Learning how to lament together in the Hospital

Americans, on the whole, don’t know how to lament together very well. 

In fact, odds are good that, as you read that last sentence, you thought, “Lament.  That’s a weird word.  I wonder what Matt means by ‘lament’.”  Well, thank you for asking.  I mean the actual basic definition: To mourn aloud.  Americans don’t often mourn aloud together, particularly in ways that are helpful to the aloud mourners and their friends. 

Ash Wednesday is most famously known as the day after Fat Tuesday (Mardi Gras for the French enthusiasts), but is more significant in being an annual reminder that the Church has the opportunity to gather together and mourn together.  Aloud. 

Those of us who live in Bellingham and have access to health care will likely spend some of our worst days in the hospital, so to enter into the story of Ash Wednesday, Spring Church gathered in the hospital.  

For those of us who pray, when we are in the hospital on our worst day, we will likely pray for healing for those who are in pain.  Jesus has the power to answer that prayer, but we don’t know if Jesus will answer that prayer in the way we want him to. 

And so, for Ash Wednesday, the question we explored at Spring Church was, “Where does it feel like Jesus is absent or silent in my life right now?” And, as we learn how to mourn that silence together, we also experience how to walk with Jesus, even during the hard and silent times.  

Experiencing this service of lament with children, with homeless people in recovery, with people with mental health challenges, was honest, beautiful, and reminded me of why I love the Church so much.  Lament is a normal and necessary part of life, even if I’m not very good at it either.  

Article by Matt McCoy, Pastor of Spring Church Bellingham