Lord, have mercy, because I am in misery. My eyes are weak from so much crying, and my whole being is tired from grief. My life is ending in sadness, and my years are spent in crying. My troubles are using up my strength, and my bones are getting weaker. Because of all my troubles, my enemies hate me, and even my neighbors look down on me. When my friends see me, they are afraid and run. I am like a piece of a broken pot. I am forgotten as if I were dead. I have heard many insults. Terror is all around me. They make plans against me and want to kill me.
Lord, I trust you. I have said, “You are my God.” My life is in your hands. Save me from my enemies and from those who are chasing me. Show your kindness to me, your servant. Save me because of your love. (NCV)
None of us signed-up for suffering. Yet, not a one of us can avoid it. Pain comes in all kinds of forms – and perhaps the worst kind of wound is the one inflicted from others looking down at you when you’re already experiencing trouble and damaged emotions. Whether it is a group of people, such as Asians facing ridicule and anger because of COVID-19, or COVID-19 patients themselves who sometimes become a pariah, the physical effects of pain can oftentimes be secondary to the primary hurt experienced within the spirit.
David of old knew first-hand about suffering through hard circumstances. There were times when he felt completely overwhelmed by wicked people trying to take his life. If we could put ourselves in David’s sandals, we can understand why he was worn-out to the point of not sleeping, not eating well, even with a hint of paranoia. David entrusted himself to God, and truly believed he was in the Lord’s hands – and that fact was his go-to truth.
Jesus uttered his last words on the cruel cross from this very psalm: “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit” (Luke 23:46). The cross was obviously a place of extreme bodily pain. That pain, however, was dwarfed by the great spiritual pain of holding the entire world’s hurts, their curse of separation. The stress of both body and soul must have been crushing for Jesus. Yet, there was a strength of assurance smack in the middle of that pain – the confidence of knowing he was in good hands, just like David’s confidence a millennium before.
There are times when we all struggle with why afflictions happen to us, whatever form they might take in us. It is in such times of being forgotten by others that we are most remembered by God; it is in the situations of trouble that God is the expert in deliverance; it is when people revile us, say terrible things about us, and talk behind our backs that God comes alongside and whispers his grace and steadfast love to us. It is when life is downright hard that we see a soft-hearted God standing to help us and hold us.
While we are feeling our suffering, God is carefully crafting within us resilience through the rejection, empathy in our loneliness, purpose because of the trauma, forgiveness out of the shame, courage from having been failed, and self-awareness in the wake of emotional devastation.
The biblical psalms are the consummate place to run to when we are most in need. They provide the means to lift heartfelt prayers when our own words fail us. The psalms give us structure and meaning when the world around us makes no sense. The psalms do not always give us answers to our most vexing questions; they do, however, point us to the God who is attentive to the least, the lost, and the lonely.
Lord, have mercy. Christ have mercy. Lord, have mercy on us and grant us your peace. Amen.
Click It Is Well with My Soul sung by Anthem Lights and be reminded that we neither bear our sufferings alone, nor needlessly.
That same day the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to him with a question. “Teacher,” they said, “Moses told us that if a man dies without having children, his brother must marry the widow and raise up offspring for him. Now there were seven brothers among us. The first one married and died, and since he had no children, he left his wife to his brother. The same thing happened to the second and third brother, right on down to the seventh. Finally, the woman died. Now then, at the resurrection, whose wife will she be of the seven, since all of them were married to her?”
Jesus replied, “You are in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God. At the resurrection people will neither marry nor be given in marriage; they will be like the angels in heaven. But about the resurrection of the dead—have you not read what God said to you, ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He is not the God of the dead but of the living.”
When the crowds heard this, they were astonished at his teaching.(NIV)
The first century Sadducees learned the hard way. Trying to discredit Jesus in public is a bad idea. Somehow, probably in a back room and drinking too much wine, they came up with a story that was designed to show once and for all that Jesus was nothing but some hayseed yokel from the bumpkin village of Nazareth who believed in a crazy notion like resurrection. They wanted a once-for-all public showdown that Jesus was a backward hick, not worth the time of day. So they concocted a bizarre hypothetical story meant to discredit the supernatural. They went to the Old Testament to point out the law that if a man dies without having children, the brother must marry the widow and so keep the legacy and land of the dead man in his family. By conjecturing that if this were to happen seven times over, whose wife would she be among all the brothers at this supposed resurrection? As they were snickering to themselves believing that they had demonstrated the absurdity of resurrection, Jesus turned the tables on the Sadducees.
Jesus bluntly stated that the Sadducees were the ones with an absurd story. Their whole notion of what the resurrection is and what’s important about it was lost on them. Jesus said they were biblically illiterate – they don’t know the Scriptures. And, furthermore, since they don’t really know the Law, they really know nothing of God’s power. This was a major dig on a group of people who prided themselves on being an educated elite.
Resurrection, Jesus said, isn’t anything like they described. Resurrection isn’t a restoration of the same life we have here and now; it’s a different life altogether – a new life! To prove what he said, Jesus had a simple yet profound statement: I AM the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; God is not the God of the dead, but of the living. Not “I was” but “I am.” God is God of living people, of life, not of corpses and cadavers, not even of zombies.
The whole point of resurrection is new life – not a resuscitated life, not a reconstituted life, but a new life altogether. The terms ‘death’ and ‘life’ in Scripture are relational terms. Death is separation from others; life is a connection with people. Life, in the Bible, literally means ‘to step into,’ and death means ‘to step away from.’ So, then, in order to be a fully alive human being we step into God by loving him with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength; and, by loving my neighbor as myself. Life means meaningful and loving connections with both God and other people.
God is not just the God of the past (he saved me) or the future (I’m going to heaven); he is the God of the present, of this moment. He exists now and is with us. And what he wants from us is to choose life, that is, to step into relationships, to lean into others, and not choose death by stepping away and withdrawing out of guilt, shame, or fear.
When we distance ourselves from God and others, it is a way of death. We then become in need of a new life. Everyone experiences conflict and/or anxiety in relationships at various times. The person who goes the way of death withdraws emotionally from God and other people and may even eventually just cut themselves off from others completely. I’m not referring to a literal physical hermit who’s in the woods by himself with only a grizzly bear for a friend. I’m talking about someone who is out of touch with others by through superficial talk and never dealing with anything unpleasant or uncomfortable. Entire groups of people can act this way, as well, by dealing with their anxiety by refusing to interact on a meaningful level. Such persons or groups tend to practice avoiding others through being emotionally distant; their prayer requests seldom go beyond skin deep and rarely, if ever, traffic in feelings.
Another way of separation, of death, is the practice of under-functioning and over-functioning in relationships. Individuals who under-function refuse to take responsibility for their own emotions and behavior – they keep looking for someone else to blame their problems on and/or for someone to fix their situation. Under-functioning people believe someone else will give, others will serve, and better people than them will do the world a service. Into this situation enters the over-functioning person. They are all too glad to accept responsibility for other people’s emotions and shortcomings. When there’s a job to be done, everyone loves the over-functioning person. Over-functioning individuals believe they know the right way to do things and they get results. They talk more than listen, give advice freely, and take responsibility for the feelings and choices of others. In a family, the under-functioning person relies on triangle relationships (that is, dealing indirectly with someone through another person) in which the over-functioning person handles all the heavy relational work. Both under-functioning and over-functioning are ways of death because it is a stepping away from what is really going on inside of us; it is avoiding the shadows of my own heart and focusing on someone else’s heart.
We all need life. We are hard-wired for community, family, and relationships. We need a God who raises the dead and gives new life. Stepping into relationships and choosing life means we courageously talk about what we truly think and feel and clearly communicate our limits and boundaries with each other. Stepping into relationships and having life means we take responsibility for our own ideas and decisions and don’t coerce or manipulate others into doing the hard work of relationship for us. It means we make decisions based on what is best for everyone, and not what simply is my personal preference.
“I AM the resurrection and the life.”
God is the God of life. Resurrection is both real and necessary. Jesus said in John 11:25 – “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die.” Experiencing the power of God in our lives means to eschew the path of the Sadducees in the way they dealt with Jesus. Instead, we have the privilege and the opportunity to step into a real, life-giving relationship with Jesus through reading and discovering our bibles and talking about what we find in it. We pray, not because we are supposed to, but because it is the means of a living relationship and vital connection with God.
In such a time as this, we all need life – relationships that support one another and buoy each other’s values and spirituality. Life is meant to be lived together in a sense of solidarity and camaraderie – with love as the glue which binds us as humanity. Collective hardship becomes a sacred opportunity to experience life. Jesus said, “I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” (John 10:10)
May your experience of God be abundant and satisfying. Amen.
“As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath. But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” (NIV)
Humanity is spiritually hard-wired to do good in this world. Yes, from a Christian perspective we live in a fallen world and experience the evil of pandemics and poverty as well as personal and corporate corruption. However, this is not our original design.
In the Christian tradition, believers in Jesus are not delivered from sin, death, and hell so that they can idly sit in a worldly holding tank until Christ returns.
Deliverance is the initial dimension of God’s plan – and not the end game. We are saved for good works to be done in the here-and-now.
Christians know that they are saved from individual and systemic sin through the forgiving work of Jesus Christ. It’s an act of sheer grace on God’s part. A believer in Jesus is not spiritually reborn through her effort any more than a baby’s birthed because of her own doing. It is thoroughly the work of God. Even the faith needed to believe is a gift graciously provided by God.
This, however, is far from the whole story. God has plans and purposes in mind for his people. Christians were birthed into a new spiritual community with new commitments to do all kinds of good deeds. It’s as if sin is a weight or an obstacle that has been removed so that living a life full of goodness can now move forward and do its work.
To be “saved” is to be freed for a vigorous moral life deeply concerned with altruistic actions in a world full of need.
There is a profound spiritual wound which underlies the great problems of our world. Behind so many of our world issues are matters of the spirit. The unseen world is just as real as the world which is seen. Just as we know germs are present, they are real, and we must account for them – so there is spiritual world very much real and we ignore it at our great peril.
Thus, it seems to me that spiritual people, including Christians delivered for the purpose of good deeds, are to graciously, wisely, and lovingly agitate for earthly change. Expecting human governments or corporate systems to take the lead in moral transformation is like asking the fox to guard the hen house.
I will admit to you that I don’t much have the stomach right now for what seems to me to be a useless and emotionally energy consuming debate among some Christian communities about whether to gather on Easter Sunday, or not. As redeemed people, delivered for a purpose, I believe it is sage to put our focus on discovering how we can support and bless the essential services laboring to keep a pandemic at bay. God has raised us up for such a time as this, if we have the spiritual eyes to see.
Christians, churches, and spiritual communities must labor at the gates of hell for the lives of women caught in sex trafficking; provide uplift and the tools to a better life for those in grinding poverty and hunger; challenge the idolatry of a materialist culture; and, hundreds of other realities of living in a fallen broken world, including the scourge smack in front of our faces of disease and death.
As Christians, God has delivered us from sin so that we will do good in this world. God, in his sovereignty, has placed you and I in places and positions for just this time so that we will do good works, both big and small, tackling immense issues as well as little acts of kindness.
Doing good comes in all sizes, and all of us are to share our lives for the betterment of humanity.
After all, we really are our brother’s keeper.
God Almighty, I pray that your people may not lose heart in this world. May you strengthen your church with spiritual power so that the words and ways of Jesus will ground them for faithful service to this planet you have created. May Christians everywhere be rooted and established in the divine love which supports good works done in the humility of a gentle spirit; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.
The Old Testament Psalms are the Church’s prayer book. For this reason, the Revised Common Lectionary includes a psalm for each daily reading. What’s more, the lectionary typically repeats the psalm for three consecutive days. This is to emphasize both the need to internalize biblical prayers as well as to allow us to linger with the problems, feelings, grief, praise, and situation within the psalm. This allows us to not jump to hasty solutions and to act with careful and deliberate spiritual resolve.
Psalm 143 was crafted by David during a difficult time in his life. David never was one to shy away from giving vent to God about his complaint; and, in equal measure, his confidence in God to handle the situation.
Since psalms are meant to be slowly imbibed, I began a practice several years ago of translating many of them for my own devotional purposes.* For today’s translation, I am taking a few liberties with the text by deliberately changing the pronouns from singular to plural; and, naming the mentioned enemy specifically as COVID-19 so that this becomes a communal prayer for a specific circumstance:
Listen to our prayer, Lord!
Because of your faithfulness, bend your gracious ear to our requests for mercy!
Out of the vast storehouse of your righteousness, answer us!
Please don’t bring your people to judgment,
because, compared to you, not one person on the face of the earth is righteous before you.
You full well know that COVID-19 is hunting us down,
crushing life in the dirt,
forcing us to live sequestered
as if we are already in the grave.
Our spirits are growing weary—
our minds are a desert.
We remember the days when we were free of this scourge;
we chatted You up to others about all your awesome deeds;
we would talk about Your divine action in the world.
We did not hesitate to lift holy hands in prayer;
we were like dry earth, soaking up Your presence.
Answer us, Lord—and make it quick! Our fortitude needs to get bolstered.
Don’t hide your face from us
or that will be the end of us, for sure! We’ll die of the virus!
When we wake up in the morning, assure us of Your faithful love
because we’ve pinned our full trust on You.
Show us the next steps we need to take,
because we are looking up to You.
Deliver us from COVID-19, Lord!
We seek protection from you.
Teach us what we’re supposed to learn, what pleases you,
because you are our God.
Guide us by your good spirit
into good green pastures.
Give us life, Lord, for Your name’s sake.
Bring us out of this intense stress because of Your righteousness.
Wipe out COVID-19 because of your faithful love.
Destroy every germ which attacks us,
because we are Your people.
Amen.
We are truly in this together. Click “Oh My Soul” by Casting Crowns to be reminded that we are not alone; and, that there is a God who listens.
*The translation of the psalm is based on an understanding of the Hebrew text and not a transliteration from English.
Rev. Tim Ehrhardt 