Sticking to faith

During Lent & Easter we will be paying attention to some of the Psalms. Today, (March 4, Lent 2) we look at Psalm 22:23-30

We live charmed lives here in Australia

Many of our woes are imaginary,

we have good healthcare, good  food

a justice system that works.

Many people in the world,

and throughout history have been denied

what we take to be

basic rights.

These things are not perfect, but pretty good for most of us.

Our relationship with God is often caricatured  and characterized as fanciful and unrealistic.

It often seem to me this is superficial

and is done by people who do not understand

that we try to approach God,

we struggle with the religious

in order that we may understand life

and ourselves.

As St Augustine says (see last week)

our prayer to God is

Let me know you, that I may know myself

This Psalm that we look at today is an important one.

Psalm 22  , it is noted is quoted more often in the New Testament than any other Psalm

Principally, we hear Jesus  speaking it

from the cross

My God, my God  why have you forsaken me

and we hear other heart-wrenching stuff

“I cry out but you do not answer…I am attacked on every side by mad cows, lions and dogs”

This resonates with me. I feel like this sometimes

As though God is not there, as though my enemies are winning and I am losing.

This is is real human stuff

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me

And the section we read today

invites us to move beyond this.

All the woe is true

but there is more to it than that

(this is what Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens don’t get….I don’t want to belittle their scepticism, but I do want to suggest that to people of faith like you and me

there might be more here than meets the eye

Let us not be trite,

Christian faith is not about escaping the harsh realities of the world

But rather trusting that there is more in the promises of God

than the mind alone can comprehend.

So the Psalmist says:

Trust the promises of God.

What is happening to Jesus on the Cross at the greatest moment of despair

is that at the point when ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING

is stripped away

there is and only GOD!

This is really hard!

Yet it is true.

We are invited to remember

the promises of God are true

Trust God!!!

Praise the Lord!

he does not despise those who are at the bottom of the pile

(he calls them the poor and the afflicted)

Let’s hear….God doesn’t  despise you…or me

We often feel like things are not working

but we are invited to trust.

What is God promising to you:

Security, healing, hope

There is also a greater promise…..

that if we trust this process

…faith in God rather than trust in humanity

…will spread to the rest of humanity, throughout and into the world

Psalm 22: 23-30

You who fear the Lord, praise him!
  

 All you offspring of Jacob, glorify him;
   

stand in awe of him, all you offspring of Israel! 
For he did not despise or abhor
   

the affliction of the afflicted;
he did not hide his face from me,
   

but heard when I cried to him.


From you comes my praise in the great congregation;
   

my vows I will pay before those who fear him. 
The poor shall eat and be satisfied;
   

those who seek him shall praise the Lord.
   

May your hearts live for ever!


All the ends of the earth shall remember
   

and turn to the Lord;
and all the families of the nations
   

shall worship before him. 


For dominion belongs to the Lord,
   

and he rules over the nations.


To him, indeed, shall all who sleep in the earth bow down;
   

before him shall bow all who go down to the dust,
   

and I shall live for him. 


Posterity will serve him;
   

future generations will be told about the Lord