Readings for today: Lamentations 1:1-3:36
We’ve lost the ability to lament in our culture. The ability to sit in our pain. Embrace hardship and suffering. Honestly grapple with our fears and failures. I remember officiating a funeral years ago. A young woman had been tragically killed in a murder suicide. Hey ex-boyfriend had kidnapped her and taken her to the western slope where he shot her and then turned the gun on himself. She left a six year old son behind. At the funeral, all anyone could talk about was her partying. They made light of her alcoholic and drug-addicted lifestyle. They pretended like she was a wonderful mom when by all accounts, she had neglected her son. As the pastor, it was my job to close the service with words of hope. They were hard to find. I can still see that young boy sitting by his grandmother in the front row. I focused on him. I treated the time as if he and I were the only two people in the room. I told him what happened was a tragedy. I told him it was okay to cry. Okay to feel pain. Okay to grieve. I told him his mom wasn’t perfect and she made some tragic choices in her life and it was okay to feel angry about them. Most of all, I told him it was okay to bring all those emotions to God. To be honest and real with God. To let God know how he was feeling and I told him God would meet him there. I have no idea how much of it stuck. The boy was six years old after all. But the message definitely landed with many others who attended. They were thankful someone had the courage to deal with the reality of what happened rather than pretend. I can’t tell you how many funerals over the years that I’ve officiated at where I’ve had to do something similar. We just don’t know what to do with pain. We don’t know how to honestly grieve. We don’t know how to lament.
The Book of Lamentations is not easy. Mainly because we’re so uncomfortable with the idea of lament. It’s not something we practice. It’s not something we accept in society. We much prefer rage. We much prefer bitterness. We much prefer self-righteousness. We much prefer numbness which is why we seem to have a pill for every pain a person can possibly experience. Jeremiah, however, is not afraid of lament. He is not afraid to get honest and real and raw with God. Listen to his words again from Lamentations 3:1-9 NET, “I am the man who has experienced affliction from the rod of his wrath. He drove me into captivity and made me walk in darkness and not light. He repeatedly attacks me, he turns his hand against me all day long. He has made my mortal skin waste away; he has broken my bones. He has besieged and surrounded me with bitter hardship. He has made me reside in deepest darkness like those who died long ago. He has walled me in so that I cannot get out; he has weighted me down with heavy prison chains. Also, when I cry out desperately for help, he has shut out my prayer. He has blocked every road I take with a wall of hewn stones; he has made every path impassable.” Jeremiah is talking about God. He is talking to God about his pain and suffering and he is not afraid to blame God for making it all happen. He knows God will hear his prayers. He knows God already knows how he feels. And he trusts God even with the depths of his despair. But he doesn’t end there.
Biblical lament doesn’t just plumb the depths of pain and suffering, it also offers hope. After we’ve honestly grappled with all that has happened to us. After we’ve wrestled honestly with why it has happened and our part in bringing it about. Our hearts turn to hope. Not in us. Not in a turn of fortune. Not in a second chance. But hope in God. “The Lord’s loyal kindness never ceases; his compassions never end. They are fresh every morning; your faithfulness is abundant! “My portion is the Lord,” I have said to myself, so I will put my hope in him. The Lord is good to those who trust in him, to the one who seeks him. It is good to wait patiently for deliverance from the Lord. It is good for a man to bear the yoke while he is young.” (Lamentations 3:22-27 NET) Lament always turns us back to hope and that’s why it’s a critical spiritual discipline. It lifts our eyes heavenward even in the midst of our pain. It reminds us God is still good, still on the throne, and still in the business of deliverance.
Readings for tomorrow: Lamentations 3:37-5:22