Lamentations, a statement from Bishop Leonard Fairley

Lamentations

A voice is heard in Raman, lamentation and bitter weeping. Rachel is weeping for her children; she refuses to be comforted for her children, because they are no more.” -Jeremiah 31:15

The following is not so much a Bishop’s response (I grow weary of statements) as it is a lament from a heart that breaks, and prays for the day when the lament of our collective suffering will be enough for a breakthrough.
 
I know my own complicity and indifference because my words seem so inadequate when what God requires is the action of my heart, mind, and soul wrapped in the creator’s redemptive power of love, peace, justice and reconciliation. I have no words of my own because my heart has wept a million tears. I have no more tears to cry, no more words to say. I simply share these words from Ted Loder:
 
Sometimes It Just Seems to Be Too Much

“Sometimes, Lord,
it just seems to be too much:
too much violence, too much fear;
too much of demands and problems;
too much of broken dreams and broken lives;
too much of war and slums and dying;
too much greed and squishy fatness
and the sound of people
devouring each other
and the earth;

Too much of darkness, Lord,
too much of cruelty
and selfishness
and indifference.....
 
Or is it too little,
too little of compassion,
too little of courage,
of daring,
of persistence,
of sacrifice......”                                                       

-Guerrillas of Grace, by Ted Loder
 
“For our struggle is not against enemies of blood and flesh, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.”
-Ephesians 5:12-13
 
What is it that you require of me Oh Lord? How can I be light in this darkness? How can my words counter the words of hatred? How long Oh Lord!!!!

In Christ,

Bishop Leonard Fairley