How can you sleep when we're in need?
When you gonna wake up? /
Jesus, when you gonna wake up? /
When you gonna wake up and calm this raging sea? /
Jesus, when you gonna wake up?
"Wake Up Jesus," The Porter’s Gate
Lament requires space.
As a collective, people in westernized cultures have not cultivated a capacity for grief. Lament is the invitation to sit with the reality of what is, to linger, to lean into the tension of a not-yet-fully-reconciled world, without movement toward resolution. As followers of Jesus, do we look forward in hope to a day when there are no tears, no suffering, and no pain? Of course we do.
And yet, the incarnation of Christ gives us a fully human picture of what it means to move and have our being in the tension of the here-and-not-yet kingdom of our present circumstances. Jesus' example implores us to not only rejoice with those who rejoice but to weep with those who weep.
The practice of sitting shiva in Judiasm and using tribal mourners in various African countries offer us examples of collective mourning and lament. Sojourning through the valley of the shadow of death provides us with an opportunity to be the hands and feet of Jesus for and with one another.
If you’ve recently joined us, lectio divina is Latin for “divine reading.” It is a practice that traditionally has four parts — lectio (read), meditatio (reflect), oratio (respond) and contemplatio (rest) — and involves the reading of a passage, poem or prayer four times with periods of silence between each reading. If you’re new to this practice you may find it helpful to move through each part in order. Or you may find the stages to be as Fr. Thomas Keating describes: compass points around a circle wherein the Holy Spirit moves you seamlessly between each part.
I (Vanessa) will guide you in this 8-minute audio meditation through Lamentations 3:16-18 from the Message translation. To listen, click the link in the box below.
