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Living Theology inthe Metropolitan Chicago Synod
Volume 8, Number 3
Fall 2003
Reclaiming Lament

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As I See It . . .

A Role for Lamentin Public Worship

Frank C. Senn

I don’t think liturgists intentionally dropped lament frompublic worship back in the “happy days” of the 1970s. I think we were intentionally trying to recover praise andthanksgiving as core elements pervading Christian liturgy.  Our study of Hebrew praise formulas, ourreturn to the psalter as the primary Christian hymnal, our cleansing of theeucharistic celebration of lugubrious medieval penitential speech, ourrediscovery of the meal-character of Holy Communion, our renewed paschal piety– all pointed in the direction of maximizing expressions of praise andthanksgiving, especially in the Great Thanksgiving.

I understand from reports and pirated copies of worshipfolders that even in our synod there are congregations which do not followJesus’ instructions to “give thanks” when they take the bread and cup, muchless do so with anything approximating the fullness of the eucharistictradition. For their transgressions,many of these congregations have now been afflicted with endless repetitions ofpraise choruses. :)

One reason we strove hard to recover elements of praise andthanksgiving is that we were recovering typology as a primary biblicalhermeneutic. Typology is a way of thinkingin which a type of event from the past gets repeated over and over again intothe present. Thus, the exodus is a typeof action in salvation history which God uses again and again, right up to ourown deliverance from sin and death through water in Holy Baptism.

The use of typology assumes that there is some meaning andpurpose to history. People may have found themselves in conditions as harsh asthe life of the Hebrew slaves in Egypt. But using such imagery assumes hope in a coming redemption.  It was no wonder that African Americanslaves sang “Go down Moses” around the campfire. In Psalm 63, the pain of the psalmist is compared to the days ofwilderness wanderings, and the praise of God is cast in images recalling thedays of plenty in the land of Canaan.

Within the pattern of grace, recollection of times of wantis subsumed under recollection of times of satiety. Typology is the bedrock ofanamnesis or remembrance, memory of God’s saving acts is the reason for givingthanks, and the pattern of grace seen in typology elicits the praise of God.

Yet there is in our time, as there has been in all times, aneed for communal lament. Colorfulballoons, presiders with smiley faces, and cheerful ditties led by the praiseband cannot obliterate our actual knowledge of human sin, our experience ofdeath, and our fear of evil. We need tohave ways of publicly and corporately lamenting human culpability, holocaustsand genocides, human oppression, systemic injustices, and tragic events thatoccur with no apparent meaning or purpose. And we cannot do justice to lament as something of spiritual value inand of itself if it is only read within a story with a joyful ending.  We cannot presume the ending.

That’s a problem if we’re talking about genuine lament.  For example, if we lament with Job, it’shard to bracket the knowledge that there eventually comes to him a return ofgood fortune. If we lament with thecrucified One, we do so as those who confess the resurrection.  If “My God, my God, why have you forsakenme” on Jesus’ lips on the cross is intended to invoke the whole of Psalm 22,then even our deepest experience of abandonment by God leads to praise in theassembly. Even as we lament senselessacts of terrorism, we still believe that God has the whole world in hishands. In response to the attacks onSeptember 11, 2001, we defiantly sang Psalm 46. We did not get so deeply into lament that we questioned God’sprotection or our own innocence in what took place. We did not read the Lamentations of Jeremiah.

To some extent this may be unavoidable.  But if we are going to recover a genuinesense of lament we need to grieve in such a way that we do not presume God’spromises. We need to regain a tone inour prayers that truly mourns the state of the world as it is.  We need to mourn disease, injustice, sorrow,and meaninglessness. We need to beoverwhelmed with a sense of the implacable human conditions that contribute tothe deaths of millions in Africa from starvation or AIDS.  From such petitions well up our cry, “Lord,have mercy.”

We can recover the use of the Great Litany.  It can be used in the Service of HolyCommunion on Sundays in place of the Prayer of the Church.  Some have used it as the entrance song onthe first Sunday in Lent. It may beused as the prayer at Matins or Vespers except on great festivals. It wascustomarily sung on Wednesdays and Fridays of Lent. It may be used alone on days of humiliation and prayer, althoughthe Lutheran Book of Worship (LBW) did not provide for such days.  Also, in the LBW the Great Litany was shornof its concluding psalm versicles and collects such as were provided in the ServiceBook and Hymnal (page 161). Infact, most of those collects were not brought along into the LBW.  It’s too bad. Some of those prayers in updated language would have served uswell in the days after September 11, 2001, and perhaps also in the midst of thepresent quagmire in the Middle East. Consider this updated version of one of them:

V/ O Lord, do not deal with us according to oursins,

R/ Nor reward us according to our iniquities.

O God, merciful Father,

you despise neither the sighing of a contrite heart

nor the desires of the sorrowful.

Mercifully assist us in our prayers

which we make before you in all our troubles

   and adversities.

Graciously hear us,

and bring to naught those evils

which the craft and subtilty of man or the devil

   work against us;

so that we your servants, unhurt by terror,

may always give thanks to you in your holy Church;

through Jesus Christ, your Son, our Lord.  Amen.

Or this one:

V/ O Lord, do not enter into judgment with yourservant.

R/ For in your sight shall no one living bejustified.

Almighty God,

you know that we are set in the midst

of many and great dangers.

You know that because of our fallen human state

we cannot always stand upright.

Grant us such strength and protection

thatmay support us in all dangers,

and carry us through all times of trial and temptation;

throughJesus Christ, your Son, our Lord. Amen.

Frank C. Senn

Pastor, Immanuel, Evanston