Sad, Sad Song

Posted by Jeff Crawford on July 27, 2016 in

7/24/16

2 Samuel 2:17-27

Chris Breslin

“This will be our reply to violence: to make music more intensely, more beautifully, more devotedly than ever before.” –Leonard Bernstein

“When people sit down to talk about death, the pretense kind of falls away, and people talk very openly and authentically…and they say things in front of strangers which are really profound and beautiful. And for English people to do that, with our traditional stiff upper lip, is very rare.” –Death Cafes Breathe Life Into Conversations About Dying (NPR)

“For the record, 1 John 4:18 — “perfect love casts out fear” — is advice for spiritual formation, not lyrics writing.” –The Sun Is Always Shining In Modern Christian Pop (FiveThirtyEight)

“When you lament in good faith, opening yourself to God honestly and fully, no matter what you have to say, then you are begging to clear the way for praise. You are straining toward the time when God will turn your tears into laughter. When you lament, you are asking God to create the conditions in which it will become possible for you to offer praise, conditions, it turns out, that are mainly within your own heart.” –Ellen Davis

“Tears are useless, even wasteful, if you possess the power to cause miracles. Instead, [Jesus] made Himself vulnerable, stopped to feel the sting of death, to identify with frail humanity, who struggled to know hope.” –The Beautiful Tears (Makoto Fujimura)

Scripture

Romans 8:28

Psalm 30

Psalm 86

John 11

This Sunday’s Songs

Great is Thy Faithfulness, Chisholm/Runyan

Blessed Be Your Name, Redman

More Than Anything, Jordan/Leonard/Ingram/Garrard

Beautiful Things, Gungor

Psalm 126, Wardell

Further Reading on Lament