O LORD God of hosts, how long will you be angry with your people’s prayers? You have fed them with the bread of tears and given them tears to drink in full measure...Restore us, O God of hosts...

   - Psalm 80.4, 5, 7

Grant me tears, O Lord, to blot out my sins; may I not cease from them, O God, until I have been purified...When I contemplate my sins, grant me tears always, for great are the claims of tears on cheeks.

   - Anonymous, Old Irish, 9th century

Being happy in church is the “in” thing these days.

I remember a vignette from Mad Magazine, when I was a kid, which featured Robin Hood calling out the names of his “merry men,” only to come, quite unexpectedly, to Grumpy, the dwarf from Snow White. Whereupon he booted the usurper out of the ranks, saying, “No grumpies in my merry men!”

This is the way I feel about church today: if you’re happy and you know it, clap your hands. If not, well, we’ll have to work on that.

Have we forgotten that Jesus was the Man of Sorrows, who wept tears for the lost people of God? Who wept over the hardness of men’s hearts at the tomb of Lazarus? Who wept and sweat tears of blood in entering into the ultimate sacrifice for our sins? Do we think we have no need for tears in the Church today? Have we moved so far past sin that we do not need to weep and lament before God at the way we routinely flout His Law and seek that our will, not His, might be done?

We have no tears of repentance today because we’re too busy chasing the idol of happiness and good feeling to stop and look at the great depth of our sins.

But if God does not feed us on tears, drown us in tears, bury us in tears of repentance, we'll never get beyond where we are today. And where we are today – look around, people – ain’t all that great, appearances notwithstanding.

We need tears, brethren, tears. When the tears of repentance begin to fall from our eyes, the Spirit of renewal will shortly appear.

Psalm 80.4-7 (St. Theodulph: “All Glory, Laud, and Honor”)
How long will You ignore all Your people’s fervent prayer?
Shall bitter tears fall ever? O Lord, renew Your care!
    Our neighbors mock and scorn us, they laugh at out distress;
     Renew, O Lord, and turn us, look down on us and bless!

Grant me tears, O Lord, both for myself and for this sad world; and send reviving grace once again! Adapted from “Grant Me Tears”