Where is the Lament?

I have often wondered if the CRC knows how to lament. Personally, I will admit that I did not learn or use this avenue of prayer. I credit the Calvin Institute of Christian Worship for introducing me to the meaning and beauty of lament. 

A quick google search produces this: “A lament is a prayer expressing sorrow, pain, or confusion. Lament should be the chief way Christians process grief in God’s presence. Because many Christians have grown up in churches that always look on the bright side, lament can be jarring.”

I don’t believe lament is simply saying, “I’m sorry.” It’s deeper than that. It’s bigger than that. We can learn to lament from those in other countries and cultures that have suffered much. The expression of deep pain and hurt and the ability to put words to that suffering and lay it at the feet of Jesus is something most of us do not understand. And we do not do it well, myself included. 

I challenge all of us to grow in this and to learn from others who do it better. Then let’s practice it in our worship. Let’s practice it in our small groups and our personal prayers. Let’s practice it at our classis and council meetings.

And let’s practice it now, when part of our body suffers. We know that when one part of the body suffers, the whole body suffers. We are in a time of suffering. So I suggest we practice lament for the CRC. We cannot deny that Synod 2024 made decisions that seemed to cause an  amputation of part of the body. So the church has a choice now to either ‘look at the bright side’ and plow ahead with 5 year plans for the future, or to pause and engage in meaningful lament for the wounds…for the losses…for the body as a whole. 

I’ve attended the last three synods. As I’ve been watching, my question is, Where is the lament? No matter how you feel about decisions being right or wrong, this hurts. As I look at what is written and discussed, there is very little acknowledgement of that. Is it because we are tough? Is it too risky to name the pain? Or is it because it’s summer and we just want to go on vacation and forget about such things until fall? 

"The eye cannot say to the hand, “I don’t need you!” And the head cannot say to the feet, “I don’t need you!”...If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it…Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it. (I Cor. 12: 21, 26,27) 

Is there a good way to express our suffering in words of lament? It’s difficult to put words to the pain we experience and the pain of others. But how about we try. 

We lament….

• broken relationships
• the effect of words like disaffiliation and separation
• for those we cannot reach because we simply do not know how
• confusion and anxiety in work and status
• a church with a broken wing

 Michael Card, songwriter and author, said he’s come to “believe and trust and hope that tears of lament are the missing door, the way into an experience with a God whose depth of compassion we have never imagined.” 

I pray that we will learn how to lament together, and that in that lament God enables us to walk through that ‘missing door’ to a mutual experience of God’s deep and amazing grace. May our honest prayer and our tears bring healing and hope to our wounded church.