Passion Week Service - Reflection on Psalm 22

O God, where are you?

We, your people, are trying to meet the demands of

        The Covenant,

                Our Covenant,

                        Your Covenant,

Yes, Your Covenant.

Only You,

        Most Holy You,

Seems absent and are nowhere to be found.     (stop)

 

We need your voice,

        No more than that, we need Your presence.

The World, Our World, Your World

Is on the brink of destruction,

        and you are silent.

Accusations,

        Whispers,

                Criticism abound;

Might we at least hear a word from You!

        Is your silence disapproval or do you even care?

You refuse to answer our calls.

        Have we been placed on eternal hold?               (stop)

 

My God, Why have you forsaken us?             

Can you even begin to imagine how we must feel?

We are suspended between heaven and hell.

 

Our adversaries gloat,

        Our enemies celebrate,

                Our friends are nowhere to be found.

Can you even begin to imagine how we feel?

        Break from your heavenly sanctuary;

Join us in this real world.

Experience what it feels like to be

        Mocked,

                Ridiculed,

                        Or even worse,

Ignored.

Everyone speaks,

        But You.

Must we eternally endure your Holy Hush?             (stop)

 

There is a song many of us in earlier lives learned which poignantly describes the very essence of Good Friday as a shared event. The words go like this.

               

Must Jesus bear the cross alone,

and all the world go free.

No there’s a cross for everyone,

And there’s a cross for me.

(stop)

        I dare say most of us have had a moment of weakness or courage, depending on your particular brand of theology, when we have discovered an emptiness in our soul, a void, which might best be described as the absence of God.

Were you angry?

        Were you surprised?

                Were you frightened?

                        Were you all of the above?

 

On Good Friday, we are given permission to question if God deserted Jesus. If the answer is yes than perhaps it is appropriate to ask at sometime will God also desert us?

 

On Good Friday, we are allowed to pontificate on the silence of God. It is only logical that this might lead to a discussion concerning the absence of God.

 

But tonight we can hardly expect a Godly response.

 

Good Friday can chill our soul,

Good Friday can darken our light,

        But Good Friday cannot break Godly silence.

 

        Can anyone be expected to speak when remembering the death of their son?

That conversation will have to can wait a day,

or perhaps three.

                       

                                                                        Amen.