Carrie Kennedy

OT 517
Book Review
April 24, 2021

Rachel’s Cry

Rachel’s Cry, by Kathleen Billman and Daniel Migliore, seeks to bring the lament prayers

back into the cultural awareness of a community that has largely overemphasized the prayers

of joy and thanksgiving at the expense of lament and sorrow. The authors use two biblical

women and their prayers to illustrate this contrast. First, there is the prayer of Rachel in

Jeremiah 31:15, where Rachel cries for her children. Rachel “refuses to be comforted” in her

grief. In contrast, Mary, mother of Jesus, in Luke 1:38, accepts “let it be to me according to your

word.” Mary also goes on to exalt God in prayer. Rachel’s cry shows authentic emotion and

Mary’s prayer shows incredible faith. Both are necessary to a full expression of the human

experience in prayer with our Father.

Billman and Migliore propose that prayers of lament are essential parts of the Christian

life, addressing common opposing arguments to their emphasis, such as possibly contributing

to a culture of complaint. They conclude that a true understanding of lament is not complaint

into the void or a victim mindset, but rather a strong sense of solidarity with individuals and

communities experiencing intense suffering. The prayers of lament help a person to name and

grieve the losses and pain in their lives that may otherwise fester beneath the surface.

I agree that the inclusion of lament prayers in Christian life brings a wholeness to the

human experience that may be missed if one ignores these sorrowful prayers. They bring

breadth and depth to the Christian’s experience with God. They also bring honesty to the

relationship since the person is encouraged to express not only the faith, hope, and joy of their
best moments, but also the pain of life’s most challenging difficulties. The very act of expressing

sorrow allows the joy to be more honest, since it is not denying the existence of brokenness.

The authors show that the prayers of lament are consistent with the whole witness of

scripture, which shows that God laments when His good creation is broken and injustice is

perpetrated by humanity. We join in with God and all of creation in lamenting the brokenness.

The authors look at the presence of lament throughout the Bible and conclude that it is a place

where God’s people can go to find words for pain and anger. We see interactions between God

and Israel in the Old Testament that address mercy and judgment, joy and sorrow, dependence

on God and anger and protest against Him. The Old Testament does not shy away from people

expressing their complaints against God. Most laments begin with an opening address, go into a

complaint, then a confession of trust, a petition for help, and finish with a vow of praise. The

Old Testament illustrates the genuine relationship between God and the people in which they

feel the familiarity to approach him not only with praise, but also with their pain. New

Testament prayers draw on the Old Testament and continue that spirit of both praise and joy,

but are also filled with an urgency due to the coming return of Jesus.

Billman and Migliore also look at lament prayers through Christian tradition, showing

how many traditions have dealt with grief. They give the example of Augustine’s writings about

his experiences of grief and his commentaries on the Psalms as he contends that his grief

showed too much attachment to earthly things. He sees lament as a revelation of one’s own

disordered loves. Luther showed more freedom for lament, but focused on the grace of God as

our only consolation. Calvin allowed for grief as part of human experience but suggested all

people submit to their sorrows as part of God’s providence. Barth saw lament as a response to
the human condition and framed it within a Christocentric understanding of the hope of the

future resurrection. Liberation theologies frame lament prayers in the context of resistance

against the forces of injustice and evil that are oppressing them.

I found the main themes and arguments of this book compelling. They align with one of

the first things I learned from my Nicaraguan supervisor when I moved to Latin America. He

compared the North American Evangelical mindset with the Latin American Catholic mindset,

saying that we (northerners) like to focus on the joy of Resurrection but that they (latinos) focus

on the suffering of the crucifixion. He said that both are necessary for the fullness of Jesus’

work and that you can’t have the joy of Easter without the suffering of Good Friday. At the

time, that was a new idea for me and it was revolutionary in my understanding of the poverty

and corporate suffering I would see all around me, as well as my own experiences of grief.

I would have liked to have seen a bit more of a diversity of traditions in the section on

church tradition. That section jumped from Augustine to the Reformation and then remained in

the Protestant world. It would be interesting to see how other faith traditions deal with lament

in contrast to the majority Western protestant tradition. I do appreciate that they included

liberation perspectives as I think that can offer a unique perspective.

These lament prayers give tools for those who seek to help others process through

difficult moments in their lives. They allow the sufferers room to both confess sin where it

needs confessing and to grieve the injustices that contribute to their experiences of loss and

pain. Pastors and counselors, guided by the Holy Spirit, can help the sufferer process through

their suffering, including that which is under their control and that which is not. In both cases,

naming these elements and bringing them before God is a step on the way toward healing. A
study of pastoral research by the authors, indicates the pastoral goal of guiding people under

their care through “the dark night of the soul,” as it was described by St. John of the Cross. They

found suggestions for pastors and counselors to have grace for the sufferers, to believe their

experiences, and to entrust the people into the hands of God. People are helped through the

healing process when they are allowed to express their pain and to do so within the context of

the life of the community, rather than in isolation.

I have found these principles of pastoral care to be true in my ministry with teenagers

through Young Life and also in my own experiences of grief and pain. There have been several

distinct moments in my life when I’ve been allowed to give voice to my pain in a safe

environment. The act of expressing pain and receiving comfort from ministers of the gospel has

helped the healing process for me personally. I have also been part of this on the other end

with teenagers who express their hurts and pains and can begin to receive healing as they walk

alongside leaders who care for them and pray for them. Bringing suffering into the light takes

away the power that is has when hidden in darkness and allows the Holy Spirit to bring healing.

Overall, I agree with the overarching themes of this book. I think it does a good job of

giving an overview of important aspects of lament. This is an area of study that has been

missing from much of my Christian education, but that I have found to be true and good in

practice, largely through my own experiences of processing pain and grief either by burying it

and focusing on the bright side or by expressing it and processing through it. The latter option

has had far more success in bringing healing to me personally. I need the lament psalms to give

words to the grief that I have felt through many difficult circumstances in my life. I also need a

relationship with God where I don’t have to pretend that all is good all the time.