Dancing in the Kingdom- Table of Contents
Dancing In the Kingdom – Part 3 – Dancing in the Kingdom– Chapter 14 – Remembering our creation
Lamenting our Brokenness[1]
[Bible references: Psalm 90; Lamentations 1-2; Matthew 26:36-46; 27:33-53; Luke 22:15; 1 Corinthians 14:12; Hebrews 12:2]
God made a good world, a world full of his glory. Sometimes, we can look at the beauty, the immenseness, the intricacy of what he has made all around us and be filled with awe and wonder. Unfortunately, what is also visible are the many ways in which things are not as they should be. As we consider all that we see and contemplate the kind of end that God intended, we find ourselves looking at a world that seems to be headed in the wrong direction. Instead of increasing shalom, there is violence, hatred, fear, disease, and brokenness. Pain. Shattered dreams. Loss of hope.
There are times when the brokenness around us and within us can overwhelm us. There may be times when God seems absent for long periods of times. This intense absence has brought some people to what they call the Dark Night of the Soul.[2]
The brokenness around us affects everyone, although some experience the brokenness more harshly than others. The Psalms are full of complaining about how the pain of sins’ consequences don’t seem to affect everyone equally. In Lamentations, that pain is captured in personification – the pain of an adulterous woman who is naked, unclean, scorned, and shamed, a victim of rape, a slave, helpless, isolated, unclean. Just as we all bear the guilt of sinful disobedience against God and neighbor. Not only do we bear the guilt of active rebellion against God, but we also bear the shame of being sinned against.
Throughout its history, the church has been concerned with the sin of people but has largely overlooked an important factor in human evil: the pain of the victims of sin. The victims of various types of wrongdoing express the ineffable experience of deep bitterness and helplessness. Such an experience of pain is called han in the Far East. Han can be defined as the critical wound of the heart generated by unjust psychosomatic repression, as well as by social, political, economic, and cultural oppression. It is entrenched in the hearts of the victims of sin and violence, and is expressed through such diverse reactions as sadness, helplessness, hopelessness, resentment, hatred, and the will to revenge.[3]
None of this is comfortable, our tendency is to use whatever devices we can to cover our feelings. We want to run and cling to the hope and joy of Christ, to rush past our uncomfortable guilt and shame. There is a part of us that would be happy to join Christ in His work in the world, as long as we can skip the confession of sin and guilt, but in doing so we would skip the richness of God’s mercy and the gift of shalom.
The depths of joy and hope are not just feelings for us to receive and enjoy. Rather, the depths of joy and hope are only found in acts of the will, in a persistent choosing to abandon our interests and instead to follow God.
Knowing what was before Him, Jesus chose to push His glory to the side and to take on the form of a human with all its physical inconveniences, to endure the ridicule of people who were not fit to tie his sandals, to spend years training 12 disciples all of whom he knew would abandon him in the time of his greatest suffering as he endured the agony of the cross. But in all of this, as he shared the last meal with his disciples before his time of passion, he could say, “I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before my suffering.” The great joy that awaited Jesus and His disciples would be preceded by deep sorrow and great suffering.
“Throughout 1946 and 1947, Mother Teresa experienced a profound union with Christ. But soon after she left the convent and began her work among the destitute and dying on the street, the visions and locutions ceased, and she experienced a spiritual darkness that would remain with her until her death. It is hard to know what is more to be marveled at: that this twentieth-century commander of a worldwide apostolate and army of charity should have been a visionary contemplative at heart; or that she should have persisted in radiating invincible faith and love while suffering inwardly from the loss of spiritual consolation” [4]
As we consider in which ways we are called to “Dance in the Kingdom” with God, we need to keep the proper perspective. God’s work is to reconcile people and all of Creation to Himself. Whatever task He gives us to engage in, it will only ever be a portion of God’s work. Whatever task He has called us to is sufficient for us and He will supply whatever we need to accomplish the tasks He has provided. While some are called to do “bigger” tasks than others, we need to humbly accept whatever tasks God has called us to do. We also need to humbly submit to our need for one another and our need to combine whatever spiritual gifts God has given to us with the gifts He has given others as we build up one another. In the task of building up one another, we need to address another humility.
Our sin and our woundedness are deeper than we imagine. As we confess and acknowledge the sins we have committed and the shame we experience when others have sinned against us, our proper response is lament. We can neither undo what we have done nor what has been done to us. But we can take the next step. The path to restoration and reconciliation leads through a lament that must confront our brokenness and acknowledge the pain. In our lament we can recognize how we are corrupted by sin and that we are accountable for all the suffering caused by our sin.
For us to experience healing of shalom, we need to acknowledge the suffering we have caused, encounter the truth about our sins, and challenge the privileges we may have had over others. Shalom requires lament, a reminder not likely needed for those whose lives are marked by the injustice thrust upon them but is likely needed for those whose lives are marked by privilege.
“Lament in the Bible is a liturgical response to the reality of suffering and engages God in the context of pain and trouble. The hope of lament is that God would respond to the human suffering that is communicated through lament.”[5]
[1] Plantinga, Cornelius. Not the Way It’s Supposed to Be Eerdmans Publishing Co – A. Kindle Edition; Wolters, Albert M. Creation Regained Biblical Basics for a Reformational Worldview William B. Eerdmans Publishing 1985, 2005. eBook
[2] Rah, Soong-Chan, “Prophetic Lament: A Call for Justice in Troubled Times” Intervarsity Press, 2015; Zaleski, Carol. “Dark Night of Mother Theresa;” St. John of the Cross, Dark Night of the Soul First Things, www.firstthings.com/article/2003/05/the-dark-night-of-mother-teresa
[3] Park, Andrew S. “The Wounded Heart of God: The Asian Concept of Han and the Christian Doctrine of Sin” Abingdon February 1, 1993
[4] Zaleski, Carol. “The Dark Night of Mother Teresa’s Soul” First Things, www.firstthings.com/article/2003/05/the-dark-night-of-mother-teresa
[5] Rah, Soong Chan. “Prophetic Lament: A Call for Justice in Troubled Times” Intervarsity Press, 2015
Reflect
What kinds of brokenness in the world do you notice the most? For what do you lament?
Observe
Read Psalm 90. Is there any lament that touches your heart?
Dancing In The Kingdom 