grieving together, shining together

“Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted” (Matthew 5:4)

“A public time of grieving together.”  That was Banu’s statement toward the end of the CNN broadcast on the town hall of Stoneman Douglas High School students.

Last Wednesday night, we saw the full range of emotions as the Parkland, Florida community came together for a time of remembrance and lament.  There was sadness.  There was emptiness.  There was questioning, soul-searching questioning.  (“How could this happen?”)  There was agony.  There was anger.  There was fury.

“Lament” is a word we hear far too rarely in our nation today.  “Communal lament” is perhaps even more rarely used.

However, the scriptures give voice to the pain and confusion of lament, no matter how little we acknowledge them in our worship.  The book of Psalms, Job, Jeremiah—these and other parts of the Old Testament offer a valuable service, a valuable expression.  The scriptures bring age-old wisdom to us, especially to us Americans.  We don’t do mourning well.

Or perhaps I should say: we who are identified with the dominant culture in America don’t do mourning well.  For example, when I sing, “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” I am well aware I am borrowing language from an experience that wasn’t mine.  At the same time, the cries of the exiles in Babylon have experiences that were not mine.  But God, who makes all things new, in a mysterious way transforms suffering into a healing force.

That’s the precious nature of communal lament.  It reminds us that mourning is not meant to be an individual or family affair.  Especially when there is a tragedy of broad scope, we need to be reminded that, after all, we are in this together.

So, last Wednesday night we saw the emotions expressed above.  But we also saw determination.  And joy.  We also saw joy, even if it was a tiny glimpse.  The Stoneman Douglas drama club performed “Shine,” a song they wrote in the wake of the mass shooting.  Perhaps the first hints of healing have now begun.

“You may have brought the dark, but together we will shine the light.”

“Weeping may linger for the night, but joy comes with the morning” (Psalm 30:5)