Day 77: “Lament is what happens when people ask ‘why’ and don’t get an answer.”

Day 77

Faith in the Midst of a Pandemic

A series of daily reflections for people of faith

by Rev. Robert Bayley, Interim Pastor

Patuxent Presbyterian Church, California, Maryland

WEEK ELEVEN: SATURDAY 30 MAY 2020

“Lament is what happens when people ask ‘why’ and don’t get an answer.”

“The coronavirus-induced limitations on life have arrived … No doubt some will tell us why God is doing this. A punishment? A warning? Perhaps the Biblical tradition we really need to turn to is lament. Lament is what happens when people ask ‘why’ and don’t get an answer … In the Bible God also laments. The Spirit groans. Jesus weeps. God grieves for his world. It is not part of the Christian vocation to be able to explain what’s happening and why. In fact, it is part of the Christian vocation not to be able to explain – and to lament instead.” - Bishop N.T. Wright, Church of England, in a recent newsmagazine article

Rounding a curve, their two-year-old in the back seat before the days of car seats, grabbed at the door handle to steady himself. The door had opened and he was flung out to his death. I can still picture standing in front of that little open coffin with a little boy with his little toys, the only child of his young parents, as they wept and ask “why?” I also remember having no words, only tears as we together lamented the loss of this precious little life, and the absence of answers. 

Of all the literary structures or genres found in the Book of Psalms, lament is the most often turned to because these Psalms resonate with all of humanity where loss sooner or later intrudes in silent unexplainable ways and we need a place to which we can go and cry out to God, meet with his silence and still end up praising him. What is the structure of a lament?

Psalm 13 

Lament: 13:1-2 - “How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever?”

Petition: 13:3-4 - “Look on me and answer, O Lord my God.”

Praise: 10:16-18 - “But I trust in your unfailing love …”   

    

As if to legitimize lament and make sure we would know that He carried all of our laments with him to the cross, Jesus uttered a history-cleaving cry from a psalm of lament: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Psalm 22:1, the universal question “why?” met with the thundering silence of God. Sometimes it is enough to know that He knows when we don’t.

Reflective question: If you were to write out a lament to God, how would it look? Give it a try. (Go to annarborvineyard.org for help.)

Reflective Scripture: Read/pray Psalms of lament 10, 13, 17, 22, 25, 31, 43, 55, 61, 69, 73, 88, 102, 130.

Reflective hymn:

“Out of the Depths” – Psalm 130 – Martin Luther (1483-1546)

Out of the depths to Thee I raise the voice of lamentation;

Lord, turn a gracious ear to me, and hear my supplication.

If Thou shouldst count our every sin, each evil deed, or thought within,

O who could stand before Thee?