We know that the whole creation has been groaning in labor pains until now; and not only creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly while we wait for adoption, the redemption of our bodies. – Romans 8:22-23, NRSV
Dear Doubters of Great Faith,
Back in the late days of June, some time after the 8 minutes and 46 seconds that marked the end of life for a 46 year old African-American man named Mr. George Floyd, and riots, and protesting, and looting, and lockdown, I was in conversation with our Theologian-in-Residence, the Rev. Dr. Stephen Sprinkle, about what an appropriate community response might be to that which grieved (and grieves) all our souls, the racial injustice, violence, and unrest, unnamed, and yet lived out by our brothers and sisters of color all around. This was before we began to study Isabel Wilkerson’s book, Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents, and so we hadn’t yet publically labeled as a community the original lie upon which our country was founded. Thomas Jefferson famously penned in the Declaration of Independence, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal…” And yet, a whole group of people were considered three-fifth’s human, as 450 years, and Mr. Floyd’s (and many others) death have attested.
Dr. Sprinkle’s response was corporate lament, the kind of cry to God that shifts the locus of our narrative from that which we can (or cannot) control, the center of our focus, to that which only our Creator accesses. Our deepest sighs, our groaning, and our burdens well up from some place deep within, and are offered up to God, much the way the prophet Jeremiah laments.
We as individuals, and as the body of Christ called St. Thomas the Apostle have much to lament across the nine months that COVID-19 has separated us. Indeed the very ways that we would turn to God, that we would connect to God, that we would enliven our worship, through our senses, taste, touch, smell, sight, and sound, so many have been cut off by COVID-19. And so we have even that to lament.
And lament we will!
On Saturday, November 14, at 10 am, we, your faithful clergy and I, have put together a “Liturgy of Lament” to offer our community the space to do just that, to lament all that we have lost during the last nine months, before and beyond. All of the grievances, all of the sorrows, all of the losses, angers, hurts, fears, we bring them all in the form of lament to place on God’s altar. We will process and witness signs and symbols of our God, leaning into hope through the ashes. We will write our laments and offer them up to God in fire.
It promises to be a cathartic experience for our community as we think about all that we have lost throughout 2020, as we look toward Advent and the coming of Christ, Immanuel, “God among us.”
I hope you will join us for this outdoor experience. Saturday, November 14, at 10 am, in the North Parking Lot. Please park in the South Lot or behind the building, and gather on the North Parking Lot. The procession will begin at the North Parish Hall entrance. (All COVID-19 guidelines for masking and distancing will be observed throughout.)
IF IT RAINS, THE EVENT WILL BE CANCELLED! THERE IS NO RAIN ALTERNATIVE!
If this is something that speaks to your condition, I hope you will avail yourself of this opportunity to grieve together with your St. Thomas the Apostle community of faith.
Yours in Christ,
Fr. Christopher+
