Kicked Over and Spilled

Good Friday Morning, Loved Ones,

Today our passage is the one Jesus quoted upon the cross. It is the psalm passage from the lectionary for Good Friday.

Psalm 22 (The Message)

A David Psalm

^1-2 God, God...my God! Why did you dump me
miles from nowhere?
Doubled up with pain, I call to God
all the day long. No answer. Nothing.
I keep at it all night, tossing and turning.
^3-5 And you! Are you indifferent, above it all,
leaning back on the cushions of Israel's praise?
We know you were there for our parents:
they cried for your help and you gave it;
they trusted and lived a good life.
^6-8 And here I am, a nothing—an earthworm,
something to step on, to squash.
Everyone pokes fun at me;
they make faces at me, they shake their heads:
"Let's see how God handles this one;
since God likes him so much, let him help him!"
^9-11 And to think you were midwife at my birth,
setting me at my mother's breasts!
When I left the womb you cradled me;
since the moment of birth you've been my God.
Then you moved far away
and trouble moved in next door.
I need a neighbor.
^12-13 Herds of bulls come at me,
the raging bulls stampede,
Horns lowered, nostrils flaring,
like a herd of buffalo on the move.
^14-15 I'm a bucket kicked over and spilled,
every joint in my body has been pulled apart.
My heart is a blob
of melted wax in my gut.
I'm dry as a bone,
my tongue black and swollen.
They have laid me out for burial
in the dirt.
^16-18 Now packs of wild dogs come at me;
thugs gang up on me.
They pin me down hand and foot,
and lock me in a cage—a bag
Of bones in a cage, stared at
by every passerby.
They take my wallet and the shirt off my back,
and then throw dice for my clothes.
^19-21 You, God—don't put off my rescue!
Hurry and help me!
Don't let them cut my throat;
don't let those mongrels devour me.
If you don't show up soon,
I'm done for—gored by the bulls,
meat for the lions.

If you've been in the ministry for very long, or have attempted to provide servant leadership to your community, or even simply tried to love your family, you have no doubt, at some point, felt you were a "bucket kicked over and spilled." You have cried out to God and too often been met with silence. As the life flowed out of Jesus, he drew on his scriptural tradition and uttered this psalm. "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me." It is your cry and my cry when the doctor brings the news about the cancer, when the policeman and the chaplain show up at your door with the news, when your best efforts to serve your church, your community, your family results in conflict, despair and persecution. Good Friday comes around once a year to remind us that we are not alone. We are not the first to have experienced hopelessness and anguish. We are not the first to feel forsaken and abandoned. David voiced our pain long before we doubled up with pain. Jesus lived our suffering long before the bulls started chasing us. Knowing this does not stop the hurting. But it does set us in a new community --- a community that recognizes and confesses the pain and the suffering as well as the joy and redemption. Today I give thanks that Jesus was honest with God about his feelings of abandonment. Today I give thanks that I am part of Jesus' alternative confessing community. Today I give thanks that I know, through Jesus life, death and resurrection, that it's Friday, but Sunday's comin'.

The Peace of Christ be with you on this Good Friday,

Pastor Rick
http://gimmecinco.blogspot.com

Don't forget this week's schedule:
Stations of the Cross - Good Friday - Noon - Washington Park on the north side of Crown Center (Sponsored by Holy Family Catholic Worker House)
Deacons and Elders meeting - Saturday - 3:30 pm (Please be in prayer and fasting for this meeting)
Sunrise Service - Sunday - Begins at 6:30 at Huron Park behind the downtown KCK library (Bring a chair)
Easter Breakfast - 8 am after the sunrise service (Cooked by the men of the church)
Sunday School - 9:45 am
Easter Sunday service - 11 am (No lunch after worship)