The news this week is heavy. I find myself struggling for words. Many more wise than I have already started posting on social media. The news from the national election was shocking. It makes me question my relationship with others. I wonder what freedoms I might lose in the next few years as a publicly identifiable transgender person.
We are also in a tradition that is full of Lament. Many of the scriptures were written during times of political upheaval. The people of God were slaves in Egypt, wandered in the desert for a generation, overthrown by the Persian empire, overthrown by the Babylonian empire, scattered in Exile, Conquered by Rome. That is the setting that God came to live among us in Jesus Christ. Jesus did not enter into a community that was thriving, but rather a community in need of salvation from the oppressive systems of Rome. A community that needed God’s mercy because the world was terrifying and they didn’t know what was going to happen next.
I don’t know what will happen next. I know that I am praying. I know the Spirit intercedes for me when I don’t know how or what words to pray. I know that God will never abandon us.
As a way of grounding myself I read the book of Habakkuk. This short book is written at the time of the Babylonian empire. The people of Israel are being conquered by Babylonians. They are being scattered. Some of the devastation was preventable that prophets tried to warn them about some was not. This short 3-chapter book is 75% yelling at God. Saying why are you letting this happen. And then the prophet says:
17 Though the fig tree does not blossom and no fruit is on the vines; though the produce of the olive fails and the fields yield no food; though the flock is cut off from the fold and there is no herd in the stalls, 18 yet I will rejoice in the Lord; I will exult in the God of my salvation. 19 God, the Lord, is my strength; he makes my feet like the feet of a deer and makes me tread upon the heights.
This coming week on Tuesday November 12th we will have a vespers of Lament. 6pm soup and bread. 7pm Holden Evening Prayer. If you need a space to yell at God, you are welcome. Faithful people have been doing that for centuries and God continued to love them and continues to love us.
