October 14, 2018 – Psalm 22
Psalm 22
The Absence of God
Lectionary 28B – October 14, 2018
First Lutheran Church – Winnipeg, MB
The person who wrote the Psalm this morning is suffering.
Various parts of his body show how he is suffering: his bones are visible,
his mouth is dry, he has a parched tongue.
His heart has melted within him.
Moreover, his suffering has rendered him less than human,
like a worm beset by wild bulls and dogs and lions and oxen.
His friends mock him, apparently because, like Job this morning,
they figure he has done something bad to deserve all this – which he hasn’t.
And, to top it all off, God will not answer him.
The key dilemma for the Psalmist is that God is silent and deaf to his cries.
My God, my God, he cries, why have you forsaken me?
The worst part of everything is that God is, apparently, absent.
I am pretty sure we can all relate.
Every single person here knows what it is to suffer.
And every single person here knows someone who is, right now, suffering.
And I am pretty sure we all know what it is like to experience God’s absence.
Even Jesus, who had such an intimate relationship with his divine parent,
knew what it was like to feel God’s absence when he was suffering.
From the cross he quoted Psalm 22: My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
It’s a shame we only get half the Psalm this morning, because eventually something happens.
God answers the Psalmist!
And that changes everything.
We do not know if the suffering is completely alleviated –
It doesn’t say that anything has changed except that God has somehow answered him.
All the Psalmist acknowledges is that God is somehow now present with him.
God is no longer experienced as absent, but as present – and that is enough.
It is enough for the Psalmist to conclude on a note of thanksgiving and praise,
indeed, one of the most over the top thanksgivings in the Bible,
As he imagines that all peoples will praise God for God’s presence in his suffering:
Israelites and non-Israelites, the dead and the yet unborn future generations.
The simple knowledge of God’s presence is enough to move him to praise.
He has experienced healing, a wholeness in his relationship with God,
the assurance that God is with him.
The first time the Psalmist acknowledges God’s presence is when
he is in the midst of “the congregation,” in the midst of the worshipping assembly.
I think this is so significant.
So often we experience the absence of God in our suffering.
And yet, like the Psalmist, we can, perhaps,
experience God’s presence with us through one another.
No one has ever seen God, we read in I John, surely something to which we can all relate.
Yet, he continues, if we love each other, God lives in us.
And that, is an amazing thing to say.
At their best, Christians meet the absence of God with the presence of God’s people.
Every single person should be able to say, God might feel remote, but God’s people are near.
We can bear God to one another.
In a few minutes we will have a healing rite in the middle of our worshipping assembly
for just that reason.
For those who are suffering,
and for those who are feeling the suffering of the world deep within themselves,
this is an opportunity to experience God’s presence through the laying on of
hands by fellow members of the body of Christ.
These hands communicate that God cares, that God is near, and that you are not alone.
The hope is that you might experience some healing in the midst of your suffering.
And, like the Psalmist, eventually be led to offer God praise and thanksgiving.
So with Job and the Psalmist and with all whom God loves, together, let us say, Amen.
Pastor Michael Kurtz
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