Weekly News | 11.14.25
Dear Church,
This coming Sunday is our Service of Lament. Each year we set apart a Sunday to honestly and vulnerably name our deep grief over the brokenness we know all too well - in ourselves, in our relationships, in the Church, and in the world. Bp. Brian Wallace will preach, and we will take time to pray and write and offer our laments before the Lord during the service.
It can be tempting to gloss over the painful incongruities of the vision of the Kingdom and the world we encounter. On the surface, it seems the less costly path. It is too much for us to bear at times.
But choosing a path that steers away from lament puts us in a place where we no longer live in reality. When we shut our eyes and ears to the devastating realities of sin, we simultaneously shut our eyes and ears to the one whose death and resurrection will ultimately undo those effects. We forfeit the kind of intimacy and clarity we see in Job’s life. In David’s life. In Jesus’ life. Practicing lament forms us to be more fully human in the image of Christ.
The following Sunday is the Christ the King Sunday, the last Sunday of the liturgical year. It is a time set aside to full-throatedly affirm the sovereignty of Jesus. We celebrate not because all of the things we lamented have been brought to resolution, but because one day all things will be brought under his redemptive and re-creative reign.
Just as it is tempting to forgo lament, we can also be prone to forgo praise. We are reasonably leery of triumphalism, of extolling or inhabiting an arrogant faith that cannot hold space for suffering. Wanting to steer clear, there can be an overcorrection that devalues the amazing and encompassing victory of Jesus.
Our praise is not a mask put on to hide the griefs of our world. It is instead an act of joyful defiance against the darkness, an act of naming and honoring that Jesus is on the throne. Even now, “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”
These Sundays work together to root us in reality. Together we will engage a profound array of the human experience, and what it means to draw near to the living God.
Grace and peace,
Sarah+