The second elegy speaks toward anger. God’s anger with the people of Judah, and the anger of the poet toward God - one who is almost an enemy of the people. This is so necessary, because many have been taught to hold it in, to not speak to God this way, to keep our “emotions in check” and to not let them “get the better of us.” But that is not what we witness here, not at all. And why wouldn’t the poet be angry? How angry would you be if no one listened to your cry, to your wailing because of the pain and the hopelessness of your people? How angry might you be with God when you cry out and its seems God ignores you?
It’s likely the anger over the pain would well up, and eventually it would spill out, and it should spill out. Especially toward and before God. As Miroslav Volf rightly observes, unattended rage should be dropped at the feet of God. Why? Because God can handle it. More than that, naming and seeing our anger - allowing it to flow can be a gateway for us to see and name that which is causing our anger. Anger, can actually be a first step toward healing, toward speaking truth. And speaking truth is, after all, what prophets do. As Kathleen O’Conner points out, when we name what is wrong, when we lament, when we open ourselves to grief and anger - we expose the conditions that cause God’s good world to get out of order; we name them, and in doing so, open make them and us visible for remedy.
May 19, 2024: The Virtue of a Good Swindle - Michael Hidalgo
May 12, 2024: The Joy of Being Lost - Hannah Thom
May 5, 2024: The Beginning of a New Beginning - Michael Hidalgo
April 28 2024: A Meal for Everyone - Paula Williams
April 21 2024: Is This Seat Taken? - Michael Hidalgo
April 14 2024: A Lament for Everyone - Hannah Thom
March 31 2024: The Wounds Are Still There - Michael Hidalgo (Easter Sunday)
The Cursed and Disgraced - Maggie Knight
March 17 2024: The Coronated King - Hannah Thom
March 10 2024: What is Truth? - Michael Hidalgo
March 3, 2024: I Have No Idea What You are Talking About - Michael Hidalgo
February 25, 2024: No Jury Needed - Michael Hidalgo
February 18, 2024: Under Arrest - Hannah Thom
February 11, 2024: You've Got to Let it Go - Michael Hidalgo
February 4, 2024: Growing Everywhere - Mattie Motl
January 28, 2024: A Religion of Liberation - Michael Hidalgo
January 21, 2024: Wake Up! - Hannah Thom
January 14, 2024: The Pain of Reconciliation - Michael Hidalgo
January 7, 2024: It’s Not Going to be Like That - Paula Williams
December 24, 2023 (Christmas Eve): Right Where You Cannot See It - Michael Hidalgo.
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