January 3rd, 2020
Rachel’s Cry Prayer of Lament Rebirth of Hope
Kathleen D. Billman and Daniel L. Migliore
Jeremiah 31:10-15, 21-23
Good morning friends, Bob is taking a couple of weeks of well-deserved vacation with his family and I am sharing the message with all of you this morning.
We are gathering together after celebrating a Christmas holiday like none other in our collective experience. It did seem strange to not be at a church on Christmas Eve.
That’s been a staple of my life. Bob said it’s only the second time in his life that he has not been at church on Christmas Eve. So many alterations and adjustments from our traditions.
Many folks that I talk with speak of some level of depression. We are weary, tired, isolated, desiring physical touch and connection, missing our families and friends.
We know that at some point in 2021 we will all have access to a vaccine, but we still have months to go in our current activities.
And then there are so many other things going on: political unrest, divisions between family and friends, significant hunger for many, concerns about evictions, etc.
It sometimes feels like we have become numb to all the challenges and might say to ourselves that there is nothing we can do about this.
We have a lot of things to lament. I am thinking about the concept of lament and how our Jewish sisters and brothers embrace this and practice it well while many Christians look at lament as complaining and that our only prayers of lament should be penitential prayers to ask for forgiveness of our sins.
In the book Rachel’s Cry by Kathleen D Billman and Daniel L Migliore, there is an examination and affirmation of the value of prayers of lament both personally and in a societal way.
We are all familiar with the character of Rachel in the Old Testament. She is the favorite wife of Jacob and a matriarch of the nation of Israel and the mother of the most beloved sons Joseph and Benjamin.
But I don’t ever remember reading this verse in Jeremiah that Phil shared with us that says in verse 15 “Rachel is weeping for her children; she refuses to be comforted for her children, because they are no more.”
Rachel experienced the loss of her children to exile back in Genesis and she refused to be consoled. She was crying out for the pain and sorrow of this deepest loss.
In their book Billman and Migliore share that , “Rachel’s bold, disturbing and prophetic cry has made her a revered figure of the Jewish community.
The prophet Jeremiah and later Jewish tradition clearly understand her crying and her resistance as expressions of faithfulness…..
In refusing to accept easy consolation, Rachel does what is right. Her resistance is both a protest to and a waiting on God.
In her own Rachel holds open the possibility of again praising the God of justice and new life.”
Jeremiah is remembering Rachel’s cry because Judah is now under the rule of the Babylonians and they have destroyed Jerusalem and most of the Jewish folks have been exiled.
Maybe Jeremiah brings up Rachel’s lament as one for their community to embrace at that moment – how can they be possibly be consoled as they face destruction and the scattering of the Jewish people.
Having grown up in a Christian home with quite a bit of study of the Bible, I never heard a teaching, a lesson or a sermon based on this passage.
And yet in the Jewish community this is a very important passage and Rachel is one of the revered characters of their collective story.
It seems like too often in our Christian tradition the idea of lament should only be concerned with a lament of our personal sins and a petition for forgiveness.
And there certainly is a role for this within our prayer life. But sometimes the loss is so big, the suffering is so significant that we need to cry out in lament and say God, where are you?
When we see injustice like we saw for so long in South Africa, we lament and weep and shout out God, why aren’t you doing something about this?
When we grieve over 330,000 people dead from covid, millions of people sick with it, our seniors often living in isolation, we lament and wonder how God could let this happen.
The Christian tradition looks more to Mary for our model of prayer. While Rachel weeps, Mary accepts. Rachel is angry and Mary is calm.
But is not Mary’s response based on the faith tradition of Rachel? Mary understands the lament of Rachel and all that pain and suffering.
If not for Rachel, can Mary experience the promise of something new? Mary does not know where the path of Jesus life will take him, but she deeply understands the cries of Rachel and labors within them.
That is the importance of the lament – we recognize, honor and open our hearts to the prayers of lament before we can ever move forward to healing and to hope.
Yesterday I watched the movie about Ma Rainey the blues singer on Netflix. The performance by Chadwick Boseman, his last movie before his death was magnificent. He gives an anti-god rant that will go down through the ages – a lament that speaks to his incredible pain and suffering from his personal experience.
He rages at God asking where was God during this horrific event that happened in his early life. Where is God as he faces the prejudice, the hatred, the dismissive treatment that he and all black folk experienced in the 1920’s? He challenges God to come at him, to show God’s face to him right now as he wields a knife, and answer these questions. My heart was aching as I watched this scene and all I could think of was the lament of Rachel refusing to be consoled.
The Old Testament has many prayers of lament. The book of Psalms in particular are chock are full of prayers of lament.
Psalms 22 is the epitome of a prayer of lament but also brings with it the promise of hope and I share it with you here:
My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
Why are you so far from helping me, from the words of my groaning?
2 O my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer;
and by night, but find no rest.
3 Yet you are holy, enthroned on the praises of Israel.
4 In you our ancestors trusted;
they trusted, and you delivered them.
5 To you they cried, and were saved;
in you they trusted, and were not put to shame.
6 But I am a worm, and not human;
scorned by others, and despised by the people.
7 All who see me mock at me; they make mouths at me, they shake their heads;
8 “Commit your cause to the LORD; let him deliver—
let him rescue the one in whom he delights!”
9 Yet it was you who took me from the womb; you kept me safe on my mother’s breast.
10 On you I was cast from my birth, and since my mother bore me you have been my God.
11 Do not be far from me, for trouble is near and there is no one to help.
12 Many bulls encircle me, strong bulls of Bashan surround me;
13 they open wide their mouths at me,
like a ravening and roaring lion.
14 I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint;
my heart is like wax; it is melted within my breast;
15 my mouth[a] is dried up like a potsherd; and my tongue sticks to my jaws;
you lay me in the dust of death.
16 For dogs are all around me; a company of evildoers encircles me.My hands and feet have shriveled;[b]
17 I can count all my bones.
18 they divide my clothes among themselves, and for my clothing they cast lots.
19 But you, O LORD, do not be far away!
O my help, come quickly to my aid!
20 Deliver my soul from the sword, my life[c] from the power of the dog!
21 Save me from the mouth of the lion!
From the horns of the wild oxen you have rescued[d] me.
22 I will tell of your name to my brothers and sisters;[e]
in the midst of the congregation I will praise you:
23 You who fear the LORD, praise him!
All you offspring of Jacob, glorify him; stand in awe of him, all you offspring of Israel!
24 For he did not despise or abhor the affliction of the afflicted;
he did not hide his face from me, but heard when I[g] cried to him.
25 From you comes my praise in the great congregation;
my vows I will pay before those who fear him.
26 The poor[h] shall eat and be satisfied; those who seek him shall praise the LORD.
May your hearts live forever!
27 All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the LORD and all the families of the nations shall worship before him.[i]
28 For dominion belongs to the LORD, and he rules over the nations.
29 To him,[j] indeed, shall all who sleep in[k] the earth bow down;
before him shall bow all who go down to the dust, and I shall live for him.[l]
30 Posterity will serve him; future generations will be told about the Lord,
31 and[m] proclaim his deliverance to a people yet unborn, saying that he has done it.
The writer of this Psalm has seen Israel experience unbelievable desolation, they have lived much of their existence under foreign rule – and they are asking where is God and why is God ignoring the pleas of his chosen people?
There is a lot packed into this prayer. We hear the cries of anguish and lament. But there is also a faith and a hope that the Lord will bring deliverance and has done so in the past.
It feels like we are living in times such as the Israelites. We share our laments to God. We might be angry, feel desolate, unnerved, and maybe reject any consolation.
We are living through a hell that no one could have imagined. Does a Psalm like Psalm 22 speak to our condition? Even Jesus cried a prayer of lament on the cross, borrowing from this Psalm, My God My God, why hast thou forsaken me?
Emily Dickinson says, “Pain is missed in Praise” Victims need to be heard and validated.
Our pain can’t be swept under the rug of praise but must be acknowledged. If we don’t embrace these emotions, they will go underground and work on our foundations and wreak havoc on our souls.
But the lament does not end there. Otherwise, we will live our existence in bitterness, resentment and anger. Walter Brueggemann’s says – “Only grief permits newness. Without lament, hope is stillborn.” Only through the lament will we find a chance for healing, a hope of something new something fresh and different.
Maybe something we could not have imagined. While Psalm 22 is a song of lament it also gives hope – every lament can provide a way for us to see the possibility of a future that will honor our past but recognize the hope from God.
I wish we would embrace the Jewish tradition of prayers of lament that reflect our personal loss, the societal sorrow of oppression, rejection and prejudice and we could honor this idea.
This recognition and embrace of sorrow will lead to hope. Billman and Miglore say that “ the prayer of lament and protest must find its place in Christian prayer if it is to be honest and robust…..
Without the prayer of lament the other important elements of prayer – praise, thanksgiving, confession, intercession – atrophy and ring hollow.”
As we enter our time of waiting worship, I ask you to consider the following queries:
What is my prayer of lament today?
Do I listen and honor the prayer of lament of others?
What hope do I see arising out of my prayers of lament?