neighbours, * a mockery and derision to those around us. 14 You have made us a byword among the nations, * a laughing-stock among the peoples. 15 My humiliation is daily before me, * and shame has covered my face; 16 because of the taunts of the mockers and blasphemers, * because of the enemy and avenger. 17 All this has come upon us; * yet we have not forgotten you, nor have we betrayed your covenant 18 Our heart never turned back, * nor did our footsteps stray from your path; 19 Though you thrust us down into a place of misery, * and covered us over with deep darkness. 20 If we have forgotten the name of our God, * or stretched out our hands to some strange god, 21 will you not find it out? * For you know the secrets of the heart. 22 Indeed, for your sake we are killed all the day long; * we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. 23 Awake, O Lord! why are you sleeping? * Arise! Do not reject us for ever. 24 Why have you hidden your face * and forgotten our affliction and oppression? 25 We sink down into the dust; * our body cleaves to the ground. 26 Rise up, and help us, * and save us, for the sake of your steadfast love. Church of England Trial Use Liturgical Psalter 2016.03.17

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Link to additional materials Lamentations is read each year at one of the five major feasts. Read more about that history here- Burnt Offering: Tisha B’av Chapter 12, “Seasons of our Joy” https://theshalomcenter.org/node/261

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Week 2: Lament and Acknowledging Reality There is a tendency to speak in the abstract or (un)consciously avoid using “I” statements when it comes to talking about the hard things. That way of speaking puts a distance between the speaker and the feelings being expressed. Lamentations reminds us that these feelings are real, and that these feelings are personal. Prayer A Song of Jonah Jonah 2:2-7,9

I called to you, O God, out of my distress, and you answered me; * out of the belly of Sheol I cried, and you heard my voice. You cast me into the deep, into the heart of the seas, * and the flood surrounded me; all your waves and billows passed over me. Then I said, “I am driven away from your sight; * how shall I ever look again upon your holy temple?” The waters closed in over me, the deep was round about me; * weeds were wrapped around my head at the roots of the mountains. I went down to the land beneath the earth, * yet you brought up my life from the depths, O God. As my life was ebbing away, I remembered you, O God, * and my prayer came to you, into your holy temple. With the voice of thanksgiving, I will sacrifice to you; * what I have vowed I will pay, for deliverance belongs to the Lord! Passage from Prophetic Lament Lament presents an appropriate response to suffering, but lament must also correspond to the recognition that God is in control….The acknowledgment of this sovereignty should free those of us who put our trust in God to not put ourselves in the place of God. We are called not to fix everyone else’s problems, but to acknowledge our place as those who live under God’s authority. (76-77) The church in the city is not merely engaging in a metaphorical battle in the spiritual realm, but it is working to bring real change to a material reality…[Lamentations] offers a true depiction of the sins of the city and the subsequent judgment. It does not move quickly beyond the human experience to find an easy answer from outside the city…By abstracting and spiritualizing the city, we view the city as a problem to be solved with abstract ideas and concepts. The city lament reminds that life in the city is not to be abstracted, but instead, it is to be understood through the lends of real-life experiences and the stories of those who actually live there. (90) Lamentations recognizes that individual voices from the full range of citizens must be heard. Lament requires the full and honest expression of suffering; that experience must encompass the full breadth of suffering…The vast array of voices reflected in

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Lamentations deepens our appreciation of the lament over fallen Jerusalem…What we surround ourselves with, in our everyday and communal Christian life, should reflect a commitment to hear the multitude of voices. The normative expression of Christian faith should arise from a life lived with hearing from a range of voices, experiences and stories. (103-104) Complementary Material: From On Being with Krista Tippet. Joanna Macy: A Wilde Love for the World https://onbeing.org/programs/joanna-macy-a-wild-love-for-the-world/

Ms. Krista Tippett: Yeah. And you really work with people to hold on to that, to take their grief seriously, right?

Ms. Joanna Macy: Or not to hold on to it so much as to not be afraid of it, because that grief, if you are afraid of it and pave it over, clamp down, you shut down. And the kind of apathy and closed-down denial, our difficulty in looking at what we’re doing to our world stems not from callous indifference or ignorance so much as it stems from fear of pain. That was a big learning for me as I was organizing around nuclear power and around at the time of Three Mile Island catastrophe and around Chernobyl.

It relates to everything. It relates to what’s in our food, and it relates to the clear-cuts of our forests. It relates to the contamination of our rivers and oceans. So that became, actually, perhaps the most pivotal point in — I don’t know — the landscape of my life: that dance with despair, to see how we are called to not run from the discomfort and not run from the grief or the feelings of outrage or even fear — and that, if we can be fearless, to be with our pain, it turns. It doesn’t stay static. It only doesn’t change if we refuse to look at it. But when we look at it, when we take it in our hands, when we can just be with it and keep breathing, then it turns. It turns to reveal its other face, and the other face of our pain for the world is our love for the world, our absolutely inseparable connectedness with all life.

Ms. Tippett: I think, again, in even thinking that way, that a poetic mindset is more useful than the fact-based or argument-based way we tend to approach problems culturally, even precisely the same ecological problems.

Ms. Macy: Oh, yeah. That keeps people from even mentioning how distressed they are because they think that they need to have all the facts and figures and statistics to show that they intellectually can master the problem instead of just …

Ms. Tippett: We get overwhelmed by the facts and the figures and the pictures. They are debilitating. They’re paralyzing. As you say, it’s also that we don’t really know how to dwell with grief and turn it into something else. But I think about that a lot as a journalist, as somebody who works in media. Ms. Macy: It’s a double-edged sword, isn’t it? Because you want to portray — say you’re taking care of your mother, and she’s dying of cancer. You won’t say, “I can’t go in her house or in her room because I don’t want to look at her.” If you love her, you

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want to be with her. When you love something, your love doesn’t say, “Well, too bad my kid has leukemia, so I won’t go near her.” It’s just the opposite.

Ms. Tippett: What is empowering in moments like that? I wonder if Rilke comes to mind again, of how he was very clear about darkness as a part of life.

Ms. Macy: Yes. There’s a poem that has been — it’s a sonnet and the very last “Sonnet to Orpheus” that has entered my bloodstream that has helped me a great deal in this time. I will say it.

“Quiet friend who has come so far, // feel how your breathing makes more space around you. / Let this darkness be a bell tower / and you the bell. As you ring, // what batters you becomes your strength. / Move back and forth into the change. / What is it like, such intensity of pain? / If the drink is bitter, turn yourself to wine. // In this uncontainable night, / be the mystery at the crossroads of your senses, / the meaning discovered there. // And if the world shall ceased to hear you, / say to the silent earth: I flow. / To the rushing water, speak: I am.”

Suggested Questions Poetry, songs, television shows, movies are mediums that can help us articulate the feelings and thoughts that we have trouble articulating. Which poems, songs, shows, movies have played such a role in your life?

Psalm for closing Psalm 74 Ut quid, Deus?

1 O God, why have you utterly cast us off? * Why is your wrath so hot against the sheep of your pasture? 2 Remember your congregation that you purchased long ago, * the tribe you redeemed to be your inheritance, and Mount Zion where you dwell. 3 Turn your steps toward the endless ruins; * the enemy has laid waste everything in your sanctuary. 4 Your adversaries roared in your holy place; * they set up their banners as tokens of victory. 5 They were like men coming up with axes * to cut down a grove of trees; 6 they broke down all your carved work * with hatchets and hammers. 7 They set fire to your holy place; * they defiled the dwelling place of your name and razed it to the ground. 8 They said to themselves, ”Let us destroy them altogether.” * They burned down all the meeting-places of God in the land.

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9 There are no signs for us to see; there is no prophet left; * there is not one among us who knows how long. 10 How long, O God, will the adversary scoff? * Will the enemy blaspheme your name for ever? 11 Why do you draw back your hand? * Why is your mighty hand hidden in your bosom? 12 Yet you are my sovereign from ancient times, * victorious in the midst of the earth. 13 You divided the sea by your might * and shattered the heads of the dragons upon the waters; 14 You crushed the heads of Leviathan * and gave it to the people of the desert for food. 15 You split open spring and torrent; * you dried up ever-flowing rivers. 16 Yours is the day, yours also the night; * you established the moon and the sun. 17 You fixed all the boundaries of the earth; * you made both summer and winter. 18 Remember, O Lord, how the enemy scoffed, * how a foolish people despised your name. 19 Do not hand over the life of your dove to wild beasts; * never forget the lives of your poor. 20 Look upon your covenant; * the dark places of the earth are haunts of violence. 21 Let not the oppressed turn away ashamed; * let the poor and needy praise your name. 22 Arise, O God, maintain your cause; * remember how fools revile you all day long. 23 Forget not the clamour of your adversaries, * the unending tumult of those who rise up against you.

Church of England Trial Use Liturgical Psalter 2016.03.17 Link to additional materials From the West Wing: President Jed Bartlett laments after a funeral https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fYcMk3AJKLk . Martin Sheen speaks about that scene here: https://onbeing.org/programs/martin-sheen-spirituality-of-imagination- jun2017/#transcript

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Week 3: Containing Lament/Freeing Lament Prayer A Song of Lamentation Lamentations 1:12,16; 3:19,22-24,26

Is it nothing to you, all you who pass by? * Look and see if there is any sorrow like my sorrow, Which was brought upon me, * inflicted by God’s fierce anger. For these things I weep; my eyes flow with tears, * for a comforter is far from me, one to revive my courage. Remember my affliction and my bitterness, * wormwood and gall! The steadfast love of God never ceases, * God’s mercies never end. They are new every morning; * great is your faithfulness. “God is my portion,” says my soul, * “therefore will I hope in God.” It is good that we should wait quietly * for the coming of God’s salvation.

Passage from Prophetic Lament Acrostics impose order and organization on shapeless chaos and unmanageable pain, and they imply that the suffering depicted in the poems is total (Lamentations is written in the poetic form where each verse begins with a different letter of the alphabet in alphabetic order)…Deep suffering can result in a deep despair, unless the boundaries of suffering are laid out…The absence of lament is attributable in part to the denial of suffering, the fear of what an unfettered suffering may mean to the community and the lack of the practice of lament causing one to forget its importance…Lament is truth telling, and the acrostics provide safe boundaries and guidelines where truth can be expressed (111-113)…The presence of the urban church can serve as an expression of security that God is in charge of the cosmic order beyond the turbulence of the urban reality. As an expression of God’s will, the church in the city can embody God’s shalom. It becomes the order of acrostic in the sea of the chaos of suffering (115). In our engagement on issues of justice, do we rely too much on our own abilities rather than the character of God? … Confession propels the community to imagine a world beyond their current state of sinful existence. Lament that recognizes the reality of brokenness allows the community to express confession in its proper context. Confession acknowledges the need for God and opens the door for God’s intervention. Confession in lament relies on God’s work for redemption (130-131). Complementary Material From Pepperdine Spiritual Life Blogcast: An interview with Dr. Soong-Chan Rah

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https://www.pepperdine.edu/spiritual-life/blogcast/posts/s1-e4-soong-chan-rah.htm

Soong-Chan Rah: Lament is the active deconstruction. What comes after lament though is a praise that moves to its construction.

Sara Barton: Right. Well, what is the difference do you think between that lament that can be healthy and cynicism? Because cynicism is the temptation. Have you experienced what you would consider religious cynicism?

Soong-Chan Rah: Sure. Sure.

Sara Barton: If so, what happened? How did you deal with it?

Soong-Chan Rah: Yeah. Cynicism is pretty common characteristic among the younger generation, I would say. I would say, I fall into that category as well.

Sara Barton: I think, yeah, it's for all ages.

Soong-Chan Rah: That's true. Yeah.

Sara Barton: Right.

Soong-Chan Rah: That comes out of, maybe I would say, not being led well in lament, right?

Soong-Chan Rah: Lament shouldn't lead to cynicism. Cynicism might be a part of lament as in you are questioning ...

Sara Barton: It's part of the-

Soong-Chan Rah: ... and you were asking the right questions around lament, but lament should lead to a greater trust in the sovereignty of God. That was the intention of lament in the bible. That's what you see in the book of lamentation. Now, it doesn't mean it's all fixed and resolved at that moment, but there is a greater dependence upon God. My commentary in lamentations, I note that the fifth chapter lamentation is the most powerful for me because that's when the people began to actually pray for themselves. They're not just crying out of lament. They're actually addressing God and saying, "God, the only way out of this is you." Whereas, in the first few chapters, it really is a series of complaints. If you stop there, that, of course, opens the way for cynicism, but if lament is done well, it should lead to greater dependence and greater crying on to God. That's what happens in the book of lamentations.

Sara Barton: Right. I hear a saying that as we seek God and seek to join God, lament, even though it might feel like ...

Soong-Chan Rah: That's right.

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Sara Barton: ... we're taking the wrong path, lament could be the very path ...

Soong-Chan Rah: That's right.

Sara Barton: ... that could help us in this journey.

Soong-Chan Rah: Yeah. It's the disruption into some dysfunctional stories that are out there. It's the truth telling that we're looking to see. It's the turn around.

Suggested Questions Write an acrostic of lament in your group. You can go from A-Z or use L-A-M-E-N-T as your starting point. Psalm for closing Psalm 79 Deus, venerunt 1 O God, the heathen have come into your inheritance; they have profaned your holy temple; * they have made Jerusalem a heap of rubble. 2 They have given the bodies of your servants as food for the birds of the air, * and the flesh of your faithful ones to the beasts of the field. 3 They have shed their blood like water on every side of Jerusalem, * and there was no one to bury them. 4 We have become a reproach to our neighbours, * an object of scorn and derision to those around us. 5 How long will you be angry, O Lord? * Will your fury blaze like fire for ever? 6 Pour out your wrath upon the heathen who have not known you * and upon the dominions that have not called upon your name. 7 For they have devoured Jacob * and made his dwelling a ruin. 8 Remember not our past sins; let your compassion be swift to meet us; * for we have been brought very low. 9 Help us, O God our Saviour, for the glory of your name; * deliver us and forgive us our sins, for your name’s sake. 10 Why should the heathen say, ”Where is their God?” * Let it be known among the heathen and in our sight that you avenge the shedding of your servants’ blood. 11 Let the sorrowful sighing of the prisoners come before you, * and by your great might spare those who are condemned to die. 12 May the revilings with which they reviled you, O Lord, * return seven-fold into their bosoms. 13 For we are your people and the sheep of your pasture; * we will give you thanks for ever and show forth your praise from age to age.

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Church of England Trial Use Liturgical Psalter 2016.03.17

Link to additional materials https://www.canisaythisatchurch.com/transcripts/2019/10/11/25-lament-and-the-future-of- the-church-with-soong-chan-rah-transcript

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Week 4: Lament and Re-turning to God Prayer A Song of Hosea Hosea 6:1-3

Come, let us return to our God, * who has torn us and will heal us. God has struck us and will bind up our wounds, * after two days revive us, On the third day restore us, * that in God’s presence we may live. Let us humble ourselves, let us strive to know the Lord, * whose justice dawns like morning light, its dawning as sure as the sunrise. God’s justice will come to us like a shower, * like spring rains that water the earth. Passage from Prophetic Lament Both the struggle and liberation of the book of Lamentations is in knowing that there can be complete honesty before God. God’s grace provides us the freedom to recognize that we fall short of the glory of God and that we will continue to do so. This side of heaven, we are confronted with the need to lament over a church that fails to live up to God’s standards. But that failure ultimately results in a freedom to believe in the hope of God’s restoration…Lament recognizes our frailty as created beings and the need to acknowledge this shortcoming before God. Lament demands that we are willing to dwell in the space of our humanity without quickly resorting to our triumphalistic narrative to justify our worth (138-139). [In Lamentations, corporate] responsibility for corporate sin is evidenced in corporate punishment for sin…One of the problems of dealing with corporate sin is the inability to connect individual responsibility for sin with the reality of corporate sin…By acquiescing to the cultural norm of hyperindividualism, personal and individual responsibility for structural and corporate sin is denied. The integration of communal lament with individual lament shows the connection between corporate sin requiring communal repentance and individual sin requiring individual repentance…Lamentations, therefore, does not limit the understanding of human brokenness exclusively to the realm of corporate responsibility or individual responsibility. Both corporate and personal expressions are necessary. Communal laments are offered on behalf of the entire community, but never lack a personal expression. In the same way, the expressions of individual lament are not spoken in isolation and do not operate separate from each other. (168-170) Complementary material From On Being with Krista Tippet. Serene Jones: On Grace https://onbeing.org/programs/serene-jones-on-grace/

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Rev. Jones: Repentance — it’s a powerful word, as you said, and it really means, to walk in a different direction. It means to do it differently.

Ms. Tippett: It’s not just a change of heart.

Rev. Jones: It’s also not just saying, “Oh, that was horrible. I’m so sorry.” It’s much more than “I’m sorry” or “ That makes me so uncomfortable, and I’m sad that happened.” It’s really saying, “That is horrible. And this is the path that we’re going to walk on together to fix it.” Not “fix it” in the sense of “cover up the past,” but fix it so that the horrors that hold us don’t keep happening. And so, that active grasping, walking towards a different future, has to be done together. It’s not just me, deciding, “Oh, Serene, now that you’ve come to grips with your horrible past, you’re gonna walk out there and fix it and walk in the right direction,” because the things that bind us are not just ours alone, but they’re ours as a whole society. So if we don’t walk collectively, we’re not getting at the chains, the sins, that hold us down.

Ms. Tippett: One of the — well, let me just say, one of the things you say is that “Grace is more original than sin.” And given everything that we’ve been talking about, how does that work?

Rev. Jones: Well, this is where the grace part becomes so important, because in my theology — and this is part of what we need to reclaim; it is so deep in Christianity — is that we may be glorious and sinful, but God’s love is bigger than that. So, the reason we, in repentance, walk in this direction is not because, as sinners, we’ve repented, and because we don’t want to go to hell and want to go to heaven, we’re gonna walk that way; it’s because you actually recognize that the truth of love points you in that direction. Grace is more original, because grace wins. Our sinfulness is not the final word about who we are. And that means that in this theology, which is suffused through Christianity, and we suppress it, is that the love of God, the love of the universe, spirit, however you describe it, is stronger and more powerful and persistent, larger, greater, more eternal, than anything we do. That’s grace. And that’s the grace that changes how we experience everything.

[…]

Rev. Jones: So grace is — and again, here, I’m sounding very traditionally Calvinist and Christian, but grace is God’s reckoning with us, and it’s already happened. It’s already happened. God created us, and we are loved.

The thing I don’t like about the term “reckoning” is, it can play into old Christian notions of the reckoning that you must have, or you’re going to go to hell. So there’s a sort of threat character to it. Reckoning as I understand it in a political and social context is, yes, we will go to hell, meaning, we will continue to live in the hell that we’ve created, if we don’t reckon with the past.

[…]

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Rev. Jones: So there’s so many moments of pain and trauma in my own story. And at one point, it became clear to me, in my life — it became most clear when I was going through a divorce and felt I had failed to keep my own covenants. How could I believe God kept covenant with me? And I was having a hard time forgiving the man I had been married to. And I realized that the hatred and the trauma and all of these things that we carry with us, we’re not afraid to let go of them because they’re so painful; we’re actually afraid to let go of them because they’ve become so comfortable. Our injuries can be like warm blankets that we wrap around ourselves — and our grief and our pain and our trauma; and they stop us, if we wrap them tightly enough around ourselves, from feeling vulnerable to the world. And I came to see that, until I was willing to let go of those blankets of grief and fear and rage and anger and shame, that I actually couldn’t experience the world. And for me, that letting go is a profound description of what forgiveness is, and that’s the moment that one moves from grief into the transformative power of mourning, in the context of having a future. Suggested Questions What questions does your lament demand that you ask? Who/What are you turning toward right now? Psalm for closing Psalm 90 Domine, refugium 1 Lord, you have been our refuge * from one generation to another. 2 Before the mountains were brought forth, or the land and the earth were born, * from age to age you are God. 3 You turn us back to the dust and say, * “Go back, O child of earth.” 4 For a thousand years in your sight are like yesterday when it is past * and like a watch in the night. 5 You sweep us away like a dream; * we fade away suddenly like the grass. 6 In the morning it is green and flourishes; * in the evening it is dried up and withered. 7 For we consume away in your displeasure; * we are afraid because of your wrathful indignation. 8 Our iniquities you have set before you, * and our secret sins in the light of your countenance. 9 When you are angry, all our days are gone; * we bring our years to an end like a sigh. 10 The span of our life is seventy years, perhaps in strength even eighty; * yet the sum of them is but labour and sorrow, for they pass away quickly and we are gone. 11 Who regards the power of your wrath? * Who rightly fears your indignation? 12 So teach us to number our days * that we may apply our hearts to wisdom.

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13 Return, O Lord; how long will you tarry? * Be gracious to your servants. 14 Satisfy us by your loving-kindness in the morning; * so shall we rejoice and be glad all the days of our life. 15 Make us glad by the measure of the days that you afflicted us * and the years in which we suffered adversity. 16 Show your servants your works * and your splendour to their children. 17 May the graciousness of the Lord our God be upon us; * prosper the work of our hands; prosper our handiwork.

Church of England Trial Use Liturgical Psalter 2016.03.17

Link to additional materials Rite of Reconciliation in the Book of Common Prayer: https://www.bcponline.org/PastoralOffices/reconciliation.html Corporate Confession: http://worshipcurrent.com/confession-of-sin-holy-eucharist-rite-2/ https://onbeing.org/programs/serene-jones-on-grace/#transcript

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Week 5: Lament and the Restoration of Relationships Prayer A Song of Our True Nature Julian of Norwich

Christ revealed our frailty and our falling, * our trespasses and our humiliations. Christ also revealed his blessed power, * his blessed wisdom and love. He protects us as tenderly and as sweetly when we are in greatest need; * he raises us in spirit and turns everything to glory and joy without ending.

God is the ground and the substance, the very essence of nature;* God is the true father and mother of natures. We are all bound to God by nature, * and we are all bound to God by grace. And this grace is for all the world, * because it is our precious mother, Christ. For this fair nature was prepared by Christ for the honor and nobility of all, * and for the joy and bliss of salvation. Passage from Prophetic Lament Strangely absent from the book of Lamentations is the voice of God himself. The assertive voice is instead the voice of the suffering…Lamentations, therefore, offers the example of the lesser party in the covenant talking back to the greater party in the covenant through lament. God is silent, but not absent...A theology of celebration has the luxury of being able to objectify God, and because suffering is kept at a distance it is not necessary for the presence of God to be immanent. God can be a distant abstraction whose praise is expected…Lament as dialogue challenges the notion of an abstract relationship with God…Dialogical lament becomes a form of prayer (176-178)…The prolonged complaint section of this lament points to the level of desperation experienced by God’s people and recapitulates the depth of suffering that is the story throughout the book of Lamentations. The extended complaint section reminds us once more that our prayers are often triumphalistic. We’re ready to ask for the next big item that is due us, and we pray prayers that will get that item of blessing that we think we deserve. We will pray for bigger churches, larger budgets, slimmer waistlines, more purpose in our lives, but we do not pray in recognition of the deepest suffering in our own lives or in the lives of others….[Lamentations] reminds us that there is suffering in our community and that suffering is worth hearing (181-182)… Israel’s prayer acknowledges that the restoration of the community can only come through a restored relationship with God(185)

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Lamentations 5:1 calls upon God to “remember”…Remembering has been a painful exercise so far, but this call to remembrance is not a furthering of a pity party. It is instead a call for God to remember, to take heart, consider, look, see and ultimately to act on their behalf. Even as God’s people lament and draw attention to their suffering, this act reflects the realization that God is the only hope. But hope will only arise if God remembers. Human effort will not restore Jerusalem to its former glory nor will it restore the glory of any city. Instead, it is the sacrifice of the body of Christ that brings complete healing (197). Complementary Material Hive of Nerves by Christian Wiman How does one remember God, reach for God, realize God in the midst of one’s life if one is constantly being overwhelmed by that life? It is one thing to encourage contemplation, prayer, quiet spaces in which God, or at least a galvanizing awareness of his absence (“Be present with your want of a Deity, and you shall be present with the Deity,” as the 17thcentury poet Thomas Traherne puts it), can enter the mind and heart. But the reality of contemporary American life—which often seems like a kind of collective ADHD—is that any consciousness requires a great deal of resistance, and how does one relax and resist at the same time? […] Christ speaks in stories as a way of preparing his followers to stake their lives on a story, because existence is not a puzzle to be solved but a narrative to be inherited, and undergone, and transformed person by person. He uses metaphors because something essential about the nature of reality—its mercurial solidity, its mathematical mystery and sacred plainness—is disclosed within them. He speaks the language of reality— speaks in terms of the physical world—because he is reality’s culmination and code, and because “this people’s mind has become dull; they have stopped their ears and shut their eyes. Otherwise, their eyes might see, their ears hear, and their mind understand, and then they might turn to me, and I would heal them.” […] The meanings that God calls us to in our lives are never abstract. Though the call may ask us to redefine, or refine, what we know as life, it does not demand a renunciation of life in favor of something beyond it. Moreover, the call itself is always comprised of life. That is, it is not some hitherto unknown voice to which we respond; it is life calling to life. People think that diagnosing the apostle Paul with epilepsy or some related disorder nullifies any notion that God might truly have revealed something of himself on that road to Damascus. But God speaks to us by speaking through us, and any meaning we arrive at in this life is comprised of the irreducible details of the life that is around us at any moment. “I think there is no light in the world / but the world,” writes George Oppen. “And I think there is light.” […] IT IS A STRANGE THING how sometimes merely to talk honestly of God, even if it is only to articulate our feelings of separation and confusion, can bring peace to our spirits. You thought you were unhappy because this or that was off in your relationship, this or

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that was wrong in your job, but the reality is that your sadness stemmed from your aversion to, your stalwart avoidance of, God. The other problems may very well be true, and you will have to address them, but what you feel when releasing yourself to speak of the deepest needs of your spirit is the fact that no other needs could be spoken of outside of that context. You cannot work on the structure of your life if the ground of your being is unsure.

The first step in the life of the spirit is learning to let yourself experience those moments when life and time seem at once suspended and concentrated, that paradox of attentive oblivion out of which any sustaining faith grows. These moments may not be—and at first almost certainly will not be—“meditative.” They are more likely to break into your awareness, or into what you thought was awareness (“inbreaking” is the theological term for Christ’s appearance in the world and in our lives—there is no coaxing it, no way to earn it, no way to prepare except to hone your capacity to respond, which is, finally, your capacity to experience life, and death). This is why we cannot separate one part of our existence, or one aspect of our awareness, from another, for there is a seed of peace in the most savage clamor. There is a kind of seeing that, fusing attention and submission, becomes a kind of being, wherein you may burrow into the very chaos that buries you, and even the most binding ties can become a means of release.

Suggested Questions What would a dialogue between you and God look like right now? What do you feel called to remember? What memor(ies) do you feel called to hold up for those around you? Psalm for closing Psalm 80 Qui regis Israel 1 Hear, O Shepherd of Israel, leading Joseph like a flock; * shine forth, you that are enthroned upon the cherubim. 2 In the presence of Ephraim, Benjamin, and Manasseh, * stir up your strength and come to help us. 3 Restore us, O God of hosts; * show the light of your countenance, and we shall be saved. 4 O Lord God of hosts, * how long will you be angered despite the prayers of your people? 5 You have fed them with the bread of tears; * you have given them bowls of tears to drink. 6 You have made us the derision of our neighbours, * and our enemies laugh us to scorn. 7 Restore us, O God of hosts; * show the light of your countenance, and we shall be saved. 8 You have brought a vine out of Egypt; * you cast out the nations and planted it. 9 You prepared the ground for it; *

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it took root and filled the land. 10 The mountains were covered by its shadow * and the towering cedar trees by its boughs. 11 You stretched out its tendrils to the sea * and its branches to the river. 12 Why have you broken down its wall, * so that all who pass by pluck off its grapes? 13 The wild boar of the forest has ravaged it, * and the beasts of the field have grazed upon it. 14 Turn now, O God of hosts, * look down from heaven; 15 behold and tend this vine; * preserve what your strong hand has planted. 16 They burn it with fire like rubbish; * at the rebuke of your countenance let them perish. 17 Let your hand be upon the one at your side in honour, * the one you have made so strong for yourself. 18 And so will we never turn away from you; * give us life, that we may call upon your name. 19 Restore us, O Lord God of hosts; * show the light of your countenance, and we shall be saved.

Church of England Trial Use Liturgical Psalter 2016.03.17 Link to additional materials https://onbeing.org/programs/christian-wiman-how-does-one-remember-god-jan2018/

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