Anne Lamott divides prayer into three words: thanks, help, and wow. Communion is an avenue into all three types of prayer.Lamentation is more than saying help of course. It is a structured way of being at the end of the rope and not knowing where to go next prayer Lamentations is the voice of the blues, of heartbreak, but keep on keepin’ on.Both voices contribute to an overwhelming tone of sorrow and shame. Both, as well, put the blame squarely on the desolate city herself (verse 8, verse 18)In today's selection (verses 1--6), the narrator emphasizes the difference between Daughter Zion's current desolation and her former glory: Thus, nostalgia permeates the narrator's sense of grief. By contrast, Daughter Zion's cries do not emphasize a past that has been lost, but dwell on her present destitute condition.Yamada- The first word, “How,” is a word that serves as a standard opening to a dirge band. She has become “like a widow”. We speak of communion as a celebration, but many of our older hymns song like a dirge. This is appropriate as we do commemorate the death of Jesus, broken body and spilt blood.Bouzard-Chesed might be read "unbreakable devotion to the promise." Ex 34:6 gives us the character of God and it concludes chesed that steadfast, unyielding, unbreakable love for us..The poet is left without answers, without a divine response -- on the silence of God. What do we do, and how do we carry on in faith when platitudes ring hollow or when they taste like ashes in our mouths when we utter them? How different, after all, is the assertion of some divine albeit unknowable plan in the face of tragedy? How do we persist in faith when pain continues unabated, when God does not answer, and we are left alone? In the fullness of the Scripture, of course, we proclaim a God who knows the anguish that inspires lamentation. This God has suffered and taken death God into God’s own life. Moreover, we know through the resurrection of Christ that life, not lament, is God’s answer to our disappointment, pain, and despair.rauma and O’Connor on Jeremiah Trauma is a word for terrible injuries in hospitals, but it also often entails psychological and spiritual wounds to those who undergo them. PTSD.Trauma is not the last word of course. It too can be healed, in time. In trauma, people sometimes feel as if they are the only one who has so suffered. We may receive Communion separately, but we receive it together.
Communion and thanksgiving., "The steadfast love (chesed) of the Lord never ceases,"The parallel line of t "God's mercies never come to an end."God's love is like that unique love shared by a woman for her child.Small acts-small faith is plenty-such a little h thing to share a bit of bread and a sip of vine. We unlock a world of new vision when we do so in church. Lord increase our faith-Notice well it is a response to forgiveness-Communion itself bears thanksgiving and lament. As befitting a sacrament, it includes life and death, sorrow and joy, absence and presence in its capacious embrace. The Great Thanksgiving is the primary prayer for this sacrament for as long as we have documents as a Christian community.
Another way Communion is healing is that it points us to a new and better future, a foretaste of the future as the Confession of 1967 states. Wow, we get a glimpse of God’s future thou rough a bit of bread and a sip of wine.We get to participate in the very life of Jesus Christ.
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