Rev. J. Dana Trent July 6, 2014 Living Lament: Is God with Us in Our Suffering? Psalm 22:1-11; 19-24, and Mark 15:33-39

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1 Rev. J. Dana Trent July 6, 2014 Living Lament: Is God with Us in Our Suffering? Psalm 22:1-11; 19-24, and Mark 15:33-39 Introduction The opening words of Psalm 22 are familiar to us. This Old Testament text outlines the Suffering Psalmist's individual prayer of lament one in which he describes his desperate circumstance and begs for God to rescue him. 1 Echoed in both the Gospels of Matthew and Mark, Psalm 22 is the primal outcry of human suffering from one who experiences God as distant. Absent. Silent. In tough times, this is my Psalm and your Psalm and it is also the Psalm of Jesus Christ on the cross. Three Worlds This morning, I want us to hold three worlds in tension: first, the world of ancient Israel- -the context in which Psalm 22 was written, second, the Roman world in which Jesus was crucified, and third, our world as members of Binkley Baptist Church in World One: Ancient Israel In exploring the world of ancient Israel, we learn from Patrick Miller, author of Interpreting the Psalms, that Psalm 22 is a lament Psalm par excellence. 2 It is the gold standard of lament showing us how to pray in our darkest days. But such a prayer is foreign to us, the modern Church. But, for the Israelite community, the frequent use of Psalm 22 is a bold act of faith. 3 But how is a prayer that outlines frustration with One who is supposedly almighty yet absent--considered a bold act of faith? Wouldn t most of us consider it an act of doubt? Distrust? Is it not a naming of raw abandonment and blame toward the One who has abandoned you? But the Israelites considered the Psalms of Lament to be an act of relationship, not 1 2 Dahood, Mitchell. Anchor Bible Commentary on Psalms 1-50; Psalm 22, 1966, page 138 Miller, Patrick D. Interpreting the Psalms. Fortress Press, 1986, pages Bruggeman, Walter. The Message of the Psalms. Augsburg Publishing House, 1984, pages

2 distrust. Their community insisted that experiences of disorder are a proper subject for discourse with God. 4 In all things good or bad one must turn to God. But, do we really believe that? Do we bring our sadness, anger, grief, and lament before God in an unfiltered, heartfelt way? Or do we instead stuff our pain with vices and addictions to busy lives? My sense is that our modern world is so fast-paced and jam-packed that it interferes with such raw conversations with God. World Two: The Roman World of Jesus (Exegesis of Mark 15:34) In Mark 15: 33-39, we find ourselves at the Place of the Skull, where a 33-year-old Jesus' anguished cry from the cross is recorded in both the Gospels of Matthew and Mark. Jesus' words echo the first verse of Psalm 22, a prayer with which Jesus and his contemporaries would have been very familiar. Because the Psalms were a common liturgical tool of the Jewish people, often the first line of a Psalm was recited to represent the entire meaning of the prayer. But, some scholars debate as to whether Jesus use of the first line of Psalm 22 was meant to signify the trajectory of the Lament Psalm which moves from petition to deliverance or if it were simply an isolated cry of abandonment. But, numerous verses of Psalm 22 are used in the Gospels by way of quotation, allusion, influence, or reference to the events surrounding Christ s death and so we cannot deny that Jesus' crucifixion experience mirrors the narrative of the Suffering Psalmist. This is an important theological connection, because the juxtaposition of these two texts helps us see the deeper meaning of the incarnation and God s identification with all those who suffer and cry out to God. 5 In Psalm 22, the poet pours out his lament, but he does not dwell there. In the Gospels, Jesus suffers on the cross, but he does not remain there. World Three: Our Modern Church Our religion's history teaches us that the use of these Psalms was commonplace in the ancient world, so, what happened to lament in our contemporary society? In her bestselling memoir on death, Joan Didion, author of The Year of Magical Thinking, names the cultural shift that changed the way we suffer. Didion points to Emily Post s 1922 Book of Etiquette, where public and private lament was still allowed and not hidden from view. 6 4 Bruggeman, Walter. The Message of the Psalms, 1984, 5 6 Miller, Patrick. Interpreting the Psalms. Fortress Press, 1986, pages Didion, Joan. The Year of Magical Thinking, Knopf, 2005, page 60. 2

3 But, that all changed after the depression, when, in 1930, according to social anthropologist Geoffrey Gorer, public and private suffering were replaced with an ethical duty to enjoy oneself and an imperative to do nothing which might diminish the enjoyment of others. 7 And so, in an effort to be polite, we as a people and as a Church, threw out the baby with the bath water. We have become so accustomed to saying I m fine, that we've sacrificed one of the most valuable spiritual tools of our religious history. Theologian Walter Bruggeman puts it so eloquently: It s no wonder the Church has intuitively avoided these Psalms. They lead us into the dangerous acknowledgment of how life really is. They lead us into the presence of God where everything is not polite and civil. 8 But, the Israelites believed that what was said to God may have been scandalous and without redeeming social value, but [they] were completely committed to the fact that whatever must be said about the human situation must be said [loudly and] directly to God, who is Lord of the human experience and partner in it. 9 And, lest we imagine that the Israelites complained from dawn til dusk, the Psalms of Lament follow a movement we don't expect: a heartfelt journey from dissonance to hope, from plea to praise. It is a rhythm of prayer from the one who is afflicted, but also the expression of faith in God s rescue of the afflicted. But, today, we believe that enough education, hard work, money, power, and self-help books will tame our suffering. However, our honest experience attests to the resilience of suffering, in spite of all we do to crush it. The remarkable thing that we can learn from the ancient Israelities and from Jesus was that they did not banish or deny suffering from its religious context. They considered it a bold act of faith to bring one's petitions before God. They allowed the very act of lament itself to help them embrace suffering as the stuff of new life. 10 Three Worlds in Tension: The Angel of Grief Now, flip to the first page of your bulletins. The Angel of Grief, found at the top left corner, is a well-known statue by William Wetmore Story, an American sculptor who studied and lived in Rome. Crafted in 1894, the piece served as a headstone for William s wife, Emelyn. Since its creation, the sculpture has been widely used to reflect lament as it applies to the death of Jesus. The Angel of Grief is symbolic for Holy Saturday, the day after Jesus Ibid, page 60. Bruggeman, Walter. The Message of the Psalms, page Bruggeman, pages Bruggeman, pages

4 crucifixion and the day before his resurrection. 11 The angel's posture does well to represent our desperate times of transition whether we are grieving loved ones, moving through a divorce, caring for the terminally ill, or in or shock over a sudden trauma. We doubt we will survive. We question, we wonder: My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? The truth is, modern folks are not good at Holy Saturdays and Lament. We are too quick to offer ourselves and others unhelpful theology to move on the quicker, the better. We say without thinking: When God closes a door, He opens a window. But, as a preacher friend of mine who struggles with infertility recently told me: Sure, there's a closed door and an open window somewhere, but they are likely in two different rooms and there is a dark, dark hallway in between. Living Lament: Embracing the Psalms Even though suffering is not lost on the Body of Christ, we wrestle with these unglamorous texts. None of us are beating down the doors to add Lamentations and Ecclesiastes to our nightstands. Can't we talk about something more pleasant? we ask. But there is a place for lament in our worshiping community. In his gut-wrenching memoir, Stations of the Heart, Duke Divinity School Professor of Homiletics Richard Lischer writes about his son Adam's last months with terminal cancer. Lischer describes how our medical culture of hope, chemo, and appeasing suffering stands in sharp contrast to the lament of the Israelite community. Lischer writes, What must not under any circumstances be uttered in the clinic [should] be shouted from the rooftop of any church, or candle lit bedroom, even if it is a prayer addressed to the very One who has abandoned you: 12 Our communal sin is that we are too quick to brush away lament our own and others so much so that we've neglected to see the transformation that occurs in the slow trajectory that both the Psalmist and Christ teach us: yes, we will suffer, we will feel forsaken, but we should turn to God, who is present in our suffering, and whose mercies are new each morning 13. We will not stay in the hallway forever; but while we are there, it's a bold act of faith to turn to God. For Christians, Jesus Christ is Emmanuel: God with us. Jesus is God who puts on skin in order to move among us and minister to the marginalized, heal the sick, and deliver the suffering. God experiences creation s suffering through the incarnation of Jesus. 11 Jarrell, Maggie. Art in the Christian Tradition, Vanderbilt Divinity Library Collection 12 Lischer, Richard. Stations of the Heart, Knopf, 2013, page Lamentations 3:23 4

5 Summary: How Are Things with Your Heart? The next time you find yourself in the midst of deep, bone-aching suffering, don't stuff it. Revisit the ancient church's teachings on lament. Open your Bible to Psalm 22. Read the words aloud let them pour over you. Shout them if you'd like. Allow your suffering to be intertwined with the words of the Psalmist's and those of Christ. When you do this, something mysterious happens. You may not feel it at first, but is the Holy Spirit--God's presence. And there is no better place to ask yourself: How is my heart? 14 than at this table the one in which our community remembers the night in which Jesus ate with his friends an imperfect rag-tag family of misfits just like you and me. These are the same disciples who would know suffering as they took on the The Angel of Grief posture that Holy Saturday, when they were in their hallway of despair. Today, as you eat the communion bread and drink the juice, remember that you belong to God, which means you are beloved. Though you suffer, God is with you. Be in conversation with God and one another about your despair. Jesus shouted in abandonment and so should we. You are not alone. Fuse these three worlds--share in the human condition understood by the ancient Israelites, Jesus Christ, and everyone around you. For we have all yearned for God's answers, but, often, what we get instead is God's presence. 15 Amen. 14 Entering the Psalms: Meeting God in Scripture, Upper Room Books Bolz-Weber, Nadia. Pastrix, Jericho Books, 2013, page 86. 5