The Day God Forgot
Sermon
Love Is Your Disguise
Second Lesson Sermons For Lent/Easter
Two boys are racing their bicycles. Spring has sprung and they feel the gentle warmth of late afternoon rushing past their ears as they barrel down the street. Just in front of them are two home-made ramps, and beyond the ramps, a finish line. They're both standing now to exert a little more force on the pedals. Gracefully into the air flies one, as the other begins to rotate slightly. Landing straight and pushing onto the finish line is only one of the riders. The other lands, bounces, flips, groans, the right arm bending where one should not have a bend. Immediately tears. A friend peering down, neighbors gathering, "O God, why did this have to happen to me!" he exclaims as he is being loaded up for a trip to the emergency room. Six weeks in a cast and greater caution on his bicycle mark the rest of his summer.
O God, Why Did This Have To Happen?
In so many ways "O God, why did this have to happen?" comes into our minds and into our lives. Even on this day when we remember that Jesus prayed, "If it be Thy will, let this cup pass from me ..." and that the cup did not pass from him; instead he drank from it deeply.
So, we come to the day God forgot. "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" Why have you forgotten me? -- And we know how he feels. In our world and in our lives we have all too many times when we think, "This cannot be happening."
A team of teenage rugby players crashes in the Andes Mountains and must survive for over seventy days, far above the tree line on a glacier, huddled together in their broken craft while some of their comrades perish. "This cannot be happening."
Brown shirts from the fanatical followers of the new German chancellor burn Jewish synagogues and ransack and loot Jewish businesses all in the night. Kristallnacht as it will be known: the night of broken glass. Dachau and Buchenwald follow. "This cannot be happening."
Idi Amin comes to power in Uganda and many atrocities follow.
"This cannot be happening."
Some believe that the federal government is a threat to our liberty and is moving toward oppressive authority; an evil conspiracy and the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City is destroyed along with 168 lives.
"This cannot be happening."
Lt. William Calley, tired, sick, and twisted by horrors of war, turns his military might on innocent civilians, and only later we learn of the village named My Lai halfway around the globe. "This cannot be happening."
We go to a family doctor for a routine check-up and there is a spot on our lung, further tests are needed. "This cannot be happening."
Our children, who have so blissfully wed just four years ago, now find pain in being together and are considering whether their future would be better spent apart. "This cannot be happening."
Our friends whom we enjoy so much and who make us feel at home and welcome and worthwhile in our new high school are into some things we don't believe are right. It's clear if we don't go along, we won't be part of the group. "This cannot be happening."
Jesus was barely born when Herod came calling. Herod searched for the newborn babe and, seeking to do him harm, eliminated every baby boy in the community who could have possibly been him -- the Slaughter of the Innocents. "This cannot be happening."
He Descended Into Hell
"I believe in God the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth; and in Jesus Christ his only Son our Lord: who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried; he descended into hell ..." (The Apostles' Creed).
A traditional belief of the church is that Christ descended into hell and a part of the hell he descended into must have been the solitary hell of being alone as he was arrested, alone as he was tried, alone as he was beaten, and isolated alone on the cross.
Left to his pain, left to his doubts, left to his anguish. "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" And so we ask why did this have to happen? Whenever we encounter what seems to be a day God forgot, we ask, "Why did this have to happen"? Simply put, the answer almost always is, "It didn't have to happen." God does not cause these painful things to happen nor does God create extreme pain and difficulty to teach us. But what does need to happen, and what is the salvific momentum of Christ's faithfulness on the cross, is that he stayed true to God, even in the midst of this excruciating conclusion of his human experience. He felt what we feel, he was tempted as we are tempted, he hurt as we hurt, and he wept as we weep; and yet he stayed true to God in ways that we are inspired by, taught by, claimed by, saved by. So on that Friday, which was bad before it was good, God forgot not about Jesus, not about His love for His son, not about those who had followed him, not about the world He loves, but rather God forgot something else. In Hebrews we read, "This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the Lord: I will put my laws on their hearts, and write them on their minds," then he adds, "I will remember their sins and their misdeeds no more" (Hebrews 10:16-17).
This is the day God forgot, but God didn't forget Jesus, not the ones who followed him, not the world he loves, not you and not me. This is the day God forgot our sins and our misdeeds and embraced us with a new love made manifest in our Lord as he suffered and died. His love poured out that we might be new persons in his love.
O God, why is this happening to me? This great love which you have given, this great sacrifice which you have made, this great forgetting which you have done, this great wiping clean of the slate which you have accomplished, why is this happening to us? It is happening so that you might know the way, the truth, and the life, that you might have abundance in your living, that you might live after the example of Jesus with a special quality in your life and love. We the church, because God forgot, must be the forgiving fellowship of the forgiven; we must be the reconciling koinonia of the reconciled.
In this way we are the first fruits of the kingdom and become, as Desmond Tutu suggests, "a verbum visible, a kind of audio-visual aid for the sake of the world."1 O God, why is this happening to me? I know not why except for the unfathomable mystery of your love. Thank you for forgetting. Thank you for Jesus. Thank you for love poured out. Amen.
____________
1. Desmond M. Tutu, "Allies of God," Weavings, Vol. 5, Number 1, (January/February 1990), p. 41.
O God, Why Did This Have To Happen?
In so many ways "O God, why did this have to happen?" comes into our minds and into our lives. Even on this day when we remember that Jesus prayed, "If it be Thy will, let this cup pass from me ..." and that the cup did not pass from him; instead he drank from it deeply.
So, we come to the day God forgot. "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" Why have you forgotten me? -- And we know how he feels. In our world and in our lives we have all too many times when we think, "This cannot be happening."
A team of teenage rugby players crashes in the Andes Mountains and must survive for over seventy days, far above the tree line on a glacier, huddled together in their broken craft while some of their comrades perish. "This cannot be happening."
Brown shirts from the fanatical followers of the new German chancellor burn Jewish synagogues and ransack and loot Jewish businesses all in the night. Kristallnacht as it will be known: the night of broken glass. Dachau and Buchenwald follow. "This cannot be happening."
Idi Amin comes to power in Uganda and many atrocities follow.
"This cannot be happening."
Some believe that the federal government is a threat to our liberty and is moving toward oppressive authority; an evil conspiracy and the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City is destroyed along with 168 lives.
"This cannot be happening."
Lt. William Calley, tired, sick, and twisted by horrors of war, turns his military might on innocent civilians, and only later we learn of the village named My Lai halfway around the globe. "This cannot be happening."
We go to a family doctor for a routine check-up and there is a spot on our lung, further tests are needed. "This cannot be happening."
Our children, who have so blissfully wed just four years ago, now find pain in being together and are considering whether their future would be better spent apart. "This cannot be happening."
Our friends whom we enjoy so much and who make us feel at home and welcome and worthwhile in our new high school are into some things we don't believe are right. It's clear if we don't go along, we won't be part of the group. "This cannot be happening."
Jesus was barely born when Herod came calling. Herod searched for the newborn babe and, seeking to do him harm, eliminated every baby boy in the community who could have possibly been him -- the Slaughter of the Innocents. "This cannot be happening."
He Descended Into Hell
"I believe in God the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth; and in Jesus Christ his only Son our Lord: who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried; he descended into hell ..." (The Apostles' Creed).
A traditional belief of the church is that Christ descended into hell and a part of the hell he descended into must have been the solitary hell of being alone as he was arrested, alone as he was tried, alone as he was beaten, and isolated alone on the cross.
Left to his pain, left to his doubts, left to his anguish. "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" And so we ask why did this have to happen? Whenever we encounter what seems to be a day God forgot, we ask, "Why did this have to happen"? Simply put, the answer almost always is, "It didn't have to happen." God does not cause these painful things to happen nor does God create extreme pain and difficulty to teach us. But what does need to happen, and what is the salvific momentum of Christ's faithfulness on the cross, is that he stayed true to God, even in the midst of this excruciating conclusion of his human experience. He felt what we feel, he was tempted as we are tempted, he hurt as we hurt, and he wept as we weep; and yet he stayed true to God in ways that we are inspired by, taught by, claimed by, saved by. So on that Friday, which was bad before it was good, God forgot not about Jesus, not about His love for His son, not about those who had followed him, not about the world He loves, but rather God forgot something else. In Hebrews we read, "This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the Lord: I will put my laws on their hearts, and write them on their minds," then he adds, "I will remember their sins and their misdeeds no more" (Hebrews 10:16-17).
This is the day God forgot, but God didn't forget Jesus, not the ones who followed him, not the world he loves, not you and not me. This is the day God forgot our sins and our misdeeds and embraced us with a new love made manifest in our Lord as he suffered and died. His love poured out that we might be new persons in his love.
O God, why is this happening to me? This great love which you have given, this great sacrifice which you have made, this great forgetting which you have done, this great wiping clean of the slate which you have accomplished, why is this happening to us? It is happening so that you might know the way, the truth, and the life, that you might have abundance in your living, that you might live after the example of Jesus with a special quality in your life and love. We the church, because God forgot, must be the forgiving fellowship of the forgiven; we must be the reconciling koinonia of the reconciled.
In this way we are the first fruits of the kingdom and become, as Desmond Tutu suggests, "a verbum visible, a kind of audio-visual aid for the sake of the world."1 O God, why is this happening to me? I know not why except for the unfathomable mystery of your love. Thank you for forgetting. Thank you for Jesus. Thank you for love poured out. Amen.
____________
1. Desmond M. Tutu, "Allies of God," Weavings, Vol. 5, Number 1, (January/February 1990), p. 41.
