Psalm 130

Today we hear a lot about death, despair, barrenness, dryness. Psalm 130 speaks it most clearly – “From the depths of my despair I call to you, Lord. Hear my cry, O Lord; listen to my call for help!”

Hear my cry!

Sermon for last Sunday:

Listen to my call for help!

Who has not known that feeling? Who is not familiar with that feeling of loss, sadness, despair, pain?

Who has not lost someone they loved and wish God would give them back to you like Lazarus?

Who has not felt a period along their walk with God or even before they came to know God that felt as dry and barren as a bone graveyard?

This week has been a difficult one for me as I consider these particular texts. 15 years ago on Tuesday, I lost my dad, suddenly and without warning. For some reason, this year was worse than others in that dull ache of missing that happens when someone you love is now sitting with Jesus. For some reason this year the dull ache is sharp and the hole left behind ragged. On Saturday we received a call that one of my dad’s dear friends passed away in suddenly, without warning, in the night when he had a simple illness – just like my dad. The ragged breaths catch suddenly and without warning again.

Hear my cry Lord.

Listen to my call for help.

The thing is, despite walking on the edge of the sharp pain that is despair, I did not despair.

I felt like Martha this time – going out to seek Jesus, to ask for help in my pain. There have been times that I was Mary though – angry and in such grief or despair about my situation that I could not come out to Jesus – Jesus had to come to me.

The thing is, on this walk that we call being a Christian it is okay. We see examples of it in our readings today. It is okay to run to Jesus in our pain as Martha does and seek hope, comfort, reliability. It is okay to be like Mary so deep in pain that we can’t quite see God working around us, in us or near us until he shows up in a person and reminds you of your faith. As a friend told me right after my dad died – God has big shoulders. God can take your anger, and your pain even when accompanied by screaming.

Thank you God for that.

Thank you for making new things out of the empty spots in our life. For giving us hope when we feel there is none. For teaching us that when we are in despair, when we are walking in the valley of dry bones, our spiritual life seems hopeless and unfruitful, when our pain is so big it threatens to take over our being, when sadness runs through us like a fierce roller coaster – we can give it to you, Lord. You can make all things new. You can take the hardship and use it for your glory just as you did when you raised Lazarus. You can take our empty moments and make room for a new creation. You can take our dry, disconnected dead bones and create a life that is thriving and blow your sweet breath of life through them.

You are our alpha and omega, the beginning and the end. You are the maker of miracles. Always drawing us to you. Thank you Lord. Amen.

You see in the story of Ezekiel, Lazarus and our Psalm – it is okay to feel lost. It is okay to express that to God. But you have to express that to God. Just as it says in Psalm 130
“I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, and in his word I hope;
My soul waits for the Lord, more than those who watch for the morning, more than those who watch for the morning.”

Waiting on the Lord. Knowing that although other human beings may have caused our pain, or a sudden tragic accident caused our pain, or just our own sense of lost-ness causes our pain, that we are to go to the Lord.

We are to listen for the Lord to show up – just as Ezekiel did. We are to trust that Jesus is always pulling us to Jesus’ self just as he did Lazarus. We are to remember “For with the Lord there is steadfast love, and with him is great power to redeem.”

That the Lord is greater than all our pain and there is always hope in the Lord even when you feel lost in dry bones. The Lord can do miracles beyond our understanding. Sometimes there is nothing else you can do but wait and hold onto the word of the Lord in hope.

I ask you today, to consider what are those things you are holding onto that cause you pain? What are the dry parts of your life? Where do you need God to reach in and make something new? Where do you need God to give you a new life? As long as we are willing to give God the space to work, to offer the pain up as a prayer and let God work on it, to release the loneliness, the isolation, the hard parts of our lives to God on a moment by moment basis – God can make us new just as he did the bones in Ezekiel. God can do anything. Be prepared for a miracle