Living Open Source» God

Lament, what does it do?

Tim — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 08:45:28 +0000

Thought I’d take on the challenge of preaching the text in Lamentations 3:23-33 this Sunday. I came across a really helpful paper by Walter Brueggemann, The Costly Loss of Lament, which reflected on what we have lost in our modern culture, in losing the prayer or song of lament.

It is true that if you flick through hymn books, it is hard to find a lament. It is also true that people seem to love a good old sing when they come to church. But as Brueggemann explains, we have lost something fundamental to authentic covenant relationship with God by having lost such a song.

Without lament, genuine interaction with God is lost. We become voiceless, permitted only to praise. What kind of relationship is that? In physchological terms, the outcome is:

a false self, bad faith which is based on fear and guilt lived out as resentful or self deceptive works of righteousness.

A second consequence of the absence of lament is the stifling of any questioning of the status quo. Much lament in the Psalms comes out of the experience of injustice. In the face of injustice lament allows the speaker to appeal to the hesed of God.

A community of faith which negates lament soon conclucdes that the hard issues of justice are improper questions to pose at the throne.

Perhaps that is similar to what Marx said when he said that religion was the opium of the people.

Turning this all around, what lament gives is:

An assertion about God:that this dangerous, available God matters in every dimension of life

Only then can we turn to praise, as most laments in scripture do.

Bruegemann, W., The Costly Loss of Lament, JSOT 36 (1986) 57-71
photo from Jokke on sxc.

Trinity – Join In

Tim — Wed, 14 May 2008 15:26:23 +0000

How do you explain the Trinity? If I’m honest I just went along with all those Sunday School analogies until I went to do theology at college. There are many illustrations people dream up to try and explain it, but in the end none of them really work.

Much clarity was brought to my world when our theology lecturer explained the difference between the typically Eastern Orthodox, Rublev icon of the trinity and the alternative Western pictures of trinity. It is the space in front of the three persons in the Rublev icon, that grabs me – we are invited to join in.

I think that is what the passage in Matthew 28 this week is all about. Join in! Go and make disciples, baptise in the name of the triune God and invite others to join in too.

The Rublev icon seems to get everywhere these days and I can’t count the number of times other speakers have used that image as if it is something they discovered. I’ve already used it in church, so this is my simple and very inadequate attempt at a visual for Trinity Sunday.

And the Wikipedia entry on Trinity is quite interesting.

Following the Golden Compass

Tim — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 15:16:24 +0000

Another film for Christians to start shouting about? I haven’t had chance to see the film yet, but I am now grown up enough to ignore the protests. Kim has a helpful post on the growing Christian reaction to the film, on the Faith and Theology blog. His basic stance being that the kind of God that Pullman sets out to destroy in his books and film actually does the church a service!

I must admit to being irritated by the way the film seems to be using some of the Narnia imagery to tell its story. Shame they couldn’t be more creative. I think though we would be better engaging with the film, rather than just boycotting it. Especially if you know God to be other than the wrinkled mortal old man presented in the film.

I suppose there will now be the inevitable endless stream of expensive anti-Compass weaponary (books, study guides, DVDs by clever people etc), like we saw with Da Vinci. Why not just go and see the film with a friend and talk about it afterwards over a coffee. What kind of God do you know?

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