Prophetic Lament: A Call for Justice in Troubled Times

Resonate #3

by Soong-Chan Rah, Brenda Salter McNeil (Foreword)

Missio Alliance Essential Reading List
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Englewood Review of Books Best Books When Soong-Chan Rah planted an urban church in Cambridge, Massachusetts, his first full sermon series was a six-week exposition of the book of Lamentations. Preaching on an obscure, depressing Old Testament book was probably not the most seeker-sensitive way to launch a church. But it shaped their community with a radically countercultural perspective. The American church avoids lament. But lament is a missing, essential component of Christian faith. Lament recognizes struggles and suffering, that the world is not as it ought to be. Lament challenges the status quo and cries out for justice against existing injustices. Soong-Chan Rah's prophetic exposition of the book of Lamentations provides a biblical and theological lens for examining the church's relationship with a suffering world. It critiques our success-centered triumphalism and calls us to repent of our hubris. And it opens up new ways to encounter the other. Hear the prophet's lament as the necessary corrective for Christianity's future. A Resonate exposition of the book of Lamentations.

Genres: Theology, Christian, Faith, Nonfiction, Christianity, Religion, Justice

224 pages, Paperback

First published October 3, 2015

About the author

Soong-Chan Rah (ThD, Duke Divinity School) is Milton B. Engebretson Professor of Church Growth and Evangelism at North Park Theological Seminary in Chicago, Illinois. He is the author of Prophetic Lament, The Next Evangelicalism, and Many Colors: Cultural Intelligence for a Changing Church, as well as coauthor of Forgive Us: Confessions of a Compromised Faith and contributing author for Growing Healthy Asian American Churches.

In addition to serving as founding senior pastor of the multiethnic, urban ministry-focused Cambridge Community Fellowship Church (CCFC), Rah has been a part of four different church-planting efforts and served with InterVarsity Christian Fellowship in Boston. He has been an active member of the Boston TenPoint Coalition (an urban ministry working with at-risk youth) and is a founding member of the Boston Fellowship of Asian-American Ministers. He serves on the boards of World Vision, Sojourners, the Christian Community Development Association (CCDA) and the Catalyst Leadership Center.

An experienced crosscultural preacher and conference speaker, Rah has addressed thousands around the country at gathering like the 2003 Urbana Student Missions Conference, 2006 Congress on Urban Ministry, 2007 Urban Youth Workers Institute Conference, 2008 CCDA National Conference, 2010 Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary (GCTS) National Preaching Conference, and the 2011 Disciples of Christ General Assembly. He and his wife, Sue, have two children and live in Chicago.

Reviews

[Akash Ahuja · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very good book, but don't read it like I did. Read it with people, in a small group. The weakness of this book is that it calls to action, but it necessitates a community response, and as an individual, you can feel a little powerless. Still, excellent work and especially for Christians who are just starting to venture into the waters of engaging in racial reconciliation to mend our broken world

[Eric · Rating 3 out of 5]

I absolutely agree with what Dr. Rah has to say in Prophetic Lament, and I will be chewing on and wrestling with this book for a while. There is so much said in the pages that needs to be said.

I struggled toward the second half of the book as the ongoing chronology of going through the book of Lamentations led to repetitiveness and briefly inserted asides to modern justice thoughts. I found myself reflecting on the current state of American society while reading his exegesis but was thrown off every time there was a brief paragraph calling to remember something that did not seem to quite fit.

Overall, I highly recommend Prophetic Lament to all Christians as a necessary read. We need to learn lament.

[Luke Hillier · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've been looking forward to this for a while -both because I loved The Next Evangelicalism: Freeing the Church from Western Cultural Captivity and because of a deep interest in the subject at hand- and while I did enjoy it, it wasn't necessarily what I had hoped. I think my expectations had been a more general exploration of the practice of lament and the theology behind it, as well as the implications that it has and the role it serves within prophetic/justice work. While that is certainly present, it felt in some way peripheral to the exegetical work happening here, as if the core was the commentary and analysis of Lamentations. I did appreciate the way that that element provided some thoughtful framing for his ideas, but at times it also seemed to force redundancy and restrict Rah from going in a more intuitive or meaningful direction.

My other hangup with this text was how thoroughly rooted it is within Reformed theology. This likely won't bother many Christians, but as someone recently exploring Process theology (and finding fresh air from that!) I found myself continuing tripping over his assertions and getting tangled up, distractingly so, in the implications. Rah does a better job than most at presenting a theodicy justifying the claim within Lamentations that it is God who causes the destruction that catalyzes their lament by connecting it to the Covenant. While this is a cohesive framework and he reiterates a few times that it reveals the trustworthy fidelity of God, I couldn't help but cringe at the notion of people begging for help from the very One who caused such devastating destruction. I read this directly after Proverbs of Ashes: Violence, Redemptive Suffering, and the Search For What Saves Us and imagined a misbehaving child begging her father for help after being abused by him, and while Rah goes to lengths to differentiate God from a capricious and fickle human it doesn't manage to totally do away with those vibes.

For me, this theodicy ultimately breaks down when Rah presents Ferguson as a modern-day parallel to Jerusalem of Lamentations. I was thrilled to see him addressing what has transpired there, but the implication (which Rah does not name, but exists) is that, within a covenantal framework, the Black people suffering in Ferguson have failed to uphold their end and are being punished by God for that. His articulation works excellently, if somewhat coldly, when addressing the people of Jerusalem who had committed sins of hubris, injustice, idolatry, and the like and thus found themselves punished in retribution by a just God. But when it is the historically and contemporarily oppressed Black community of Ferguson on the receiving end of such devastation, how can they find comfort in a God who is sovereign over their suffering? How can Rah escape the implication that those who find themselves immersed in unjust suffering (those liberation theologians consider uniquely favored by God) are not covenantal failures being punished by an unflinchingly just God?

Even in spite of that tangential critique, I still consider this book immensely valuable - perhaps not always the most engaging or enjoyable to read, but an incredible resource and a necessary corrective to today's status quo within the American (white suburban) Church. I particularly appreciated his scathing critique of the insidious triumphalism that runs rampant in white/suburban theology and practice, as well as the considerable variety of more specific manifestations of that that Rah names with truth-telling boldness.

[James · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my dialogue partners in Advent has been Soong-Chan Rah's Prophetic Lament: A Call for Justice in Troubled Times. Rah teaches at North Park Theological Seminary in Chicago, is a sought after speaker and the author of The Next Evangelicalism (IVP, 2009). In this earlier book, Rah explored the current 'white captivity' of Evangelicalism and the shift of its locus to East and to the global south. Prophetic Lament offers a similar critique. Delving into the book of Lamentations, Rah illustrates how it "provides a necessary corrective to the triumphalism and exceptionalism of the American evangelical church arising from the ignorance of its tainted history" (198).

With astute biblical and theological insight Rah walks readers through the genres of lament in the book of Lamentations. There is the funeral dirge (Lam.1),  the city lament (Lam 2), the intensified acrostic and personal lament (Lam 3),  the persisting lament and continuing dirge (Lam. 4), and the communal lament, when the people begin to pray for themselves (Lam. 5).

In walking through the forms and settings of each lament, Rah is building on the insights of biblical scholarship. But with eyes trained on the margins he showcases the various voices in the text and how the prophet identifies personally with the suffering, the oppressed and the broken.  This has implications for our reading of the book today. For example Rah notes:

The voices of suffering women in the book of Lamentations offer an important counternarrative to the triumphalistic tendencies of God's people in the United States. We are likely to tune out the stories of suffering and struggle that undermine our success narratives, in contrast to the women's voices in Lamentations 1 that rise up to speak truth when experiencing painful reality. Instead, our ears are tuned to hear what we want to hear, similar to the exiles who listen to the false prophets in Jeremiah 29. (60).

Lamentations call to identify with the suffering is an antidote to self-centered celebration. Through out this book, Rah identifies the links between the suffering in Lamentations with minority communities in the United States. He also showcases how the (largely white) evangelical church in America have been complicit in systems of oppression, helping us move from our "defensive of posture of 'I am not a racist' to 'I am responsible and culpable in the corporate sin of racism'" (126). Through lament,  content white evangelicals (like me) are able to see where our celebrations are inappropriate in the face of Latino, Asian, African American suffering and beyond.

Rah is not the first to identify the need for American evangelicals to make space for lament. It was all the rage when I was in seminary. Other evangelical scholars make similar claims. Leslie Allen's A Liturgy of Grief (Baker Academic, 2011) also looks at Lamentations and makes the case for the church's lament; however the way that Rah trains his eye on the margins makes vivid for me the socio-political implications of lament. It gives voice to the voiceless--the suffering, the victims, the failures and the broken. Rah closes his book with an epilogue about Ferguson (and other tragedies) and how it gave rise to the cries and anger of the African-American community. He adapts Lamentations 5 as a post-Ferguson prayer of the people:

Remember Lord, what happened to Michael Brown and Eric Garner;

look, and see the disgraceful way  they treated their bodies.

Our inheritance of the image of God in every human being has been co-opted and denied by others.

The children of Eric Garner have become faterless, widowed mothers grieve their dead children.

We must scrap for basic human rights; our freedom and our liberty has great price.

Corrupt officers and officals pursue us and are at our heels; we are weary and find no rest.

We submitted to uncaring government agencies and to big business to get enough bread.

Our ancestors sinned the great sin of instituting slavery; they are no more--but we bear their shame.

The system of slavery and institutionalized racism ruled over us, and there is no one free from their hands.

We got our bread at the risk of our lives because of the guns on the streets.

Michael Brown's skin is hot as an oven as his body lay out in the blazing sun.

Women have been violated throughout our nation's history; black women raped by while slave owners on the plantations.

Noble black men have been hung, lynched and gunned down; elders and spokesmen are shown no respect.

Young men can't find work because of unjustly applied laws; boys stagger under the expectation that their lives are destined for jail.

The elder statesman and civil rights leaders are gone from the city gate; young people who speak out in protest through music are silenced.

Trust in our ultimate triumph has diminished; our triumphant dance has turned to a funeral dirge.

Our sense of exceptionalism has been exposed. Woe to us, for we have sinned!

Because of this our hearts are faint, because of these things our eyes grow dim

for our cities lie desolate with predatory lenders nad real estate speculators prowling over them.

You, Lord, reign forever; your throne endures from generation to generation.

We do you always forgets us? Why do you forsake us so long?

Restore us to yourself, Lord, that we may return; renew our days as of old

unless you have utterly rejected us and are angry with us beyond measure.

As a white evangelical, I have responded with fear and denial and defensiveness when the system I benefit from has called into question. Learning to lament and to read the Bible with those on the margins allows us to move beyond our own false narratives to the truth and justice of God. I highly recommend this book. Five stars: ★★★★★

Notice of material connection: I received this book from IVP in exchange for my honest review.

[SK Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was going to give it 4 stars, but the lament at the end was worth the whole book. 4 stars was the thought bc it felt a little disjointed, this simply could have been due to the fact that I am writing the review 6 months after I have read a majority of the book. I have read alot about lament over the past semester, but am by no means an expect. I think this book does a good job calling us to lament and introducing us to the different types and addressing it to a specific problem (race relations in the us).

[Hannah Moerman · Rating 5 out of 5]

easily the best book i’ve read this year. i read a review that said this book should be read in community & i will GLADLY join any book club or small group study where someone is walking us through this. it was written in 2015, but it
feels so tailor made for this moment right now. there was so much depth & takeaways for our modern moment & i wish there was a book like this written for every book of the bible okay bye okay have you read this i’d like to chat about it

[Bob · Rating 4 out of 5]

Summary: A commentary and exposition of the book of Lamentations that advocates for the restoration of the practice of lament as part of the worship of American churches, particularly majority culture evangelical churches.

Have you every experienced terrible suffering, or terrible loss, or have witnessed horrible events such as have dominated our news of late and been deeply moved to turmoil and grief that cries out to God, or even the four walls around you, "how long?" Now, when was the last time that you did this as part of a service of worship in your church, if you regularly attend one?

Soong-Chan Rah contends that this was an important part of the worship life of ancient Israel that has been lost in many of our churches in North America. We focus on triumph and victory and success. We see problems and we go around the world to solve them. And we begin to believe we are the answers to the world's problems--whether they be the problems of the inner city or the problems of the countries in the majority world.

Rah contends that our celebration and praise must be balanced with lament. He writes:

"What do we lose as a result of this imbalance? American Christians that flourish under the existing system seek to maintain the existing dynamics of inequality and remain in the theology of celebration over and against the theology of suffering. Promoting one perspective over the other, however, diminishes our theological discourse. To only have a theology of celebration at the cost of a theology of suffering is incomplete. The intersection of the two threads provides the opportunity to engage in the fullness of the gospel message. Lament and praise must go hand in hand."

Rah seeks to redress this imbalance by an exposition (part of InterVarsity Press's Resonate series) of the book of Lamentations, a book attributed to the prophet Jeremiah. Rah contends that in addition to Jeremiah, the book incorporates the voices of the sufferers left behind in Jerusalem after the Babylonians destroyed the city walls and took into exile the best and the brightest and the wealthiest of the city. What were left were women, children, the elderly and other marginalized people to mourn over the death of their city and the loss of loved ones as they struggle to survive.

The book is organized according to the five chapters, or "laments" of the book, with several chapters devoted to each lament. Chapter 1 mourns the death of the city. Chapter 2 struggles with what it means that all of this has come about by the providence of God. Chapter 3 which is three times as long as the other chapters forms a climax to the lament and calls us into deep identification with the suffering. Chapter 4 reminds us of the hollowness of all human achievements in the eyes of God. Chapter 5 concludes with a corporate lament that looks to God for answers even when their don't seem to be any answers.

Along the way Rah provides textual and historical insight into the book, discussing the "dirge-like" character of these laments, appropriate at the funeral for a city, the death of a vision of national greatness. He helps us understand the acrostic structure of the first four chapters, including the threefold intensification of this pattern in the climatic chapter 3. Perhaps of greatest value is that Rah helps us identify some of the voices of the marginalized, particularly the women who have lost husbands, perhaps children--who often are the voices of suffering.

Perhaps the greatest challenge of the book is Rah's pointed applications of the book to the American church, particularly dominant culture, white evangelicalism. We have failed to listen to the voices of lament around us, from the native peoples robbed and subjugated and exterminated and marginalized, from African Americans forcibly enslaved, raped, lynched, and then "freed" to live in a racialized society, and other poor and marginalized in our society. Instead of taking their laments to heart and understanding our own complicity and our own paradoxical enslavement to hate and privilege, we deny the problem, or plant our own urban churches or give "handups" which assumes a certain superiority. What we do here, we do around the world, instead of acknowledging the riches of every culture and our partnership with other believers. We make enterprises out of even our justice ministries while failing to face either our cultural or political captivities.

Lament is the place we come to, according to Rah, when we realize that none of that is really working, when even our well-intended efforts contribute to the inequities of the world and that we are deeply impoverished in the midst of our affluence. It is a place of both repentance and the grace of God.

This is an uncomfortable book, and like Rah's The Next Evangelicalism (reviewed here), an incisive critique of American evangelicalism. Don't read this if you are looking for a "feel good" book! But if your heart aches because of the predominance of violence and hatred despite so much "progress," if the glitzy celebrations of your church life don't seem in touch with the ragged realities of our land, and if your stomach turns with the pronouncements and alliances of some of our religious "leaders," then a book on lamenting and making the prayers of Lamentations our own might be timely. It was for me.

[Matt · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book comes highly recommended from my Asian-American friends, and after reading it, I can see why. The book gives us an exposition of Lamentations and in the process gives us a thought-provoking criticism of the Western church and our triumphalism.

The book switches between an exposition of Lamentations and modern day applications. The exegesis of Lamentations is well researched and helps the reader understand the text of scripture well. It is not trying to be a verse by verse commentary, and it succeeds in exegeting the text by looking at larger chunks. By doing this kind of exegesis, it allows for Soong-Chan Rah to grasp well the bigger picture themes within each chapter. This format also allows for him to bring his interpretation to modern application.

The modern application consists of highlighting the Western captivity of the church, something covered in more depth in Rah's previous book, The Next Evangelicalism. He also
emphasizes strongly the need for lament in our churches and to face honestly both our own complicity in evil and the suffering inflicted upon others. By our inability to face suffering, we are dismissing the stories and lived experiences of those who have suffered.

It is in this part of the book that Rah is most challenging. His criticisms of the triumphalist American church are needed, as is his criticism of our own cultural paternalism. What Rah writes is challenging, yet it needs to be heard and grappled with. He has highlighted a real deficiency in our American churches, and we need to grapple with the entirety of scripture in order to live faithful lives as Christians. We need a theology of the cross which is present in suffering, not merely a theology of glory which is only present in victory and earthy success.

While the book is challenging, it is not without its flaws. Perhaps the biggest flaw of this book is that Rah tends to paint both the American church and Western culture in overly broad strokes. This can result in him building up a strawman (who is often all to real it must be acknowledged) of the white, Western American Christian. I'm afraid that this flaw will prohibit the message of his from getting heard by those he is trying to reach, namely white people like myself.

It might be helpful to point out two examples of these broad strokes. He criticizes the church pushing Western cultural values on the rest of the world as a bad thing. While this has certainly been true for some of our values and preferences such as exporting our own materialism, divisions, and worship styles onto other cultures, Western culture is not monolithically bad. Western cultural values also include human rights, and this has brought many good things to the broader world. Western cultural imperialism within the church needs to be criticized, but I don't know how much the criticism will be heard without also acknowledging some of the good things of Western culture.

A second example of this comes from the theology of Martin Luther. Luther famously believed in a theology of the cross against a theology of glory. This can be summarized by the following four points from the Heidelburg Disputation:
19. That person does not deserve to be called a theologian who looks upon the invisible things of God as though they were clearly perceptible in those things which have actually happened [Rom. 1:20].
20. He deserves to be called a theologian, however, who comprehends the visible and manifest things of God seen through suffering and the cross.
21. A theologian of glory calls evil good and good evil. A theologian of the cross calls the thing what it actually is.
22. That wisdom which sees the invisible things of God in works as perceived by man is completely puffed up, blinded, and hardened.
This theology would leave room for suffering and lament and would have little room for the triumphalism of much of American Christianity. Yet this is certainly a Western theology, and in some cases, an American theology. This doesn't undermine his argument, for there are indeed many who are guilty of a triumphalistic Christianity, but he is not helped by his overly broad criticism of Western Christianity.

As I was reading this book, I had one further criticism. In his exegesis, he shows how this was essential for the healing of the Jerusalem, and also showed well what the lack of lament has done in the American church. He leaves one important question addressed. How did the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ change things? He shows in his last chapters how the hope of Lamentations can only be fulfilled in Christ and not in hope for a new temple. But Jesus has already come, and how does that affect our hope now? Most Christians no longer read the imprecatory psalms in the same way now that Christ has come and shown us what it looks like to love our neighbor. We either allegorize them as does C.S. Lewis, interpret them Christologically with Bonhoeffer, dismiss them as outright sinful as some more liberal Christians do, or ignore them as most Americans do. But we don't usually take them as license to pray them in the same way as the original writers. Does Christ conquering death lead to a change in how we view lament as well? Maybe the answer arrived at would be the same, but I think the book would have been enriched by engaging with this question.

[Jen Mayes · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a powerful, challenging book. My second book from this author and I so appreciated his voice and learning from him. We need to learn how to lament more in this day and age and why that is key for real change to began in our world.

[RuthAnn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Powerful and challenging. This book felt very different from a lot of the rhetoric that's out there now in Christian circles, and I'm really thankful that a friend sent a copy to me out of the blue.

---

Our aim with this distinctive genre [series of commentary and insight] is to have one finger in the ancient Scriptures, another in the daily newspaper and another touching the heart, all the while pointing to Jesus Christ. (15; Paul Louis Metzger, book series executive editor)

Shalom, therefore, does not eschew or diminish the role of the other or the reality of a suffering world. Instead, it embraces the suffering other as an instrumental aspect of well-being. Shalom requires lament. (21)

Old Testament scholar Claus Westermann situates the Hebrew poetic material into two broad categories: praise and lament. Westermann asserts that "as the two poles, they determine the nature of all speaking to God." ... Lament in the Bible is a liturgical response to the reality of sufering and engages God in the context of pain and trouble. The hope of lament is that God would respond to human suffering that is wholeheartedly communicated through lament. (21, quoting Westermann's Praise and Lament in the Psalms, 1981)

To only have a theology of celebration at the cost of the theology of suffering is incomplete. The intersection of the two threads provides the opportunity to engage in the fullness of the gospel message. Lament and praise must go hand in hand. (23)

The first three verses of Lamentations remind the community why lament is necessary: a national tragedy has occurred. (32)

Life continues even as a community struggles with its place and identity. Escape from the reality of a fallen world is not an option. (34)

"With their embrace of dispensationalism, evangelicals shifted their focus radically from social amelioration to individual regeneration. Having diverted their attention from the construction of the millennial realm, evangelicals concentrated on the salvation of souls, and in doing so, neglected reform efforts." (37, quoting Bruggemann's The Psalms and the Life of Faith, 1995)

American churches are not supposed to struggle, and they are not supposed to decline, so we believe American ingenuity and know-how will solve these problems. (43)

Withdrawal from the world or accepting simplistic answers reveals human effort or human problem solving, while lament acknowledges who is ultimately in control. In the midst of a crisis, Lamentations points toward God and acknowledges his sovereignty regardless of the circumstances. (43)

... the proper response to a broken world: lament. (43)

Lament is an act of protest as the lamenter is allowed to express indignation and even outrage about the experience of the suffering. The lamenter talks back to God and ultimately petitions him for help, in the midst of pain. The one who laments can call out to God for help, and in that outcry there is the hope and even the manifestation of praise. (44)

Jeremiah 29 addresses the exiles in Babylon, while Lamentations is written to the remnant in Jerusalem. The exiles in Babylon are susceptible to false prophets who promise them what they want to hear: the hope that they will soon return to Jerusalem. To them, the devastation of Jerusalem is a physically distant reality. However, those remaining in Jerusalem are confronted with the painful and visible reality at hand. Lamentations is written to this remnant who witness this devastation. A funeral dirge is necessary because the dead body of the city lies before them. (45)

Even if God's people wanted to close their eyes and shut out the suffering around them, Lamentations won't allow it. (46)

Lament is honesty before God and each other. (47)

Our nation's tainted racial history reflects a serious inability to deal with reality. Something has died and we refuse to participate in the funeral. We refuse to acknowledge the lamenters who sing the songs of suffering in our midst. (47)

Lamentations 1 provides a truthful telling of the dead body in the room. (50; drawing connection to the US and racism)

A contemporary funeral dirge for the twenty-first-century American church would require the effort to more fully understand and learn another's history. (51-52; examples include watching films about the slave trade, visiting museums about the history of racism)

Lament is deeply felt. It is not simply a conscious, cognitive exercise. (56)

[Andrew] Park defines sin as "the wrongdoing of people toward God and their neighbors. Han is the pain experienced by the victimized neighbors. Sin is the unjust act of the oppressors; han the passive experience of their victims." (57, quoting Park's "Theology of Pain (the Abyss of Pain)," in Quarterly Review, Spring 1989.)

The guilt of individual sin leads to individual confession, but the shame of han should lead to social transformation. (57)

Lament calls for an authentic encounter with the truth and challenges privilege, because privilege would hide the truth that creates discomfort. (58)

Expressing a theology of celebration in the context of victory and success would lend itself to a voice of triumph reflecting a culturally masculine voice. A theology of suffering in the context of pain would call for a culturally feminine voice. ... Lamentations may prove to be the most important book of the Bible with a dominant feminine voice. (59)

We have a deficient theology that trumpets the triumphalist successes of evangelicalism while failing to hear from the stories of suffering that often tell us more about who we are as a community. (63)

We are forcing a theological famine upon ourselves by ignoring the voices of women. (64)

Lament leads to petition which leads to praise for God's response to the petition. (65)

The inability to offer comfort should compel us to acknowledge our total inability and turn to God for the answers. (67-68)

Lament calls us to examine the work of reconciliation between those who live under suffering with those who live in celebration. Lamentations challenges our celebratory assumptions with the reality of suffering. (69)

Lamentations 2 offers a possibility of the expansion of the American evangelical theological imagination in order to encompass suffering and lament, which a privileged perspective may not allow. Lamentations calls us to embrace a narrative of suffering in order to understand the fullness of God's message for his people. (72)

Hunger, homelessness, and racism are very real injustices, but they can be misunderstood when taken in an abstracted form. One of the most effective means of disengaging the church from the work of justice is making injustice a philosophical concept. (89)

What we surround ourselves with, in our everyday and communal Christian life, should reflect a commitment to hear the multitude of voices. The normative Christian faith should arise from a life lived with hearing from a range of voices, experiences and stories. (103-104)

The church has the power to bring healing in a racially fragmented society. That power is not found in an emphasis on strength but in suffering and weakness. (106)

The suffering narrative that informs the Lord's Table is essential for the unity found in the body of Christ. The necessary condition for the celebration of the Lord's Supper, therefore, is lament. (106)

While the breadth of evangelicalism can encompass the range of worship expressions, worship preferences in the local church tend to reflect whether the congregation arises from the context of celebration versus suffering. (107-108)

Our warped sense of what it means to be blessed by God and how we perceive human wealth and power as a earned favor from God results in a dysfunctional view of our worth in God's economy. (166)

One of the problems of dealing with corporate sin is the inability to connect individual responsibility for sin with the reality of corporate sin. For example, the easiest way to distance and absolve oneself from the issue of racism is to claim an individual innocence from personal prejudice. For example, the now classic retort "I am not a racist, I have never personally committed a racist act. I have never owned a slave. I have never personally taken land away from a Native American" reduces racism to an abstraction. By reducing racism to a purely individual level, corporate sin is depersonalized and has a higher level of deniability. (168)

Lament not only operates as the place of grieving over suffering, it is also the place of protest. (176)

We will pray for bigger churches, larger budgets, slimmer waistlines, more purpose in our lives, but we do not pray in recognition of the deepest suffering in our own lives or in the lives of others. Or prayers border on idolatry when we expect vending-machine type of results. (182)

A few years ago, I was speaking at a mission conference comprising mainly white suburbanite participants. I was listening to the speaker before me, when he dropped this little gem: "It's not about a handout, but a hand up." Actually, it's not about either. A handout means you think you're better than me and you're handing me something (something I probably don't deserve). A hand up means you think you're better than me and you're trying to lift me up from a bad place to your wonderful place. Actually, if it's a choice between the two, I'd rather have the handout. If you're going to be condescending, I might as well get a direct benefit out of it instead of being told that I need to become like you. Forget the handout or the hand up. Just reach a hand across. Let's be equals and partners. I don't need you to rescue me, just like you don't think you need rescuing by me. (196)

Remembering has been a painful experience so far, but this call to remembrance is not a furthering of a pity party. It is instead a call for God to remember to take heart, consider, look, see and ultimately act on their behalf. Even as God's people lament and draw attention to their suffering, this act reflects the realization that God is the only hope. But hope will only arise if God remembers. (197)

Listening to the previously silenced voices is an essential first step in the practice of lament. But a passive lament that fails to confront injustice fails to consider the power of prophetic advocacy in lament. (208)

[Benjamin Lawrence Walker · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is my second time beginning this book and first time finishing. The first time I attempt this book was alongside a group who was preparing for a lament services at my college. We read this book in preparation for that service- but I did not finish.
I didn’t finish because I felt that Rah was “too angry” and “too upset and passionate to be taken seriously.” I put the book back in my shelf never thinking I would pick it up again.
It’s been a long time since June 10, 2019 and much has happened in our world and in my soul. I know see that Rah is adequately angry and I was the one who was too upset by having my privilege called out to take Rah seriously. I have the privilege to put this book down and forget it because my life is not marked by racial prejudice. I have the choice to ignore, the choice to look away, the choice to forget. But not everyone has that choice. Not everyone has the privilege- and I see that now.

But to the book.

For a lot of reasons this book was tough to read. But it was a beautiful and necessary one. Rah walks verse-by-verse through the book of Lamentations, expounding and applying it to inner-city ministry work and justice work across the globe. Man, as a majority-person in ministry, what an eye-opening and needed critic of evangelical ministry. I can get quite turned off by people critiquing evangelicalism- it’s been quite in vogue these past few years (for many valid, but also invalid reasons). But Rah’s critic is needed and necessary.

As to the actual content of the book: please see my chapter summaries; as to my thoughts of the book: if you are in ministry of any sort at any level, purchase and read this book SOON.

[Rachel · Rating 5 out of 5]

So necessary. Feels especially necessary in our current times where so many are leaning on the myths of American exceptionalism

[Ethan · Rating 5 out of 5]

A powerful work challenging the triumphalist narrative of modern American Evangelicalism and a call to recover the lament traditions of the Bible through an exploration of Lamentations both in context and in light of modern American experience.

The author rightly exposes the overwrought emphasis on praise and triumphalism in much of modern Christianity: it's all positive and successful all the time, and that's not life, and that's not even the lived experience of many. Such triumphalism cannot bear the exposure of the witness of those who have suffered or been oppressed so as to sustain that triumphalism. The author never denies the place or importance of praise; instead, he seeks to balance praise with another prevalent form of discourse in Scripture, the lament.

To this end the author leads the reader through a study of Lamentations, which he believes is Jeremiah's response to the destruction of Jerusalem. The author does well to show the power, value, and need for the lament tradition, and how it works. He speaks of the need to identify that which needs to be lamented, to confess the sin and expose it as such, for as long as the corpse is not identified as such it will continue to cause the room to smell of death. He has no difficulty specifically identifying the legacy of racism and white supremacy in American Evangelicalism as something needing confessing and lamenting and has pointed out the rotten consequences of the attempt to minimize, hide, or justify past behaviors which demand lament. American consumerist culture also comes under indictment.

The author continues on through Lamentations, noting the importance of both individual and communal lament, recapitulation in lament, the reason and ground of hope and trust in God, and the ability to persevere in faith through persistence in lament. There will be the great ending when justice is served, mercy is displayed, and life is found in resurrection, but there's no guarantee that the lament will have to stop while we are on the earth: Lamentations, as the author says, ends in a "minor key," and the kind of resolution we all desire and the comfort from that resolution are not guaranteed in this life. The lament penned in the epilogue regarding Ferguson and other travails of the early 21st century is compelling and haunting.

This is no doubt a challenging read, especially for those who are white Christians; nevertheless, it is a powerful and important read, and worthwhile to sit in its discomfort. Highly recommended.

[Erin · Rating 5 out of 5]

This isn't one of those spiritual books that you read and say, "Wow. That was great. I feel so empowered to conquer the world now."

No. This book is a study of the book Lamentations, about mourning and living in loss, about yelling loudly about the injustice of it all, about repentance. It is about uncertainty. Will God redeem and restore Jerusalem and the people? Is it even possible? There isn't really anything left.

Soong-Chan Rah adds an application to the evangelical church in America, the church that likes to believe people can just "fix" things by their own power, or that encourages broken people to just choose happiness. Sometimes, he says, we need to allow people to mourn, complain, verbalize the losses. Sometimes there are no easy fixes, and we live in the uncertainty for generations.

He asserts we must listen to the voices of those who have experienced injustice if we want to be a part of God's work to restore.

Honestly, at the end of the book, I am so very glad I read it, but I'm wondering: What's my take away?
1. Greater awareness.
2. Deeper willingness to let people tell their stories of pain.
3. Commitment to read spiritual perspectives of people of color. Yes. Nearly every spiritual book I have read, and I have read a lot, is written by a white male. That is not to say they aren't good and worthwhile books, but I do wonder what perspectives I'm missing, what cultural nuances have been excluded. We all see through lenses of our own backgrounds.

Beyond that, I will trust God to speak to me.

Warning: Rah also engages in analysis of the poetry of lament, an ancient genre. I think he does this purposefully, but then again, I study rhetoric. If you read this book, you may hate that part. Skim it and keep going.

[Jillian Humphrey · Rating 4 out of 5]

“A theology of celebration has the luxury of being able to objectify God, and because suffering is kept at a distance it is not necessary for the presence of God to be immanent. God can be a distant abstraction whose praise is expected.

Lament as dialogue challenges the notion of an abstract relationship with God. A theology of suffering must acknowledge the cry of distress and suffering in lament before moving to the psalms of praise. Dialogical lament becomes a form of prayer.”

This book is a needed correction to our culture’s obsession with positivity, happy endings, and overcoming. Suffering is often more complicated and longer lasting than we’d like to acknowledge, and even the wisest, richest, and most powerful among us cannot ultimately rescue us from it. Rah helps us learn how to lament real (not abstract) suffering.

However, Rah’s writing is unwieldy at times, and not just because it is academic. I often sensed that he was talking around (and around) the point instead of stating it clearly.

Still, this is a book that helped to renew my mind and will affect how I engage with God and my own and others’ suffering.

Giving it 4 stars for helpfulness but 3 for readability/enjoyability.

[Jimmy McKee · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book, to the extent that a book on suffering, loss, grief and lament can be enjoyable. It was less a commentary on Lamentations, and more a cultural commentary on the American Evangelical church, particularly how the white suburban evangelical church in America does not have space for lament or even the acknowledgement of suffering. This is an important book, and Rah’s is an important voice to listen to when it comes to moving the evangelical church forward in the ways of the “weightier matters of the law, justice, mercy, and faith” Matt 23:23.

[Logan Maloney · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.4

Really incredible book! Everyone should definitely read this book to learn how the book of Lamentations is a prophetic lament looking towards today's times. There were a few times that went over my head (specifically talking about the poem structures and how important that was) and was a little dry in those spots. Really loved when he talked through the ways we should lament in today's times.

[Nancy Peifer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent but challenging read. Read it with an open mind and heart, then ponder. That’s where I am now...pondering. It may shake your tidy Christian world or it may make you angry or it may make you think, or all three as Rah invites us to shake off the comfort of our privileged, Western christianity and join in lament for the injustices so many of our non-white brothers and sisters suffer.

[Alex · Rating 3 out of 5]

There were some good nuggets scattered throughout (see previous updates), but overall the book was just okay. The parts that were an exegesis of Lamentations were strong, but the connection to the state of the American church felt forced and unnatural. I would’ve preferred just a reflection on Lamentations and what it means for the church to lament.

[Paul · Rating 2 out of 5]

There are two parts to this book that the author goes back and forth between. The first is an exegetical analysis of Lamentations. That part is done fairly well, even if overly repetitive. It is a scholarly work with lines like "An individualistic soul-saving soteriology emerged from a dispensational theology." Some may find it a difficult read. It is not very likely though that the exegetical analysis is the reason most people pick up the book. The second part is how this is to apply to us today and that part is executed very poorly. The message of the book is simple. Modern American evangelical churches are overly positive in their messaging to the individual and do not embrace lament corporately in their liturgy as much as they should. In doing so, they do not allow those who are suffering to give voice to their sorrow and which others need to hear. Completely missing from this discussion though are all other denominations of Christianity (Catholic, Episcopalian, Lutheran, Methodist, etc.) other than being lumped into criticism of the general category of "Western Christianity".
Much of the book centers on how systemic issues at an institutional level are prevalent, even if individuals are not the proximate cause of them, and how those systemic issues affect others. His tie from Lamentations to the present is primarily the issue of systemic racism in the US. However, it is only very briefly he mentions any others affected by systemic issues (i.e. women, economic inequality, class discrimination). There is zero mention of social injustice regarding the LGBQT community. Systemic social injustices are an important topic. If that is your interest in picking up this book, other authors handle those issues much better and more in depth. Rah does not really provide much in the way of addressing those issues other than listening, which is important, but it is not a panacea.
There is frequently the feeling that Rah has a chip on his shoulder when it comes to evangelical churches and has a bone to pick in some way to that community, rather than delivering a real prophetic message for our times. His critique is with the mega churches and their message of triumphalism without any balancing with lament. They have too much theology of celebration. Adding lament to institutional liturgy and allowing others to voice their sorrows is a start, but again, Rah offers more criticism than answers other than adding lament. His critique includes all of Western Culture (particularly individualism) and Western Christianity in overly broad stokes. The critique of individualism may be in part because Rah was born in Korea, which has a community-based social culture. That does not mean our individualistic culture is worse or does not have redeeming qualities. Those are something he fails to mention. Some of the connections he makes (unrelated to scripture) do not make much sense.
An example of this is our consumer culture. Consumerism rose dramatically after WWI in the 1920s when families were able to spend less of their income on necessities and more on things like appliances, recreation, and a host of new consumer products made available through industrialization. Rah however points to slavery as the cause of materialism and consumer culture today. "Often, texts that critique materialism fail to mention that rampant consumerism may be a product of an American history that viewed life as consumable." He doesn't tie it to Lamentations other than the trap of wealth in general that contributed to the downfall of Jerusalem. All in all, not one of my top ten reads nor one of the ten worst. A bit repetitive, a little scholarly, no real new insights or answers. Meh.

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a sort of commentary on the biblical book of Lamentations, yet it also is a commentary on the need for lament in the (white) evangelical church in America.
I started reading this book because I thought it would be different in the sense of addressing the topic of lament, as well as being a voice from a non-white author.
I felt like the book was helpful on a couple fronts: both in examining Lamentations itself—with a particular focus on the various voices and poetic forms being used—as well as drawing a direct critique and critic of the lack of lament in today’s evangelical church that tends toward positivity.
The book is not a quick or easy read, both because of the subject matter and because of the repetition. Quite a bit I felt bogged down or like the same thing had been said multiple times—which can be effective in getting across an idea, but at times the writing also left me feeling like it could have been said more succinctly. But Lamentations itself is repetitive so when following the progression of the biblical book it makes sense that this book too felt like it was covering the same ground more than once.

I’m glad I read the book but it is not the first book I would give to someone looking for a different perspective on race etc. The author takes a very direct and critical view of the white evangelical church which might quickly turn off those who aren’t willing to hear and listen to a different perspective.

[Tanner Hawk · Rating 4 out of 5]

A necessary read for the Western church.

"The triumph-and-success orientation of our typical church member needed the corrective brought by stories of struggle and suffering. These stories should not merely provide a sprinkling of flavor for the existing triumphalistic narrative that furthers the privilege of those in the dominant culture. The tendency to view the holistic work of the church as the action of the privilege toward the marginalized often derails the work of true community healing. Ministry in the urban context, acts of justice and racial reconciliation require a deeper engagement with the other--an engagement that acknowledges suffering rather than glossing over it" (20-21).

"The American Church avoids lament. The power of lament is minimized and the underlying narrative of suffering that requires lament is lost. But absence doesn't make the heart grow fonder. Absence makes the heart forget. The absence of lament in a liturgy of the American Church results in the loss of memory. We forget the necessity of lamenting over suffering and pain. We forget the reality of suffering in pain" (22).

"What do we lose as a result of this imbalance [of praise and lament]? American Christians that flourish under the existing system seek to maintain the existing dynamics of inequality and remain in the theology of celebration over and against the theology of suffering...Promoting one perspective over the other, however, diminishes our theological discourse. Lament and praise must go hand-in-hand" (23).

"Lament is honesty before God and each other. If something has truly been declared dead, there is no use in sugarcoating that reality. To hide from suffering and death would be an act of denial. If an individual would deny the reality of death during a funeral, friends would justifiably express concern over the mental health of that individual. In the same way, should we not be concerned over a church that lives in denial over the reality of death in our midst? Our nation's tainted racial history reflects a serious inability to deal with reality. Something has died and we refuse to participate in the funeral. We refuse to acknowledge the lamenters who sing the songs of suffering in our midst" (47).

"In the American Christian narrative, the stories of the dominant culture are placed front and center while stories from the margins are often ignored. As we rush toward a description of an America that is now post-racial, we forget that the road to this phase is littered with dead bodies...the painful stories in American history must be revealed and learned" (51).

"Injustice can be objectified and depersonalized. Hunger, homelessness, and racism are very real injustices, but they can be misunderstood when taken in an abstract form. One of the most effective means of disengaging the church from the work of justice is making injustice a philosophical concept... We abstract injustice, allowing ourselves to believe we no longer have a direct hand in it. We make injustice impersonal; if everyone is responsible, then no one is responsible. But justice should not be abstracted to a corporate concept that justifies ongoing individual injustice. Justice is social and corporate, but it requires a personal face" (88-89).

"What we surround ourselves with, in our everyday and communal Christian life, should reflect a commitment to hear the multitude of voices" (103-4).

"a robust dialogue on race requires a sense of personal culpability. There needs to be a personal connection to the corporate sin that has entered our culture. Our claims must shift from the defensive posture of 'I'm not racist' to 'I am responsible and culpable in the corporate sin of racism.' We must move from 'let's just get over it' to 'how do I personally continue to perpetuate systems of privilege?' Justice must move from the third person to the first person, from the abstract of the personal" (125-6).

"The term justice is too casually thrown about without the corresponding sacrifice. We want the popularity associated with being justice activists, but we don't want to lament alongside those who suffer. Instead of a justice that arises from the lament of the suffering, justice is misappropriated as a furtherance of the narrative of celebration. American Christian justice leaders are applauded for their self-sacrifice, which allows for a furtherance of Western exceptionalism and even an exploitation of justice as a career-building move" (147).

"Could of the newly arrived concern for justice among evangelicals in the 21st century actually be a furtherance of consumerism and materialism? In our quest for justice, do we actually contribute to injustice? Many of our expressions of justice may be attempts to package Western guilt and pity in the wrapping paper of compassion. Social justice comes in a box with a clever acronym to sell the product to the American Christian consumer mass market, rather than addressing the actual needs that are voiced by the poor themselves. Because the American Church is increasingly captive to the materialistic culture of American society, it is increasingly difficult to speak prophetically against that culture. While there may exist the rhetoric of the church against an unjust culture, the lifestyle of injustice in the church continues unabated in the context of consumerism" (152).

"The legitimation of the voice of the suffering offers the very real possibility of justice being called out... Lament is the opportunity for the suffering to speak" (177).

"Incarnational ministry has frequently come to mean the relocation of the educated, affluent, white suburbanite to help the poor, black urbanite. White Christians empty themselves of the blessing of their suburban existence and humble themselves to save poor black folks in the city...When I meet new urban church planters who are relocators, many do not necessarily feel called to a specific neighborhood. Their call to the city is not based upon a deep God-given burden for a community that they have lived in for decades. Instead, the abstracted city becomes a testing ground for ministry models and paradigms that have worked well in white, suburban neighborhoods. Doing ministry for the urban community may become central, more than doing ministry with the people of the neighborhood" (194).

[Danny · Rating 5 out of 5]

Do you know how to lament? I’ve never been taken through the book of Lamentations. In my own readings (and my own naivety) I saw it as a simple, yet painful lament over a fallen city and nation. Perhaps, reading about a tragic and horrific event from millennia ago, knowing that it would be restored eventually, disconnected me from the words on the pages. What Prophetic Lament does, rightly, is teach us about the actual Lamenting that took place, the significance of it all, and, most importantly to us today, what does it mean for us? If we truly believe all scripture is God breathed, then what does God have to say to us through Lamentations? How does it impact our walks and our perceptions? Our relationships even? This book sends the reader on that path, making bold but oh so justified connections with the American Evangelical church and the suffering endured right here in our nation. Amongst all the other reading one may take up to learn more about social justice, black history, and the brokenness that exists in our nation, this is a must to learn how to put it all in the context of Godly lamenting and reconciliation.

[Tyler Brown · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved reading this book by Dr. Rah. I love this idea for a series of commentaries that interact with the text but specialize in applying its message to our unique time and location. Dr. Rah offers many insightful observations and interpretations of the short OT book of Lamentations, but he excels in showing how we must apply that word to issues in the 21st Century American Church culture. Several of his applications were convicting, affirming, and challenging. Dr. Rah is a voice that we must heed in our evangelical circles.

There were a few applications that I didn't love, or I think could have used some nuance, but even when I disagree, Dr. Rah made me reconsider and think, and for that I am grateful! Bravo.

[Ceidric Platero · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was really helpful in giving me a better understanding of lament - especially for my journey in reclaiming my Native identity as a Navajo man. Had some things I questioned, but overall left a life-giving affect on my faith. Would recommend for someone who has a hard time giving proper space and time to grief.

[Justin Lonas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lots to chew on. A faithful, earnest reminder that owning our sin, and the consequences thereof (even, or especially, generational and systemic sin) is the first step toward true repentance and restoration.

[Maddie Jeanette · Rating 4 out of 5]

Such an insightful book. Rah is raw and honest and calls the American church to be better! My favorite line is, “The church must recover the practice of lament to combat a triumphalistic narrative that hinders the authentic confrontation of injustice in our world.” Yes!

[Susan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow! Powerfully challenging book on lament and suffering. Author teaches on the book of Lamentations chapter by chapter plus connects the dots on the need for both celebration and lament in our worship services.

[Carol Willis · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is hard, in the sense of being so true and needed that it makes the reader uncomfortable. We need to be uncomfortable. We need to relearn how to lament as a corrective to American white Chritian exceptionalism. I'm so very glad I read this book.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

Worth returning to often.