August Taizé: Mid-summer Lamentation

Taizé Service for August 1, 2024

Introduction

This summer has been filled with reports of disaster after disaster. Disasters can be large or small — a cancer diagnosis or a hurricane that kills many and leaves survivors homeless. Catastrophes threaten the very foundation of our lives. Deprived of peace, forgetting what happiness is, loss of the future and all that one hoped for from God. Such an experience cannot go unacknowledged.

One of the forms of biblical prayer is “lamentation.” We cry out in our pain, rather than pretending that we are okay. We hear the voice of lament in the Bible, even to the extent of blaming God. If we are honest, we must admit that when terrible things happen, we may sometimes feel as if God has it in for us. This is more a projection of our own fear and guilt than something that is true of God; and yet we can easily feel this way.

Ours is a faith that can also lament — lament before the face of God when our lives and the lives of others are harmed by forces beyond our control. Such lament, as the psalms teach us, is not the opposite of faithful praise but rather its partner. In the midst of pain, fear, and loss we cannot do otherwise than cry out to God, who is compassionate and merciful.

Download a copy of the program from our latest service here: Aug 1 2024 Taizé Worship Aid.

Chant 5x: Our darkness is never darkness in your sight

Reading One: Lamentations 3:17-26

My life is deprived of peace,

I have forgotten what happiness is;

My enduring hope, I said, has perished before the LORD.

The thought of my wretched homelessness is wormwood and poison;

Remembering it over and over, my soul is downcast.

But this I will call to mind; therefore I will hope:

The LORD’s acts of mercy are not exhausted, his compassion is not spent;

They are renewed each morning— great is your faithfulness!

The LORD is my portion, I tell myself, therefore I will hope in him.

The LORD is good to those who trust in him, to the one that seeks him;

It is good to hope in silence for the LORD’s deliverance.

Chant 5x: Nothing can trouble, nothing can frighten,

Reading Two: Romans 8:31-39

What then shall we say to this? If God is for us, who can be against us?

He who did not spare his own Son but handed him over for us all, how will he not also give us everything else along with him?

Who will bring a charge against God’s chosen ones? It is God who acquits us.

Who will condemn? It is Christ [Jesus] who died, rather, was raised, who also is at the right hand of God, who indeed intercedes for us.

What will separate us from the love of Christ? Will anguish, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or the sword?

As it is written:

“For your sake we are being slain all the day; we are looked upon as sheep to be slaughtered.”

No, in all these things we conquer overwhelmingly through him who loved us.

For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor present things, nor future things, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Silence 5 minutes

Chime

Petitions

Response: O Lord, hear my prayer

Make your Church a place of welcome and safety; enable Church communities to offer hospitality and practical support to all in need, we pray:

1. In the midst of disaster beyond our control, empower us to reach out in love to others, mending what is broken, and bringing hope where there is despair, we pray:
2. Where natural disasters are the result of environmental degradation, strengthen us to work for policies that protect humankind by protecting the environment, we pray:
3. We entrust to the arms of your mercy all those who have died; we hold in your love all who mourn their passing, we pray:
4. Please add your additional prayers and light a votive candle from the Easter Candle.

The Lord’s Prayer

Chant 5x: Come and fill our hearts with your peace.

Closing Prayer
May God, who heals the brokenhearted and lifts up those who are bowed down, give us consolation, courage, and hope.

May the blessing of the Father, and the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, come down upon us and remain with us forever. Amen.

Closing Song “Christ Be Our Light” verses by cantors, refrain by all:

Please join us again on September 5 at 7:00 p.m. central time.

Music in this Worship Aid was reprinted with permission under onelicense.net, #A-725830

All of the videos of our Taize Prayer Services can be found here: Taize Videos.

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