Lamentations 1:1-6; 3:19-26

Proper 22 (27) - Year C

A rewrite —

How lonely sits a church that once was full of people! How isolated and barren! How small and irrelevant after such numbers and influence! A once shining beacon is now an overly protected flame safe from wind—only to have no source of fuel.

There is a great bitterness within—a divided self with comfort limited to true believers. Friends and potential friends must first prove their loyalty and do so again and again for fear they will eventually reveal a flaw in a self-contained and unambiguous system.

Yes, exile has come, the center has not held and takes more and more work to sustain. What once honored its many differences and gifts has splintered, each looking to confirm its own before affirming another. The very surety of parity desired now comes back to bite far harder than the labor needed to bind compassion to every-day varieties of lived experience.

False enthusiasm keeps deep joy at bay. No matter how loudly we sing the same song it can’t be loosed from walls of silence intended to protect those within—turning the sanctuary into an echo-chamber with naught to offer beyond. Priests groan; youth grieve; blame grows.

Without turning differences into community, we are controlled by denied differences defining a small and smaller realm of participation. More and more discrimination to protect an ever smaller range of acceptable behavior transgresses G*D’s prerogative for steadfast love, especially relevant in the midst of creation’s variety. The descendants of Eden have again scattered themselves through a failed hubris of building a babbling code of “holiness” within a larger Holiness all around. We have been bound by the eternal enemy of self-magnification.

A grandeur of Spirit has departed the construct of Church. Starving the body has us hearing voices of danger in every direction. Finally we sit down alone feeling as persecuted as we have persecuted.

- - -

In this silence we feed on our shame of trusting our blame of all that wasn’t yet us to keep us pure. Our digital approach to holiness in an analogic abundance failed. Where is hope now?

Is steadfast love trustworthy after all? Are mercies we claim sharable with those we don’t like?

If love and mercy are new every morning, we can dare to lift our eyes from blame and join in seeking their application in our infinite variety.

Our surety striving let us down, again. Let us rest in hope beyond uniformed peace. Let us seek a common good beyond today’s limits. Let us live in communion beyond control.

http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2013/10/lamentations-11-6-319-26.html

 

 

Lamentations 1:1-6 ; Lamentations 3:19-26 or Habakkuk 1:1-4; 2:1-4

In Egypt the people finally cried out for justice. They were led into the wilderness, away from their complaint.

In Judah the people finally cried out for justice. They were led into exile, away from their complaint.

Today the people finally cry out for justice. "The law becomes slack and justice never prevails. The wicked surround the righteous -- therefore judgment comes forth perverted."

We will also be led away.

All pay when all do not stand up for justice. All pay when one perverts justice. Perhaps not immediately (which does encourage others to do the same), but eventually the cry comes forth and all are led away.

Prophets, stand with the Lamenter and Habakkuk. Help us be clear about this matter that we change and not be led away.

http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2004/october2004.html

 

 

Lamentations 1:1-6; Lamentations 3:19-26; or Habakkuk 1:1-4; 2:1-4

"How lonely sits (__name of your congregation/denomination__) that once was full of people!"
So states the Lamenter.

Habakkuk clarifies a why behind the statement.
"Look at the Proud! Their spirit is not right in them...."

This is the key to understanding the multiple transgressions the Lamenter recognizes - satisfaction that they were getting-theirs and a rejoicing that they could help those who weren't-getting-any without, in any way, risking theirs. Pride and unilateral mission were the set up.

It does suggest that if our hope is going to be real this morning, a reversal is to really come, steadfast love and mercy will in some way involve sacrifice and mutuality.
Now what does that mean in each home and congregation?

- - -

writing a vision large
doesn't help those who don't look
should they glance
the font would be readable

while writing is crucial analysis
it pales in the face of non-readers
who find it even more critical
for them to continue apace

this is true for holy writing
in a book or on a wall
the words are present
the understanding is not

we have taken surfaces
all too literally
and lost the life of words
in some magical Word

may all dreams this night
be troubled
and all dreams tomorrow
be possible

http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2007_10_01_archive.html

 

 

How lonely sits a city that once was full of forgiving and forgiven people. How like a bereaved spouse, enslaved by depression. Bitter tears are wept; no comfort is afforded. Friends have become enemies. The felt experience is that of exile, suffering, servitude, and sleepless stumbling.

Even the roads to the city mourn for there is no festival of forgiveness to draw people together. Priests falter, children grieve, it is bitterness all around. Transgressions remain transgressions and a multitude suffer for want of forgiveness.

Lament wherever you are, this fate does not wear out or run down - it waits for a first moment of fierce rectitude that excuses a next and next. Where preemptive mercy and forgiveness falter, self-inflicted disaster eventually destroys every empire built on market greed and self-righteous revenge.

http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2010/09/lamentations-11-6.html