Learn A New Language:
The readings for Proper 8B (June 30-July 6, 2024) this week have a common thread, and that thread is lamenting. So, what exactly is lamenting? Some might say that it’s whining and complaining. “Just suck it up and deal with it,” might be the advice given to someone who is lamenting. We might say this to ourselves as well. “Just suck it up and deal with it.”
Well, what is the “it” with which the human must deal? The “it” is the human experience, and more specifically, dealing with the human experience of suffering and pain created and lived out in a fallen, broken, sin-filled world. Things are not as they ought to be. Situations and events happen in this world and in our lives that throw us off kilter. They disrupt our lives. They throw us from orientation to disorientation as we’re faced with a different or new reality.
Lamenting is not a bad thing. In fact, lamenting is the language of faith as the Christian cries out to God from the midst of suffering, pain, or tragedy. The language of lament is really quite biblical. This language needs to be recaptured and taught within the Christian Church.
Reasons why we lament are many: losing a loved one to death, unfulfilled dreams and regrets, injustice and suffering, existential and spiritual crises, social and cultural changes, natural disasters and tragedies, health issues, or cultural and historical memories. There’s no shortage of things that can bring people to a point of lamenting.
There are two basic causes that move a person to lament:
- A sin committed by the person, which produces guilt, shame, or remorse. Many times we make wrong choices as a Christian. In this case, the person must come to God in repentance. God gives us the gift of confession and absolution (forgiveness after confessing). In confessing our sins to God, it’s not as if we’re telling God what He doesn’t already know. He knows all things, and He knows our hearts.
- There are times in life when evil things happen to a person. These are things that are existential. They’re out of our control, nevertheless, they happen to us and we suffer and are in pain because of them. “My dad is an addict. Why would God do this to my mom?”
God wants His people to come to Him and let God Himself deal with our pain and suffering. Sometimes people believe that they need to get rid of the pain or suffering before entering or returning to church, especially if it’s self-induced. We don’t need to get rid of the pain and suffering before coming to church. Church is the place in which to bring our pains and sufferings. God already knows everything about you—the good, the bad, and the ugly. The lamenting Christian comes before God not only because He invites us to do so. The Christian comes by His invitation because he knows and believes something about God. That belief—that faith—is that God makes promises, and He never goes back on His promises.
Then there are the things in life that happens to a person that comes out of leftfield. When things are incongruent in our lives according to what God has promised, the Christian comes before God, “Where are You, God? How come You’re not delivering on Your promise like you said?” The Christian possesses something that the rest of the world does not have, however. The Christian possesses the belief that God actually can and does make things happen even in the here and now.
God knows your laments. He’s actually experienced them Himself. God personally knows and experienced the human condition when He enfleshed Himself in the person of Christ Jesus. Jesus Himself laments over Jerusalem (Luke 19:41-44). The Son Himself was truly abandoned completely by the Father on the cross (a real mystery of which no one can comprehend). The death and resurrection of Son has ushered in God’s plan for salvation and hope. The Christian knows this. The Christian believes this because God has promised it. It is that future grounded in Jesus’ death and resurrection that makes all the difference in the world, and this is the language the Christian speaks even in the midst of suffering and lamentation. God is there with you in the margins of life.
COLLECT OF THE DAY
Heavenly Father, during His earthly ministry Your Son Jesus healed the sick and raised the dead. By the healing medicine of the Word and Sacraments pour into our hearts such love toward You that we may live eternally; through the same Jesus Christ, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.
The Collect of the Day is a prayer the Church prays in recognition of Christ’s earthly ministry. As important as the cross and empty Easter tomb is for humanity, we should not forget about His earthly and healing ministry. Christ’s “healing and raising from the dead” ministry shows the world what things will be like on a universal scale when He returns in all His glory and majesty. Christ’s future certain return gives the Christian hope in the present, even in the midst of suffering, pain, and tragedy.
Unbelief causes us to look at God through our circumstances, and this creates hopelessness; but faith enables us to look at our circumstances through the reality of God, and this gives us hope.
Look at yourself and you’ll be depressed.
Look at circumstances and you’ll be distressed.
Look at the Lord and you’ll be blessed!
A Redeker Respite 
Day by day, whatever comes and/or goes.
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