The serious study of Hebrew Prophets is a dangerous business but the church where I worship is willing to grapple with serious things and to hear judgment and instruction. We have spent the last several weeks with the Prophet Jeremiah whose words all too often seem all too pertinent for our time.
Today I was asked to lead our congregation in a prayer of lament.
A biblical lament [there are many examples in the Psalms] is comprised of 5 parts:
- The cry. A suffering people cry out to their God, uncertain that there is a God to answer.
- The complaint. The suffering is described and the people demand that God see their pain.
- The confession. The "real problem" is acknowledged and the source of suffering becomes clear to the people.
- The profession. The people turn back to God in trust and dare to hope that God hears, God sees, God restores.
- The shout of praise. The people, still suffering but now hopeful, praise the God whose love is the one eternal thing in a challenging world.
A
Psalm of Lament by K Cummings Pipes 20 October 2019
Based
on Lamentations and The Beatitudes
[I begin with the cry from the 130th Psalm. Phrases in quotations are from Lamentations with the exception of the one marked with * which is from Walter Brueggemann's collection of prayers, "Awed to Heaven, Rooted in Earth," Fortress Press, 2003.]
“Out of
the depths, we cry” to you,
O Lord,
Our God.
We
are “lost and wandering”
and no
longer know The Way.
We
“weep through the night
and know
no rest.”
We
are “deceived” and “betrayed”
and all
that was sweet is now bitter.
“Out of
the depths, we cry” to you,
O Lord,
Our God.
“See, O
Lord!”
We
have been “caught in the net and stumbled.
We
have rebelled against you.
Our
sins are a yoke around our necks;
we
are enslaved in darkness.”
We take
your blessing for granted
in
our greed for more and in our refusal to share.
We take
your mercy for granted
while refusing to be merciful
to orphans
and strangers and exiles
who plead
for help.
We claim
to be your children
while
making war, not peace.
We live
in a “seduced world… so
that we rarely see
the truth of these matters.”*
But this
morning, in this moment,
we
see the truth
and
we come to you as we are
in all
our faithless faith
and
dare to hope for rescue.
“For you,
O LORD, are enthroned forever.”
“Bring us
back to you.”
"Forgive
us."
“Renew
us."
"Revive
us.”
“The
LORD’s kindness has not ended.
The
LORD’s mercies are not exhausted.
Your
steadfast love is new every morning.
Great is
Your faithfulness!”
O Lord, Our
God, hear our cry.
Amen.
