Old Testament Literature Due Tomorrow!!!

Since the Covid 19 pandemic began, many of us feel as if our lives have been turned upside down. Some of us have experienced personal and financial loss. Some of us work on the frontlines of this pandemic or labor as essential workers. We have faced disappointments; many of our hopes for 2020 are not being realized. Last Spring, Orleans, Jefferson, and surrounding parishes were Covid 19 hot spots, and now in the last quarter of the year infection rates are increasing geometrically, threatening the capacity of our health systems.  

Laments in the Bible come to my mindand may be worth reading at this time. Read the attached presentation for our archaeological moment where laments are juxtaposed with ancient sculptures illustrating loss of loved ones.

Reading the attached presentation is a course requirement. But participating in the discussion below is extra credit or to make up a missing assignment or quiz.

Lament in OT as Literature

Outline for Your Discussion Post
1. Share your thoughts on the presentation, Lament for OT as Lit Fall 2020*
2. Find and discuss two biblical laments from these recommended books (Post the biblical text so that readers don’t have to look it up.).  Keep in mind, a biblical lament is more than a single verse! You must use the full lament given, such as a full psalm or a full chapter. 2 Samuel 1:19-27 is a good example of a complete lament set within a narrative. But you cannot use this example; you must find your own from these books:
     A. Job (voice of Job)
     B. Isaiah 40-55 “Second Isaiah,” see Harris, chapter 18)
     C. Jeremiah
     D. Lamentations
     E. Psalms
     F. Any other Old Testament books 
3. Find and discuss a modern image or modern quote expressing grief or lament*. Parts 2 and 3 can be woven together as I have done using Powerpoint. Be sure to cite the creator or photographer of any images you post.

4. Conclusion. Synthesize with your insights on grief and lament*.

*Share your experiences of lament and grief, at a level that is comfortable for you. 

Instructions for Discussion,
Lament in the Time of Covid 19
Read the preface (slide 2) and letter, “Lament” (slides 3-18)
Slides 19-40 further describe how words and images give voice to grief and related emotions, which is to lament (verb). What is said or written is a lament (noun).
Slide 20 provides an outline for your post due Thursday, Sept 24.
Comment substantively on three other posts by Sunday, Sept 27.

Lament
Preface: A note to viewers
Kate Shropshire (1978-2007), a graduate of Nolan Catholic High School who became a nurse and physician’s assistant, died after a nine-month battle with pneumonia and MRSA infection. Her death at age twenty-nine was a devastating loss to her parents and sister, our St. Rita Catholic parish, and her many friends and colleagues. At the funeral dinner I spoke with Kate’s mother, Barbara, who has been a director of religious education in the parish for almost three decades. I was struck by her willingness to share the doubts that welled up as a result of her cataclysmic loss. Barbara’s words contrasted sharply with the resurrection hope expressed in the vigil and funeral services for Kate. The dissonance led me to create this PowerPoint for her, but initially I could not send it. I gave it to a mutual friend, Barbara’s best friend, and she picked the appropriate time to give it to the Shropshire family.

Barbara, Mike, and Anne,
I want to offer you some images that captured my experience of “lament,” particularly the loss of my brother Louis, and my friend, Danice.
When I saw the sculptures this past May in Turkey, I was bowled over by their power to capture my experience of grief. They continue to make visual what I feel about us losing Kate.

*
Perge

My close friend/teaching colleague, Danice, died in June, 2001, after a 15 month battle with inflammatory breast cancer.
My brother, Louis, died of complications of pneumonia in July 2001.

*
Perge

Early on, no talk of resurrection, or “a better place” took away the pain and anger of complete and permanent separation from Danice and my brother. In fact, it seemed to make the pain more unbearable.
Thousands of years ago artisans chiseled lamenting figures, usually women, onto sarcophagi, tombs. They captured in stone, what I felt within. It was a moment of grace when I happened upon them in the museums of Asia Minor. When I studied the faces I thought to myself—that’s it! that’s my pain, that’s my rage! The honesty of the artists reassured me that I am not the only one to feel this way. And the permanence of the stone made sacramental the awful experience of separation caused by death.
So Barbara, Mike, and Anne, I offer you these images (with fear and trepidation that I might be an unwanted friend of Job) because while I believe in the resurrection, with all its beautiful images, my experience was that resurrection images felt miserably out of place so close to the loss of Louis and Danice.

*
Perge

Shortly after Louis died, my mom, my sisters, and I had to pick up something at the mall and I had this surreal feeling, why isn’t everyone reacting to this loss [of my brother]?
Similarly, when we returned to school year 2001-2002, I raged inside, “Why is everyone acting ‘business as usual’—Danice is not here!”

W. H. Auden says it better. . .

He was my North, my South, my East and West
My workingweek and my Sundayrest
My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song
I thought that love would last forever: I was wrong
The stars are not wanted now, put out every one;
Pack up the moon and dismantle the sun;
Pour away the ocean and sweep up the wood
For nothing now can ever come to any good
Stop all the clocks,
cut off the telephone
Prevent the dog
from barking with a juicy bone
Silence the pianos
and with a muffled drum
Bring out the coffin,
let the mourners come
Let aeroplanes circle
moaning overhead
Scribbling on the sky
the message He Is Dead
Put crêpe bows round
the white necks of the public doves
Let the traffic policemen
wear black cotton gloves
Two Songs for Hedli Anderson in
Selected Poems of W.H. Auden
by W. H. Auden

These sculptures are found in two museums: Antalya Museum of Archaeology and Istanbul Museum of Archaeology. Many of the sarcophagi were made in Aphrodisias, a city known for this craft. This relief from Aphrodisias depicts the artists at work.

So it’s now January 21 and I never gathered the courage to send this. Kathleen can decide when it’s the right time and show it to you.
Barbara, Mike, and Anne, you have stayed in my thoughts and prayers and I continue to pray for you and thank God for the gift of Kate in so many lives.
love,
Mary Jo Kaska
Then and Now: An acanthus plant growing beside its representation on a column.
Aphrodisias, Asia Minor [Turkey]

This is where the letter to my friends ended. And where I pick up with you, Loyola scholars.
In this presentation I’ve tried to find expression to feelings of inconsolable grief. I believe that is what W. H. Auden did in ”Two Songs for Hedli Anderson” and what the ancient sculptors did in stone.
Biblical writers achieved this too. And so I am sending you on a treasure hunt for biblical laments. The most obvious places are Psalms and Job, but also in “Second Isaiah,” Jeremiah, and Lamentations. You already read one in 2 Samuel 1:18-27.

Outline for Your Discussion Post
Share your thoughts on this presentation*
Find and discuss two biblical laments from these recommended books (Post the biblical text so that readers don’t have to look it up.):
Job (voice of Job)
Isaiah 40-55 “Second Isaiah,” see Harris, chapter 18)
Jeremiah
Lamentations
Psalms
Any other Old Testament books
Find and discuss a modern image or modern quote expressing grief or lament*. Parts 2 and 3 can be woven together as I have done using Powerpoint.
Conclusion. Synthesize with your insights on grief and lament*.
*Share your experiences of lament and grief, at a level that is comfortable for you.
Go back

*

More random info and
examples that
may be helpful
with your post.

Sarcophagus of Mourning Women
Sidon, Mid-4th century BCE
Istanbul Archaeological Museum
The sarcophagus is thought to have belonged to King Straton of Sidon (374-358 BCE).
Sidon was a neighboring/sometimes enemy kingdom to Israel
The lower register of mourning women dominates the view while the upper register depicts a funeral procession.

According to the museum catalog, the gestures of distress and wailing are those common for ancient Semitic people as well as shorn heads, naked feet and torn clothing.

The mourner has torn his tunic.

This “column” sacrophagus is one of the finest examples that has survived. It was a monumental tomb, a mausoleum, not a work for underground burial.

The text used in the next slide (Ezekiel 28:21-26) is not so much a lament as an oracle of doom meant for the consolation of Israel. It expresses that vengeful feeling of wanting your enemy (Sidon) to suffer more than the suffering they caused you. If the Bible is one thing, it’s honest about the emotions deep within the human heart. Feelings of rage towards others is sometimes expressed as schadenfreude. As you read Psalms you’ll see rage and revenge. Is the Bible condoning violence? No, that is not the point. A therapist might say that it is good to name those feelings so we can find healthy ways to deal with life’s disappointments and injustices.

Mortal, set your face toward Sidon, and prophesy against it, 22 and say, Thus says the Lord GOD: I am against you, O Sidon, and I will gain glory in your midst. They shall know that I am the LORD when I execute judgments in it, and manifest my holiness in it; 23 for I will send pestilence into it, and bloodshed into its streets; and the dead shall fall in its midst, by the sword that is against it on every side. And they shall know that I am the LORD. 24 The house of Israel shall no longer find a pricking brier or a piercing thorn among all their neighbors who have treated them with contempt. And they shall know that I am the Lord GOD. 25 Thus says the Lord GOD: When I gather the house of Israel from the peoples among whom they are scattered, and manifest my holiness in them in the sight of the nations, then they shall settle on their own soil that I gave to my servant Jacob. 26 They shall live in safety in it, and shall build houses and plant vineyards. They shall live in safety, when I execute judgments upon all their neighbors who have treated them with contempt. And they shall know that I am the LORD their God.
Ezekiel 28:21-26

What if the book of Psalms is like being able to share anything and everything with God who is like your most trusted friend. This friend loves you no matter
what awful feelings live inside and must be shared.

When our friends are in shock and grief, perhaps we should just
sit in silence with them
like Job’s companions
before they became so callous.

William Blake
*

Have you ever had to buy a sympathy card for a friend and every card makes you want to retch? Sometimes I just write a letter and add this quotation from Dietrich Bonhoeffer.
Nothing can make up for
the absence of someone we love. . .
and it would be wrong
to try to find a substitute.
We must simply hold out and see it through.
That sounds very hard at first
but at the same time
it is a great consolation. . .
for the gap–as long as it remains unfilled—
preserves the bond between us.
It is nonsense to say that God fills the gap…
but on the contrary keeps it empty
and so helps us to keep alive
our former communion with each other
even at the cost of pain.

One of my friends lost his mom to cancer (She was also my friend). She was a wonderful mom and scholar who was known for reading widely and generously gathering friends and family into her home. Quite a while after her death, the son posted a picture on Facebook of her chair, the place where she had read and studied. He poignantly tagged her in the photo, in the place that was a living reminder of her absence. Twenty-eight of her friends took note of his loss.


“Separation
~ Your absence has gone through me
Like thread through a needle.
~ Everything I do is stitched with its color.”
— W. S. Merwin

My friend added this poem:

The Sarcophagus of Mourning Women from Sidon is preserved at the Istanbul Archaeological Museum, Turkey.
Reference work:
Alpay Pasinli, Istanbul Archaeological Museums, Istanbul: A Turizm Yayinlari, 2005.

Thank you for reading to the end.
A Roman relief from Trier showing part of an ancient school

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