The Costly Loss of Lament...

Wading my way through the essays – preparing sermons must be preferable – I have been reading what Walter Brueggemann has to say about lament psalms (The Psalms and the Life of Faith, 1995). Sounds boring? But it seems strangely applicable to recent discussion of what one puts on a blog about what goes on at college or at work (see www.wannabepriest.org.uk). Brueggemann notes that we have removed the laments from our use of the scriptures and thus have lost the specific social function that they perform. In the laments ‘Israel moves from articulation of the hurt and anger, to submission of them to God, and finally to relinquishment.’ The lament psalm redresses the distribution of power between the two parties, so that the complainer is taken seriously and God gets involved in the crisis.
Brueggemann asks what happens when appreciation of the lament as a form of speech and faith is lost, as it is largely now. When speech forms that redress power distribution are silenced and eliminated? His answer is ‘a theological monopoly is reinforced, docility and submissiveness are engendered, and the outcome in terms of social practice is to reinforce and consolidate the political-economic monopoly of the status quo. In other words, the removal of lament from life and liturgy is not disinterested…’ Later, ‘covenant minus lament is finally a practice of denial, cover-up and pretense, which sanctions social control.’ One party to the covenant is disenfranchised and has become voiceless.
Well, it gave me something to think about re what one blogs about. Does/can a blog function as a contemporary lament?
Back to Augustine of Hippo…