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.
August 8, 2021: Shift Happens - Bekah Stewart
August 1, 2021: I Am Your Shield - Amanda Lum
July 25, 2021: A Life Entrusted - Landon Lynch
July 18, 2021: Remember Who You Are - Ryan Taylor
July 11, 2021: Be With Us – Kristin Wright
July 4, 2021: Good Grief - Michael Hidalgo
June 27, 2021: Burning Like a Furnace – Michael Hidalgo
June 20, 2021– Remembering Rightly – Bekah Stewart
June 13, 2021: Build My House –Michael Hidalgo
June 6, 2021: Rooftops, Stars, Clothing and Thresholds - Michael Hidalgo
May 30, 2021: I've Heard of You – Jon Gettings
May 23, 2021: This is Not Comforting - Michael Hidalgo
May 16, 2021: Walk This Way –Dave Neuhausel
May 9, 2021: And Now for the 6th Act! – Michael Hidalgo
May 2, 2021: Scott Oppliger - That's Not How You Treat Family
April 25, 2021: Tov! – Michael Hidalgo
April 18, 2021: Bugs, Wrestlers and Faces – Bekah Stewart
April 11, 2021: About a Homer for Gomer – Michael Hidalgo
Apri 4, 2021: This isNot Resuscitation – Amanda Lum
March 28, 2021: It is Finished – Michael Hidalgo
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