When we work together to seek racial justice and healing and reconciliation, we often encounter stories of struggle and suffering. We turn on the tv or open the newspaper and we mourn for the vulnerable and the marginalized: refugees fleeing their homelands and seeking shelter in camps or new countries, children separated from their parents as their families seek asylum, unarmed young black men being shot, victims of mass shootings targeted because of their ethnicity or religion. What do we do with the heartbreak we feel when we encounter these stories? The place to start is with lament. But what does it mean to lament?

In his book, Prophetic Lament: A Call for Justice in Troubled Times, Dr. Soong-Chan Rah examines in detail the most famous lament in the Bible. The book of Lamentations is a response to the suffering of the people of Jerusalem after their city has been destroyed and most of its inhabitants have been taken away into exile. Over the course of his analysis, Dr. Rah outlines many facets of lament.

What are laments?

• Prayers of petition arising out of need
• Not just a list of complaints, but can take the form of complaint
• Not just expressing sadness about tough stuff
• A liturgical response to the reality of suffering
• Engages God in the context of pain and trouble
• Seeks a response from God to human suffering
• Cries out for justice against existing injustice
• Acknowledges who is ultimately in control – God
• Stems from a human experience of pain – physical, spiritual, emotional
• A human response to anguish and adversity
• Honesty before God and each other
• Calling out to God for mercy
• Acknowledging real suffering
• Pleading for God's intervention
• Acknowledging God's right to judge humanity
• Is spoken in the language of humility
• Brings order to remind us that God orders the universe
• Requires individual and corporate confession
• Involves a redistribution of power elevating the voices of the oppressed
• Tells the truth about painful history
• An uncomfortable but necessary response to the absence of shalom in the church
• A prayer to God envisioning the potential of renewal and restoration

In addition to Lamentations, the Bible is full of prayers and expressions of lament, especially in the Psalms and the prophets. As we encounter suffering, heartbreak, and the pain of injustice in the world, let us return to the ancient Biblical practice of lament and bring these truths before God.