Lament, Laughter and Looking Forward

Passages for reflection: Psalm 137 and Lamentations 3

Our District Synod has just met in York to think about “Lament and Laughter” together. Some of us who didn’t feel able to go gathered on Zoom to see most of the proceedings but we had our own workshop which I was asked to lead. So here’s some thoughts on the theme of Synod for us to think about.

What have you lamented about? Lament is a seriously neglected part of worship! In my view! 

Lament is calling out to God from where we are. And mostly from not a nice place. 

 

Nancy Lee in “The Singers of Lamentations: Cities under Siege, from Ur to Jerusalem to Sarajevo” (Brill, 2002) suggests lament is central to the biblical text. The majority of psalms, in terms of genres, are laments about suffering and worry. Some end with a plea to God for help. Some end with praise after receiving help from God.

The most prominent laments focus on how someone has been treated badly by his or her enemy. Read Psalm 137 – we are shocked by the end and we don’t read it in our services and Boney M certainly don’t sing it in Rivers of Babylon! But it’s raw and real and sung in utter despair when we aren’t thinking straight… 

“One of the purposes of lament is just to be utterly honest and truthful. “ Lament often focuses on “the things we don’t like to talk about or don’t want to admit in our lives or society.”

Also, one of the big elements of lament in the Bible is a call for justice.

“It’s not just a prayer to God privately, but it’s done in the context of worship. It’s letting everybody know, ‘I’m being mistreated.’ It’s an implicit call to the congregation, the community, to know and then do something about it. Not just God.”

In lament prayer becomes honest. I love Nadia Bolz Weber. She’s a deeply honest writer from America. I used some of her stuff when I led a retreat in a posh retreat house in East Sussex. I wasn’t invited back! She uses words like “shitty” a lot J

How about this as a lament prayer? Written at the height of the pandemic:

 

“A lot of us are grieving. Actually, all of us are grieving: lost friends, lost kin, lost homes, lost income, lost connection to others, lost health.  Help us not also lose hope. We can lose a lot and still survive, but not that.

I don't think you created us to be able to metabolize such a constant stream of bad news everyday, Lord.

 But I do know that you created us to metabolize cookies. And for that I give you thanks and praise. They are helping. But they are not enough. 

So if you could show the hell up right now, that would be great. And if you are already showing up, give us new eyes to notice you.”

 Is it okay to shout at God? Lament is an underused practice. To lament is to cry out to God, acknowledging the trouble that besets us on all side. It is to acknowledge the pain, the heartbreak, the anger, the confusion, and the frustration that we feel – those feelings and reasons that we can explain and those we cannot. It is often a cathartic experience, expressing aloud those things that God already knows are living in our hearts. 

 

Consider these words from a very wise down to earth priest I’ve got to know:

“A regular internet aphorism is ‘When life gives you lemons, make lemonade’. As advice goes it is not bad, and we are seeing a lot of lemonade being made in the form of kind acts and charitable initiatives. Bring on the lemonade! And yet lemons are perfectly nice things, just a bit sour. For those who are cheerfully making the best of an inconvenience and taking the opportunity to learn new things, spend time with the family or clear the garden, it’s a great saying. For others it isn’t. Fear, loss of livelihood and prospects, separation from family, boredom, abuse and grief are real for countless people, and we already see consequences like depression, anxiety, violence, bad behaviour, broken relationships, hunger and homelessness. Telling the victims of the consequences of this virus to ‘make lemonade’ of the situation is trite and, dare I say, a bit typical of our society which prefers not to face unpalatable facts but covers them with euphemism or blames someone else.

The truth is that real strength is to be found in confronting reality head-on, crying over it and fighting on through in the light of genuine hope. That is the power of faith. I love the Psalms in the Old Testament. They do real emotion, not lemonade. The most powerful are the psalms of lament, which howl and plead and shout at God in anger and fear when life is turned upside down. The reality today is that life has dealt many of us onions, not lemons, and the right thing to do is to make onionade and cry painful tears in front of the mirror of God’s love. 

Corporate lament at our losses, repentance for the uncomfortable things we have learned about our society, and hopeful, expectant prayer to God who loves us, who builds beauty out of brokenness and hope out of despair, would be a healthy way forward as we start to work ourselves out of this situation.”

Canon Sarah Brown, soon to be Dean of Hereford Cathedral

We think Lamentations was spoken or sung on the rubble of Jerusalem after the Israelites returned from exile. How crushing would it have been to see the city and the Temple, decimated? What words stand out in this passage? Great is God’s faithfulness… in the middle of the cause for lament God is…

Where can God be found? My beloved late college principal Graham Slater used to get very excited about Wolfhart Pannenberg. We used to get tales of “when Wolfie came to dinner” at college a lot! Maybe Pannenberg hits the nail on the head here:

 

“Because God is the creator of everything and will be the redeemer of everything, theology has to be concerned with everything.” Even the rubble of life! Great is his faithfulness! And that may be cause for laughter, that despite everything God doesn’t ever let us go.

 

Some questions to ponder:

What have you lamented about in the last eighteen months? Has God been with you in your honesty? Where have you needed God to “show the hell up”? 

Is your church a safe space to be honest? 

After a period of loss and lament, what helped you recover?

Jesus died saying a lament prayer (Psalm 22) – what does this say about him?

	“The laments in the books of Psalms and Lamentations are all an expression of grief, but they are also an expression of hope. They are an insistence that things cannot remain this way and they must be changed.” Walter Bruggemann

 

Who do you say I am?

Passage for reflection: Mark 8: 27 to the end of the chapter.

Have you ever been in the wrong place while walking down the street and you’ve failed to not be got by one of those people doing market research. I remember being in city centre Manchester and this lady stopped me and asked me if I like cheese. I gave the wrong answer. I was taken into this room in an office block and I was there for ever. “Was this cheese harder, softer, stronger, milder than the last one?” Bits of cheese kept coming until I didn’t want to see another piece of cheese ever. I was given a £5 note for giving my opinion but I’d rather have spent an hour doing something else.

 

Sometimes people need to canvass public opinion. What’s being said? Jesus was no different. After a considerable time of busy Ministry he wanted to know his impact.

 So he took the disciples away from the Galilean crowds and moved them twenty five miles to the north, to the head of the Jordan river, near to the city Philip built in honour Caesar which became known as Caesarea Philippi.

 

Jesus asked, “Who do people say that I am?”

 

Some say you are John the Baptist.” John the Baptist came preaching a message of repentance. These people sensed Jesus was a man of righteousness and perhaps they thought of John the Baptist because of his preaching of repentance. 

“Some say you are Elijah.” These people must have sensed His greatness. To the Jew, Elijah was one of the greatest of the prophets and teachers of all times. To this day at the Seder meal, Elijah’s chair is left vacant. 

Elijah was a man of prayer. The people of Palestine had watched our Lord Jesus calm storms with a prayer, multiply the loaves and fishes with a prayer. No wonder, “Some say” He is Elijah. 

“Some say you are Jeremiah.” These were obviously those who were aware of His tears, His passion, His burden for His people. They had seen the heart of Jesus. They had watched Him as He wept over the City of Jerusalem and as He wept at the grave of Lazarus. No wonder, “Some say” He is Jeremiah.

“Some say you are one of the prophets.” Here is the very essence of public consensus. He was one of the prophets. These were those who did not know what to believe but could not discount His miracles and godly life. Some still say today that He is one of the prophets. Ask our Islamic friends. They will tell you that He is a prophet, but not as great as Mohammed. They will tell you He did not rise from the dead. Ask our Jewish friends and they will tell you He was a godly man and a prophet. 

It was clear Jesus was evoking opinion. the people in Jesus' day answered the question of who Jesus was based on how they saw him. Healer, miracle worker, story teller, master, Saviour. Others had a different opinion: Jesus' brothers saw Him as a lunatic -- the priests saw Him as a threat -- the Pharisees called Him unrighteous, because He didn't follow their religious rules -- the Sadducees saw Him as a heretic, because of His teachings on the resurrection, half way through Marks Gospel they are planning to get rid of him. 

But then Jesus asks another question. “But, who do you say I am?” 

Have you ever been in a group where you dread being asked what you think? Everyone else is more eloquent and everyone else has a valuable contribution and you are scared of being picked on. I always got in school reports “Ian is very quiet in class,” I’m an introvert, so I tend to listen more rather than speak a lot but there comes a bit where you have to say what you think.

Peter says “you are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”tell others just who J"“But who do you say I am?.”The structure of this question in Greek apparently emphasises  the word “you.” It could be translated more literally, “And you, who do you say that I am?”

He could be asking this question of us : “People doing Church, who do you say I am?” How we answer the question will show what sort of church we are. Do we as Wesley said “commend the Saviour” to others? 

Do we share the story of Jesus confidently or like when quiz questions on the Bible come up on tv shows like the contestants, have we no clue how to answer correctly? Who Jesus is is answered not just by words but how we are, how we care for each other, how we run our activities, how we treat each other and the vulnerable amongst us, how we speak to each other. Who Jesus is is answered by how we are perceived outside in community. Who Jesus is is deepened as we talk more about him together. So let’s have some Bible studies and house groups and times we just meet to discuss him. Who Jesus is for us is our motivation and our call to be…   

I will just say this today: The way we answer Jesus has the potential to change our lives. If we acknowledge Jesus to be a divinely inspired teacher, then we will pay close attention to what he says so that we might believe it and live it. If we see Jesus as the Messiah, then we will serve him as God’s royal representative who ushers in the kingdom. If we believe Jesus to be the Saviour of the world, then we will put our ultimate faith in him. And if we confess Jesus to be the Word of God Incarnate, the very Son of God, then we will fall before him in worship so that we might live our entire lives as an offering to him. William Barclay once said “Jesus' coming is the final and unanswerable proof that God cares.” I like that…

I love this Spike Milligan poem

One day I thought I saw,

Jesus in a tram, 

I said to him 'Are You Jesus?'

He said 'Yes I am'

 

Jesus is here. He asks the question. What’s our answer? 

Behold your God

Passages for reflection:

Isaiah 35: 4 - 10 & Mark 7: 24 to the end of the chapter.

It’s been a week which feels like it’s had 365 days in it, so I got to last night at 11pm and still hadn’t written a word of this blog post. We mark today the first Sunday of a new Methodist year. How are we feeling as we begin another year of God‘s Grace? What’s the year ahead looking like for our church, for each of you personally? 

 

What to say today. Well, an Anglican colleague sent me these words of David Adam yesterday:

“Life is meant to be an adventure. When we cease to

reach out and stretch ourselves, something in us

dies or we feel frustrated; for life to be lived to the

full, it has to be adventurous.  I believe that God

calls us to adventure, to extend ourselves, and to

seek new horizons. Our God is the God who makes

all things new and he wants us to walk in newness

of life.  A relationship with God will extend our

vision, our sensitivity and indeed our whole life.

Whenever life gets static or dull God calls us out to

risk and to be renewed.”

(David Adam ‘A desert in the Ocean’ SPCK)

 

That’s an amazing message, isn’t it? Wherever we find ourselves at the beginning of this new church year, God calls us to adventure, to find life, to have vision, especially if we are stuck or things are a bit dull. When we don’t know where to go or how to move on, God makes a way out of no way. That’s good news for those of us who find ourselves in the middle of weeks with 365 days in them. Or suddenly something happens and we don’t know how to cope with it. 

 

Today is the first Sunday of my twenty fifth year in ministry. I’m remembering the folk of what was then the Ashton Circuit in Greater Manchester where I looked after three churches at Mossley, in Millbrook,on the edge of Stalybridge, and at Tame Valley in Dukinfield. 

I remember my first Sunday at Millbrook in September 1997. All was going well, I even coped with my organist, dear Norman Bradbury, who played the organ at break neck speed you couldn’t keep up with him and he’d only play out of one book – the 1908 Methodist hymn book! I announced the communion hymn, and everyone got up and moved. “Where are they going?” I thought. They moved leaving an empty pew in front of them. Then they stared at me after the hymn. They hadn’t told me I was expected to take the communion round to them standing in front of them! They moved, in order to receive.

 

We are scared of moving, we are scared of adventure, we don’t warn risk on the agenda. And even where it’s dull, it’s easier to keep doing the same old thing because it’s safe, even if it clearly isn’t working any more. To get up and move in order to find God is not just a good thing to do, it is a necessary thing to do, else God gets so far ahead of us we will never catch him up or we will miss what he is up to. 

 

Isaiah chapter 35 is one of my favourite passages of Scripture. It’s the Old Testament lectionary passage for today. Let me share part of it again in the King James Version:

“The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them; and the desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose.

It shall blossom abundantly, and rejoice even with joy and singing: the glory of Lebanon shall be given unto it, the excellency of Carmel and Sharon, they shall see the glory of the Lord, and the excellency of our God.

Strengthen ye the weak hands, and confirm the feeble knees.Say to them that are of a fearful heart, Be strong, fear not: behold, your God.” 

Do we begin this church year in the wilderness? Do we begin this church year in a solitary place, feeling alone and overwhelmed? God says the desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose. There will be rejoicing and singing and we will see the glory and excellency of God. 

Do we begin this church year with weak hands and with feeble knees? Do we begin this church year in fear? God says be strong, fear not. And you know don’t you how many times he says fear not in the Bible don’t you? 365: one for every day of the year. Behold your God. 

At the little Tame Valley church they had a 6pm service and they used the 1933 Methodist Hymn Book. The organist there was prepared to play out of a book a bit newer than Norman at Millbrook was prepared to play out of! They used to like to sing these words in September: 

He will never fail us, he will not forsake; his eternal covenant He will never break. Resting on the promise, what have we to fear?
God is all sufficient for the coming year.

 

For the mourning Judahite exiles, who had lost their temple, land, and sovereignty. Let’s revisit their state. Their suffering is manifested in “weak hands” (verse 3), “feeble knees” (verse 3), a “fearful heart” (verse 4), obscured vision (verse 5), hindered hearing (verse 5), broken bodies (verse 6), and silent tongues (verse 6).

The literary “body” constructed in Isaiah 35 has been utterly overwhelmed by despair and weariness. Their capacities needed to move through this world have been diminished. The exiles feel God’s sorrow in their very bodies.

The good news is that the God of Jacob does not abandon God’s people to their despair. Their sorrow will come to an end, and on a day when the sick body will find new life in God: the ransomed of the Lord shall return, and come to Zion with singing;
everlasting joy shall be upon their heads; they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away (verse 10).

Silent tongues will be loosed to sing songs of joy and freedom. Formerly feeble knees will walk themselves to Zion. Fearful hearts will look to the future with faith, hope and courage, while sorrow and sighing will be on the run.

 

For us, whether we are worried about our personal lives, whether we continue to feel anxious about Covid, whether we face uncertainty in our church, our worries and anxieties and lack of direction and even desire to move and be adventurous aren’t where the story ends. Behold your God.

There are those who just get this. There are those who have vision around us. There are those when faced with a problem, see a solution. There are those who see new possibilities and big ideas when the rest of us just cannot. We need to listen to them. 

Think about the woman in our Gospel story. She has faith her life could be different because Jesus was in the room. The woman, believing her daughter possessed by a demon, asks Jesus for help but hereplies ‘let the children be fed first for it is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.’

In saying this he seems to give the impression that she is excluded from the full benefits of God’s kingdom because of her race. Disgraceful! The remarkable thing is that in response to the woman’s boldness in return, ‘even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs,’ Jesus reveals that the coming Kingdom of God is a blessing for all and tells her that the demon has left the child.

Her faith finds genuine acceptance and Jesus’ response reveals that the Gospel is spreading more rapidly than even he had anticipated. It’s life-transforming good news is for the benefit of all. Even Jesus needs time to catch up with the promises and radical new life God gives.

“Whenever life gets static or dull God calls us out to

risk and to be renewed.”

“Say to them that are of a fearful heart, Be strong, fear not: behold, your God.” 

“For saying that, you may go—the demon has left your daughter.’

 

Holly Adams, Evangelism and Contemporary Culture Officer in the Evangelism and Growth team wrote this in the last Connexion magazine. 

“When you go boldly, you leave behind that which is neither faithful nor fruitful. You take with you all that you are, the person God has made you. You leave aside your lethargy, and you make room from your fear and your weariness for God to work. You take with you the truth of God’s goodness in your life. You put your boots on and step out boldly, emerging from the winter of inwardness, turning again and again towards the summer of God’s radiant, ever-outward love.”

 

As we begin a new church year, I’m very awaremany of our churches begin it with problems. We worry about our finances and our numbers, we haven’t the energy, and we are tired, our hands are weak and our knees are feeble. But let’s at least make a commitment today to journey. To try and give what we worry about to God, who is all sufficient and whose providence invites us to abandon ourselves to it. And to perhaps have some mad ideas! Behold your God. The desert will rejoice. Sorrow and sighing will flee away. The demon has left your daughter. 

 

Someone sent me a picture the other day of a long line of sheep just going for a walk. The picture has a caption “I wonder where they are going?” I pray this year people might ask that of us. Let’s be adventurous, even just a little bit. Let’s see where God takes us. And in a year’s time let’s marvel how we have been led.