Week 11 Discussion

Title of Your Paper Subtitle if applicable Your Name Course Name Instructor's Name Date 1 Reflection on Brueggemann and Cole Arthur Riley's Perspectives on Lament 1 What is your faith community's experience with/use of biblical lament? Using Brueggemann’s thoughts and Cole Arthur Riley's considerations, I have stated that lament is essential in true worship since it can express pain, fury, and other negative emotions to God. Brueggemann talks about lament when practiced within the faith community as a specific type of prayer that embodies addressing God in a vernal manner. As he notes, lament is lacking in worship, which keeps the faith shallow; only love and gratitude are allowed in the relationship between the believer and the divine.[Brueggemann, Walter. The Costly Loss of Lament.] 2 Is it true that lament has been "lost" in your corporate worship services? Sadly, my faith community, which I am sure is true of many others, feels less lamentation. It appears lament has been "lost" in corporate worship as we have shifted more toward praise and thanksgiving regardless of the circumstances. Riley's term "expediting grief" conveys this remark, as there is a culture of rushing over the pain and moving toward the positive..[Riley, Cole Arthur. Black Liturgies.] This ''positive thinking'' is an unhealthy way of avoiding the grieving process for those affected and is also preventing the community from being of support. In minimizing lament, our worship may implicitly assent to a kind of faith that is frail and unable to endure a trial. 3 If not, what does lament look like? Where lament is found, it is only sometimes an uninterrupted prayer, or, in periods of corporate worship, they too are sparse. Sincere remorse would enable the congregation to bring all the matters that society finds difficult to deal with and the questions troubling society to God, waiting for His response and action. In my community, the lamentation moments mentioned above are short and are followed by a relativel...