Dr Rev Paul Metger 21 February 2021. www.patheos.com
I submit this article for our consideration and reading. I have long commented on this topic. For
too long God’s people have lived by a secular, non, pagan calendar, organized by pagan world
views and for almost all, this meaning is lost, but it is today nothing more than a system or
organising schedules.
Yet, God tells us in Deuteronomy six that we are to remember and remind one another and teach
our next generations – to remember…. This follows the “The Shema” [Hebrew for “hear”] which
would for them be a proclamation of proclamation that the Living God is one and the greatest
commandment!
Forming ourselves and others requires we live into and learn deeper than intellectual
remembering of facts, but living into so we know deeply by living it – more than knowing facts.
Our tradition, with the other ancient traditions, live our faith via a calendar long practices to
holistically form us as people and as the church.
This includes Lament – lament annually in Lent. Some ask why the rehearsed dour practice?
First, it doesn’t have to be dour, but the reflection and sober experience is important. You see,
life brings grieving and loss. Life brings ache beyond words. Without the rehearsed lived habit
we too easily forget, don’t remember, don’t know and don’t have confidence that Easter is
coming (again!), that there is life, hope, joy again. Lent helps us in lament.
For us in early 2021 -the time of this note- we are a people, a church, that has been through
some grieving. The 10th anniversary of the devastating earthquake (22 Feb 2011) is worse on the
round ‘0’ years. It stands for the two major quakes and the thousands of quakes we call after
shocks. It reminds us of the loss in so many complex ways, and the reality that it’s yet unhealed,
unfinished trauma, with the trauma of the mosque shootings and the Covid journey, and a host of
recent deaths of loved ones.
This article is a positive reminder that we need to lament to heal, to find hope and joy and that the
world needs to discover the hope we have. They are literally killing themselves at record rates,
because they have not hope and we can share that, but it must be authentic – not proclamation
of truth, but truth evidenced in our own lives.

The Bible and the Christian calendar make ample space for lament,
which is the expression of deep and passionate grief and suffering. It
is important to note that forty percent of the Psalms feature lament.
Jesus quotes from a psalm of lament while hanging on the cross.
Jesus utters the cry of dereliction taken from Psalm 22:1 as he hangs
from that shameful scaffold. The question he recites also hangs in
midair. The following quotation from Psalm 22 begins with that
questioning cry:
My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
Why are you so far from saving me,
so far from my cries of anguish?
I submit this article for our consideration and reading. I have long commented on this topic. For
too long God’s people have lived by a secular, non, pagan calendar, organized by pagan world
views and for almost all, this meaning is lost, but it is today nothing more than a system or
organising schedules.
Yet, God tells us in Deuteronomy six that we are to remember and remind one another and teach
our next generations – to remember…. This follows the “The Shema” [Hebrew for “hear”] which
would for them be a proclamation of proclamation that the Living God is one and the greatest
commandment!
Forming ourselves and others requires we live into and learn deeper than intellectual
remembering of facts, but living into so we know deeply by living it – more than knowing facts.
Our tradition, with the other ancient traditions, live our faith via a calendar long practices to
holistically form us as people and as the church.
This includes Lament – lament annually in Lent. Some ask why the rehearsed dour practice?
First, it doesn’t have to be dour, but the reflection and sober experience is important. You see,
life brings grieving and loss. Life brings ache beyond words. Without the rehearsed lived habit
we too easily forget, don’t remember, don’t know and don’t have confidence that Easter is
coming (again!), that there is life, hope, joy again. Lent helps us in lament.
For us in early 2021 -the time of this note- we are a people, a church, that has been through
some grieving. The 10th anniversary of the devastating earthquake (22 Feb 2011) is worse on the
round ‘0’ years. It stands for the two major quakes and the thousands of quakes we call after
shocks. It reminds us of the loss in so many complex ways, and the reality that it’s yet unhealed,
unfinished trauma, with the trauma of the mosque shootings and the Covid journey, and a host of
recent deaths of loved ones.
This article is a positive reminder that we need to lament to heal, to find hope and joy and that the
world needs to discover the hope we have. They are literally killing themselves at record rates,
because they have not hope and we can share that, but it must be authentic – not proclamation
of truth, but truth evidenced in our own lives. Therefore, may we live into Lent with anticipation of
Easter and allow it to form and remind us that we might deeply remember.
My God, I cry out by day, but you do not answer,
by night, but I find no rest. (Psalm 22:1-2; NIV)
The season of Lent focuses on lament. Lent is underway now. It runs
more than forty days from Ash Wednesday to Easter. Lent focuses on
our sinful condition and mortality as humans. It also prepares us for
Jesus’ passion, crucifixion, death, burial, resurrection, and life of
union with the risen Jesus. Lent bears witness to the biblical story of
the believer’s journey with Jesus.
The Apostle Paul does not discount suffering and death in his
account of union with Jesus. As he writes in Philippians 3:10-11, “I
want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and
participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so,
somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead” (Philippians
3:10-11; NIV). Paul loved the Lord Jesus deeply and wanted union
with the whole of Jesus’ life, not just a part. He did not bypass
participation in suffering and likeness in Jesus’ death. Paul
understood that we must go through the crucifixion to get to the
resurrection. Paul took to heart that Jesus’ resurrection glory is
always cruciform. In this light, a liturgy of celebration that is truly
biblical must make rightful place for lament.
Marriage vows also include consideration of lament in addition to
celebration. Marriage vows may go something like the following: “I,
___, take thee, ___, to be my wedded husband/wife, to have and to
hold, from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer,
in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, till death do us part,
according to God’s holy ordinance; and thereto I pledge thee my faith
[or] pledge myself to you.” Just like our union with Jesus, so it is with
a marriage between two people, intimacy requires cultivating
connections in good times and bad: “for better, for worse, for richer,
for poorer, in sickness and in health.” The same is true for deep and
meaningful friendships. True friends stay close in the best of times
and the worst of times. Of course, staying true in trying times is not
easy. In fact, it can be painstakingly difficult. Sometimes we even fail
miserably to be true to Jesus and to other loved ones. I am just so
thankful that Jesus does not give up on us when we falter and fail in
relation to him. He invites us and helps us get back up and join him
again and again on the journey.
he Bible and the Christian calendar account for the fact that life is not
one celebration after another. People experience tragedies and deep
disappointments, including in relationships, throughout their life
journeys. If we do not acknowledge and process tragedies and deep
disappointments, including with God, we will not live honestly in our
relationships with God and other believers. If we do not account for
lament in our Scripture meditations and worship music, we will have
an imbalanced liturgical diet which will stunt our spiritual growth. A
liturgy of lament is key to victorious Christian living and relational
intimacy.
My wife and I are experiencing an inordinate amount of grief
presently, as our son Christopher is on life support. “Christopher”
means “bearer of Christ.” We are so grateful for the fact that Jesus
bears our Christopher. Jesus also bears our burdens now. We do not
have to bury our grief and questions regarding God and life, including
our family’s present horrific ordeal. God’s Word invites us to be
honest with God, just as Jesus was honest with God in his cry of
dereliction on the cross. We are also grateful for family and friends
who bear with us and suffer with us. They empathize with us and the
rest of our family amid our grief and pain, even while crying out to
God to raise up our son victoriously from his hospital bed to new life
with us here and now. God bless them.
Lament in Scripture in the Bible and the season of Lent in the
Christian calendar may be difficult to process. But still, anyone who
does not make them part of their spiritual and liturgical diet will find
that they are ill-prepared for the devastating blows that life brings their
way. A life without lament and Lent is an even more bitter pill to
swallow in the long run. So, if we wish to live a victorious Christian life
for the long haul, let’s make sufficient space for lament in our
devotions and public worship throughout the years.
For more on my meditations on the season of Lent, refer to my latest
book Setting the Spiritual Clock: Sacred Time Breaking Through the
Secular Eclipse (Cascade 2020).
About the author
Dr. Paul Louis Metzger is the Founder and Director of The Institute for Cultural
Engagement: New Wine, New Wineskins and Professor at Multnomah Biblical
Seminary, Portland, Oregon, USA.
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* I actually have made acquaintance with Paul and know him more by reputation
through first hand relationships. He teaches at the seminary which had such profound
impact upon Susanne and me – our alma mater.