"My God, Why Have You Forsaken Me?"

Sermon preached by Ginny Houghtaling on Good Friday, March 21, 2008

Which one of us has not said it, felt it, or heard it? Jesus was suffering unbelievably at the end – probably in shock that it was really happening and having trouble holding onto the promises he knew God had made to him. Mark tells us Jesus cries out these words that are also the first verse of Psalm 22, a well know cry for help – a lament of those mortally ill – feeling God does not answer them in distress.

Is this the same man who healed on the Sabbath, who healed possessed children, who drove money changers from the temple, who withered fig trees? I suspect no matter how faithful or how powerful we are we have all gone down that path where we wonder or are even absolutely certain God has forsaken us. It puts Jesus squarely in his humanity next to us, doesn’t it?

I hear it so often in my work as a therapist – things like – “Ginny this is the most God forsaken thing that could ever happen to anyone…”, “Ginny, why did God let my sister kill herself?”, “Ginny, why did God give my father cancer and let him die at only 55 when he had so much to live for?”, “Ginny, why do I have M.S.? Is God even there for me?”

In my own life I wondered if God had forsaken me during a sad and scary divorce, and again during the 18 weeks my 84 year old Mom was in and out of a coma after being hit by a drunk driver – she had a directive not to be kept alive on life support but after they saved her at a trauma center my surgeon Dad couldn’t bear to let her go.

Another time I wondered if God had forsaken us when my son was in middle school and was bullied mercilessly after making an innocent, fun loving remark that he thought “girls clothes were more fun than guys clothes” – you know – he was condemned over and over with the hallway and luncheon “F” word. “Faggot” – making for a miserable time for many months. During that time he came home from Initiation group one Sunday saying he decided we needed God because the “world was pretty crumby.

We’ve probably all been there more than once – a loss, an illness, a painful situation. Jesus cries out to God and so must we – cry out to keep ourselves on the road to the resurrection. A later verse of Psalm 22 says, “he did not hide his face from me, but heard when I cried to him. I don’t believe God causes bad things for us or leaves us alone – I think out vulnerable human imperfection makes us vulnerable to hard things. And, as the Rev. Wm. Sloane Coffin said following the accident that killed his young son – “it wasn’t Gods will – Gods heart was the first to break” Gods heart breaks with ours!

That is good grace. There is enough to go around. God walks with us. If we can remember that we can continue on the road to the resurrection.