Lamentations

Feb 13, 2011

The singer of Lamentations remembers. He chants sorrow–intones sorrow–rhapsodizes sorrow in acrostic poetry. Jeremiah sings a dirge–a funeral dirge–over the once indestructible city.

The songs of sorrow–Verdi’s great Requiem; Chopin’s Funeral March; taps. In 1976, the Polish composer Henryk Gorecki composed his 3rd Symphony–the Symphony of Sorrowful Songs. It contains three movements–the triad–all centred around poetic songs of sorrow: the Virgin Mary for her Son; an 18-year-old girl in a Gestapo prison; a mother’s lament for her son killed in war. In a repetitive, tonal plainchant, Gorecki weaves a poignant, plaintive, threefold soprano solo. When the compact disc was released in 1992 with the stunning American soprano Dawn Upshaw, it became the first classical release in the rock and roll era to top the Billboard charts. Gorecki had written a symphony for this century of sorrows.  (This is an excerpt from a James T. Dennison Jr. article. If you want to read the whole article click the following link: http://www.kerux.com/documents/keruxv12n3a2.asp).

To see a very moving video of  Gorecki Symphony No. 3 “Sorrowful Songs” – Lento e Largo,  click the following link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=miLV0o4AhE4

Grumbling (Complaining) is a Practice That:

  • Displays contempt for God’s loving good Heart.
  • Nourished a destructive habit of distrust, unbelief and ingratitude.
  • Seeks an ever-larger supportive, commiserating audience if left unchecked.
  • Divides the community of faith, as is gains momentum, inciting selfish acts of reckless rebellion.
  • Distorts memory and falsifies the past.
  • Disturbs the ability of leaders to lead.

Lamenting is a Worshipful Prayer Practice That:

  • Honors God by acknowledging the wrongness and unfairness of a situation to Him.
  • Turns over despair (the cry of pain in the midst of suffering) to the LORD with a heart of trust.
  • Specifically asks God to handle our helplessness, hopelessness and our experience of heaviness, entrusting them to God instead of acting on them.
  • Reduces us to a raw, vulnerable dependence upon God.
  • Encourages us to move toward a deeper experience of His faithfulness and nearness so as to hear Him say to us Fear Not.
  • Often starts on a private, individual level and moves toward a corporate experience of shared lament and worship.

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