Rubble. Today is the sixth day of the tragic condo collapse. Sadly, we’re not the first generation to see our buildings in a deadly pile. The book of Lamentations was written after the destruction of Jerusalem in 586 B.C. “How lonely sits the city that was full of people!” begins the book, and the lament continues for five chapters. Good news, Gospel? Not much, except for this. “The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. ‘The Lord is my portion,’ says my soul, ‘therefore I will hope in him.’ The Lord is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him. It is good that one should wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord” (Lamentations 3:22-26).
Spring semester I team-taught the second preaching class with Dr. Mark Seifrid, a world-renowned Pauline scholar. He often stressed the proper role of lament in our life of faith. When tragedy strikes us, be it individually, in family, community, or nation, pouring our hurt to God is what His children do. “Is there trouble anywhere, / We should never be discouraged, take it to the Lord in prayer” (Lutheran Service Book, 770:2). We do get discouraged; lamenting what has befallen us takes it to God. Why, God, are You letting this happen?
Many psalms are laments. The psalmist complains to God, thinks through the hurt, and finally comes to hope in the coming justice and mercy of God. Lament opens our hurt to hope. Jesus prayed a psalm of lament on the cross, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Psalm 22:1). When I googled “psalms of lament,” I was surprised to find this: “Approximately 70 percent of the Psalms are laments. Approximately 0 percent of the top 150 CCLI songs (songs sung most in churches) are laments.” At least for me, that reflects the shallowness of so much Christian teaching today. Let us be honest in our faith life together, lamenting before the cross with the glimmer of Easter to come. “None shall ever be confounded / Who on Him their hope have built” (Lutheran Service Book, 451:4).