Worship on the
Web |
 |
PRAY NOW: TODAY'S PRAYER
Bereavement
But the man of God said, 'Let her alone, for she is in bitter distress; the LORD has hidden
it from me and has not told me.'
2 Kings 4:27
Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
Matthew 5:4
Prayer
Everything has stopped. I am going nowhere.
I used to have to guess what grief was. I'm still not sure.
All I know now is this:
Grief is the impress, the stamp, the crushing impact
Of a huge-beyond-words reality of loss
On the fragile thing which is, it turns out, me.
I didn't think I was so small, so fragile.
Suddenly, I don't know myself;
So much of what I thought I knew
Has also died. I didn't think it would be like this, could be like this. . .
But I don't feel as though I have moved an inch from where I was.
Very precisely, it's not about me.
It is the loss that is all-consuming,
The one I've lost who is everything.
The truth is, I'm not ready for consolation yet;
Not ready to be moved on by someone else's nervous, pitying agenda.
(I'm sorry. They mean well.)
Not ready – God forbid! – for closure. The wounds are still open.
But – stay with me, Lord.
I seem to sense - and need to know -
That somehow it was like this for you, too;
That God knew grief.
That sounds like the sort of thing
Learned divines would laugh at, or cry 'Heresy!'
All I know is this:
'Only the suffering God can help . . .' *
Can you help me, Lord? Do you really know what it's like to be here?
'Jesus wept . . .' I can cling to that. I can stay here a while,
And perhaps, at length, from here move on.
* Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Letters and Papers from Prison, SCM Press, 1967, p. 197.
Readings
1 Kings 4:8–37 The unspeakableness of bereavement
Ecclesiastes 3:1–15 A time for everything
John 11:1–44 Jesus bereaved; grief even in the presence of hope
Revelation 21:1–5 The end of grief and the transformation of all things
Prayer activity
Someone once said that being bereaved is like living in a beach-house. Every
morning, you go down to the beach - and you have no idea how it is going to be.
Some mornings, the sand is strewn with the flotsam and seaweed of last night's
storm; some mornings, the fog has rolled in, and you can see practically nothing;
some mornings are beautiful, pristine, magical and deeply consoling; some
mornings the tide is right in, and the beach is a confined, frustrated, uncomfortable
strip of sand. Does this - in particular the randomness of the succession of days
- resonate with your experience? Does it help? In particular - does it set you free
from other people's expectations (and maybe your own) of how you should feel
about loss? Bring all this to God.
Prayer for the Church
For those who create worship materials, those who deliver them to us and for
ourselves as active and expectant participants
especially for the Worship and Doctrine Taskgroup, the CH4 trustees, The Wild Goose
Worship group of the Iona Community, Worship-on-the web contributors and for
worship leaders in our congregation.
Blessing
May God, who is with you where you are,
Who waits with you in the silence
To which none of our anxious words are equal,
bless you:
And when he shall speak the word
That none but God can speak
You shall be consoled.
[Back
to Pray Now introduction]
[top of page]
|
