#13 NPR makes Me Cry (Is this an assertion?)

I was in my car on my way back to work after lunch, when I turned on NRP to see what's going on.  I caught the end of Here and Now, which is produced in Boston.  It was incredibly emotional as people told stories and talked about tragedy and heartache that happened in a city they love.  When signing off Robin Young, the host of the show, had to compose herself before finishing her sign off.  I lost it.  I've never been to Boston.  My home town has never been bombed.  I have never really felt that heartache for my city.  But I bawled because a moment that was supposed to be filled with joy and inspiration was quickly turned into a horrible moment of pain and despair.

Then, I have to juxtapose this feeling with the thought of all the people who moved toward the pain and suffering.  The people who cared enough to reach out to the stranger and help stop the bleeding, or move someone from harms way.  The EMT and Police Officers who are trained to react in way to help and protect in this moment. Here is a great piece to read about this from comedian Patton Oswald, it is amazing and well worth the read.

Many people after moments like this can say where is Christ in this?  Where was God?  Why would God allow this?  This along with thousands of other tragedies that unfold all throughout the world, such as earthquakes, terrorist attacks, and homicide on the street corner, cause people to think critically about who they believe God is in the face of it all.

Some will stick to old party lines that God ordained this and is somehow using it for God's purpose.  Where is the love in that?  Or some will say things like God doesn't cause this to happen but God can bring good out of it.  This is better, but if God has the power to stop it then why doesn't God.  This is a classic question of theodicy.  And one that almost always leave us wanting for a better explanation.  If this interests you, then check out Tony Jones blog, where this weeks "Questions that Haunt Christianity" is about just this.  Leave a comment and see Tony's response on Saturday, I think.

Here is how I come down on it, but again, I don't know that I have anything useful to say: I believe that God is loving to the extreme meaning that God limits God's power because love requires choice.  You can choose to love, to hate, or to be indifferent, but regardless it requires choice.  Giving us choice means we can choose to do absolutely awful things to each other.  It is a side effect of the opportunity to love.  This love that God has chosen for us led God to become incarnate, enter into the mess we have made, then suffer and die under our rule only to overcome it through resurrection.

The question posed earlier was where is Christ in all of this?  My thought is that you can see Christ on every suffering face.  You can see the crucified Christ in every victim of pointless acts of violence.  You can see Christ face in every moment of death and despair.  But you can also see the Rise Christ on the face of every person who turned towards his/her neighbor and helped.  You can see Christ Resurrected in every person who is offering love and grace in the midst of grief.  You can see God's Kingdom intersect with ours when a person steps out of his/her normal role and expectation to risk loving in the face of pain, suffering, and injustice.

Let's not try to make sense of the senseless.  Instead, let's live a life where we know that God reveals love and grace through both Good Friday moments and through Easter Sunday moments.  From the pain and suffering of the Good Friday comes the new creation of Resurrection.  This is the Hope of the Christian faith. My prayer is that we can live resurrection in the face of despair for others and can see the Resurrection from the help of others in the face of our own struggles, pain and despair.

#10 Being God-forsaken brings meaning to the Resurrection.

Whenever I hear the song "I'm Yours" by Jason Mraz, I want to, and often do, rant about how he says that it is our God-forsaken right to be loved, looooved, loved.  I didn't realize that God had in fact forsaken our right to be loved.  I think he probably meant God-given or something like that, and I can't believe none of the producers asked him about that line.  Whatever, we all have words we misuse, so I don't hate Jason Mraz or even think he's stupid, just made a very public mistake.

The song always makes me think about that idea of God-forsakenness (there is red squiggle under forsakenness, which I do not agree with at all).  Does God really forsake things?  I mean I've driven through Kansas on I-70 and it is boring and as much as I hate to say it there is still beauty and God in it.  If God hasn't forsaken Kansas, then God is not going to forsake anything.  See what I did there.

It's Holy Week so it seems the time to think about forsakenness some more.  I am reminded of Jesus' haunting cry from the cross, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me!"  It is a moment that should bring a little confusion to anybody who believes in the Incarnation.  How is it possible for God to have forsaken Jesus, since Jesus is God?  It's the kind of question that makes my brain hurt.  How does God abandon Godself?

In reality, does God really abandon anyone?  Jesus on the cross is having a real feeling of being abandoned.  In his being, Jesus does not feel like God is moving or in this situation at all.  God feels exactly what the rest of us feel from time to time.  God feels like God is not present and does not care.  God feels forsaken.  We all have those moments of feeling like God has left the building and doesn't give a flip about the awful, excruciating, and all-consuming pain and grief that we are feeling.  Does that mean that it is okay to feel that way from time to time?  I mean Jesus did.  Obviously, most of the time we aren't dying a horribly painful death when we shout the open of Psalm 22.  Usually, it's because the peanut butter has run out, or something equally as horrible.

In that moment when Jesus felt forsaken and we feel forsaken, it might be good to realize that God is present.  God is present in the junk as well as the joy..  God is present in suffering.  God is present in Kansas. God is present in our abandonment.  God is present.  I believe that God is present all around us, and that Good Friday and Holy Saturday are the days when we are to feel with the disciples that feeling of abandonment or forsakenness.  We are to face our own fears, failures, suffering, and grief.  Then, see the Crucified God present in the suffering and participating in our suffering.  The power of the Resurrection and God's invitation to you in it will become significantly more meaningful if you force yourself to face your reality of pain and rejection and empty peanut butter jars.  Because we are never truly forsaken, but we have to face the pain we cause and feel before we can experience the joy of new life in Resurrection.

Did I just write a sermon?  What are your thoughts on forsakenness and Jesus' cry from cross?

Although I didn't cite anyone in this post, I do want you to know that I have been heavily influenced by Jurgen Moltmann and Peter Rollins on this idea.