My fellow Exiles,
We have all lost something or someone in our lives. Maybe we have lost a loved one who died unexpectedly or after a long illness. Or maybe, we have lost a loved a relationship that went wrong. Or maybe we lost a job in the height of our careers. We have all experienced the pain of loss. What have we done with this pain, or what do we do with this pain? Do we stuff our pain deep down inside when a tear of times past trickles down our faces as a glazed stare captures us for a brief moment. Do we deny the pain and numb it with endless activities lest we have to embrace the existential emptiness? This brings me to my question: Do we know how to mourn? Do we know how to embrace mourning as a state of being.
In America, we do not know how to mourn, we do not know how to truly grief a loss. We pay lip service to loss through memorial rituals where we shed some tears and then it is business as usual. Walter Bruggeman addresses this point in Prophetic Imagination where talks about the destruction of the temple. The prophets embodied the mourning of Exile. Yahweh tells Ezekiel not mourn his wife's death, Jeremiah could not get married, and Hosea marries the town prostitute. Why? They embody the grief of situation but also embody the grieving of Yahweh and how his heart breaks. The Church should mourn in Exile like Zion mourning the death of a new born child. Yet we embrace false prophets who pontificate that all is well and gives us seven steps to live this life now. And yet my brothers and sisters we need to live the life of Exile and that means to mourn.
We need to embody the pain and grief of our society and lament its tragic state. We need to embody the grief of God over the state of his Kingdom as his Church who is its first fruits bears fruit of thistles and thorns in the name of a Saviour who was crucified with a crown of thorns. We have to be a sign of contradiction that the world and the established church sees that there is a remnant an Exilic Ecclesia that understands the true nature of our times and the narrative that expresses it. This is not a pity party, though grieving involves anger, frustration, and despair. We must push through these to the resolution, if there is such a thing and this resolution is called lament. We lament and grieve the possibilities and the past mistakes in this present moment. We embrace the pain that we are so afraid to feel or to embrace.
The last part of Jesus's saying is that if we mourn we shall be comforted. We love that latter part of the verse and quote it as numbing antidote to our pain. We want joy in the morning light without the mourning of the dark night. Weeping, brother and sisters may endure through a long dark night of the soul of the Church and the Culture. We are only comforted through community. We comfort each other with the Scriptures, the traditions, the liturgies, the poetry and the lives of others who gone before us and yet our co-labourers in growing a community in Exile. We need to reach out to each other, who who have been used to the wilderness metaphor feel like we mourn alone with no hope of being heard. We need not sorrow alone my beloved sisters and brothers, but we need to sorrow with each other.
The Spirit knows how to pray and intercede for us when we do not know how to pray. In his inarticulate utterances that groans in the community and grieves in us the loss we cannot put our finger on but we know its pain. Let us grieve together, and comfort one another with the Blessing of mourning in Exile. Let us pray...
Come Holy Spirit who proceeds from Abba
Help us to embrace mourning in this Exilic State
Help us to enter fully into the grief which you groan within us,
as we intercede for the Church and for our Culture.
Come Priestly Spirit, grant us strenght to embody the pain and bear
existential angst that plagues our society that Christ, the Great High
Priest's sufferings may be completed in us.
Come Prophetic Spirit, grant us courage to face the fear of emptiness and
uncertainty as we challenge those structures that falsely serve fullness
and certainty in the name of prosperity.
Come Poetic Spirit, help us to express the loss of the Church and the Culture,
through the songs of Zion, the narratives of the ancestors, the liturgies
of worship, and symbols and art. Grant us eyes to see and ears to hear
those who are in Exile so that with our words and deeds we may comfort
each other.
In the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit world without end. Amen
We have all lost something or someone in our lives. Maybe we have lost a loved one who died unexpectedly or after a long illness. Or maybe, we have lost a loved a relationship that went wrong. Or maybe we lost a job in the height of our careers. We have all experienced the pain of loss. What have we done with this pain, or what do we do with this pain? Do we stuff our pain deep down inside when a tear of times past trickles down our faces as a glazed stare captures us for a brief moment. Do we deny the pain and numb it with endless activities lest we have to embrace the existential emptiness? This brings me to my question: Do we know how to mourn? Do we know how to embrace mourning as a state of being.
In America, we do not know how to mourn, we do not know how to truly grief a loss. We pay lip service to loss through memorial rituals where we shed some tears and then it is business as usual. Walter Bruggeman addresses this point in Prophetic Imagination where talks about the destruction of the temple. The prophets embodied the mourning of Exile. Yahweh tells Ezekiel not mourn his wife's death, Jeremiah could not get married, and Hosea marries the town prostitute. Why? They embody the grief of situation but also embody the grieving of Yahweh and how his heart breaks. The Church should mourn in Exile like Zion mourning the death of a new born child. Yet we embrace false prophets who pontificate that all is well and gives us seven steps to live this life now. And yet my brothers and sisters we need to live the life of Exile and that means to mourn.
We need to embody the pain and grief of our society and lament its tragic state. We need to embody the grief of God over the state of his Kingdom as his Church who is its first fruits bears fruit of thistles and thorns in the name of a Saviour who was crucified with a crown of thorns. We have to be a sign of contradiction that the world and the established church sees that there is a remnant an Exilic Ecclesia that understands the true nature of our times and the narrative that expresses it. This is not a pity party, though grieving involves anger, frustration, and despair. We must push through these to the resolution, if there is such a thing and this resolution is called lament. We lament and grieve the possibilities and the past mistakes in this present moment. We embrace the pain that we are so afraid to feel or to embrace.
The last part of Jesus's saying is that if we mourn we shall be comforted. We love that latter part of the verse and quote it as numbing antidote to our pain. We want joy in the morning light without the mourning of the dark night. Weeping, brother and sisters may endure through a long dark night of the soul of the Church and the Culture. We are only comforted through community. We comfort each other with the Scriptures, the traditions, the liturgies, the poetry and the lives of others who gone before us and yet our co-labourers in growing a community in Exile. We need to reach out to each other, who who have been used to the wilderness metaphor feel like we mourn alone with no hope of being heard. We need not sorrow alone my beloved sisters and brothers, but we need to sorrow with each other.
The Spirit knows how to pray and intercede for us when we do not know how to pray. In his inarticulate utterances that groans in the community and grieves in us the loss we cannot put our finger on but we know its pain. Let us grieve together, and comfort one another with the Blessing of mourning in Exile. Let us pray...
Come Holy Spirit who proceeds from Abba
Help us to embrace mourning in this Exilic State
Help us to enter fully into the grief which you groan within us,
as we intercede for the Church and for our Culture.
Come Priestly Spirit, grant us strenght to embody the pain and bear
existential angst that plagues our society that Christ, the Great High
Priest's sufferings may be completed in us.
Come Prophetic Spirit, grant us courage to face the fear of emptiness and
uncertainty as we challenge those structures that falsely serve fullness
and certainty in the name of prosperity.
Come Poetic Spirit, help us to express the loss of the Church and the Culture,
through the songs of Zion, the narratives of the ancestors, the liturgies
of worship, and symbols and art. Grant us eyes to see and ears to hear
those who are in Exile so that with our words and deeds we may comfort
each other.
In the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit world without end. Amen
1 comment:
Wow. That was amazing. That's a word that people need to hear. Mourning is something that we need to become reaquainted with. It's not a sign of weakness... in fact it's a sign of strength. It shows strength because we are strong enough to open up our inward emotions and express them in outward actions. I'm strong enough to show that I feel. I'm strong enough to show that I'm human.
Post a Comment