Honest To God
Honest To God
This week’s reading from Jeremiah and appointed Psalm are both examples of lament...honestly crying out to God as David does: “Save me, O God. For the waters have come up to my neck!” Sometimes it’s in the form of sadness and tears, sometimes sorrow and repentance. Sometimes it’s impolite, sometimes bitter, sometimes, as in the case of Jeremiah, angry.
But part of what it means to be in a covenantal relationship with God is that we can express the full gamut of our emotions to him without fear, knowing that our cries and our bitterness and our anger aren’t falling on deaf ears. They’re falling on the ears of a loving, listening, God who’s actually with us in our pain. We’re not having to pretend that everything’s OK. We’re not having to rush through pain to get to the solution. But we’re actually pouring ourselves out to God and moving into deeper intimacy with him.
Lament is counter-intuitive in the Western church because we want so much to project happiness all the time. But lament forces us to be honest to God in pain and uncertainty.
And even if we don’t reach a place of clear resolution, lament says, “God, my hope is in you, and I will trust you no matter what.” It says, “even if this doesn’t go well with me, you are still enough. And I will still worship you, and I will trust you. Not my will, but yours be done.”
Lament is more than just the expression of sorrow or the venting of emotion. Lament is an act of surrendering. Lament is an act of trusting. Lament is a very biblical form of prayer.
See you Sunday.
Steve+
NEWS AND ANNOUNCEMENTS
Annapolis Blues Soccer—Saturday, July 11, 7:00pm
Second Sunday Sandwiches—July 12 following worship
July Vestry Meeting—Sunday, July 12, 12:15pm
Chesapeake Baysox Baseball and Fireworks—
Friday, July 17, 7:05pm
Friday, August 21, 7:05pm
5th Sunday Potluck/Membership Sunday—August 30
Weekly:
Around the Table—A prayer time for women, Thursdays, 9:00am at the Wishart’s. Email Lauren for details.
Morning Prayer—Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday 8:00–8:30am on Zoom.
Men’s Bible Study—Thursdays, 7:00am at 1309.
Photo: Meg Aghamyan on Unsplash
