October 3, 2025 • 18 mins
Sorrow doesn’t mean you’ve lost faith; it means you’ve loved deeply enough to tell the truth. Naming our losses can be both spiritual and practical. Psalm 137 shows what happens when a community refuses euphemism, resists denial, and chooses to face reality with courage. That choice isn’t about wallowing; it’s about setting the stage for healing, responsibility, and real hope.
In this episode, Melissa and Bishop Wright have a conversation about what we learn from Psalm 137. They discuss the tension between emotional performance and emotional honesty, and why the psalms offer a vocabulary for the full range of human experience: doubt, trust, anger, and gratitude. They unpack how the power of a single voice can serve the entire community by helping others see afresh. Listen in for the full conversation.
Read For Faith, the companion devotional.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Bishop Wright (00:00):
You know, lament is not always consensus.
And sometimes we need people tobe brave enough to lament so
that the rest of us can seeafresh, can see anew.
And so lament by some actuallyends up being community service.
I think the psalmists and thepsalmists among us can help the
rest of us see that in terms ofestablishing a reasonable floor
(00:24):
height for the community, maybewe need to look again.
(00:50):
Welcome to For People with Bishop Rob Wright. Im your host Melissa, and this conversation is inspried by For Faith, Bishop Wright's weekly devotional that goes out every Friday. Youcan find a link to this week's
For Faith and a link tosubscribe in the episode's
description.
Over the course of this nextseason, Bishop Wright has been
framing his devotions and ourconversations around the theme
We Believe as we make our waythrough the lectionary.
Bishop Rob, you named thisweek's devotion.
(01:10):
We believe sorrow is a part oflife.
Let me just read the actual meditation to you so
people all have that, and thenwe can have a conversation about
it.
Melissa (01:19):
Fabulous.
Bishop Wright (01:20):
We believe sorrow is a part of life.
That's what we believe.
And we know that to denyfeelings of loss and sadness
will injure us and our societyultimately.
When the psalmist, Psalm 137,sings, By the waters of Babylon,
we sat down and wept when weremembered.
He's saying he sees the actualfacts on the ground over the
(01:53):
preferred facts.
He's leading his community insomething a lot more difficult,
a lot more mature, and a lotmore holy than simple
expressions of anger, rage, andeven violent acts, which have
become too frequently ourdefault responses to seasons of
sorrow and loss.
(02:15):
That's Psalm 137, verse 1.
Melissa (02:19):
Wow, Bishop, so having you read read that, two
different things jumped out atme.
The first one saying thatfeelings of loss and sadness
will ultimately injure us andour society if we're not able if
we deny it.
Bishop Wright (02:34):
Yeah.
Melissa (02:35):
And then that's juxtaposed by or complimented by
the fact that Jesus here wasn'treally getting caught up in the
weeds.
Like he was, he was reallygoing deep on a mature level,
um, in about telling the truth,right?
Bishop Wright (02:50):
Yeah.
Melissa (02:51):
So we have to we have to tell the truth and we have to
take time to lament.
We haven't been doing so wellat that.
Bishop Wright (02:58):
No, we don't want to lament uh because denial and
euphemism about reality is a isa much safer way to hold
reality, right?
Um uh John Meacham, uh ourgreat national treasure and
historian, said that uh thetrick is when thinking about
history, whether our personalhistory or whether we're talking
(03:20):
about our national history, ourcommunity's history, is not to
venerate it, not to look up toit, uh, neither to look down on
it, but to look it square in theface.
And uh I think there areoccasions in our personal life
and certainly in our nationalhistory and our community's
history where we've got to lookwhat is in the face, and we've
(03:41):
got to not squint or turn away.
And so the point of Psalm 137is just giving voice to
lamentation, just saying we'veloved and we've lost.
Look, the blues, the bluesmusic, and you know, uh
wonderful country music is agreat gift to us because it
wants to exercise how we reallyfeel.
(04:02):
My dog left me, and so did mywife.
Uh, nobody, nobody loves me butmy mom, and she might be
Joshin.
You know what I mean?
I mean, uh sometimes life islike that.
And and you know, the point iswe're ultimately more healthy
when we can cough that up, whenwe can say that.
And in fact, I would say uhhealthy because if we don't
(04:23):
actually grieve, then somehow wedeny that we loved, right?
And then somehow we're we'reunderprepared for joy's visit,
right?
So we shouldn't get locked intothis performance uh of denying
or not calling uh a thing itsname.
In fact, that's holy, that'sspiritually mature, that's
(04:44):
psychologically mature.
So what scripture is doing herein Psalm 137 is saying that we
have been taken away as captivesby another nation.
Our traditions, our food, ourlanguage, our women have been
raped, our young men have beenkilled, and now we've been
reduced to this uh this statusof slave.
(05:05):
And not only that, Psalm 137goes on to say, not only that,
but now our captors want us tosing them a psalm, right?
And so, you know, insult toinjury.
And so, in some ways, this is adefiant act because he is
endeavoring, the psalmist isendeavoring, to call the you
(05:25):
know, the community together andsay, we remember when we were
in power, we remember when wewere whole, we remember when we
were healthy, we remember whenwe were secure.
And to do that uh as a captiveis an act of defiance.
Uh, so I'm going to look atreality, I'm not going to be
afraid of reality, and I'm goingto believe that.
(05:49):
Now, this is the best part ofthis whole thing.
I'm going to believe that thereis God still, despite my
present situation andcircumstances.
So for my part, I can staregrief in the face, I can name
loss.
Yeah, it's a big deal.
Melissa (06:06):
It is a big deal.
What I love about the Psalmstoo is that oftentimes the
psalmists and the psalmist oftenwill take responsibility for
their own crap.
Right?
Like they name that thepsalmist often will name when
they've they've missed the mark,and yet they still give glory
to God.
And sometimes I feel like we'realways about the blaming and
(06:29):
the shaming game rather thantaking responsibility for our
own contributions towards thesystem that we find ourselves
in.
Bishop Wright (06:37):
Yeah, that's right.
I mean, and this is why I say,you know, um, it's easier to
fend off reality than to take upthe responsibility of reality,
right?
Um, so not only taking up theresponsibility, but also um
understanding that life hasthese terrible, terrible lows,
and that uh figuring out how tolive through all of that with a
(06:59):
good dose of faith um is isreally the art of living with
God.
And so we see this on displayin the psalms.
You know, sometimes in in oneof the psalms, uh we we wonder
where God is, and then like twoverses later, we say, hooray,
there is God, and then we goback to the next verse and we
say, wait a minute, where'd yougo, God?
(07:20):
And you know, um, and so what Ilove about the Psalms, and I've
said this before in thepodcast, is that they're
emotionally honest.
I mean, Psalm 137 says we weep.
Um, and you know, I one wonderswhen we think about our own
nation, if if if all of this umbluster and saber rattling uh
that we're doing isn't becausewe can't process the fact that
(07:45):
we are becoming less exceptionalin a lot of categories.
And so we have to continue theperformance of sort of being the
nation.
Now, let's be clear here, uh,in terms of gross domestic
product, uh, in terms of uh thestrength of our military, uh the
potency of our military, interms of uh of lots of wonderful
(08:05):
things that I personally enjoyas an American citizen.
Yeah, it's fantastic, it'swonderful.
But then there are parts of ourcommon life which are not so
great.
Um, the amount of poro on therise, um, you know, uh our uh
crumbling infrastructure, ourparalyzing uh uh national uh
(08:26):
sort of debate uh in terms oflegislation, getting legislation
approved, et cetera, et cetera,et cetera.
Um, the state of publiceducation, the state of public
health, um, you know, the careof our elderly, and there's a
lot of categories that we arenot so great in.
And, you know, what the solacegives us is the ability to love
(08:46):
and at the same time name thelosses.
And so uh patriotism sometimesin America these days can really
be sort of uh a shell uh ofwhat I think people are
intending because they can'tnuance it.
We have to say that all is wellwhen the truth of the matter is
love for the nation should say,yeah, we love the nation, but
(09:08):
we've got a lot of categories uhthat we really need to lament.
We need to lament um gunviolence.
We need to lament what'shappening with our young people,
we need to lament what'shappening with our veterans when
they come home and the absenceof care that they get.
There's a lot of things that weneed to lament, but uh the
system wants to say that uh youcan't say those things because
(09:30):
that's disloyalty.
And so the psalmist is saying,um, no, we can actually give
voice to things because we love,uh, right?
It's because we love that wehave to give things voice.
And I think that's just a wordfor a lot of us.
Uh, when we personally lose,move out of the national into
the personal.
When we personally lose orloss, uh, we try to blunt the
(09:53):
grief, fend off the grief,diminish or deny the grief.
When it's just a season oflife.
And we don't have to do it byourselves.
We can lean on the community.
I agree with all of that.
(10:25):
I'm what I'm really wrestlingwith, Bishop, is how to be and
what to do about it in thatseason of Lament, because you've
said the word reality a numberof times now.
And I'm not quite sure thatmany people agree on what
reality even is anymore.
Like if we can't agree oncertain things, like where is
the commonality?
(10:45):
What I don't know.
That's I don't know how to beor or what to do.
Sure.
Well, I mean, when have we everagreed about everything, you
know, in human history, right?
So I think that's not arealistic goal.
I I think what we have to sayis that we grieve.
So I grieve.
I'm a veteran, uh, and I havetwo sons now uh who are enlisted
(11:07):
in the military.
And I grieve, uh, I celebrateand rejoice in their service to
the country uh and that theywant to serve.
I rejoice and I rejoice.
I had that experience as ayoung person.
And yet I look around in theDiocese of Atlanta, Middle North
Georgia, and beyond, and I lookat the state of the services
that are provided to ourveterans, and I lament that.
(11:29):
I lament that we can't dobetter for the families and the
young people who come home to uswho are in need.
I lament that.
So I don't know that everybodyhas to agree on everything, but
I do know that God has given ustwo eyes, and in my case, with
glasses, four eyes, and I doknow that we can look out and we
can see for ourselves.
Um, you know, lament is notalways consensus.
(11:52):
And sometimes we need people tobe brave enough to lament so
that the rest of us can seeafresh, can see anew.
And so lament uh by someactually ends up being community
service because some of usmight not want to see certain
things, right?
I mean, before I was uh beforeI was bishop, frankly speaking,
(12:12):
I didn't spend a lot of timethinking about the death
penalty, right?
When I became the bishop, Ididn't spend a lot of time, and
but then it was people who hadhad um who had dedicated their
lives to overturning the deathpenalty who helped me to see.
And it was their great love oflife and lament that we did this
(12:33):
in Jackson, Georgia, uh, whichis in the Diocese of Atlanta, uh
that caught my attention andpierced perhaps even my numbness
or certainly my too busyness tothe thing.
And so I think the psalmistsand the psalmists among us can
help the rest of us see that interms of establishing a
reasonable floor height, right,for the community, um, maybe we
(12:56):
need to look again.
Um, so yeah, I realize that wecan't, but we can't allow this
idea of once we reach consensusabout the need for lamentations,
that we all get to that.
That that can't work.
It's always been uneven.
And that's why the prophets,Jeremiah by name, what we call
the weeping prophet, uh, is soimportant.
(13:17):
Uh because uh uh whether it wasin season or out of the season,
whether people liked it or not,Jeremiah lamented.
It lamented the direction ofthe nation, lamented it out
loud, invited other people tosee the gaps uh in our our
fidelity to God.
Melissa (13:33):
Bishop, do you have any insight on how and how we might
be able to put lament in acommunity practice way better
than we typically have, at leastin the last few decades of my
life that I recall or remember?
Bishop Wright (13:48):
Yeah.
Well, you know, we know how todo it occasionally, you know,
when when uh a national figuredies, you know, we we do, we we
take up those kinds of things.
We as a community, we pray.
Um sometimes we'll we'll bringthe flag down to half mast.
Um uh we'll have a day off, aday of remembrance, we'll take
(14:10):
flowers and or candles, we'll dovigils, et cetera.
So that's that's part of it.
Uh, but I would like to see usbe able to practice that uh in
in regular congregations um andin you know in appropriate
settings.
Um, you know, in some ways,given the rapid loss that we're
experiencing in a lot of places,and especially as we think
(14:31):
about the average age of theaverage person in some of our
congregations, we may need aspace for that.
You know, in the in theEpiscopal Church, for instance,
we have the season of Lent, uh,where we are not only saying
we're sorry, but we lament ourinfidelity, right?
But we can also in Lent uh alsolament lots of other things.
(14:52):
We can lament the the um thedirection of the nation.
We can uh lament the directionof uh of our callousness uh
toward one another.
We can, you know, we can uh wecan lament the fact that the
storage industry uh is growingwhere charity is shrinking.
Um so we're hoarding more thanhelping.
Uh, you know, so so I I thinkreally we're only bound by the
(15:17):
imagination of the people whogather us uh in terms of who are
exerting spiritual leadership.
But we shouldn't only rely onthe on the bishops and the
priests and the deacons and thepastors and the elders.
Uh some of us realize out of agreat sensitivity uh that we've
got to say something aboutthings.
Here's what I know.
Personally, people default,people do lament lamentation or
(15:40):
lamenting, whether they knowthey're doing it or not.
I've been to cocktail partieswhere people talk about
headlines and then inevitablyafter we've talked for a little
while, people say, ah, well,what are you gonna do?
Well, uh just giving voice toall the negativity and
everything up till then um is asort of an informal uh
lamentation or lament.
(16:02):
Uh I think what we have to do,though, uh that we don't do in
social settings, that we coulddo perhaps in congregations, is
then give it to God, uh, youknow, cough it up ourselves, and
then offer it up to God uh forGod to use it as fodder for uh
God's redemptive purposes.
Melissa (16:20):
Bishop, we believe sorrow is a part of life, and
there are a number of thingsthat I am personally grieving
and mourning.
So I'm curious if you have anylast thoughts that you'd like to
share with our listeners beforewe bid everyone a do on what
you might be lamenting at thistime.
Bishop Wright (16:38):
Oh, absolutely.
I mean, I've in some waysgiving you a cue of all that
about all the things that I'mlamenting.
And and you know, if ifsomeone's listening and saying,
wow, this this episode is reallybumming me out, let me just say
this.
Uh uh, I'm sorry, and I'm sorryabout this, and I'm grieving
this, and we have lost this,really is a is a great turning
point for us personally uh andfor us uh community-wise and
(17:01):
culturally.
I mean, think about the sincereI'm sorry that you've said uh
to another person, right?
It is taking responsibility forthe moment, acknowledging
something, uh uh coughing it up,getting it said out loud.
But then then the next chapterbegins.
And that's the good news ofthis.
This is this is not just aboutsort of uh being uh uh, you
(17:24):
know, sort of a slave toemotions.
No, not at all.
That's not the point.
The point is uh for our mentaland spiritual health uh to say
these things out loud.
Uh it's a confession of loveand having lost.
And at the same time, it's uhit's a petition.
It's to God to say, can youhelp us with this?
We're overpowered uh by all ofthe grief in our life.
(17:47):
And so uh, yes, we believe thatsorrow is a part of our life,
but it's just a season uh andit's not the end.
It's a step in the process toturn around.
Melissa (17:58):
Thank God for that.
Bishop, thank you, and thankyou, listeners, for listening to
For People.
You can follow us on Instagramand Facebook at Bishop Rob
Wright or by visitingwww.forpeople.digital.
Please subscribe, leave areview, and we'll be back with
you next week.
You know, lament is not always consensus.
And sometimes we need people tobe brave enough to lament so
that the rest of us can seeafresh, can see anew.
And so lament by some actuallyends up being community service.
I think the psalmists and thepsalmists among us can help the
rest of us see that in terms ofestablishing a reasonable floor
(00:24):
height for the community, maybewe need to look again.
(00:50):
Welcome to For People with Bishop Rob Wright. Im your host Melissa, and this conversation is inspried by For Faith, Bishop Wright's weekly devotional that goes out every Friday. Youcan find a link to this week's
For Faith and a link tosubscribe in the episode's
description.
Over the course of this nextseason, Bishop Wright has been
framing his devotions and ourconversations around the theme
We Believe as we make our waythrough the lectionary.
Bishop Rob, you named thisweek's devotion.
(01:10):
We believe sorrow is a part oflife.
Let me just read the actual meditation to you so
people all have that, and thenwe can have a conversation about
it.
Melissa (01:19):
Fabulous.
Bishop Wright (01:20):
We believe sorrow is a part of life.
That's what we believe.
And we know that to denyfeelings of loss and sadness
will injure us and our societyultimately.
When the psalmist, Psalm 137,sings, By the waters of Babylon,
we sat down and wept when weremembered.
He's saying he sees the actualfacts on the ground over the
(01:53):
preferred facts.
He's leading his community insomething a lot more difficult,
a lot more mature, and a lotmore holy than simple
expressions of anger, rage, andeven violent acts, which have
become too frequently ourdefault responses to seasons of
sorrow and loss.
(02:15):
That's Psalm 137, verse 1.
Melissa (02:19):
Wow, Bishop, so having you read read that, two
different things jumped out atme.
The first one saying thatfeelings of loss and sadness
will ultimately injure us andour society if we're not able if
we deny it.
Bishop Wright (02:34):
Yeah.
Melissa (02:35):
And then that's juxtaposed by or complimented by
the fact that Jesus here wasn'treally getting caught up in the
weeds.
Like he was, he was reallygoing deep on a mature level,
um, in about telling the truth,right?
Bishop Wright (02:50):
Yeah.
Melissa (02:51):
So we have to we have to tell the truth and we have to
take time to lament.
We haven't been doing so wellat that.
Bishop Wright (02:58):
No, we don't want to lament uh because denial and
euphemism about reality is a isa much safer way to hold
reality, right?
Um uh John Meacham, uh ourgreat national treasure and
historian, said that uh thetrick is when thinking about
history, whether our personalhistory or whether we're talking
(03:20):
about our national history, ourcommunity's history, is not to
venerate it, not to look up toit, uh, neither to look down on
it, but to look it square in theface.
And uh I think there areoccasions in our personal life
and certainly in our nationalhistory and our community's
history where we've got to lookwhat is in the face, and we've
(03:41):
got to not squint or turn away.
And so the point of Psalm 137is just giving voice to
lamentation, just saying we'veloved and we've lost.
Look, the blues, the bluesmusic, and you know, uh
wonderful country music is agreat gift to us because it
wants to exercise how we reallyfeel.
(04:02):
My dog left me, and so did mywife.
Uh, nobody, nobody loves me butmy mom, and she might be
Joshin.
You know what I mean?
I mean, uh sometimes life islike that.
And and you know, the point iswe're ultimately more healthy
when we can cough that up, whenwe can say that.
And in fact, I would say uhhealthy because if we don't
(04:23):
actually grieve, then somehow wedeny that we loved, right?
And then somehow we're we'reunderprepared for joy's visit,
right?
So we shouldn't get locked intothis performance uh of denying
or not calling uh a thing itsname.
In fact, that's holy, that'sspiritually mature, that's
(04:44):
psychologically mature.
So what scripture is doing herein Psalm 137 is saying that we
have been taken away as captivesby another nation.
Our traditions, our food, ourlanguage, our women have been
raped, our young men have beenkilled, and now we've been
reduced to this uh this statusof slave.
(05:05):
And not only that, Psalm 137goes on to say, not only that,
but now our captors want us tosing them a psalm, right?
And so, you know, insult toinjury.
And so, in some ways, this is adefiant act because he is
endeavoring, the psalmist isendeavoring, to call the you
(05:25):
know, the community together andsay, we remember when we were
in power, we remember when wewere whole, we remember when we
were healthy, we remember whenwe were secure.
And to do that uh as a captiveis an act of defiance.
Uh, so I'm going to look atreality, I'm not going to be
afraid of reality, and I'm goingto believe that.
(05:49):
Now, this is the best part ofthis whole thing.
I'm going to believe that thereis God still, despite my
present situation andcircumstances.
So for my part, I can staregrief in the face, I can name
loss.
Yeah, it's a big deal.
Melissa (06:06):
It is a big deal.
What I love about the Psalmstoo is that oftentimes the
psalmists and the psalmist oftenwill take responsibility for
their own crap.
Right?
Like they name that thepsalmist often will name when
they've they've missed the mark,and yet they still give glory
to God.
And sometimes I feel like we'realways about the blaming and
(06:29):
the shaming game rather thantaking responsibility for our
own contributions towards thesystem that we find ourselves
in.
Bishop Wright (06:37):
Yeah, that's right.
I mean, and this is why I say,you know, um, it's easier to
fend off reality than to take upthe responsibility of reality,
right?
Um, so not only taking up theresponsibility, but also um
understanding that life hasthese terrible, terrible lows,
and that uh figuring out how tolive through all of that with a
(06:59):
good dose of faith um is isreally the art of living with
God.
And so we see this on displayin the psalms.
You know, sometimes in in oneof the psalms, uh we we wonder
where God is, and then like twoverses later, we say, hooray,
there is God, and then we goback to the next verse and we
say, wait a minute, where'd yougo, God?
(07:20):
And you know, um, and so what Ilove about the Psalms, and I've
said this before in thepodcast, is that they're
emotionally honest.
I mean, Psalm 137 says we weep.
Um, and you know, I one wonderswhen we think about our own
nation, if if if all of this umbluster and saber rattling uh
that we're doing isn't becausewe can't process the fact that
(07:45):
we are becoming less exceptionalin a lot of categories.
And so we have to continue theperformance of sort of being the
nation.
Now, let's be clear here, uh,in terms of gross domestic
product, uh, in terms of uh thestrength of our military, uh the
potency of our military, interms of uh of lots of wonderful
(08:05):
things that I personally enjoyas an American citizen.
Yeah, it's fantastic, it'swonderful.
But then there are parts of ourcommon life which are not so
great.
Um, the amount of poro on therise, um, you know, uh our uh
crumbling infrastructure, ourparalyzing uh uh national uh
(08:26):
sort of debate uh in terms oflegislation, getting legislation
approved, et cetera, et cetera,et cetera.
Um, the state of publiceducation, the state of public
health, um, you know, the careof our elderly, and there's a
lot of categories that we arenot so great in.
And, you know, what the solacegives us is the ability to love
(08:46):
and at the same time name thelosses.
And so uh patriotism sometimesin America these days can really
be sort of uh a shell uh ofwhat I think people are
intending because they can'tnuance it.
We have to say that all is wellwhen the truth of the matter is
love for the nation should say,yeah, we love the nation, but
(09:08):
we've got a lot of categories uhthat we really need to lament.
We need to lament um gunviolence.
We need to lament what'shappening with our young people,
we need to lament what'shappening with our veterans when
they come home and the absenceof care that they get.
There's a lot of things that weneed to lament, but uh the
system wants to say that uh youcan't say those things because
(09:30):
that's disloyalty.
And so the psalmist is saying,um, no, we can actually give
voice to things because we love,uh, right?
It's because we love that wehave to give things voice.
And I think that's just a wordfor a lot of us.
Uh, when we personally lose,move out of the national into
the personal.
When we personally lose orloss, uh, we try to blunt the
(09:53):
grief, fend off the grief,diminish or deny the grief.
When it's just a season oflife.
And we don't have to do it byourselves.
We can lean on the community.
I agree with all of that.
(10:25):
I'm what I'm really wrestlingwith, Bishop, is how to be and
what to do about it in thatseason of Lament, because you've
said the word reality a numberof times now.
And I'm not quite sure thatmany people agree on what
reality even is anymore.
Like if we can't agree oncertain things, like where is
the commonality?
(10:45):
What I don't know.
That's I don't know how to beor or what to do.
Sure.
Well, I mean, when have we everagreed about everything, you
know, in human history, right?
So I think that's not arealistic goal.
I I think what we have to sayis that we grieve.
So I grieve.
I'm a veteran, uh, and I havetwo sons now uh who are enlisted
(11:07):
in the military.
And I grieve, uh, I celebrateand rejoice in their service to
the country uh and that theywant to serve.
I rejoice and I rejoice.
I had that experience as ayoung person.
And yet I look around in theDiocese of Atlanta, Middle North
Georgia, and beyond, and I lookat the state of the services
that are provided to ourveterans, and I lament that.
(11:29):
I lament that we can't dobetter for the families and the
young people who come home to uswho are in need.
I lament that.
So I don't know that everybodyhas to agree on everything, but
I do know that God has given ustwo eyes, and in my case, with
glasses, four eyes, and I doknow that we can look out and we
can see for ourselves.
Um, you know, lament is notalways consensus.
(11:52):
And sometimes we need people tobe brave enough to lament so
that the rest of us can seeafresh, can see anew.
And so lament uh by someactually ends up being community
service because some of usmight not want to see certain
things, right?
I mean, before I was uh beforeI was bishop, frankly speaking,
(12:12):
I didn't spend a lot of timethinking about the death
penalty, right?
When I became the bishop, Ididn't spend a lot of time, and
but then it was people who hadhad um who had dedicated their
lives to overturning the deathpenalty who helped me to see.
And it was their great love oflife and lament that we did this
(12:33):
in Jackson, Georgia, uh, whichis in the Diocese of Atlanta, uh
that caught my attention andpierced perhaps even my numbness
or certainly my too busyness tothe thing.
And so I think the psalmistsand the psalmists among us can
help the rest of us see that interms of establishing a
reasonable floor height, right,for the community, um, maybe we
(12:56):
need to look again.
Um, so yeah, I realize that wecan't, but we can't allow this
idea of once we reach consensusabout the need for lamentations,
that we all get to that.
That that can't work.
It's always been uneven.
And that's why the prophets,Jeremiah by name, what we call
the weeping prophet, uh, is soimportant.
(13:17):
Uh because uh uh whether it wasin season or out of the season,
whether people liked it or not,Jeremiah lamented.
It lamented the direction ofthe nation, lamented it out
loud, invited other people tosee the gaps uh in our our
fidelity to God.
Melissa (13:33):
Bishop, do you have any insight on how and how we might
be able to put lament in acommunity practice way better
than we typically have, at leastin the last few decades of my
life that I recall or remember?
Bishop Wright (13:48):
Yeah.
Well, you know, we know how todo it occasionally, you know,
when when uh a national figuredies, you know, we we do, we we
take up those kinds of things.
We as a community, we pray.
Um sometimes we'll we'll bringthe flag down to half mast.
Um uh we'll have a day off, aday of remembrance, we'll take
(14:10):
flowers and or candles, we'll dovigils, et cetera.
So that's that's part of it.
Uh, but I would like to see usbe able to practice that uh in
in regular congregations um andin you know in appropriate
settings.
Um, you know, in some ways,given the rapid loss that we're
experiencing in a lot of places,and especially as we think
(14:31):
about the average age of theaverage person in some of our
congregations, we may need aspace for that.
You know, in the in theEpiscopal Church, for instance,
we have the season of Lent, uh,where we are not only saying
we're sorry, but we lament ourinfidelity, right?
But we can also in Lent uh alsolament lots of other things.
(14:52):
We can lament the the um thedirection of the nation.
We can uh lament the directionof uh of our callousness uh
toward one another.
We can, you know, we can uh wecan lament the fact that the
storage industry uh is growingwhere charity is shrinking.
Um so we're hoarding more thanhelping.
Uh, you know, so so I I thinkreally we're only bound by the
(15:17):
imagination of the people whogather us uh in terms of who are
exerting spiritual leadership.
But we shouldn't only rely onthe on the bishops and the
priests and the deacons and thepastors and the elders.
Uh some of us realize out of agreat sensitivity uh that we've
got to say something aboutthings.
Here's what I know.
Personally, people default,people do lament lamentation or
(15:40):
lamenting, whether they knowthey're doing it or not.
I've been to cocktail partieswhere people talk about
headlines and then inevitablyafter we've talked for a little
while, people say, ah, well,what are you gonna do?
Well, uh just giving voice toall the negativity and
everything up till then um is asort of an informal uh
lamentation or lament.
(16:02):
Uh I think what we have to do,though, uh that we don't do in
social settings, that we coulddo perhaps in congregations, is
then give it to God, uh, youknow, cough it up ourselves, and
then offer it up to God uh forGod to use it as fodder for uh
God's redemptive purposes.
Melissa (16:20):
Bishop, we believe sorrow is a part of life, and
there are a number of thingsthat I am personally grieving
and mourning.
So I'm curious if you have anylast thoughts that you'd like to
share with our listeners beforewe bid everyone a do on what
you might be lamenting at thistime.
Bishop Wright (16:38):
Oh, absolutely.
I mean, I've in some waysgiving you a cue of all that
about all the things that I'mlamenting.
And and you know, if ifsomeone's listening and saying,
wow, this this episode is reallybumming me out, let me just say
this.
Uh uh, I'm sorry, and I'm sorryabout this, and I'm grieving
this, and we have lost this,really is a is a great turning
point for us personally uh andfor us uh community-wise and
(17:01):
culturally.
I mean, think about the sincereI'm sorry that you've said uh
to another person, right?
It is taking responsibility forthe moment, acknowledging
something, uh uh coughing it up,getting it said out loud.
But then then the next chapterbegins.
And that's the good news ofthis.
This is this is not just aboutsort of uh being uh uh, you
(17:24):
know, sort of a slave toemotions.
No, not at all.
That's not the point.
The point is uh for our mentaland spiritual health uh to say
these things out loud.
Uh it's a confession of loveand having lost.
And at the same time, it's uhit's a petition.
It's to God to say, can youhelp us with this?
We're overpowered uh by all ofthe grief in our life.
(17:47):
And so uh, yes, we believe thatsorrow is a part of our life,
but it's just a season uh andit's not the end.
It's a step in the process toturn around.
Melissa (17:58):
Thank God for that.
Bishop, thank you, and thankyou, listeners, for listening to
For People.
You can follow us on Instagramand Facebook at Bishop Rob
Wright or by visitingwww.forpeople.digital.
Please subscribe, leave areview, and we'll be back with
you next week.
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