Remember and Trust

Below is my message at Oahe Manor during the communion service of July 14.  The text was Psalm 22:1-5, 9-11.

            One of the reasons we take communion, of course, is in commemoration of Jesus’ last supper with his disciples.  Jesus broke the bread and distributed the wine, said this was his body and his blood, and told the disciples to do this in remembrance of him.

            This happened right before Jesus was arrested, an arrest that would lead to his death.  Jesus, obviously knew what was going to happen to him.  He did not have to go through with it, you know.  Jesus could’ve stopped Judas from going to the authorities.  He could’ve used his power to stop the arrest.  He could’ve even run away.  He could’ve done a lot of things other than what he did.

            Yet, Jesus did go through with it.  First, though, he had one last meal with his disciples, one last time together.  Part of the reason may have been for Jesus’ own benefit—after all, knowing what was going to happen, he may have felt he needed all the strength and support he could get.  I think even more, though, Jesus had this last time together for the sake of the disciples.

            After all, the disciples had put a lot of trust in Jesus.  In fact, they’d given up everything to follow him.  They’d abandoned their homes, their families, their businesses; they’d left everything to follow Jesus.  They did that because they believed that Jesus was the Messiah, the great King they’d been waiting for.  Now, in just a few days, that great King was going to be killed.  The disciples did not know that, of course, but Jesus did.

            Once that happened, I suspect the disciples may have felt like the author of Psalm 22, the one we just read part of.  Maybe they even remembered the psalm; after all, Jesus quoted the beginning of it, while he was hanging on the cross.  They may have felt like God had forsaken them; like God was far away; like God was not answering their prayers.

            Maybe you feel like that, too, sometimes.  I suspect a lot of us have times when we do; I know I’ve had those times.  Those times are not a lot of fun, are they?  They’re pretty depressing.  Something is going wrong in our lives; maybe it’s a physical problem, maybe it’s something to do with our families, maybe it’s something else entirely, but we’ve all had those times when we feel that things just are not the way they’re supposed to be.  We try to handle the problem by ourselves, we do what we can, but nothing happens.  In fact, sometimes the problems seem to just get worse.

            So, we pray.  We pray, and we wait, and we try, and nothing happens.  So we pray some more, and we wait some more, and we try some more, and still nothing happens.  It seems like our prayers just hit the ceiling and bounce back at us.  We start to wonder where God is.  We wonder why God does not hear our prayers, and if God does hear them, why God does not seem to care about them.

            God understands why we feel that way.  What we need to do, though, is exactly what the author of our psalm did.

            The author of our psalm did two things.  First, he remembered that God had always been there for his ancestors.  He remembered that, in the past, when the nation turned to God, God saved them.  When they trusted God, God always came through for them.

            Then, the author thought of his own life.  He remembered all the times God had been there for him in the past.  He thought about how, from the time he was born, God had always kept him safe.  He had trusted God his whole life, and God had never let him down.

            That’s true of us, too.  I know that no one here has lived an easy, carefree life.  You’ve all had your share of problems, and you’ve all had your share of struggles.  If you think about it, though, I suspect you’ll be able to remember times when God has been there for you.  I suspect you can remember times when God kept you safe.  I suspect you can remember times when you trusted God, and God did not let you down.

            By sharing in the sacrament of Holy Communion, that’s what we’re doing.  We’re remembering those times when we’ve trusted God, and God has been there for us.  We’re also saying that we’re going to trust God to be there for us again, now and all the days of our lives.

            That’s what the disciples did, in the days after Jesus’ death.  They were confused, and they did not understand, but they kept trusting that something was going to happen.  Eventually, of course, something did happen.  God answered their prayers in a way they never expected: by bringing Jesus back from the dead.

            We get confused sometimes, too, and we don’t understand.  If we can keep trusting, though, God will answer our prayers, and that answer may come in a way we never expect.

            Let’s prepare for holy communion, trusting in God to answer our prayers.