Suffering, Salvation, and Satisfaction (Psalm 22:23-31)

 Peace be with you on this 2nd Sunday of Lent. My name is Danny Bradfield, my pronouns are he/him/his, and I’m pastor of Bixby Knolls Christian Church. 

Welcome, friends. I’m so glad you’re here. Your presence via Facebook Live is a blessing to me and to others who have joined us.

The psalmist says that God is worthy of being praised and glorified... because God does not despise the affliction of the afflicted; God does not ignore the suffering of those who suffer; but God hears the cries of those who cry out to God. 

This past week, we as a nation cried out - many of us, to God - as we mourned and marked the tragic milestone of half a million deaths in the United States due to COVID-19. 

That’s more deaths due to COVID-19 in the United States than in any other country.

We mourn the fact that that death toll didn’t need to be so high.

Our leaders have, for many years, considered short-term economic gain to be more important and more of a priority than long-term stability and wellness. We as a country have placed greater importance on things like the stock market and jobs numbers than in the general welfare and wellbeing of the people and of the planet.

In COVID-19, we see the results of this. Our shortsightedness left us unprepared and under-equipped.

In COVID-19, we see the injustice of a nation that has considered - and continues to consider - Black lives, Brown lives, Asian lives and indigenous lives to be worth less than white lives. COVID infection rates are higher among people of color, as are death rates. 

In COVID-19, we also see the economic injustice, as poor Americans are more likely to be infected or to have died from COVID than wealthy Americans.

Now that people are starting to be vaccinated, a majority of those being vaccinated are wealthy white Americans - vaccine distribution is slower in poor neighborhoods, and in Black and Brown neighborhoods.

People of color and poor people of all races are being disproportionately affected because they are the ones more likely to continue working in high-risk occupations. Janitors in hospitals. Employees in long-term care facilities. Frontline workers in grocery stores and fast-food restaurants. Jobs that don’t allow you to work from home, but which are considered essential to society and to those who work them.

People working low-wage jobs often have to work two jobs just to make ends meet. Our federal minimum wage is not enough to pay for food, rent, transportation, child care, health care … so two or sometimes even three jobs are needed. 

This is not a way of living that is conducive to healthy individuals or a healthy society. Which is why many, including the Poor People’s Campaign which is co-chaired by William Barber, are putting pressure on our leaders to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour. Because the suffering and the affliction has gone on too long.

Some say wait; won’t raising the minimum wage force employers to cut jobs? Yes, some jobs may be cut. But here’s why that’s OK… With a living wage, many will no longer need to work 2 or 3 jobs to make ends meet. Just one full-time job will be enough. Most of the jobs cut will be the 2nd or 3rd jobs of people who would be more than happy to give up those jobs if just one full-time job paid enough for them to afford life’s basic necessities.

It’s not about the jobs numbers. It’s about creating a better life for poor people in the United States.

Some ask, “How is any of this a concern of the church? The church should be concerned with spiritual matters; the church is about getting people “saved.” 

Well. First of all, wherever we read in the Bible that Jesus saved people, the Greek word is sozo, which means salvation, but it ties salvation into being made well, being healed, being restored to wholeness. 

In other words, the salvation of Jesus is the salvation of one’s heart, soul, mind, and body. You cannot separate spiritual salvation from physical, corporeal, real-world salvation. It’s salvation of the heart, soul, mind, and body.

Second, we see throughout scripture God’s real concern for the physical suffering of God’s people, and God’s desire that the people live earthly lives of contentment and satisfaction; lives in which every person has their own fig tree and eats of its fruit. 

In today’s psalm, the psalmist says that “the poor shall eat and be satisfied.” God wants God’s people to be satisfied!

This echoes what the prophet Isaiah wrote. In Isaiah 55, it says: “Ho, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy?”

It is God’s desire that every person have wine and milk and bread - enough to be satisfied. And this ability to buy wine and milk and bread and be satisfied should not depend on whether one is rich or poor.

Yet someone working a low wage job, earning minimum wage, is not getting satisfied with wine and milk and bread. They’re struggling. They’re suffering. They need a fair, living wage.

Employers say they can’t afford to raise wages, but that’s not true. Kroger - the company that owns Ralphs - has earned record profits this past year - record profits! - but Kroger is so against raising worker pay that they are choosing to close two stores in Long Beach rather than pay the workers what they deserve.

It doesn’t have to be this way. Costco is one company that treats its employees well, and still makes a profit. On Thursday Costco announced that it was raising its minimum pay from $15 an hour to $16 an hour… and they still manage to keep their prices low. It can be done. Workers can be treated fairly, if the will to do so is present.

Do you know: there are over 2,000 verses in the Bible that express God’s intentions for how we treat workers and the poor… Over 2,000 verses!

Verses like 1 Timothy 5:18 and Luke 10:7, which both say that “workers deserve their pay.” Verses like Proverbs 14:31 which says “Those who exploit the poor anger their maker, while those who are kind to the poor honor God.”

We need to confront the companies and the policies and the politicians who act against the poor. Again, some will criticize Christians who engage in activities like this. They’ll say the church should feed the poor, but not get into politics.

But as Helder Camara, a 20th century Brazilian Catholic Archbishop, famously said: “When I give food to the poor, they call me a saint. When I ask why the poor have no food, they call me a communist.”

Martin Luther King, Jr., received similar criticism. In his last sermon, he said: “It’s fine to talk about milk and honey over yonder, but people need bread down here.” 

In the final months of his life, King was preaching and fighting for a living wage, for a basic universal income; he was fighting for low-income workers - essential workers - as he organized the original Poor People’s Campaign.

Because he knew that God is not satisfied when God’s people are not satisfied. He knew that God is not pleased when the poor are made to suffer. He knew that the witness of scripture demands that people of faith use their power to right the economic wrongs of society.

Some of you have heard me say this before - I’m going to repeat myself, but only because scripture repeats itself so much on this issue...

Economic injustice, and unfair treatment of the poor, is the whole reason why God called all those prophets - Isaiah, Amos, Hosea, Micah, and all the rest - to call the people’s leaders back to a fair and just economic system.

These prophets - the ones I just mentioned, along with Amos and Jonah - did their work in the 8th century before Christ, a time of great economic inequality, when the rich were super rich, and the poor were destitute. 

After these prophets did their work, there was a period of about 60 years of relative economic equality, and there are no biblical writings from this period. The poor were being treated fairly - justly - so apparently, God didn’t feel that prophets were necessary. Prophets weren’t needed, because the poor were being treated fairly. 

But then we come to another period of economic inequality, and this time God called Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Obadiah, Nahum, Habakkuk, and Zephaniah, to speak out against this injustice.

After them, there was another period - about 40 years this time - of relative economic equality; and again, in this period, God called no prophets. 

But then once again, the rich and powerful started hoarding wealth and leaving the poor behind, so this time God called Haggai, Zechariah, Joel, and Malachi to prophesy against the nations and demand justice.

When you plot it all out like that and look at the big picture, at how God’s prophets were only active during times in which the rich were exploiting the poor for their own gain, you see just how important it is to God that we create an economic system that doesn’t leave the poor out.

And if that’s the kind of economic system God calls us to create - the kind of world God calls us to create - then we who live in 2021 clearly have our work cut out for us. 

Now, in our own time, the prophets are speaking out, calling us to confront injustice, to care for the poor, to establish equality, and equity, in our economic system... 

...so that the afflicted will be seen and will find comfort; and the poor will eat and be satisfied; and the weak will be made strong, and the broken will be made whole.

Sermon: "One Petal" (Psalm 22)

“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

That is the prayer of the psalmist.

“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from helping me, from the words of my groaning? O, my God; I cry by day, but you do not answer; and by night, but find no rest.”

The first line of this psalm is more familiar to us coming from the lips of Jesus. He quoted this verse when he was dying on the cross.

There, on the cross, Jesus experienced the absence of God.

And this experience was real.

Others in the Bible also cried out to God in desperation or anger. They experienced times of spiritual darkness.

Moses felt such despair that he begged God to kill him. Job cursed God and asked to die. Jacob got into a wrestling match with God.

Do you ever feel like you are wrestling with God?

And Jesus, in addition to his cry from the cross, also experienced that darkness when he wept over Lazarus, and again, when he was in the garden, in agony just before being arrested.

Being a faithful follower of God does not mean that you will always be happy and cheerful. Being a faithful follower of God does not mean that you will always feel God’s presence surrounding you. Being a faithful follower of God does not make you immune to episodes of spiritual darkness.

If you are a human being living in the world, there will be times when you feel down, times when you feel lost, times when you feel despair, and perhaps even times when you feel forsaken by God.

Some of you have felt abandoned by God. Some of you might even feel today that God has abandoned you... that God has forgotten all about you.

Maybe you feel angry at God.

And maybe, if you’ve mentioned that to someone - your anger, your sense of abandonment - they said to you something like:

“Oh, you feel abandoned by God? You feel angry? But if you really had faith in God, if you really loved God, you wouldn't feel that way....”

And they make you feel guilty about feeling angry or feeling abandoned.

Not helpful, is it?

Would they say the same thing to Jesus? Or to Moses? Or to Job? Or to Jacob?

Because they all felt abandoned by God, or angry at God, or so upset about things that they wanted God to end their lives.

Jesus felt angry at God and abandoned by God even while he proclaimed God to be my God… “My God, why have you forsaken me?”

Jesus felt angry at God and abandoned by God even though many New Testament authors claim that, in some way, Jesus was God.

Take a moment, and try to wrap your mind around that...

Jesus, who (in some way) was God felt abandoned by God.  So it certainly seems reasonable to assume that, at some time in our lives, we, too, might feel abandoned by God. Even though we are created by God, in the image of God, it is quite possible that, at times, we can also feel abandoned by God.

Sometimes, the things that lead us to feel this way are personal issues. Health crises. Relationship issues. Family dysfunction. Addiction.

Sometimes, the things that lead us to feel this way come from society.

And sometimes, it’s a combination of the two. If you are facing a health crisis, and at the same time the government is making it harder for you to receive the care you need to deal with that health crisis, that’s a double whammy. It feels like you are being hit from all sides.

If you are struggling to pay the bills, and you hear that services that help you are being cut in order to pay for tax cuts given to the rich, that’s a double whammy.

If your home is destroyed by a wildfire, or if you catch a disease spread by mosquitoes that have spread due to climate change, and at the same time your government denies climate change and even rolls back environmental protections, that’s a double whammy.

And if you are a survivor of sexual assault, dealing with feelings of fear or guilt, and then influential people in society demonstrate that they aren’t willing to take seriously the stories of those who have survived sexual violence committed against them, that’s a double whammy.

And it might lead you to feel abandoned. It might lead you to give up hope. It might lead you to feel like the psalmist who wrote this psalm. It might lead you to feel like Jesus when he quoted it from the cross.

How do you deal with that? How do you cope? How do you find hope?

Last week, I gave you a hint of what works for me. I told you about my hike in the Santa Monica Mountains, on a warm October Saturday, following years of record-low precipitation. The end of summer is always a dry, dormant time in this Mediterranean climate, but the ongoing drought have made things especially dry.

I expected to see plants that were brown, as they normally are at the end of summer. Brown is the color of scrub plants that have gone dormant and are waiting for the rains of winter to revive them.

I also expected to see plants that were ash grey. Ash grey is the color of plants that have dried out completely. No amount of winter rains will revive them. They are dead.

And I did see plants that were brown, and I did see plants that were ash grey.

But I also saw plants with flowers on them. Not just one or two, but gobs of them. They were all over, and there were different types: white circular flowers, salmon-colored trumpet-shaped flowers, tiny branches covered with little pink blossoms, and even a scattering of yellow flowers.

How on earth were they surviving, having received practically no rain for so long? The ground from which they grew was as dry and dusty as one could imagine. And most of these were not big plants; their roots couldn’t be that deep. Perhaps they could absorb moisture from the air, from the fog that comes in off the ocean - I wasn’t sure.

But what I knew was that hope was springing forth, and beauty was springing forth, out of seemingly impossible circumstances.

Just like the resurrection of Jesus, which sprang forth out of a seemingly impossible circumstance.

Jesus told his disciples multiple times that he would die, and on the third day rise again, yet it still seemed to them that if he died, that hope would die with him. And even when he was in the garden, and even when he was on the cross, Jesus himself was in despair.

But Jesus never lost hope completely. Jesus felt despair, he felt abandonment, but he, at least, was able to hold on to a small petal of hope.

And that’s all you need, really: one small petal of hope. The whole hillside can be barren, brown, or even ash grey, but if there is one small petal blooming, then there is hope.

Where do you find that hope?

I find it here. I really do. When I look at the news headlines, my hope starts to waver, but then I remember all of you good people, and your faith, and your commitment to following the way of Jesus, and working to reveal to the world the kingdom of God that is present in our midst. And that gives me hope.

I look for small acts of kindness - little things that show me that people do still care for one another, that people do offer help to one another, even when there is nothing in it for them. Selfless acts of love. A child walking down the street sees a caterpillar crossing the sidewalk, and they guard it and protect it until it makes it across, so that no one accidentally steps on it.

It’s a small gesture. Just a petal. One colorful petal in a world of brown and ash grey. But it’s enough.

I notice a person taking time out of their busy, hectic schedule to visit someone in the hospital, or to deliver food to someone in the midst of struggle. Just one little petal.

I see a driver who stops and waves me in, letting me pull out into a busy street. One tiny, barely significant act of kindness. But they didn’t have to that.

I contemplate a person I’ve never met, taking my son who is 500 miles away to the hospital, caring for him in my absence, making sure he’s OK. That’s more than one small petal, actually.

In Psalm 22, which starts with such despair, such a feeling of forsakenness, the psalmist eventually moves on to praise. By verse 25, the psalmist says, “I will praise you in the congregation.”

The psalmist, I think, has learned to see that one colorful petal. And in those moments when he could not see that petal, the congregation saw it for him.

He has to praise God in the congregation, because the congregation helped him see that flower petal when he himself could not see it, when he himself could only see shades of brown and grey.

That’s why we meet together. It’s why we pray together. It’s why we worship together. Sometimes, all we can see is brown and grey, and we need the congregation to remind us that the flower petals are still there, blooming.

One final word of encouragement. In Lord of the Rings, when all hope seems lost, Sam says this to Frodo...

Sam: “It’s all wrong. By rights we shouldn’t even be here. But we are. It’s like in the great stories Mr. Frodo. The ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger they were, and sometimes you didn’t want to know the end.

“Because how could the end be happy. How could the world go back to the way it was, when so much bad happened. But in the end, it’s only a passing thing, this shadow. Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer.

“Those were the stories that stayed with you. That meant something. Even if you were too small to understand why. But I think, Mr. Frodo, I do understand. I know now. Folk in those stories had lots of chances of turning back, only they didn’t. Because they were holding on to something.”

Frodo: “What are we holding on to, Sam?”

Sam: “That there’s some good in this world, Mr. Frodo. And it’s worth fighting for.”

Cry of the Heart: "See Me!" (Psalm 22)

Caller:  Good morning.  Excuse me just a moment, I need to make a call.  This will only take a second…

Recording:  Thank you for calling Acme Incorporated.  Your call is important to us.  Para escuchar en español, oprima el número siete… Please listen to our menu options, as they may have changed.  To order new service, press 1.  To change your existing service, press 2.  For billing, press 3.  To tell us how wonderful we’re doing, press 4.  If you’d like to make a contribution to help our CEO buy a new yacht, press 5.  Your contribution is NOT tax-deductible, but for him, the purchase of the yacht is…

Caller:  Hmm, none of those are what I want.  I’ll just press zero.

Recording:  I’m sorry, that is not a valid option… [Caller groans…] Thank you for calling Acme Incorporated.  Your call is important to us.  Para escuchar en español, oprima el número siete… Please listen to our menu options, as they may have changed.  To order new service, press 1.  To change your existing service, press 2.  For billing, press 3.  To tell us how wonderful we’re doing, press 4.  If you’d like to make a contribution to help our CEO buy a new private jet, press 5.  Your contribution is NOT tax-deductible, but for him, the purchase of the private jet is…

Caller:  Oh, fine, I’ll press 2.

Recording:  Please hold while we transfer your call…

Customer Service Rep:  Hello, my name is Greta; for quality control purposes, this call may be recorded. Can I have your account #?

Caller:  Oh, I have it… uh… here it is.  5739029573872307473830503292688888…8….7261…Q.

Customer Service Rep:  Thank you.  How can I help you?

Caller:  Yes, I have an issue with–

Customer Service Rep:  Hold please. [silence for a moment]

Recording:  Thank you for calling Acme Incorporated.  Your call is important to us.  Para escuchar en español, oprima el número siete.

I’m pretty sure that the psalmists never experienced anything quite like that, but in many places throughout the psalms one does encounter the words of a person who is frustrated at the way he’s been treated.  The psalmists know what it is like to have no respect, to be treated like dirt, as if you’re not even human, to have someone look right at you and not even see you as a person, but only as a tool or an obstacle. 

So I’ve titled today’s “Cry of the Heart,” “See Me,” because that is the longing we all have, to be seen and recognized as who we are, humans with a soul, with a heart, in need of respect and affirmation and kindness. 

In case you weren’t here last week, we have begun a six-week series on the Psalms.  Over the past several months I’ve read through all 150 psalms, and have discovered that many of them are cries of the heart, honest expressions of human emotion to which I can so easily relate. 

The psalms don’t always tell me how I should act; rather, they let me know that even thousands of years ago and thousands of miles away, were people living their lives, trying to please God and trying to live by God’s teachings, and yet encountering many of the same human emotional experiences and challenges that you and I encounter in our everyday lives. 

The desire to be seen, to be validated, is, I think, one of the things that motivates many people to share about their personal lives on facebook.  I’m often surprised at what people will share on facebook, to hundreds of friends who may then, in turn, re-share it with thousands of others, including many strangers. 

And a lot of what people share is just complaining and whining about little things.  If you are on facebook, you’ve probably noticed that there are one or two people (actually, more than one or two) who complain about everything.  This is true in real-life, too.  Everytime they open their mouth, every time they post something on facebook, it’s to complain, to talk about the latest “tragedy” in their life, to let you know how difficult this past day or past week has been for them.

I’ve actually blocked one or two of these facebook friends because I found that their constant negativity was like a poison, and I could no longer consume the constant negativity without letting it affect my own attitude.

But those are just the extreme cases.  And I realize now that what they really desire in sharing their difficulties with the world is to be seen, to have someone, anyone, look at them as a person, as a human, to validate their suffering.

Here is a facebook status I saw a few weeks ago.  Listen to the person’s deep need to be seen as a live human being.  This is what the person wrote:

I had a meeting at work this morning. You know how you “feel someone out” to see where they are coming from.  I did that with my new boss.  As he walked away I went into my office and cried.  My staff and our region have been reduced to data; no longer people, we are being judged like machines. This is the new organizational leadership style; [it’s all about] statistics... “make me look good” and I  will leave you alone. 

A few weeks ago, I read Psalm 22 to our high school youth, and asked them to imagine that the psalm was written by a kid at school who was picked on and bullied.  Well, now I’m going to re-read a few verses of the psalm to you, but I want you to imagine that it was written by a worker who is devalued by his or her boss, or talked about by co-workers, or left alone and uninvited to social gatherings that everyone else is going to. 

It could be someone who works in an office, or it could be a bus driver, or a hotel maid, or a grocery store clerk. Perhaps you can even imagine that this psalm was written by the person whose facebook post I just read to you…And if you are in school, then go ahead and imagine a kid who is being bullied as the author of this psalm…

I’m just a worm, less than human; insulted by one person, despised by another. All who see me make fun of me—they gape, shaking their heads:

“He committed himself to the Lord, so let God rescue him; let God deliver him, because God likes him so much.”

Many bulls surround me; mighty bulls from Bashan encircle me. They open their mouths at me like a lion ripping and roaring!

Dogs surround me; a pack of evil people circle me like a lion—they just stare at me, watching me.

Other psalms reflect similar experiences:

Psalm 3:  “So many are against me, so many are talking about me.”

Psalm 44:  “You’ve made us a joke to all our neighbors; we’re mocked and ridiculed by everyone around us.”

Psalm 69:  “So many are against me – and all because I’m devoted to you!  They ridicule and insult your servant.  Save me from the flood of insults!”

Psalm 129:  “From youth, people have constantly attacked me.  Say it with me: From youth, people have constantly attacked me!”

Sometimes, it becomes too much.  At the end of Psalm 139, the psalmist is so upset at the way he is treated, that he says to those who are against him, “A blessing on the one who takes your children and smashes their heads against the rocks!”  Not exactly the most compassionate response, but sometimes it’s just so hard to be compassionate.  It’s just so hard to be perfect.  You know that.  I know that.  And the psalmist knows that.

But the psalmist also knows that God is with those who suffer, even though for a while it may not seem like it.  And for a while, it may look like evil is winning.  Psalm 37 says, “The wicked draw their swords and bend their bows to bring down the weak and the needy, to slaughter those who live by what is right.”  That is the present reality.  But then the psalmist says: “The future belongs to persons of peace.”

Teresa of Avila was a 16^th century Spanish nun.  She is regarded as a mystic, and wrote a book called “The Interior Castle” in which she described a series of visions she had.

She also suffered quite a lot, from illness, from those who doubted that her visions were from God, and from her own feelings of inadequacy.  This led her to say to God in prayer, “If this is how you treat your friends, no wonder you have so many enemies.”

I imagine that Teresa took great comfort in knowing that the psalmists shared her experience.

Jesus had a special place in his heart for those who were picked on and devalued.  He once approached a woman who had come to a well to draw water at noon, the middle of the day, when the sun was hottest and all the other women were back at home. 

She had come to the well at that hour, when no one else was there, to avoid the stares and the gossip of the other women.

When Jesus approached her, she was naturally suspicious.  He was, after all, a man, and men and women didn’t socialize like that.  He was also a Jew, and she was a Samaritan, and Jews and Samaritans didn’t socialize like that. 

And she… well, she was a woman who had been used and abused, a woman who had made mistakes and had been made to suffer because of the mistakes of others. So when Jesus started talking, she was ready to defend herself and fling any derisive comments back in his face.

But Jesus surprised her by speaking words of compassion.  He looked at her… and he saw her.  Jesus recognized that the road on which she travelled was difficult and rocky. 

He knew that she had made mistakes, and that she had paid dearly for those mistakes; and that she was still paying for those mistakes. 

Even when her words toward Jesus were hostile, defensive, or rude, Jesus recognized that they came from the pain she felt deep within, the pain of not being seen for who she was, the pain from being seen only for the mistakes she had made.

“I know all about you,” Jesus said.  “I know why you’re here in the middle of the day.  I know why you hide from others.  I know why you speak defensively, why you’ve built up this protective barrier around yourself. I know all about you… I see you.

“Here… let me love you.  Let me heal your wounds. 

“Let me show you how to handle your suffering, how to care for your suffering.

“Let me give you some living water, that will quench your thirst and cleanse your wounds.

“Let me love you.  For no matter what anyone says, you are a beloved child of God.  And you, my dear child, are truly beautiful in God’s eyes.”