How long, O LORD? 
will you forget me for ever? *
how long will you hide your face from me?

 

You know when you study the psalms as we do on Saturday morning you discover that there are really only  two key speakers or personalities in the Psalms.  One is the conquering and liberating King.  The other one, who speaks to us today is the sufferer.  Strangely Jesus identifies himself with both.  And because the psalms are the inspired word of God, the Psalms are all of the prayers of Jesus, even this prayer of extreme pain and suffering.

 

We underestimate the amount of suffering in the world around us.  This week I held the hand of a woman in her seventies who was suffering such acute depression, she was considering suicide.  And I watched a twenty year old boy cry for the mistakes he had made and the mess he had made of his life.  When we suffer pain, when we feel loss, when we grieve the child, the parent, the loved one we have lost, we not only feel deep pain, but we also feel isolated and cut off from our families, our friends, our church community.  The worst part of it is that we feel cut off from God.  How Long, Oh Lord, will you hide your face from me?

 

I spoke with a man once who told me that he had lost his religion.  30 years before, his young first born died in a swimming accident.  He was devastated.  And even though, he and his wife went on to have other children, he never forgave God.   They were never on speaking terms again.   He felt cut off from God, and I would say that he never met the Jesus who suffered.

 

Yes, Jesus conquers and liberates, but if we have only met the Jesus who conquers and liberates and not the Jesus who suffers we can have a stern and a rather lopsided picture of God.  Elie Wiesel is a Jewish author who was a child in the Nazi concentration camp. Auschwitz,  In Auschwitz Wiesel tells us the Nazi executioners killed for nothing and jewish children, women, and men died for nothing. These were senseless deaths.   In his most famous book “Night” Wiesel tells the story of the execution of a young boy that took place in his presence.  who writes

of his experiences in Auschwitz. Wiesel tells of a particularly gruesome execution which all the members of the concentration camp were compelled to witness. He

writes: “The SS hanged two Jewish men and a youth in front of the whole camp. The men died quickly but the death throes of the youth lasted for half an hour. ‘Where is God? Where is he?’, someone asked behind me. As the youth still

hung in torment in the noose after a long time, I heard the voice call again, ‘Where is God now?’ And I heard a voice in myself answer:‘Where is he? He is

here. He is hanging there on the gallows...’ “. . . .In that moment, Wiesel encountered the God who suffers and who speaks to us in psalm 13.  He met the God who calls out,  How long, O LORD?
will you forget me for ever? *
    how long will you hide your face from me?

As  a disciple of Jesus Christ, I would go further and I would say that Wiesel encountered the God who suffers as Jesus Christ the crucified savior.  When ever a woman or man is struck down with grief, whenever a person is overwhelmed by his failings, whenever the tragedies of life sweep a soul away, Jesus is there. Jesus is there struck down by grief with she who grieves.  Jesus is there swept away by the tragedies that overwhelm us.   Jesus is there weeping and suffering when the one who weeps and suffers.  Jesus calls out How long, O Lord.  

 

In our reading from Genesis today, we hear the amazing and disturbing story of Isaac.  I remember so well a picture that was in my catechism as a child.  Isaac and his father Abraham are struggling up a mountain side leaning into a howling wind and Isaac carries on his back the branches for the fire of sacrifice.  I have always loved this story, but I have to confess that even now I can’t fathom it.  I can’t understand it.  But I can’t help but feel God is on every side of the story.  God is with Abraham who cannot bear the task he is given.  God is with Isaac who can’t understand his loving father raising his knife to strike him down.  Where is ‘God?  A voice from within us says that God is right there suffering with us.  We cannot stop and only wallow in our sufferings.   Jesus who prays How Long, also prays, I will sing to the LORD, for he has dealt with me richly; *
    I will praise the Name of the Lord Most High.

As we gather around the table of the Lord today, we will pray,

 Open our eyes to see your hand at work in the world about us. Deliver us from the presumption of coming to this Table for solace only, and not for strength; for pardon only, and not for renewal. Let the grace of this Holy Communion make us one body, one spirit in Christ, that we may worthily serve the world in his name.

Let us bear our sorrows and burdens in the Lord and with the Lord.  Let us come to the table, not only for solace, but also for strength and renewal.  Amen.