{"id":14301,"date":"2026-03-01T00:09:49","date_gmt":"2026-03-01T04:09:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/?p=14301"},"modified":"2026-03-01T00:09:49","modified_gmt":"2026-03-01T04:09:49","slug":"laments-for-lent-week-two-immigrant-justice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/?p=14301","title":{"rendered":"Laments for Lent – Week Two – Immigrant Justice"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Lord, how many are my foes!
\nHow many rise up against me!
\nMany are saying of me,
\n\u201cGod will not deliver him.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

–Psalm 3:1-2<\/p>\n

It’s Week 2 of Lent, so I’m going to talk about the second part of the Lament, the Complaint.<\/p>\n

Here’s a bit from my book about the Complaint:<\/p>\n

The Complaint is in every Lament, and its presence marks the Psalm as a Lament. And the psalmists don\u2019t hold back. They pour out their hearts before the Lord. Usually, this section is the longest of all the parts of a Lament, going into great detail about all the trouble. In fact, a lot of Psalms sound like the psalmist is overreacting. If I were their friend, in many cases I\u2019d probably try to tell them to calm down.<\/p>\n

But if the psalmists do it, overreacting to God in prayer must be okay. If catastrophic thoughts are going through your head, don\u2019t be afraid to express them to God.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I’ve decided that this year, I’m mostly going to pray about current events in my example laments. I should probably pray about war today, but I was already planning to pray about justice for immigrants – because I went to an Interfaith Prayer Vigil this week for Immigrant Justice. I wish I could even keep track of all the things that need prayer.<\/p>\n

So let me get right to the lament. Again, I offer these as examples of how we can pray, using the patterns from Psalms.<\/p>\n

Here again are the parts of a Lament:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Address to God<\/li>\n
  2. Complaint<\/li>\n
  3. Confession of Trust<\/li>\n
  4. Entreaty<\/li>\n
  5. Sureness of Help<\/li>\n
  6. Subsequent Praise<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    A Lament for Immigrant Justice<\/p>\n

    Father of all people,
    \nCreator of all earth’s diversity,
    \nwe come before you with sadness
    \nand ask you to hear our prayer.<\/p>\n

    Once America was known for gladly taking
    \nthe tired, the poor,
    \nthe huddled masses yearning to breathe free.
    \nOnce we asked other nations to send us
    \nthe homeless and tempest-tost.
    \nSo many of our own ancestors came
    \nseeking a better life
    \nor fleeing religious persecution.<\/p>\n

    Now they’ve closed immigration down to many countries,
    \nand are hassling even vacationers if they find any manufactured problem.
    \nThey’re arresting people without due process,
    \nif they don’t like the color of their skin or their accent,
    \nwithout checking their status or believing their protestations.
    \nCitizens have been held in horrible conditions
    \nand so have law-abiding immigrants who were contributing to our country’s well-being.
    \nA blind man was left to freeze to death
    \nafter being wrongfully detained.
    \nA child in a bunny hat
    \nwas locked in prison.
    \nPeople legally observing ICE activities
    \nwere shot and killed.
    \nAnd those are only things I know about.
    \nThey’re also not allowing legal inspections
    \nand keeping clergy from ministering to people who have been detained.<\/p>\n

    It’s all lawless and evil
    \nand the opposite of how you told us
    \nto treat the alien and the stranger among us.<\/p>\n

    O Creator who sees a sparrow fall,
    \nhow much more do you see your children?
    \nYou don’t lose people in those concentration camps;
    \nyou see the injustice done to each one.
    \nYou are with each person
    \nnow struck with fear from the rampaging secret police
    \nwho think they act with impunity.<\/p>\n

    Call them to account, O God!
    \nWatch over your children.
    \nMotivate your people,
    \nshow us how to stop the injustice.
    \nTurn our system around
    \nto bring the vulnerable freedom rather than incarceration
    \nand hope in place of fear.
    \nReach out your hand to help each one
    \nwrongfully targeted.
    \nBring mothers and fathers back to their children,
    \nand bring our neighbors back to their homes.<\/p>\n

    Tear down the concentration camps,
    \nand let all the plans against your children be destroyed.<\/p>\n

    God who brought your people out of slavery in Egypt,
    \nopen the prison doors through your might.<\/p>\n

    We believe that your hand is in history
    \n– may we see the evidence soon.
    \n“Break the arm [of power] of the wicked and evil man;
    \ncall him to account for his wickedness,
    \nthat would not be found out.”<\/p>\n

    And when ICE is abolished
    \nand the concentration camps destroyed,
    \nlet’s throw a party with our immigrant neighbors,
    \neat unfamiliar foods,
    \nand praise your name.<\/p>\n

    ***
    \nOkay, that’s my offering this week. Again let me say that I offer these examples partly to show that you don’t have to be eloquent! But praying through the form does help me think of something to pray when I feel at a loss about a problem much bigger than what I can deal with.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Lord, how many are my foes! How many rise up against me! Many are saying of me, \u201cGod will not deliver him.\u201d –Psalm 3:1-2 It’s Week 2 of Lent, so I’m going to talk about the second part of the Lament, the Complaint. Here’s a bit from my book about the Complaint: The Complaint is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65,62,55],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14301","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-laments","category-laments-for-lent","category-praying-with-the-psalmists"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14301","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14301"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14301\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14303,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14301\/revisions\/14303"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14301"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14301"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14301"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}