Welcome to a prayer practice.
I'm Kelly Weber,
And I'm a spiritual director.
Today's prayer practice is about honesty and the prayers of lament.
The prophet Jeremiah writes,
Now,
You women,
Hear the word of the Lord.
Open your ears to the words of His mouth.
Teach your daughters how to wail.
Teach one another a lament.
I've prayed a lot of prayers over my 51 years,
But there's one prayer I remember vividly praying.
I remember because it was a prayer of true lament.
It was a prayer from my most vulnerable self.
It was a cry from my heart.
I was a divorced woman who didn't have a clue about her value,
Her heart's longing,
Or what it looked like to live forward into the promise of unconditional love.
I didn't know how to be comfortable in my own skin or how to retain my selfhood in a relationship.
I didn't seem like it on the outside,
But on the inside I was scared and angry and wanted to scream all the time.
Until one day I did scream.
I screamed from deep within and out loud,
Show me.
Show me what it can be like.
I'm not sure if I knew all that I was praying for.
I was praying for a complete shift.
I wanted a new me,
A better me,
A fearless me.
I wanted to make things rather than hide things.
And then I took action.
I said yes in the face of fear,
In the shadow of not knowing.
A prayer of lament is a prayer in which we call on God to take action or better yet,
Invite God to partner with us to take action in our lives and in the world around us.
Prayers of lament come from a deep,
Vulnerable need within us.
This week,
I listened to a lecture from one of my teachers,
Dr.
Barbara Holmes,
Dr.
B,
As she's affectionately known.
She's a spiritual teacher,
Activist,
And scholar focused on African American spirituality and culture.
The lecture this week was on recovering the art of lament in prayer.
She bases her lecture on the story of Rizpah in 2 Samuel chapter 21.
In the story,
The sons of Rizpah,
Who is the mistress of King Saul,
Had been put to death to atone for the treatment of the Gibeonites by Saul.
Rizpah's sons were killed and their bodies left out to the elements and the animals.
Rizpah,
A woman with no power,
As a practice of lament,
Laid out a sackcloth by the bodies and kept vigil,
Protecting them from animals and birds.
She did the only thing her power allowed her to do.
When David hears what Rizpah has done,
He collects the bodies of the sons and the bones of Saul and gives them proper burial.
And what is God's response?
After that,
God answered prayers on behalf of the land.
Dr.
B says,
Rizpah doesn't beg or bargain.
She doesn't focus on her lack of power.
She bears what she must.
She identifies her strengths.
She can keep a silent vigil.
She can bear witness.
She can protect what's left.
She can be persistent.
She invites lament to inspire action.
Loving action doesn't stop when life ends,
Dr.
B said.
Take a moment to name the people who lack power in our culture.
Dr.
B says,
Lament in response to the violence around us is active.
Lament summons God.
This is a risky prayer.
It's loud and often asks us to put ourselves in front of the powerful.
It calls for healing and justice.
It pushes our relationship with God to the limits.
Lament can be personal,
Like mine.
It teaches us that we cannot afford to get stuck in grief.
It's an escape valve for pain.
Lament can also be a communal act.
Our tears together become our prayers.
It is a collective,
Liturgical response to unnecessary violence that prepares us for action.
A lament is made in three parts,
Protest,
Petition,
And praise.
Son of God,
Have mercy on me is perhaps the smallest prayer of lament.
Last week,
When I read to you the Ukrainian woman's prayer,
That was certainly a prayer of lament.
So first,
There's protest.
Tell God what is wrong.
Name the grief,
The injustice,
The core wound.
Next is petition.
Tell God what you want God to do about it.
Be specific.
God wants to be invited.
And finally,
There is praise.
An expression of trust in God today based on God's character and God's action in the past.
I'm going to lead you through two prayers of lament.
First,
A personal lament that you will develop yourself.
And second,
A prayer of corporate lament.
Take a moment to get settled and grounded.
Feel your feet on the ground,
The chair or floor underneath you.
Take a moment to feel a sense of being held.
At the same time,
Notice a freedom in your spine,
In your neck and head.
A gentle lift as your spine easily moves forward and up towards the sky.
See if you can hold in your attention the grounding of gravity and the weight of the lower half of your body,
Along with the lightness and lift of the upper half of your body.
Now write where the grounding meets the point of liftedness in your body,
In your center,
Your belly.
Begin to notice the movement of your breath.
Become aware of the natural rhythm and ease of your breathing.
Say a word of gratitude for this rhythm.
Search your heart.
Notice the places of tension and holding in your body.
How do you feel powerless?
Where are you harboring grief?
As you are sitting,
Locate where in your body grief is stored.
What would healing look like,
Feel like for you?
Go ahead,
And if you can articulate into words,
Images,
Perhaps even sighs and groans,
Name to God what is wrong.
This can be something in your own life or something you see happening in the world.
It should be something that you are personally motivated to change.
Next,
As an invitation,
Petition God to show up in your lament.
Tell God what you want God to do in light of this woundedness,
This injustice,
This grief.
Again,
This might be words or rumblings of your heart or images or tears.
God speaks all the languages of our body.
Finally,
As an act of praise,
Meditate and share with God the ways that you've seen God self be faithful to your journey,
How God has responded in the past.
Don't worry if this is hard.
If you're not in a place to see where God has provided,
Sometimes in the midst of our grief this can be really difficult and that's okay.
Be at peace with not knowing and offering honesty as a form of praise and intimacy with God.
Now take a moment to think about where you will take action as a call to this lament.
What are your strengths?
In what way will you meet God in the space of creating change for yourself and for the world?
Like Rizva holding vigil,
Where will you lay your sackcloth?
What will you protect?
To what perceived authority will you raise your voice?
Thank you for offering your prayer,
For offering your voice,
For summoning God's action in your life.
This is a brave and risky prayer.
It is a prayer that changes the very fibers of our being.
So there's an amazing website I stumbled on called hashtag resist harm.
It's a United Methodist movement of faithful resistance to anti-LGBT policies and practices.
On the site there's all kinds of resources including prayers of lament.
Here is one I thought we could pray together and if you feel so moved go and check out the website and see how you might take action.
With those affected by legislated horror because of their gender identity or sexual orientation.
With those who lament inability to serve a church as a pastor because of whom they love.
With people of color who face micro and macro aggressions day in and day out.
With those who lament their decision to cross into this country because of our unjust migrant detention policies.
With those who face threats and acts of violence because of gender,
Class,
And race.
With the parents and children of those killed because of senseless violence.
God we find ourselves in a time of great sorrow.
Give us the gift of tears that move us beyond sadness into compassion.
Inspire and empower us not only to cry about others but also to weep with them.
Teach us to lament so that we do more than regret our circumstances.
We resolve to cooperate with you to change them.
Make us instruments of your peace.
Amen.
Thank you for praying with me today.
Be well and I'll see you next week as we continue our practice.
