Where is your God?

Psalm 42

1 As the deer pants for streams of water,
    so my soul pants for you, my God.
2 My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.
    When can I go and meet with God?
3 My tears have been my food
    day and night,
while people say to me all day long,
    “Where is your God?”
4 These things I remember
    as I pour out my soul:
how I used to go to the house of God
    under the protection of the Mighty One[d]
with shouts of joy and praise
    among the festive throng.

5 Why, my soul, are you downcast?
    Why so disturbed within me?
Put your hope in God,
    for I will yet praise him,
    my Savior and my God.

6 My soul is downcast within me;
    therefore I will remember you
from the land of the Jordan,
    the heights of Hermon—from Mount Mizar.
7 Deep calls to deep
    in the roar of your waterfalls;
all your waves and breakers
    have swept over me.

8 By day the Lord directs his love,
    at night his song is with me—
    a prayer to the God of my life.

9 I say to God my Rock,
    “Why have you forgotten me?
Why must I go about mourning,
    oppressed by the enemy?”
10 My bones suffer mortal agony
    as my foes taunt me,
saying to me all day long,
    “Where is your God?”

11 Why, my soul, are you downcast?
    Why so disturbed within me?
Put your hope in God,
    for I will yet praise him,
    my Savior and my God.

Psalm 43

1 Vindicate me, my God,
    and plead my cause
    against an unfaithful nation.
Rescue me from those who are
    deceitful and wicked.
2 You are God my stronghold.
    Why have you rejected me?
Why must I go about mourning,
    oppressed by the enemy?
3 Send me your light and your faithful care,
    let them lead me;
let them bring me to your holy mountain,
    to the place where you dwell.
4 Then I will go to the altar of God,
    to God, my joy and my delight.
I will praise you with the lyre,
    O God, my God.

5 Why, my soul, are you downcast?
    Why so disturbed within me?
Put your hope in God,
    for I will yet praise him,
    my Savior and my God.

How many times have we thought “Where is my God?”  How many times have we heard the taunt or question “Where is your God now?”  This question is often posed in the most difficult of times.  This question appears and taunts us when God’s presence seems increasingly absence from our lives.  We look and we simply cannot find him anywhere.  And just like the author of Psalm 42 and 43, our soul begins to thirst for Him and we constantly ask, God, where can I meet you? Then we move to What am I doing wrong? And finally we get to the question God, do you even love me anymore?  Just like the psalmist from our scripture for this morning our soul eventually becomes downcast and disturbed by the perceived absence of God.  The psalmist even goes as far as to ask “Why have you forgotten me? Why must I go on about mourning, oppressed by the enemy?”  In these moments we cannot help but to ask where is our God?  I can’t help but to imagine that these very same thoughts and questions taunted the disciples as the events of Good Friday and early Easter morning transpired.  Think about the disciples going to the tomb and finding it empty which leaves them literally asking “Where is Jesus?”  We all know that it didn’t click right away for any of them so while they tried to piece together the events of the past few days these questions have to be eating them up inside. As we look out into the world and see so much hatred, terrorism and political polarization it begs the question, where is our God? At this point the disciples still believe Jesus is dead so as it were let us now read his obituary: (http://seangladding.com/2016/03/25/jesus-of-nazareth-obituary/) :

JESUS of Nazareth passed away on Nisan 14th in Jerusalem.

He is preceded in death by Joseph bar Jacob, who raised him as his own son. He is survived by his mother, Mary; brothers James, Joses and Judas, and his sisters.

Jesus of Nazareth was born in Bethlehem of Judea. His family fled to Egypt when he was two, seeking political asylum.

They returned to Nazareth in Galilee after the death of Herod the Great. Jesus was apprenticed as a carpenter to Joseph, and worked in the family business until he turned 30.

He was baptized in the Jordan River by the prophet John bar Zechariah, his cousin. He spent the next 3 years living as an itinerant rabbi, with a small school of 12 disciples. He received the patronage of Joanna, the wife of Chuza, Herod’s steward, Susanna and many others.

He devoted his life to serving the least, the last and the lost, wherever he found them. He proclaimed that the kingdom of God has drawn near, and bore witness to it through liberating people from the demonic, from disease and from the slow death of social exclusion. Despite our repeated warnings, his teaching, his work and especially those whom he chose to call friend inevitably drew the attention of the authorities.

The family wishes to make it clear that his arrest and immediate trial took place without due process. The charges of blasphemy and of being a threat to national security were not corroborated by a single witness. He was humiliated and brutalized in custody before his execution by the State.

He died as he lived: extending forgiveness to those responsible for his death.

He will be greatly missed by his family, his friends – the “sinners” – and by the poor.

The family wish to extend their gratitude to Joseph of Arimathea for covering the funeral expenses.

The writer of the Psalms 42 and 43 is most definitely in the midst of crisis and surrounded questions.  Just like the disciples were and we too will undoubtedly be in a similar situation at some point if we haven’t already been but the question of how we will deal with that crisis remains.  The disciples catch a lot of flack for the doubts and betrayals in the hours following Jesus’ arrest but look at how they moved on from that difficult situation.  Those disciples literally changed the course of history.  It is because of them that each of us sit here today.  They are the reason we are able to worship with those next to us.  We worship a God who walked among them but his ministry could have died had they not taken up the cross of Christ when He was called heavenward.  We worship the glory and power of God here on Easter morning because Christ is alive.  It may have taken awhile but the disciples finally figured out what this meant for their lives.  That day they had a choice.  They could accept the actions of Christ into their hearts or ignore what they had seen.  By accepting what Christ did, it changes a person.  It gives us hope when hope seems lost.  It allows us to see the world differently.  It gives us a perspective that is slightly less skewed by our preconceived biases because we now see one another as brothers and sisters in Christ.  The resurrection and the disciples decision to (eventually) embrace it leads us to this very moment.  It leads us to the choice we get to make several times every day: will we allow the miracle of Easter morning to forever change who we are?  

Making that choice doesn’t make us perfect.  It doesn’t instantaneously clear every hurt and pain.  Instead, it answers the question of where God is.  He is here.  He is with us.  He become one of us so he too could feel forsaken, so he too could feel pain and suffering, so he too could laugh and cry.  He loves unconditionally.  When we embrace the actions of God it helps us to be better people each day.  It gives us the courage to hug those who grieve, to high-five a struggling student who finally gets it, to help feed the hungry and clothe the naked.  St. Augustine said that our hearts will not find peace until they rest in God.  He said this because our connection to God is so intertwined into our being that peace is not possible without a relationship between us and God.  The next time you struggle to know where God is know that God surrounds you and He so desperately wants you to know the love He has for you.  Our God is here (pointing at the church).  Our God is here (pointing at self).  And our God is out there (pointing to the door).  The only question left to ask is what you are going to do about those who so desperately need to know that God and another human being care about them?  Amen