Time to Lament

We cannot let these days of ritual remembrance and mourning pass this year without a larger call for lament. Lament is grief given voice. It is, as Old Testament scholar and theologian Walter Brueggemann writes, “dangerous, restless speech.” It is restless because it calls domination systems into question. It is dangerous because it refuses to settle for the way things are and demands change.

                                                                        The Rev. Laura Mayo in the Houston Chronicle

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there are times when our souls tell us

it is time to lament

it is time to give voice to grief

in the bible there is a book of laments

the people grieving over a great nation

no longer great

“How deserted lies the city,

    once so full of people!

How like a widow is she,

    who once was great among the nations!”

perhaps it is time to lament

the psalms often Lament

the cry to God with the grief of hopes dashed

pain experienced

“how long O’ Lord, how long, will you turn your face from me”

Jesus lamented as he sat on that rock in Gethsemene

pouring our his anguish

not over his death

but over the human condition which occasioned it

perhaps it is time to lament

I lament the hate and fear that permeates our country

Showing not strength but weakness

and driving us to embrace all manner of evil

the caging of children

the neglect of the vulnerable

the exclusion of those seeking refuge

I lament a nation culture where lying and bullying is the norm

I lament division and enmity

the dehumanization of others

the creation of enemies

I lament the greed that will let children go hungry,

while filling the bank accounts of the very, very wealthy

I lament the injustices poured upon people of color

And the treatment of the LGBTQI community

I lament the money spent on the military, and the machinery of death

I lament that there are people who are homeless

and people who will face a bitter winter on the street

I lament what we have done to the earth

and lament the cold blindness of those who perpetuate the abuse

I lament the fact that we leave the systems in place that destroy us

That we leave leaders in place who do not lead us

But most of all I lament my own complicity 

The ways in which I daily, participate in that which is evil

I lament my own unwillingness to change

To stand up

To speak out

My own failure to, as the saying goes,

Be the change I want to see in the world

Yes

It is time to lament