I recently had a conversation with my friend Eric Severson. Eric is a philosopher/theologian, and he has just written a book entitled Scandalous Obligation: Rethinking Christian Responsibility (which, if you are interested, is available for pre-order on Amazon - Eric, you are welcome).
Well, Eric was having a conversation with several of us about his book, which is about how we as Christians think about responsibility for the bad stuff that happens in the world. It is not one of those books you pick up when you are looking for nice, easy answers, or cute, pithy sayings, or neat lists of things to do in order to be happy and change your life. It’s a book you pick up when you want to start thinking, and even to feel the tension inherent in a real life of faith and action - when you are ready to “lean into the discomfort,” if you will.
As we were talking, and I mentioned that my church is right across the street from our local high school, and down the street from three other schools, and that I believe that we as a church are responsible for the teenagers at those schools, Eric used a word which really helped me. He said that what I am doing is “lamenting” that my church cannot touch and influence every child, every teen, who attends those schools. He said that lamenting is an altogether appropriate response for our place in the world, as we claim a burden and responsibility for things that we can only partially hope to influence.
Now I’ve known about the psalms of lament, and of course Lamentations, and I suppose I’ve known in my head that lamenting is part of what it means to be a Christian in the world. But I never thought about embracing lament, of living there. Yet, you know, I think I’ve lived there for awhile - maybe even my whole life.
So, what do you think?
Absolutely! We have to rediscover the Biblical practice of lament in our personal and corporate lives. This is the topic of my D Min project. There are some wonderful resources that have come out in recent days.
ReplyDeleteJohn (Jay) Nielson
This is an interesting idea.
ReplyDeleteWhen we recognize a lacking in our lives, a place where we are not meeting our responsibilities to bring the Kingdom of Heaven into the world, rather than shrugging and saying "oh well", we enter into lament. I like it.
...was thinking today about how I do not take TIME to lament/ grieve. I'm forced to do that when it becomes overwhelming. I need to take time to recognize this for the healing that it offers - and to realize again how much I NEED God's grace!!!!
ReplyDeleteI think we either lament or substitute something for it, usually something that's not very healthy. Addiction is often a substitute for grief that has not been lamented. My friend, I think I'm in much the same place . . . in some way, shape, or form, my life has been a lament. It most often shows up in my music, a blessed gift that can change my grief, in some measure, to joy in the realization that the ebb and flow of life's grief is natural and healthy.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing, everyone.
ReplyDeletegrosser - What you are saying hit me in a new way when I watched Dr. Brene Brown's TED lecture, and she spoke of the ways we numb affect, and that we cannot numb specific feelings, but we numb them all. http://www.wimp.com/expandingperception/
I've always thought the responsibility of the Chrisina preacher was to lament the inadequacies of the present in order to paint a picture of the prefered future. That future is life fully realized in the KOG and the disonance between what we are and what we shall be is the lamentable terrain. I think I picked up this idea from Walter Bruggemann (sp?) in his littel volume "Prophetic Imagination" lots of years ago . . . if my lamentable memory is correct. Maybe it was from "Hopeful Imagination." I can't be sure. So I gues my take is that lament is not only alright, it's my job! Dan Whitney
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