Lament I

Lament.

There is nothing the church needs right now more than the ability for its leaders to lead us in lament.

That, of course, is one of those ridiculous statements people like to make to capture attention. There are 101 things that the church needs right now, and what each individual church needs is different.

And yet, the importance of learning to lament well in a time of brokenness is vital. Why else would the largest single category of Psalms be lament, and why would there be an entire book of the Bible called Lamentations if it was not for the importance of lamenting?

But before progressing further we need to define lament. Lament is a form of prayer, expressing to God our honest thoughts and feelings about our present distress, or the distress of those we love, or of the church as a whole, or the world at large.

That distress might be caused by others, by ourselves, or seem to come directly from the hand of God. It might be betrayal, sickness, bereavement, physical pain, mental anguish or any other host of reasons for distress.

The important thing about lament is that it stops to acknowledge the reality of the pain we are in, the sense of disorientation this brings to our hearts, and the questions it raises in our minds. Lament presses the pause button on our temptations to reach for easy answers and cover our pain. Lament means we refuse to say ‘peace, peace’ where there is no peace – but instead press on to seek what Christ has to say to us in the midst of the disorientation we face.

And that is especially vital when we live in a time of such widespread disorientation. This year is perhaps a year where we are aware of our lack of control like never before, a year where we are aware of how fragile our political systems are like never before and a year where we are aware more and more of how unjust many of our fundamental structures are like never before. In the midst of such a year it is vital that we bring our disorientation and confusion before God.

Over my next series of blog posts we will look at the book of Lamentations. Lamentations was written as a series of laments over the fall of Jerusalem to the Babylonians in 586BC and subsequent exile.

At one level this event was utterly predictable – God’s just punishment on the sin of his people, as warned in Deuteronomy and by the prophets. And yet for those caught up in the event it was utterly disorientating. Any given individual might have had greater or lesser responsibility for the disastrous suffering that fell on the people – and the laments in Lamentations reflect that range – yet for everyone involved that suffering felt like the end of their world.

If nothing else Lamentations and the lament Psalms teach us that the first response to catastrophe and disaster is not to make a new plan and come up with a new strategy (although no doubt we will need to make new plans at some point) – rather it is to come into God’s presence with our questions, our doubts and even our rage and to pour it out to him. In our world of pandemic and all the associated suffering that seems an important thing to remember.

To do that helps to give space to all those wrestling with questions, sorrow and heartache. A space which is often sorely needed in our churches where most of our songs are unremittingly upbeat. Yes we are told to be joyful – but the joy is one that exists in the midst of pain, and is found only by facing the pain. It is not found by denying the existence of pain, or by persuading ourselves that if only we have enough faith we will move out of the pain.

I have another project to work on during February, but I’m hoping to work through Lamentations in March. Meanwhile if you want to find modern songs of lament you could try this group: https://www.theportersgate.com/ whose music I have found very helpful in this season.

If you want to read more about lament then I cannot recommend highly enough this book: https://langhamliterature.org/books/stumbling-toward-zion. This is one of the best books I’ve read in ages. I think its message is critical for today’s church, and the writers journey is one we need to listen to and heed.