St. Aidan's Anglican Church, Kansas City - Weekly Talks

Out of our depths, we pray laments, honestly and hopefully. Such prayers express our raw selves to God. Life brings us to a place of our un-sovereignty. Out of growing uncertainty, we express our inner disorientation while holding on to his unchanging nature and promises. A hopeful despair. What's the difference between a lament and grumbling towards God? Why does God accept laments and rejects a grumbling spirit? Herein the nature of our relationship is revealed. Psalm 13 is among the 68 laments in the Psalter. We explore the importance of lament, the raw expression of pain, sorrow, dis-ease, in Christian formation and worship. The structure of lament, a movement from a complaint, to a petition to thanksgiving, provides the way upward. We learn to discern the difference between lament and grumbling against God's covenant faithfulness.