Sermon Talkback: My God, My God, Why Are You So Far Away?

Psalm 22 starts out with those familiar words Jesus uttered from the cross, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" or in a more modern translation, "God, why are you so far away from me?"  It goes on with a substantial list of complaints.

Rev. Sandy Stewart preached yesterday on Psalm 22.  When we were younger, many of us memorized the 23rd Psalm, "The Lord Is My Shepherd"--in school, perhaps.  It is a staple scripture at funerals.  For me the 23rd Psalm has been a source of comfort during hard times--when I was afraid I was walking through the valley of the shadow of death.  The less familiar Psalm 22 is a lament psalm, or as Sandy said, a complaint psalm.

Sandy told us about her friend Rev. Jim who was buried for two days under the rubble of the massive earthquake in Haiti with two other pastors a few feet away.  Jim's two fellow missionaries died, while Jim was rescued.  During those days in the dark Jim sang hymns and recited scripture.  Sandy asked us to think of the times in our own lives when God might have seemed far away.   She mentioned her own dark time of facing surgery, and how the Bible and devotionals kept her grounded in hope.  She said, "I was glad that it was not the first time I read those words."

Thinking of Jesus on the cross,  I realize that the 22nd Psalm was familiar to him, that Jesus had probably memorized the words as a child and pondered them as a man.  Even though Psalm 22 starts with despair, the psalmist ends it in praise.  Hanging on the cross in pain and ostensible failure, Jesus must have had dark thoughts indeed, yet the scripture was there in his mind and heart to comfort and strengthen him to see it through.  The Psalm ends, "God has done it."

"It is finished,"  Jesus said.  "It is accomplished."


Note:  You can hear Rev. Stewart's sermon for yourself at https://sites.google.com/a/lpumc.org/website/home/more/podcast-and-sermons.  Give Mark a few days to get it posted.