Proper 8 / Ordinary Time 13
Preaching
Hear My Voice
Preaching The Lectionary Psalms for Cycles A, B, C
This psalm is an individual lament with which almost every Christian can identify, for almost all of us have known times when God seems far, and may perhaps even be "hidden" from us (v. 1). How many of us have begged God for a reply and heard none? Psalm 13 provides a text for talking about the silences of God.
Many will remember the day, back in 1999, when the beepers went silent. When a communications satellite died, the signals for about ninety percent of the United States' pagers suddenly went nowhere. Some of us feel like that sometimes, when we pray. As one unnamed writer put it, "Even after Christ's coming, God has painfully kept his distance that we are like spouses married to one who is frequently away on business." And W. H. Auden said, "Our dominant experience of today is of God's absence, of his distance."
We don't know why God sometimes keeps silent when we most desire to hear a divine word. Maybe the Lord's refusal to give us all the answers we want is an indication that God wants to relate to us not as a giver of answers but as a giver of strength. Perhaps God is silent to force us to learn hard lessons of life. We simply don't know.
But we do know that God is not always silent, and that when the Lord does speak to us -- and most of us can recall at least one time when we were conscious of guidance or a calling outside of ourselves -- it is an experience that is life-changing and unforgettable.
-- S. P.
Many will remember the day, back in 1999, when the beepers went silent. When a communications satellite died, the signals for about ninety percent of the United States' pagers suddenly went nowhere. Some of us feel like that sometimes, when we pray. As one unnamed writer put it, "Even after Christ's coming, God has painfully kept his distance that we are like spouses married to one who is frequently away on business." And W. H. Auden said, "Our dominant experience of today is of God's absence, of his distance."
We don't know why God sometimes keeps silent when we most desire to hear a divine word. Maybe the Lord's refusal to give us all the answers we want is an indication that God wants to relate to us not as a giver of answers but as a giver of strength. Perhaps God is silent to force us to learn hard lessons of life. We simply don't know.
But we do know that God is not always silent, and that when the Lord does speak to us -- and most of us can recall at least one time when we were conscious of guidance or a calling outside of ourselves -- it is an experience that is life-changing and unforgettable.
-- S. P.
