In the concluding episode of the 'Spirituality 101' series on the Deeper Dive Podcast by the OC Church of Christ, Dr. Robert Carrillo delves into the topic of lamentations. He explores the concept of lamenting, its significance in the Bible, and its profound impact on personal spirituality. Drawing from his own experiences and biblical examples, such as the Book of Lamentations and the Psalms, Dr. Carrillo emphasizes the importance of being honest and transparent with one's emotions, especially pain and sorrow. He also provides practical advice on how to incorporate lamentations into one's spiritual journey to deepen the connection with God. The episode culminates with a call to action, encouraging listeners to write their own lamentations.

00:00 Introduction to the Deeper Dive Podcast

00:38 Understanding Lamentations

01:49 Personal Experiences with Lamentations

03:46 Biblical Examples of Lamentations

07:25 The Importance of Being Honest with God

09:25 Modern Applications of Lamentations

15:44 Cultural Expressions of Lamentations

17:55 The Need for Lamentations in Today's World

26:39 Conclusion and Homework

27:00 Closing Remarks

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OC Church of Christ

Welcome to the Deeper Dive Podcast brought to you by the OC Church of Christ.

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The deeper dive Podcast is about going

deeper into God's word, learning new

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insight, and taking a fresh look at

the verses that impact our daily lives.

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Today's episode is the conclusion

from our series "Spirituality 101" by

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Robert Carrillo So get your scuba gear

and let's dive deep into God's word.

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Here's Dr.

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Robert Carrillo.

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Robert: Hello everybody, Robert Carrillo

here with, uh, Spirituality 101 series.

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And, uh, today, uh, we're going to

talk about lamentations or lamenting.

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And, um, and I'm really, uh,

excited about sharing about this.

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It's something that I've been

studying, uh, for a while now.

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And has had a very profound impact on me

personally, but, uh, it's been a whole

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new world That that has opened up in my

spiritual journey and knowing God and

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learning about God And so i'm excited to

just share some thoughts with you And,

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uh, give you some homework to, to grow in

your own spirituality and your journey.

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Um, so lamentations or to lament

what, you know, what, what

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is that, what, what is that?

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What is lamentations?

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What do we, when do we lament or when is

it proper to lament or when is it okay

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to lament or how exactly does it work?

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The truth is we don't

really know a whole lot.

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It's not, generally it's not

in our fellowship of churches

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and not with our tradition.

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It's not a topic we talk about a lot.

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I've never in my Christian life ever

heard a sermon on lament or even preached

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out, anyone preach out of lamentations.

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Um, a while ago, a few years

ago, I attended a, um, An Eastern

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Orthodox service and it was for a

class I was taking at Pepperdine.

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I had to go through multiple, multiple

different kinds of worship services.

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And I went to one, it was an Eastern

Orthodox church and it was really amazing.

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It was a beautiful old church.

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You know how the, the Orthodox churches

are with all the paintings and the

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gold and the, and the, the just or

with all these ornaments and it was

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very pretty inside and, and, uh,

the acoustics in there were amazing.

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And, uh, it was amazing because it was

a service, it was Eastern Orthodox,

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but it was in English, Spanish,

Aramaic, I think Arabic, and Greek.

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All those languages were spoken during

that service, and I mean, I wonder,

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does anybody know all those languages?

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But it was, it was actually a really

powerful service, and during the

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service, um, we took communion, and

a woman stood up in front and sang

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a song, and it was a lamentation.

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And she sang, I, I believe it

was Aramaic, or possibly Arabic.

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And It was such a moving song.

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It brought me to tears.

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And I looked around and everybody

in the auditorium was crying.

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And I doubt that they

all spoke that language.

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I knew I didn't obviously, but

her pain, her suffering, her

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sorrow, her hurt clearly was

being communicated in the song.

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And the next thing I knew,

I felt, I was emotional and

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tears were going down my face.

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And there was something very

powerful, it was what I would

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absolutely say a spiritual moment.

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That we were all mourning together.

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And we were all hurting together.

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And we were crying together.

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Something very powerful happened.

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You know, 40 percent

of Psalms are laments.

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Almost half of the Psalms

are really lamentations.

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There's an entire book right?

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Lamentations is actually a whole

book where God memorializes the

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pain and the sorrow of the Jews

when Jerusalem was conquered.

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The shame of Israel and and we can read

about it and read about what happened.

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Jesus himself Was very open

about his feelings and his hurts

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and his suffering three times.

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We read about him crying and He cried

with Mary and Martha when Lazarus died He

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cried when he was looking at Jerusalem and

seeing the people helpless and harassed

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He cried in the garden of Gethsemane

and he cried out He said my soul is

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overwhelmed with sorrow to the point

of death Stay here and watch with me.

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I mean, this is amazing because, because

Jesus was very open about what he felt.

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I mean, I thought if you

think about it, who says that?

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Who says, I am overwhelmed

with sorrow to their friends?

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Who says, I'm so broken inside?

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I'm agonizing.

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I mean, that's how open and

honest Jesus was on the cross.

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On the cross, he cried out, it says.

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He cried out, sabachthani?

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Which means, my God, my God,

why have you forsaken me?

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It was, it was Psalms 22.

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And by the language, we know that he was

repeating it again and again and again.

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He was lamenting.

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And he was using the Psalms to lament,

my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

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Why are you so far from saving me

so far from my cries of anguish?

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My God, I cry out by day and but you do

not answer by night, but I find no rest.

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You are, you are

enthroned as the Holy one.

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You are the one Israel praises and

you, our ancestors put their trust.

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They trusted you and you delivered them.

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To you they cried out and were saved.

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In you they trusted and

were not put to shame.

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But I, I am a worm and not a man, scorned

by everyone, despised by the people.

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All who see me mock me.

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They hurl insults, shaking their heads.

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He trusts in the Lord, they say.

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Let the Lord rescue him.

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Let him deliver him.

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Since he delights in him.

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Yet you brought me out of the womb.

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You made me trust in you.

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Even at my mother's breast

from birth I was cast on you.

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From my mother's womb

you have been my God.

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You do not be far from me for trouble

is near and there is no one to help.

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Many bulls surround me.

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Strong bulls of Bashan encircle me.

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Roaring lions that tear their prey

open their mouths wide against me.

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I am poured out like water and

all my bones are out of joint.

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My heart has turned to wax.

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It is melted within me.

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My mouth is dried up like a potsherd and

my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth

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and you lay me in the dust of death.

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Dogs surround me.

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A pack of villains encircles me.

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They pierce my hands and my feet.

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All my bones are on display.

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People stare and gloat over me.

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They divide my clothes among them

and cast lots for my garment.

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How open Jesus was.

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How transparent he was with his emotions.

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So much more than we

allow ourselves to be.

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So much more than we think is acceptable.

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And David who wrote so many of the

Psalms, a man after God's own heart.

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He said, surely you desire

truth in the inner parts.

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What's that mean?

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Just be honest, being completely honest.

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That's what lamentations are all about, is

being completely honest with what's going

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inside us, what's going on inside us.

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It's total vulnerability, sharing

our hurt, our pain, our shame.

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Our fears, it's unqualified transparency,

hiding nothing, admitting anything

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and everything, and just being

who we actually are, and what we

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are, and where we are actually at.

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David wrote in Psalm 10, Why,

Lord, do you stand far off?

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Why do you hide yourself

in times of trouble?

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Why does the wicked man revile God?

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Why does he say to himself,

he won't call me into account?

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As Westerners, we don't go there.

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We, we're not that honest.

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We're not that open.

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We're uncomfortable, even

with weeping and hurting.

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We're uncomfortable with pain.

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We don't tolerate suffering.

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We tell people, be strong.

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And when someone cries, we

say, don't cry, be strong.

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Even at funerals.

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My goodness, if you can't cry at a

funeral, where in the world can you cry?

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Now, crying is part of who we are.

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It's part of the process of grieving.

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I'm learning, I'm learning

so much right now.

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I'm learning that laments or

lamentations are no small thing.

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In fact, a lament has become

another channel through which

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I can deeply connect with God.

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where I can find a profound

connection with him.

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I even have a playlist on

Spotify, lamenting music.

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If you need some a playlist,

honestly, that I think a lot

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of members of the church need,

they are essential lamentations.

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They're essential to our spiritual

development, to our spiritual

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maturity, They're part of God

transforming our minds and our hearts.

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They're key to having an honest and

sincere and authentic walk with God.

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They're important for helping us to

be, to know God and to be known by God.

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They are significant, I would

say essential to having an

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intimate relationship with God.

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The book of Lamentations, it's a

whole book about lamenting, where the

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grief, of God's people is memorialized

forever, where symbolism is used to

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show how distraught, how devastated,

the level of despair God's people felt.

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Jerusalem is depicted as Lady Zion,

a widowed, childless, vulnerable

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woman who has endured rape, abuse,

exploitation, affliction, starvation

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during the siege and capture of the city.

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Who has been through so much.

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It uses graphic symbols and

graphic visions of dead bodies and

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shameful nakedness and starving

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to describe and to communicate

the level of pain and despair

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that God's people felt.

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It's honestly the Book of Lamentations.

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It's a painful read.

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That's what it's been

called, a painful read.

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In Lamentations 3, 17, 18, it says,

My soul has been rejected from peace.

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I have forgotten happiness.

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Did you hear that?

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My soul has been rejected from peace.

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I have forgotten happiness.

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So I say, my strength has perished.

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And so has my hope.

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From the Lord.

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Lamentations 3, 17 and 18.

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You hear, can you feel it?

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The level of despair.

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To have to say my strength has perished.

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To have to say I have forgotten happiness.

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To have to say that even my

hope in the Lord has perished.

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In Lamentations 5, as he's pulling us

out of this, he says, Restore us to

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you, O Lord, that we may be restored.

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Renew our days as of old, unless

you have utterly rejected us.

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You hear the humility?

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You hear the sorrow?

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Jerusalem had blown it.

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They had sinned and they had

not listened to the prophets.

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You hear the sorrow?

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They had ignored the warnings of the

Lord, and they kept going and kept going

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until they were completely and utterly

humbled, and they suffered a horrible

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conquest full of shame and guilt.

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It's what happens to us.

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It's the suffering we go through.

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They turned to the Lord, and

they worked it out with Him.

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Laments, they're the soul's

response to pain and sorrow.

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They are the voice of despair, the

voice of pain, even the voice of

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anger, which sometimes is the direct

result of truth in the inner parts.

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When we lose somebody we love deeply,

yeah, sometimes we even get angry.

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Somebody once described a

lament as, a lament is a prayer

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in pain that leads to trust.

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We have to work it out with God.

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One of the blessings and the burdens

of working with hope, holding hands and

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praying with people who are malnourished,

who are starving, who were dying, who

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were hurting, who were struggling to

feed their kids, to provide safety, who

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were hated, who were reviled, who were

outcasts and literally untouchables.

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To be in a room and hear the sharing

hearts of women who felt utterly

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alone, abandoned, and completely

worthless in their own eyes and in

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the eyes of the people around them.

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Men enslaved and helpless to overcome

their own struggles, their own

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weaknesses, their addictions, unable

to help their families, unable to help

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their children, and filled with despair.

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Walter Brueggemann, who's becoming one

of my favorite authors, wrote in his

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book on peace, American evangelicalism

reflects greatly the haves of the world.

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The dominant culture celebrates God, but

the have nots, the poor, the marginalized,

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the oppressed people, hurting like

addicts, like people who've been abused,

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like people who've been abandoned.

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Their theology is often a theology

of suffering and survival.

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They want to celebrate God, but what

they relate to, what, what resonates for

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them, is the God who suffers, the God who

feels their pain, the God of compassion,

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the God who heals, the God who rescues.

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Sung Chan ra in his

book, Prophetic Lament.

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It's an amazing book on the

theology of lamentation.

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He shows how people need to understand

that God is the God who is the

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healer, the redeemer, the rescuer.

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You can hear it in our music.

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Modern songs are often

times modern lamentations.

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You hear it in the black gospel tunes

from the church, especially the old ones.

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That reached a deep down into the soul

expressing the pain and the anguish of

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hundreds of years of slavery and racism.

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And you feel it.

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I mean, I hear, I hear those songs

and I get goosebumps and I'm not

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black, but I can, I relate to the pain

and the sorrow and I relate to the

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hurt and it resonates with my soul.

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You hear it in the anger of

the modern hip hop artists and

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hip hop music and rock music.

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That is the music of the disenfranchised,

of the left out, and the angry.

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You hear it in the ballads of

Mexico, as they sing about their

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poverty, and their pain, and their

suffering, and their despair.

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You hear it in the old

Irish tunes of Lamentations.

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They have a genre of

music of Lamentations.

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It expresses the pain of

centuries of oppression.

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and struggle against the English.

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And that theme runs all the way

into American country music.

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We joke about country music always

being the story of somebody who's pickup

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truck broke down, or lost their dog,

or wife left them, or this or that.

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And they're, what are they doing?

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They're singing out their pain.

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They're singing out their sorrows.

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That's lamentations.

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That's what Psalms are.

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And you really hear it in Jewish music.

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A people who for thousands

of years have suffered.

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We all know about the holocaust, but there

were many holocausts in Jewish history.

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There are many times that Jews were

hunted down and suffered horribly.

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It wasn't the only time.

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It goes all the way back through

the Old Testament, through

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their sufferings, through their

conquest, through lamentations.

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Every people has their

own form of lamentations.

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Everyone.

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Suffer someday.

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Everyone goes through hard

times and everybody has a

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time that they need to lament.

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The last 14 months we've been through

a lot together in the last year and

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a half, our world has suffered a lot

and it weighs heavily in our hearts.

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And, and when we have all this pain

coming in, how does it manifest itself?

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What do we do with it?

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The stress and the anxiety,

depression and anger and fear, And

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despair, all these things are the

fruit of what our world is facing.

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And the thing about it is, our country

doesn't even know how to lament.

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We don't even have those traditions.

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Old traditions in third world countries,

in old cultures, they have it.

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They know, they mourn for a

certain amount of days, they

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wear a certain amount of clothes.

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The Jews have a whole system of mourning.

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They know how to process

this, but we don't.

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Our country is young.

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It's new and, and, and we have no history

and we've cast off all the traditions

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and we don't know what to do with lament.

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We just want to take a pill.

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We just want to go get drunk.

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We want to go get high.

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We want to escape any

kind of suffering or pain.

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Even, even Christians, even

disciples don't know what to do with

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the pain that we feel sometimes.

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We need psalms, especially

the psalms of lament.

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We need to be able to be honest

about what's happening in our hearts.

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We need to express what's

happening on the inside.

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And to be able to work it out.

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We need to be able to share with

God and share with each other.

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It was a powerful thing that

day in that church when I looked

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around and we're all crying.

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We don't know each other.

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We don't even speak the same language.

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But somehow a bond was made.

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The language we do speak

together is suffering.

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Amen.

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And it's pain.

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And we can share that.

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Even that is a spiritual thing.

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That God gives us a family

to share our pain with.

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I read this story one time.

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There's a little boy who came

to his house one evening.

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And his mother asked

him, where have you been?

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And he said, I was next door with Mr.

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Johnson.

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And she said, I told you not to bother Mr.

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Johnson.

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His wife just died last week.

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And the little boy said

to him, it's okay mom.

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I was helping him.

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And she said, how were you helping him?

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And he said, I helped him cry.

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We just cried together.

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We need that.

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We need someone to share our

pain and our sorrow with.

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In Romans 12, 15, Paul wrote,

rejoice with those who rejoice,

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but weep with those who weep.

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Weep with those who weep.

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Sometimes

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we have to work it out.

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That's part of processing our

pain in what we go through.

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Julian Norwich, a 14th century mystic.

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Her parents died in a plague.

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She suffered much as a young woman,

as a child and as a young woman.

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She had a very famous saying,

all shall be well and all

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manner of things shall be well.

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I think that was a mantra.

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It reminds me of that song.

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It is well with my soul.

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And the guy who wrote it had

just lost his wife and his child.

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It is well with my soul We have to work

these things out with God and with each

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other when we're hurting and David wrote

in Psalm 25 my eyes are ever on the Lord

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for only he will release my feet from

the snare turn me and Be gracious turn to

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me and be gracious to me for I am lonely

and afflicted Relieve the troubles of

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my heart and free me from my anguish.

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Look on my affliction and my

distress and take away all my sins.

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See how numerous my enemies are

and how fiercely they hate me.

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Guard my life and rescue me

and do not let me be put to

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shame for I take refuge in you.

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May integrity and uprightness protect

me because my hope, Lord, is in you.

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That's his psalm.

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You feel it.

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You can feel it.

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Because we've been there before,

and we have felt these things.

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And usually the truth is

we're not that transparent.

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David was a man after God's own heart.

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The Lord is a God who avenges.

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O God who avenges, shine forth, rise

up, judge of the earth, pay back

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the proud for what they deserve.

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David, he wanted God to deal with people.

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How long, O Lord, will the wicked,

how long will the wicked be jubilant?

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They pour out arrogant words.

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All evil doers are full of boasting.

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They crush your people, Lord.

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They oppress your inheritance.

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David was angry, and he just

poured it out before God.

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A psalm of Asaph in Psalm 79.

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Pour out your wrath on the nations

that do not acknowledge you.

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And on the kingdoms that

do not call on your name.

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I mean, ASAP was like, get them

Lord, get them, deal with them.

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In the ministry and leadership, we feel

the critical knife of people, people

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being critical fault finders standing

in judgment over our lives who condemn

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us and proclaim us not good enough, not

spiritual enough, not good enough leader.

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Not serving enough, not giving enough.

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It always amazes me.

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I can be there for 10 people

hurting and one person I'm not

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there for and I get judged for it.

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It's just leadership though.

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And that's how people are.

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And we need those Psalms sometimes.

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We need the Psalms to be able to

just work out our own feelings.

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In Psalm 31 13 he wrote, I have

heard the whispering of many

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people in terror on every side.

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While they made plans together against

me, they were plotting to take my life.

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I trust you, O Lord.

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I said, you are my God.

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My future is in your hands.

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Rescue me from my enemies, from

those who persecute me, smile on

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me and save me with your mercy.

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I mean, as leaders, sometimes we need

to be able to pray that because we feel

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so much and we carry such a burden.

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We wrestle with despair.

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It searches for us.

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It searches for us.

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It hounds us.

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Sometimes it jumps us and beats us.

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It beats us down in the

dark alleys of our minds.

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You're not enough.

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This year we've wrestled with a lot.

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We as a fellowship, we wrestle with

who we are, our future, with the

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race relations, the pain, the guilt,

the responsibility, the awokeness,

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the forgiveness, the being forgiven.

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The gender roles, our hurts, our

awakening, our understanding, the

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political strife, the hurt we feel at

the hands of the world, the hurt we

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feel at the hands of other brothers

and sisters who've said things that

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ought not be said on social media.

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With the losses of lives in our church,

in our families, the loss of parents,

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the loss of children, the loss of

brothers and sisters, we feel it.

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The concerns of the world and what

kind of world are we leaving our

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children and our grandchildren?

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What kind of world are

we leaving for them?

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What kind of church are

we leaving for others?

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Lamentations are a blessing from God.

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In Psalm 107, Then they cried to

the Lord of their trouble, and he

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saved them from their distress.

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He sent out word and healed them.

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He rescued them from the grave.

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Let them give thanks to the Lord

for His unfailing love and His

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wonderful deeds for mankind.

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Did you catch that?

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Let them give thanks to the Lord

for His unfailing love and His

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wonderful deeds for mankind.

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We need to consider the ways of the Lord.

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We gotta work it out.

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Lamenting, it's a

channel that God gave us.

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To share our hurts.

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to process our hurts, to move forward

through our hurts, not running from,

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not hiding from, not ignoring our

pain, our sorrow, because it's there

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and it's real, but handling it and

processing it with God and in God

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and with each other as God intended.

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That's why there's so many lamentations

in the Bible, because we need that.

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And Jesus needed it, We need it.

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Your homework, write

your own lamentations.

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Take this week in journal and

write down your own lamentations.

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What do you lament in the world,

in the church, in your life?

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What is your lamentation?

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God bless you.

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Buen Camino.

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Marcel: Thank you, Robert

for this great series.

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And thanks for listening to Deeper

Dive by the OC Church of Christ.

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If you want to get connected to us

or want to donate to the program.

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Go to our website.

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OCchurchochrist.com or on

social media @TheOCchurch.

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Join us next time for

our next Deeper Dive.