1. The Necessity of Lament Lamentations
Soong-Chan Rah
North Park Theological Seminary

2. Lamentations 1:1
1 How deserted lies the city,       once so full of people!  How like a widow is she,       who once was great among the nations! She who was queen among the provinces      has now become a slave.

3. Lamentations 1:2
2 Bitterly she weeps at night,     tears are on her cheeks. Among all her lovers      there is no one to comfort her. All her friends have betrayed her;     they have become her enemies.

4. Lamentations 1:3
3 After affliction and harsh labor,     Judah has gone into exile.  She dwells among the nations;     she finds no resting place.  All who pursue her have overtaken her      in the midst of her distress.

5. Historical Context THREE Potential Responses: Run Away and Hide
Give Up and Give In
Lament (YHWH’s sovereignty)

6. Jeremiah 29:4-7
4 This is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says to all those I carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: 5 “Build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce. 6Marry and have sons and daughters; find wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage, so that they too may have sons and daughters. Increase in number there; do not decrease. 7 Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the LORD for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper.”

7. 19th / 20th Century Christianity
Early US Church History
“A city set on a hill”
New Jerusalem
Changing Society
Immigration
Great Migration

8. Winthrop Hudson: Money on New Buildings
1945 : $26 million
1960: $1 billion

11. Ark-itecture

12. U.S. Immigration Demographics
1965: Change in immigration laws
1965-present: Influx of non-white immigrants
2008: U.S. minority population about 33%
2011: U.S. births – 50% minorities
2023: U.S. children – 50% minorities
2042: U.S. minority population more than 50%

13. Denominational Trends
Large or Growing Denominations
Baptist % white
Pentecostal 58% white
Smaller or Declining Denominations
Lutheran 96% white
Congregational/UCC 89% white
Episcopalian/Anglican 89% white

14. New Immigrants and Christianity
“The new immigrants represent not the de-Christianization of American society but the de-Europeanization of American Christianity.”
“Above all, the new immigrants make it decreasingly plausible for Americans to think of Christianity as a white person’s religion And although it may not be apparent in many congregations, American Christians are increasingly people of color.”
- Stephen Warner

15. Historical Context THREE Potential Responses: Run Away and Hide
Give Up and Give In
Lament (YHWH’s sovereignty)

16. Jeremiah 29:8-9
8 Yes, this is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says: “Do not let the prophets and diviners among you deceive you. Do not listen to the dreams you encourage them to have. 9 They are prophesying lies to you in my name. I have not sent them,” declares the LORD.

17. Multi-ethnic Churches
Sociological Defintion:
80% of one ethnic group / 20% of another ethnic group
General Heterogeneity Index
“the probability that two randomly selected people in a congregation will be of different racial groups”
Average congregational diversity: .08
Average public school diversity: .48
Dissimilarity Index
“the percentage of one racial group or the other that would have to switch congregations to end segregation
Highly segregated American cities: .60
Conservative Protestant: .91

18. Homophily: Birds of a Feather . . .
“Contact between similar people occurs at a higher rate than among dissimilar people”
“Homophily implies that distance in terms of social characteristics translates into network distance.”
Homophily is most applicable to the church during times of segregation
Neighborhood reality / Means of survival (immigrants)

19. Isomorphism
“a constraining process that forces one unit in a population to resemble other unites that face the same set of environmental conditions”
“Once disparate organizations in the same line of business are structured into an actual field powerful forces emerge that lead them to become more similar to one another”
Acceptance of the HUP
Cultural Captivity of American Evangelicalism

20. Lamentations 1:1 and 2:1
How deserted lies the city, once so full of people!
How the Lord has covered Daughter Zion with the cloud of his anger!
’ekah = “How” or “Alas”
“How tragic”
“How devastated”
“How can it be?”

21. Funeral Dirge Characteristics
mournful cry for the one who has died
‘eka (1)
Qinah meter (limping meter)
even metering
6 beats / 6 beats
uneven metering
6 beats / 4 beats

22. Funeral Dirge Characteristics (Kathleen O’Connor)
proclamation of death
city sits alone (1); mourning, grief, bitter anguish (4); crushed and trampled (15); only death (20)
contrast with previous circumstances of the dead person
once great among the nations and a queen (1); former glory (4); splendor (6); treasures (7-10)
reaction of bystanders
no one to comfort her, friends have betrayed her, become her enemies (2); absence of a comforter (9, 16, 17, 21); bystanders respond with betrayal (2, 19); derisive laughter (7); despise her (11); and rejoice at her suffering (21)

23. Who wrote Lamentations?
EXILE – all the learned, intellectuals, prophets, and literate have been sent away
Jeremiah Authorship?
Jeremiah as Editor / Curator

24. Theology of Celebration and Suffering
Peace (Shalom) by Walter Brueggemann
Difference between Shalom for the “HAVES” and the “HAVE NOTS”

25. Theology of Celebration and Suffering
Survival and Salvation
The world is generally EVIL
Life is precarious, needing a deliverer
God as a Warrior / masculine figure
Fight Injustice
Management and Stewardship
The world is generally GOOD
Life is already healthy, complete, and whole
God as a Nurturer / feminine figure
Maintain Status Quo

26. Brokerage Social Capital Approach
“people who do better [socially] are more able individuals Social capital explains how people do better because they are somehow better connected with other people.”
“the value of increasing variation in a group”
“People whose networks bridge the holes are brokers rewarded for their integrative work, rewarded in the sense of more positive individual and team evaluations, compensation higher than peers, and faster promotion.”

27. Cluster Analysis