On February 24, Erica Scoffield Nellessen spoke to us about lament as a practice of discipleship.

Lament, she says, is very heavy. It’s an intense experience. Just listening to the scripture of Lamentations 5 and Psalm 88 being read fills her with emotions that aren’t easy to sit with. Even as a social worker… And that’s what she gets paid to do — sit with other people’s difficult emotions.

This topic can be a difficult one. A scary one. A weird one for many of us, especially US Americans. Because frankly we’re not used to it. But she believes that God has a life-giving gift for all of us if we choose to engage.

The following are some quotes from her sermon:

I was taught that God is good and worthy of praise. No questions. So we should all be happy. And if I followed in his ways, God would generally bless that. And I’d be good. Society would be good.

It might not be surprising to you, but as I came into adulthood, this faith began to hit some roadblocks for me. I met other Christians who saw God in a different way. Because their lives necessitated it. They suffered injustices that were far beyond their control. And God didn’t always just “fix it”. I tried to feed their experiences and faith into my current view of truth and it just didn’t fit. And so my faith, if it were to survive, would need some reconstruction.

One tool that I found to be lifegiving during this time was a book by a white South African feminist theologian named Denise Ackermann. She wrote a book called “After the Locusts” sharing about her faith journey after apartheid. Apartheid was a legal white supremacist system of racial segregation and intense discrimination that took place in South Africa from 1948 until the 1990s. The title “After the Locusts” comes from the book of Joel in which a locust plague wipes out Israel and God promises that he will repay his people with blessing what the locusts had stolen. That “After the Locusts” he would pour out his spirit.

At the time I read this book, Ackermann’s words of wisdom blessed me deeply and renewed my faith. One chapter in particular gave me hope and a way to move forward. In this chapter Ackermann writes about the language of lament.

So lament. What exactly is it? And how can it help renew our faith? We find lament all over scripture. Where the people of God cry out to him because things are not going very well. And they tell him about it. In detail.
Lord, consider what has become of us; take notice of our disgrace. Look at it! Our property has been turned over to strangers; our houses belong to foreigners.
They tell him about it with vivid imagery.
I am like those who are beyond help, drifting among the dead, lying in the grave, like dead bodies.
And they call God to account. They demand that he do something about it. And to hurry up.
Listen to my cry! The psalmist insists.
Lament shares with God the pain that the individual or her or his people are experiencing. It names it

Other times lament includes a confession of sin:
My wrongdoings are stacked higher than my head; they are a weight that’s way too heavy for me.
Laments remind God of who he is.
But you, Lord, will rule forever; Your fame lasts from one generation to the next!

So, what role can lament play in our life of faith? Why might we need to recover lament as a spiritual practice?
I think one, we lament in order to cope with our suffering.
Two, we lament to listen to and be discipled by others.
Next, we lament to confess our wrongdoing and the injustices of our people.
And finally we lament to engage with God and the world.

Hear Erica in more detail, and as she goes on to talk about each of these points. And forgive a few extra pops and curious noises as we have an iphone recording from this week — but it’s mostly quite clear listening.

download here