What a time in the world it is. Our hearts are broken by the injustice and cruelty that we see and hear about every day. Our minds are preoccupied and full of worry. Our bodies may have trouble sleeping, eating, or exercising. As was mentioned last week, it is easy to get caught up in doomscrolling. And we are not unique. These are familiar experiences and feelings of many people around the country and across the world.

When we get caught up and overwhelmed by the horrors of the world, it is an appropriate time for lament. Lament is not a word we use in everyday language but it may be part of our experience. In lament we open our hearts to the sorrow, helplessness, and fears that we hold. Lament gives an honest voice to our grief and pain as we cry out to God.

The biblical text and tradition give us stories of striving and struggle. When praise and hope become impossible, the biblical writers lament – in poetry. You are probably familiar with some of the Psalms of lament. Today we will hear from the Book of Lamentations, written after the destruction of Jerusalem in the 6th century BCE. Though written for a particular audience in a particular time, Lamentations gives voice to the abandonment, frustration, and fear that are common across centuries, and culture. Lamentations is full of gruesome detail and descriptions that illustrate the necessity of lament. And while it is not comfortable, it may be healthy to sit with our lament, to name what pains us.

While much of what we hear in Lamentations may resonate with our own time, we will also miss part of what the poet is doing since we are hearing and reading in English instead of Hebrew. In Hebrew, each chapter of Lamentations is an acrostic. For instance verse 1 of chapter 1 begins with the letter equivalent to A, verse 2 with B, verse 3 with C and so on. There are 22 letters in the Hebrew alphabet so there are 22 verses in chapters 1, 2, 4 and 5. Chapter 3 is a triple acrostic, with three verses in a row starting with the letter A and then 3 verses starting with the letter B and so on. So chapter 3 has 66 verses. We will not hear all of Lamentations today, just selected verses from chapters 1, 2, 3, and 5.

With three different readers, we will also hear three different English translations of the torment that Lamentations describes. The Message, the Egalitarian translation and the New Revised Standard Version, updated edition.

While many of us live a good life, aware of the pain of the world but not as directly impacted, the words of Lamentations speak a reality that is lived daily in many parts of the world. Much of Lamentations could be uttered through tears by Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank, shouted by parents in Washington DC, screamed by immigrants at the border or people languishing in detention. These poetic verses give voice to Ukrainians longing for peace but wondering how and when it will ever happen. We can hear the voices of people in Israel, Iran, India, Pakistan, Sudan, Congo, Russia; as well as to the Apache Stronghold praying to save OakFlat, maybe even queer people and young trans kids.

As you hear these laments you may carry some specific situation or person in your heart or you may hold the earth herself in prayer. I will be praying with Khalid, in Gaza, who has let his friends with Mennonite Central Committee know that last week he and his family had only a few days of food left.

For people living in fear and isolation, and for ourselves, we open our minds and hearts to these Lamentations. And because sometimes language is too much – or is inadequate – we will also turn to music, and silence.

Let’s begin with a deep breath. And one more.

from The Message

Lamentations 1

1 Oh, oh, oh . . .
How empty the city, once teeming with people.
A widow, this city, once in the front rank of nations,
once queen of the ball, she’s now a drudge in the kitchen.

2 She cries herself to sleep each night, tears soaking her pillow.
No one’s left among her lovers to sit and hold her hand.
Her friends have all dumped her.

3 After years of pain and hard labor, Judah has gone into exile.
She camps out among the nations, never feels at home.
Hunted by all, she’s stuck between a rock and a hard place.

 

5 Her enemies have become her masters. Her foes are living it up
because God laid her low, punishing her repeated rebellions.
Her children, prisoners of the enemy, trudge into exile.

6 All beauty has drained from Daughter Zion’s face.
Her princes are like deer famished for food,
chased to exhaustion by hunters.

7 Jerusalem remembers the day she lost everything,
when her people fell into enemy hands, and not a soul there to help.
Enemies looked on and laughed, laughed at her helpless silence.

9 She played fast and loose with life, she never considered tomorrow,
and now she’s crashed royally, with no one to hold her hand:
“Look at my pain, O God! And how the enemy cruelly struts.”

12 “And you passersby, look at me! Have you ever seen anything like this?
Ever seen pain like my pain, seen what he did to me,
what God did to me in rage?

13 “God struck me with lightning, skewered me from head to foot,
then set traps all around so I could hardly move.
God left me with nothing—left me sick, and sick of living.

 

19 “I called to my friends; they betrayed me.
My priests and my leaders only looked after themselves,
trying but failing to save their own skins.

20 “O God, look at the trouble I’m in! My stomach in knots,
my heart wrecked by a life of rebellion.
Massacres in the streets, starvation in the houses.

21“Oh, listen to my groans. No one listens, no one cares.
When my enemies heard of the trouble you gave me, they cheered.
Bring on Judgment Day! Let them get what I got!

22 “Take a good look at their evil ways and give it to them!
Give them what you gave me for my sins.
Groaning in pain, body and soul, I’ve had all I can take.”

_____________________

music – first 12 measures of Tchaikovsky – In Church (piano only)

Inclusive/Egalitarian translation

from Lamentations 2

1 How angry Our God is! Eternal night has descended on Zion.
Our God has cast out from the skies
the light that shone on Israel,
and has forgotten the divine footstool
on this day of anger!

 

7 Our God rejected the altar and abandoned the sanctuary.
The Most High gave the palaces of Zion
over to the hands of the enemy.
They shouted in triumph in the Temple as if it were a festival day.

–

9 The Most High scattered the bars of the gates;
now the gates themselves have sunk into the earth.
Our leaders have been exiled among the nations
and the Law is no more.
Our prophets have received no vision from Our God.

 

11 I cannot see through my tears;
my gut wrenches in anguish.
My bile is poured out on the ground
all because of my people’s wound.
Children and infants lie languishing throughout the streets of the city.

12 They cry out to their parents:
“Where can we find bread and wine?”
They fall in the streets, weak from their wounds.
They gasp for their lives in their parents’ arms.

(3 deep breaths)

13 What comfort can I give?
Who else has ever suffered your plight, O Jerusalem?
To what may I compare this so that you might find comfort, O Zion?
Your wound yawns wider than the seas – who can heal you?

14 The visions the “prophets” told were nothing but hot air.
They failed to convince you of your guilt
so that you could avoid this misfortune.
The visions they foresaw for you were delusions, bogus trickery!

15 All who pass by snap their fingers at you.
They hiss at you and shake their head at you, O Jerusalem.
They say: “Is this the city once known as beauty and perfection,
the joy of all the earth?”

16 All your foes taunt you; they jeer at you and grind their teeth.
They say: “We have waited a long time for this day to come!
Now we have lived to see it!”

19 Wake up! Cry out in the night!
Pour out your heart like water at the beginning of each hour.
Lift high your arms in supplication before the presence of God.
Cry out for the lives of your children who languish hungry in the streets.

_________________________________

music – measures 13-32 Tchaikovsky, piano and cello

NRSVue

from Lamentations 3

1 I am one who has seen affliction
under the rod of God’s wrath;

2 God has driven and brought me
into darkness without any light;

3 against me alone God’s hand turns,
again and again, all day long.

4 God has made my flesh and my skin waste away;
has broken my bones;

5 God has besieged and enveloped me
with bitterness and tribulation;

6 and made me sit in darkness
like the dead of long ago.

7 I am walled about so that I cannot escape;
God has put heavy chains on me;

8 though I call and cry for help,
my prayer is shut out;

–

14 I have become the laughingstock of all my people,
the object of their taunt songs all day long.

15 God has filled me with bitterness;
and has sated me with wormwood.

16 God has made my teeth grind on gravel;
and has made me cower in ashes;

17 my soul is bereft of peace;
I have forgotten what happiness is;

18 so I say, “Gone is my glory
and all that I had hoped for from the Lord.”

19 The thought of my affliction and my homelessness
is wormwood and gall!

20 My soul continually thinks of it
and is bowed down within me.

______________________

music – Tchaikovsky – measure 33-48, piano only

21 But this I call to mind,
and therefore I have hope:

22 The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases,
God’s mercies never come to an end;

23 they are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness.

24 “The Lord is my portion,” says my soul,
“therefore I will hope in God.”

25 The Lord is good to those who wait,
to the soul that seeks God.

26 It is good that one should wait quietly
for the salvation of the Lord.

–

38 Is it not from the mouth of the Most High
that evil and good come?

39 Why should any who draw breath complain
about the punishment of their sins?

40 Let us test and examine our ways
and return to the Lord.

41 Let us lift up our hearts as well as our hands
to God in heaven.

42 We have transgressed and rebelled,
and you have not forgiven.

43 You have wrapped yourself with anger and pursued us,
killing without pity;

44 you have wrapped yourself with a cloud
so that no prayer can pass through.

45 You have made us filth and rubbish
among the peoples.

46 All our enemies
have opened their mouths against us;

47 panic and pitfall have come upon us,
devastation and destruction.

48 My eyes flow with rivers of tears
because of the destruction of my people.

49 My eyes will flow without ceasing,
without respite,

50 until the Lord from heaven
looks down and sees.

______________________

music – Tchaikovsky – first 12 measures (piano and cello)

from The Message

from Lamentations 5

1-22 “Remember, God, all we’ve been through.
Study our plight, the gaping scar we’ve made in history.
Our precious land has been given to outsiders,
our homes to strangers.
Orphans we are, not a father in sight,
and our mothers no better than widows.
We have to pay to drink our own water.
Even our firewood comes at a price.

All the joy is gone from our hearts.
Our dances have turned into dirges.
The crown of glory has toppled from our head.
Woe! Woe! Would that we’d never sinned!
Because of all this we’re heartsick;
we can’t see through the tears.

And yet, God, you’re sovereign still,
your throne intact and eternal.

So why do you keep forgetting us?
Why dump us and leave us like this?
Bring us back to you, God—we’re ready to come back.
Give us a fresh start.
As it is, you’ve cruelly disowned us.
You’ve been so very angry with us.”