LEARNING TO LAMENT
Over the course of July the Groups prayer practice will include reading, meditating and discussing prayers of Lamentation throughout Scripture. We’ll include selections from Psalms that are personal Lament’s as well as some that are communal Lament’s. Additionally we’ll spend some time considering and reflecting upon Jeremiah’s writings in Lamentations. We’ll wrap up the month by considering and reflecting upon Jesus’ Lament in the Garden of Gethsemane from the Gospel of Mattthew.
This will include some personal reading and reflection and group discussions as you gather with your Community Group according to your desired rhythms. Feel free to revisit some of this scriptures that you are reflecting upon and ask questions like the following:
During your reflection upon these Laments over the past week, what did you learn about God’s Character, suffering in general, and your own pain and suffering?
Are you finding it less difficult or more difficult to feel the freedom to feel your feelings and put honest words to them as a means of being with God in pain & suffering?
How is the writing of your Lament going? Where are you experiencing challenge? Where are you experiencing ease?
Writing your own Lament
When we come to the Lament sections of Scripture, we find God’s own words giving expression to our own raw emotions, bitter trials, and broken repentance. Meditating on these Lament’s is an important part of the Christian’s growth in faith, learning how to cry out in faith amidst suffering, how to run to God for refuge and comfort amidst fears, and how to repent from sin with true contrition, to name just a few lessons the Laments teach.
Writing your own Lament is a way to personalize what you learn from Lament. The goal is to let the Laments teach you how to talk to God about the most difficult parts of your life, and then write something that expresses your heart to God honestly, openly, and in faith.
Sharing a Lament you’ve written with others is a way of inviting them into your pain and into your journey of faith.
This Lament can take the form of a Psalm, a poem, a song, a letter, or any other form of communication you’d feel most comfortable with. Take some time over the month as you read, meditate upon, and discuss pain and suffering and the ways God meets us in these times of Lament to consider unanswered prayers, pain, suffering, injustices you’ve experienced and observed and use the biblical language of Lament to feel your feelings, and to put words to your feelings as an expression of faith in prayer to a near and listening God.
According to Mark Vroegop, author of “Dark Clouds, Deep Mercy: Discovering the Grace of Lament,” a good Lament has 4 parts, consider these parts as you reflect upon the selected Laments and write your own Lament. You can find these 4 parts in an article he published on Desiring God, HERE and listed below.
Four Elements of Lament
As Psalm 13 illustrates, most laments feature four essential elements:
Turn to God. Often a lament begins by an address to God: “How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me?” (Psalm 13:1). The point is that the person in pain chooses to talk to God about what is happening.
Bring your complaint. Every lament features some kind of complaint: “How long must I take counsel in my soul and have sorrow in my heart all the day? How long shall my enemy be exalted over me?” (Psalm 13:2). More than a sinful rehearsing of our anger, biblical lament humbly and honestly identifies the pain, questions, and frustrations raging in our souls.
Ask boldly for help. Seeking God’s help while in pain is an act of faith: “Consider and answer me, O Lord my God; light up my eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death, lest my enemy say, ‘I have prevailed over him,’ lest my foes rejoice because I am shaken” (Psalm 13:3–4). Unremitting sorrow can create a deadly silence as we give in to despair (“there’s no hope”) or denial (“everything’s fine”). But lament invites us to dare to hope in God’s promises as we ask for his help.
Choose to trust. This is the destination for our laments. All roads lead here: “But I have trusted in your steadfast love; my heart shall rejoice in your salvation. I will sing to the Lord, because he has dealt bountifully with me” (Psalm 13:5–6). More than the stages of grief, this prayer language moves us to renew our commitment to trust in God as we navigate the brokenness of life.
Lament is the prayer language for God’s people as they live in a world marred by sin. It is how we talk to God about our sorrows as we renew our hope in his sovereign care. To cry is human, but to lament is Christian.
Spend the month writing your own Lament and be prepared to share on your final Community Group gathering in the Month of July or as your Community Group Leader see’s fit to incorporate this part of the Groups Prayer Practice for the Summer Term of Community Group at Missio Dei.
MONTHLY SCRIPTURE READING PLAN
This Scripture reading Plan works alongside the Prayer Practice. It includes passages selected to coincide with the Prayer Practices of each month and the discussions you’ll be having within your Community Group.
For July, we’ll be journeying through some selected Lament prayers in scripture through Psalms, Lamentations, and the Gospel of Matthew. There will be 5 selected readings for the first 3 weeks and only 1 selected reading for week 4. The hope is you’ll return to the selected readings throughout each week and usee it to learn how to Lament and to write your own Lament as a part of this Groups Prayer Practice.
July · Being with God in Pain · Lament in the Scriptures
July 4th - July 10th
Individual Psalms of Lament: Psalm 13, 22, 56, 77, 142
July 11th - July 17th
Lamentations 1-5
July 18th - July 24th
Communal Psalms of Lament: Psalm 12, 44, 74, 80, 90
July 25th - July 31st
Matthew 26:36-43, specifically vs 36-40
WEEKLY DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
The hope is not that you answer every single question every single week. Some weeks you may practice the type of prayer together using the assigned practice for the month. Other weeks you may simply discuss the journey as a whole and the ways God is working within the participants of your Community Group through this prayer practice. Some weeks you may use the discussion questions to help guide your conversations as you gather with your Community Group each week. You do not have to use the questions exactly how they are given or in the order they are given. Select some for your discussions as you see fit and need. EXAMPLE LITURGY FOR GROUP GATHERINGS.
July Weekly Discussion Questions:
July 4th - July 10th
What role do you think pain and suffering play in the life of the believer?
How do you respond to pain and suffering in your life and in the life of others you are in relationship with?
What contributes to our overall discomfort with pain and suffering?
Do you find it more difficult to attend to your own pain or the pain of others? Why do you think that may be?
Is Lament currently a way that you pray or practice being with God? Why or why not?
Do you find it difficult to be honest with yourself, God and others about the pain and suffering that you experience in life?
What are your thoughts and feelings regarding Lament being a response to injustice, pain and suffering experienced by people in the world?
July 11th - July 17th
What pain, suffering, anger about injustice are you currently experiencing in your life or observing in the life of another?
What are you doing with your feelings regarding these pains, sufferings and injustices?
Is it more of a challenge for you to feel your feelings, express your feelings with words, express your feelings honestly before God, or to receive God’s invitation to trust Him with and through these feelings?
Why do you think that is?
What challenges or fears do you have about writing your own Lament to God and sharing that Lament with your Community Group?
July 18th - July 24th
How is the writing of your own lament going for you?
What about this practice are you finding easy, and what about this practice are you finding difficult?
What challenges or fears do you have about writing your own Lament to God and sharing that Lament with your Community Group?
What are you learning about yourself, about God and how you relate to God during this practice of lament?
July 25th - July 31st
Spend this week sharing the laments that we’re written over the course of the month. After people share, reflect upon this practice with the following questions or questions of your own.
What was this experience of writing your own lament like for you?
Did God feel more near to you in your pain and suffering as a result of practicing Lament and the writing of your own Lament prayer? How so?
How might you incorporate Lament into your response to pain, suffering and injustice as a means of being with God in your pain as you continue your apprenticeship with Jesus?