Lenten Meditations 2007 - #8: Come Lift Up Your Sorrows

Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep

Venue: The Bakers' Place

How, then, are we to respond to the wounds of the world that we live in? How may we reach out to God when a sacred sorrow fills our world and fills our hearts? Where is the loving kindness of God? Where is God in our suffering planet, our suffering society, our suffering hearts?

The lost language of lament is a language for the wounded, a vocabulary for the suffering. It is Israel’s mother tongue and a language we must apprehend for ourselves. It is a language that puts all easy, triumphal claims for God under suspicion, that does not accommodate pain to make things easy for God. The wounds of Good Friday are not covered by Easter Sunday but live unsettled with continuing healing power.

But this suspicion and protest is need not be an alienating act. It is an act of faith that enters into suffering, that does not need to protect God, that does not fear the texts of protest and lament. It is an act of faith for people who know about truth and pain, about strength and weakness, about new life out of death. It is for those who are wounded, but continue to be haunted by the expectation that there is more here than wounding: there is also healing. The only way beyond woundedness is through woundedness. It is the essence of faithful communities of walking wounded, those who can rejoice with those who rejoice, but also weep with those who weep. It is the pattern of life for faithful communities to worship God with their wounds, for he is wounded too. It is the expectation of faithful communities that pledge themselves in love that each will suffer with in and for the suffering of the other. The call is to the life of faithful, wounded, haunted community.