Lament Leads to Praise

¹⁶ Rejoice always. ¹⁷ Pray continually. ¹⁸ Give thanks in every situation because this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18)

This passage, and many other scriptures, call the believer to always be in a frame of mind which leads us to praise God. The problem is that we don’t always feel like praise is on our lips, especially when things don’t go the way we expect.

Many of you know that the pastoral team lost a friend last week. Pastor Andy Inskeep, and a middle school boy on a retreat with him, drown in the Columbia River. When the prayer request came across my email that the boy had drowned and Andy was missing, I put a prayer request on the church prayer chain. I deeply hoped that Andy had been able to swim to shore and would soon be located, but that is not how the events unfolded.

When these sorts of things happen, it tests our faith. We wonder why God seemingly allowed this tragedy to happen. I wonder if when Paul wrote these words, “rejoice always… give thanks in every situation” if he really meant we are to give thanks for tragedy.

I think part of the reason we have trouble in these times is that in some ways the church has lost the art of lament. Instead of lament we often respond in one of two extremes. We either pretend we are okay and tell others, “I’m fine” or we are led to doubt our faith altogether. Lament provides another path to deal with our pain.

Lament isn’t easy to define. It is more than just complaining to God; and it isn’t about doubting our faith. Lament gives us words to express the pain we feel, to our God who loves us. Lament is a gift of language God gives us to help process our pain so that we move towards a place of rejoicing. Pastor Mark Vroegop describes lament as “a prayer in pain that leads to trust.”

In general, modern-day Christians in the U.S. aren’t very good at lament. In worship, we mostly sing happy, triumphal songs. We tend to focus on the positive things, and this is okay, but it can cause trouble when tragedy strikes. I don’t have the space to fully develop a theology of lament here. One source of meaningful lament for the Christian can be found in the Psalms. Over a third of the Psalms use “minor-key language,” which wrestles honestly with humanity’s pain.

Pastor Vroegop identifies four key elements to lament; 1) turning to God in prayer, 2) bringing our complaints, 3) asking boldly, and 4) choosing to trust (or praise). Consider these Psalms of lament as a starting place to find words which you can use to express your own feelings: Psalm 13, 25, 44, 77, 85

Will you pray this prayer of lament with me?

Lord in the midst of our pain we come to you. We admit we are hurting. We are hurting for the brokenness and division in our nation. We are struggling as we walk through this pandemic. We are hurting for our friends who grieve the loss of loved ones. We want to see you move, we want to see your justice expressed, we want to feel your love in our hearts again. But through it all, we know you are God. We know you love us. We know you are with us. We praise you; father, son, and holy spirit, Amen.

Pastor Shawn