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.
June 5, 2022: Did You Catch Anything? - Maggie Knight
May 29, 2022: Deepest Gladness, Greatest Need - Mike Goldsworthy
May 22, 2022: You Can’t Say That Here - Dave Meserve
May 15, 2022: An Initiation - Nick Elio
May 8, 2022: Back to the Beginning-Paula Williams
April 24, 2022: Begin At The Ending - Bekah Stewart
April 17, 2022: Easter Sunday - Michael Hidalgo
April 10, 2022: Mending the Divides –Dave Neuhausel
April 3, 2022: Clean on the Inside - Michael Hidalgo
March 27, 2022: The Long View - Dave Meserve
March 20, 2022: Welcome, Welcome, Welcome - Amanda Lum
March 13, 2022: A Divine Connection - Michael Hidalgo
March 6, 2022: The Comfort of Solidarity - Jonathan Merritt
February 27, 2022: Teenage Jesus - Nick Elio
February 20, 2022: What Are You Waiting For - Michael Hidalgo
February 13, 2022: The Extraordinary Ordinary - Bekah Stewart
February 6, 2022: Naming Babies and Other Things - Michael Hidalgo
January 30, 2022: Danger Mom - Amanda Lum
January 23, 2022: Yes Women - Kent Dobson
January 16, 2022: This Is Nothing New - Michael Hidalgo
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