Why Have I Forsaken You?

(a sermon for St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church, Ada, VA, October 11, 2009)
Lectionary Year B (RCL), 19th Sunday after Pentecost: Job 23:1-9, 16-17; Hebrews 4:12-16; Mark 10:17-31; Psalm 22:1-15

“My God, my God why have you forsaken me? And are so far from my cry and from the words of my distress? Oh my God, I cry in the daytime, but you do not answer; by night as well, but I find no rest. My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

Such poignant , rending words from Psalm 22! Words of heartbreak and anguish. The words of one who is suffering and who feels utterly alone - abandoned by people and even by God.

According to tradition, these words were spoken by King David during a time of great trial, although we don’t know the particular circumstances. Jesus also spoke these words, as he was dying on the cross, and in fact, he was quoting from this very psalm.

You and I also, we speak them - feel them – these words of abandonment. And how often we feel forsaken by God! When the bill collector is at the door. When the doctor’s prognosis is bad. When our children have run amok. When our loved ones are hurting. When we are hurting. “God – how could you let this happen? Why have you forsaken me?!”

It’s such a very human way to feel! I love that about the bible – that the people in it are so unapologetically human! God’s people are not “super saints”, they’re not perfect people who have it all together. God’s people are people with faults, people who fail. King David, who wrote this Psalm, accused God of abandoning him. At other times, he committed adultery and even murder. And yet, David is called a man after God’s own heart.

This imperfect humanity is on display throughout the entire Bible, including our gospel reading this morning. Just look at the Rich Young Man we heard about in Mark’s Gospel. I think he’s feeling pretty forsaken, too.

You see, he thought he had his act pretty well together, and he came to Jesus – the new teacher in town - for some advice on how to get eternal life. He had everything else covered; he had all the stuff that money could buy to provide him with a happy life in this world. He even had all the boxes checked in the “religious obligations” column: no murder, no adultery, no stealing, no lying, honor your parents. I also imagine he regularly went to the temple to offer the appropriate sacrifices, too.

But now there’s this exciting new teacher making the rounds, who has the aura of authority about him. So this rich man wants to make sure he’ll make it to the next world, too. And since he does at least as well as everyone else in fulfilling his religious obligations, I don’t think he expected Jesus to tell him to do anything he couldn’t manage. He’s rich, and he’s got his life under control. What could anyone ask of him that he couldn’t make happen?

And of course, Jesus tells him to do the one thing he will not do. Jesus asks him to give up the very thing that makes this wealthy gentleman a rich man: his possessions. Jesus pricks him in his idol: “Sell all you have and give the money to the poor.., THEN, come and follow me.”

The man goes away sorrowing. He feels forsaken, separated from God. Just like any of us might feel forsaken if God seems to be asking something of us that we are unwilling to give – or unwilling to give up.

And that shows us the catch, the wrong way of thinking that’s going on when we feel that God has forsaken us. Because who, after all, is doing the forsaking? Is God forsaking us, or are we forsaking God?

The verb “forsake” means “to leave altogether or abandon; to give up something formerly held dear or renounce.” So if God is forsaking us, then God is abandoning and renouncing us. God is turning away from us.

But that, my friends, just ain’t true! God does not forsake us – ever! God is always there, waiting for us to turn to him. God does not abandon us. In fact, as unbelievable as it may sound, God longs to be in relationship with us.

And that reminds me of the poem “Footprints in the Sand”. Let me read it to you:

One night I dreamed I was walking along the beach with the Lord. Many scenes from my life flashed across the sky. In each scene I noticed footprints in the sand. Sometimes there were two sets of footprints, other times there was only one. This bothered me because I noticed that during the low periods of my life, when I was suffering from anguish, sorrow or defeat, I could see only one set of footprints. So I said to the Lord, “you promised me Lord, that if I followed you, you would walk with me always. But I have noticed that during the most trying periods of my life there has only been one set of footprints in the sand. Why, when I needed you most, have you not been there for me?” The Lord replied, “the years when you have seen only one set of footprints, my child, is when I carried you.”

We are so quick to judge God. Even the person in the poem, who had a relationship with God, immediately assumed that God had left her when she needed him the most, when in fact, that is when the Lord was helping her the most.

No, the truth is that we are the ones who do the forsaking. We forsake God. We leave him, and abandon him. We give him up and renounce him for the sake of our precious idols.

We are the ones who put the distance between us and God. Every time we willfully choose to sin, we step away from God. Every time we doubt God’s good intentions for us, we step away from God. Every time we choose our will over God’s will, the gulf widens. Every time God speaks words of life to us, and we go away sorrowing because we will not follow them, we push God away.

We are not forsaken. Even when it’s not our personal sins hurting us, but just the sin and evil in the world that’s making us hurt and suffer – when the Doctor says “it’s cancer” or when some natural disaster strikes - even then it is we who push God away. We push God away in our hurt, with accusations of “How could You let this happen! Why!?” Instead of turning to God for the comfort that he offer us, we turn to him with anger and accusations.

And even then, God does not forsake us. Even though we forsake God.

The only person forsaken by God was Jesus. How ironic, that the one person who had the most intimate and close relationship with the Father, the one who was willing to give or to give up anything and everything, the only one who truly deserved to NEVER be forsaken was the only one to be forsaken by God!

And all for our sake… For us, for we fickle people who turn away from God of our own accord time and time again. So that we might never have to know the full horror of what being REALLY forsaken by God might feel like.

My God, My God, why have I forsaken You? Forgive Me!