Prayers of Lament

A Sermon by Trevor Bechtel on November 3rd 2024

One of the most frustrating aspects of modern life for me is bad computer programming. Nothing nettles quite like 10 minutes wasted trying to do something on your computer that five years ago would have been easy but was changed in the name of progress. Most of my frustration in this arena seems to end up focused on Microsoft Word. On social media I seem to post about once a year that I would love to have just one hour of time working on a document with a senior Microsoft Word programmer looking over my shoulder so I could show them how their program doesn’t work anymore. In 2013 after a particularly catastrophic interaction I penned this Psalm of Lament. 

Remember, Lord, what Microsoft Word did

    on the day I graded my papers.

“Tear the comments down,” they cried,

    “tear the papers down to their foundations!”

Daughter autorecovery, doomed to destruction,

    happy is the one who repays you

    according to what you have done to us.

Happy is the one who seizes your code

    and dashes it against the rocks.

This is of course meant as a humorous way into a sermon about lament, constancy, and the election, but if it serves as a reminder that prayer can be about anything that’s fine too. 

I was reminded of the men who program computers in ways I don’t want them to this week reading an article about how Elon Musk has been supporting the Republican campaign in the last couple of months. Musk has been using some of his endless supply of money to create a ground campaign in Pennsylvania that goes beyond what non political party campaigners have sought to do. Parts of Musk’s direct engagement may be illegal and indeed he has been sued for offering $100 to voters for signing a petition. 

I pray that Musk’s efforts will not be successful. This particular prayer is not partisan. Entirely apart from who Musk wants to elect, I want Musk’s efforts to fail badly. I want him to fail, for his efforts to be dashed against the rocks, because I do not want billionaires to realize that they can start to be even more involved in the political process. Billionaires, perhaps especially billionaires who have made their money in technology, do not need new ways of influencing our society. So I engage in a whole host of prayers of lament against computer programmers and their ilk. 

In the days leading up to this election I have been engaging in a lot of lament. As I’ve reflected on the American elections I’ve witnessed I’ve realized it has been the regular way I’ve approached elections since moving to this country. So little of what I care about or believe in is represented by any of the candidates in a presidential election … And it makes a real difference for what I care about and believe in who wins. There is much to lament here. 

And this lament is captured perfectly for me in Psalm 130. More than sentinels long for the dawn, my soul longs for God. This juxtaposition of military and personal longing fits my sense of what is going on this week. There are soldiers whose job it is to watch for the sunrise, longing for the safety that daylight brings those who need to be vigilant for attacks. There are politicians running for office, longing for the power that the election will bring. There are those who are longing for God, and for God’s ways to be revealed on the earth. Psalm 130 is wonderfully evocative in its sparse use of language. The sentinels are introduced for just a moment to wait, but they stretch out the lament that the psalmist is making. Suddenly we see that God’s purposes encompass the sentinels. The longing exceeds the sentinels waiting, just as God’s purposes exceed the sentinels purposes. 

This week is going to be a difficult week. Tuesday and its aftermath with be a significant disruption in our society; this is pretty much guaranteed regardless of the outcome; an outcome we may not know for days, or weeks, or months. More than political analysts wait for the election returns we wait for you, O God. When they come the results may not ever be universally accepted and millions of people will be existentially crushed by the outcome. More than voters wait for election results we wait for you, O God. In the days, weeks, and months that follow, there will almost surely be more of some kind of election related violence. 

We may ask ourselves individually or communally what our response should be. And there may be ways that we will be called on to be who we want to be in the days, weeks, and months that follow. And these things may change us in time. But the thing that I place my hope in is something that I also know to be true. In very important ways, regardless of what happens this week, Shalom will still be here next Sunday. We will still stand for what we stand for, and we will still be there as a community of welcome for people who want to join us. We are not waiting for a community of people who seek to pilgrimage simply, peacefully, together. We can do better, but we are already here. We were here before this election, we were here before this country or political system were created, we have been here, seeking to follow Jesus since he was born, and in important ways we were here before that. We are waiting for many things, be it is we who are waiting. 

Amen.