Rise & Shine - August 16, 2020
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Lament - Salve for The Soul
Rise & Shine, August 16th
Click Here for a Copy of This Week's Discussion
Habakkuk 1
1 The oracle that the prophet Habakkuk saw.
2 O Lord, how long shall I cry for help,
and you will not listen?
Or cry to you “Violence!”
and you will not save?
3 Why do you make me see wrongdoing
and look at trouble?
Destruction and violence are before me;
strife and contention arise.
4 So the law becomes slack
and justice never prevails.
The wicked surround the righteous—
therefore judgment comes forth perverted.
5 Look at the nations, and see!
Be astonished! Be astounded!
For a work is being done in your days
that you would not believe if you were told.
6 For I am rousing the Chaldeans,
that fierce and impetuous nation,
who march through the breadth of the earth
to seize dwellings not their own.
7 Dread and fearsome are they;
their justice and dignity proceed from themselves.
8 Their horses are swifter than leopards,
more menacing than wolves at dusk;
their horses charge.
Their horsemen come from far away;
they fly like an eagle swift to devour.
9 They all come for violence,
with faces pressing forward;
they gather captives like sand.
10 At kings they scoff,
and of rulers they make sport.
They laugh at every fortress,
and heap up earth to take it.
11 Then they sweep by like the wind;
they transgress and become guilty;
their own might is their god!
12 Are you not from of old,
O Lord my God, my Holy One?
You shall not die.
O Lord, you have marked them for judgment;
and you, O Rock, have established them for punishment.
13 Your eyes are too pure to behold evil,
and you cannot look on wrongdoing;
why do you look on the treacherous,
and are silent when the wicked swallow
those more righteous than they?
14 You have made people like the fish of the sea,
like crawling things that have no ruler.
15 The enemy brings all of them up with a hook;
he drags them out with his net,
he gathers them in his seine;
so he rejoices and exults.
16 Therefore he sacrifices to his net
and makes offerings to his seine;
for by them his portion is lavish,
and his food is rich.
17 Is he then to keep on emptying his net,
and destroying nations without mercy?
Commentary from Maggie Gough:
Last week we wrestled with the idea of compassion for the brokenness of white supremacists among other evil’s we’re witnessing. Some of the commentary from members left me thinking about lament. We seem to have loads of it to offer. This Ministry in particular spends a lot of time sitting with the complex challenges and evils of our time through the lens of current events. We hold these hard things and work to link our response to our faith. This is big work. Perhaps we’re due for a solid lament.
Next week we can return to our regularly scheduled heart-breaking news.
In the News
Our Righteous Lament
There is quite a strong tradition in the Old Testament of complaining to God about injustice and suffering. It's lamenting -- and we should perhaps reclaim this part of our tradition. I have a friend who says if you're going to have a "praise band" in your church, that's fine, but only if you also have a "lament band."
And there are some very real things to lament about folks; we're not talking petty complaints. Many of you this week were made aware of a horrific spate of recent teenage suicides.
Billy Lucas, age 15, Seth Walsh, age 13, Asher Brown, age 13, and Tyler Clementi, age 18, have all died at their own hands in the past two weeks. Billy, Seth, Asher, and Tyler were gay youth who ended the unendurable anti-gay violence done to them at the hands of churches, families, or peers by doing life-ending violence to their own selves.
How can we know of such things and not cry out to God like Habakkuk did in this way:
O Lord, how long shall I cry for help, and you will not listen? Or cry to you "Violence!" and you will not save? Why do you make me see wrong-doing and look at trouble? Destruction and violence are before me; strife and contention arise. So the law becomes slack and justice never prevails. The wicked surround the righteous -- therefore judgment comes forth perverted. (Habakkuk 1:1-4)
You have to admire Habakkuk for just calling a thing what it is -- for calling out God's people for their injustices against each other. I love the way some of the characters in the Old Testament really have it out with God; how they confront the Almighty. It's downright argumentative. These days, if we are angry with God, we just give God the silent treatment. But not so with our ancestors in the faith. If they felt there was some serious neglectful, abusive, or absentee parenting from God they, you know, complained. And their complaints were not a sign of faithlessness. Quite the opposite really. Their complaints were a sign that they took God's promises seriously.
Continue Reading Our Righteous Lament, by Nadia Bolz Weber from Sojourners magazine.
