Debra K. Brazzel - "The Hidden Love of God" (October 12, 1997)

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-	There are times in the spiritual life	0:11
	when it seems that God is hidden.	0:14
	When no matter how much we pray or seek God,	0:19
	we can't feel God's presence or love.	0:23
	We feel ourselves forsaken by God.	0:26
	One woman describes her feelings of despair	0:30
	and abandonment during her divorce,	0:33
	"The early mornings were worst,	0:36
	that time just before the gentle light of dawn	0:38
	eases through the darkness.	0:41
	Those precious moments when I had usually been	0:44
	most centered, most creative, most prayerful,	0:46
	now became the most painful.	0:50
	I woke trembling, alone in my terror,	0:54
	alone in the darkness that seemed to hold no hope of dawn,	0:58
	alone in the heavy weight of the unknown.	1:02
	At times, waves of emotion rolled over me,	1:05
	sobs wracking my body and soul.	1:09
	At other times, I felt stone-cold and detached,	1:13
	as if death had lodged itself in my heart.	1:17
	Feelings of failure, shame, guilt	1:21
	and worthlessness tangled together.	1:24
	I felt wounded, I felt abandoned and unwanted.	1:27
	I felt pain as I had never felt it before,	1:32
	and at the same time I felt nothing."	1:35
	Most of us have known times	1:40
	when we felt abandoned, forsaken, alone.	1:43
	In The Psalm, we hear those haunting words	1:49
	that Jesus spoke from the cross,	1:51
	"My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?	1:54
	Why are You so far from helping Me,	2:00
	from the words of My groaning.	2:03
	Oh My God, I cry by day, but You do not answer,	2:06
	and by night, but find no rest."	2:09
	In the Old Testament lesson from Job, Job cries out,	2:13
	"Today my complaint is bitter,	2:18
	oh that I knew where I might find Him,	2:21
	that I might come even before His dwelling.	2:24
	If I go forward, He is not there,	2:28
	or backward I cannot perceive Him,	2:31
	on the left He hides and I cannot behold Him,	2:35
	I turn to the right, but I cannot see him."	2:40
	There are times when it seems that God is hidden	2:45
	and we feel abandoned and alone.	2:50
	Often these experiences of forsakenness come in periods	2:54
	of great pain and suffering.	2:58
	The death of a loved one, the loss of a relationship,	3:00
	a series of failures, a time of confusion,	3:04
	a serious illness, a financial crisis, an accident.	3:08
	Any of these can lead us into an experience	3:14
	of forsakenness when we find ourselves alone	3:17
	and abandoned, overwhelmed by the troubles	3:21
	that surround us with no way forward, and no way back.	3:24
	We feel trapped in our misery,	3:29
	gripped by a deep anxiety and terrified by what is to come.	3:32
	The Psalmist graphically describes	3:38
	the terror of forsakenness,	3:40
	"I am poured out like water	3:43
	and all my bones are out of joint.	3:46
	My heart is like wax,	3:49
	it is melted in my breast.	3:51
	My mouth is dried up like a potsherd,	3:53
	and my tongue sticks to my jaws.	3:56
	You lay me in the dust of death,	3:59
	for dogs are all around me.	4:01
	A company of evil doers encircles me."	4:04
	In times of such suffering and abandonment,	4:08
	we can't help but cry out,	4:11
	"My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?"	4:13
	It is less the particular experience of suffering	4:19
	that is difficult to deal with	4:23
	than the experience of being forsaken by God.	4:25
	It is our agonizing sense of aloneness	4:29
	and abandonment that wounds us so deeply.	4:32
	We find ourselves at the edge of the abyss	4:36
	that separates us from God.	4:39
	Help is on the other side,	4:42
	but there is no way to get across.	4:44
	And at times like these, we can only cry,	4:47
	"My God, My God, why, why have You forsaken Me?"	4:50
	What are we to do when God is hidden?	4:57
	How are we to deal with times of forsakenness?	5:01
	Perhaps we can take comfort in the knowledge	5:07
	that the experience of feeling forsaken by God	5:10
	seems to be universal.	5:14
	Otherwise The Scriptures wouldn't speak so poignantly,	5:16
	and so often, and so honestly about it.	5:20
	In fact, when you look at The Psalter,	5:24
	Israel's Hymnbook of Praise,	5:26
	more than half of them are classified as	5:29
	"Laments", like Psalm 22.	5:31
	They speak honestly about the reality	5:35
	of human suffering, the experience of forsakenness,	5:37
	and the mystery of God's hiddenness.	5:42
	Times of seeming desertion, absence and abandonment	5:46
	by God appear to be universal among those	5:50
	who walk the path of faith.	5:53
	This has been called by the Spiritual Masters,	5:56
	"Deus Absconditus, the God who is hidden".	5:58
	So the next time that we try to pray and feel nothing,	6:04
	see nothing, sense nothing, we can be reassured	6:09
	that we are in good company among the community	6:13
	of the faithful.	6:17
	We all know times of forsakenness when our prayers	6:20
	seem to bounce off the ceiling,	6:24
	and ricochet around an empty room.	6:27
	We have all had times when we	6:31
	desperately needed some word of assurance,	6:33
	some demonstration of divine presence and power,	6:37
	but got nothing.	6:41
	In the words of George Buttrick,	6:44
	"It feels like we are beating on heaven's door	6:46
	with bruised knuckles in the dark."	6:51
	St. John of the Cross called it,	6:56
	"The dark night of the soul."	6:58
	Someone else called it,	7:00
	"The cloud of unknowing."	7:01
	The experience of the hiddenness of God	7:05
	is a common experience among people of faith.	7:08
	And when it happens to us, it does not mean that God	7:11
	has abandoned us or that God is displeased with us,	7:15
	or that we've done something wrong.	7:18
	Job's friends tried to convince him	7:21
	that he had displeased God,	7:23
	and that he was being punished for his sins,	7:25
	but Job was a faithful and righteous man.	7:28
	However his faithfulness did not save him from suffering,	7:32
	and from the experience of feeling forsaken by God.	7:35
	We'd like to think that if we lead good lives,	7:41
	God will always be there at our beck and call,	7:44
	and only good will come to us,	7:47
	but the experience of suffering is universal,	7:49
	and there are times when we all feel God's absence.	7:52
	So, what do we do in those times when God seems hidden?	7:58
	First, we must remember that our relationship with God	8:03
	is a living relationship that begins and develops	8:07
	in mutual freedom.	8:11
	Just as God does not coerce us into obedience,	8:13
	so we must give God the same freedom.	8:16
	The Creator of heaven and earth is not at our beck and call.	8:19
	In Verse 13, which was left out of	8:23
	the lectionary text this morning, Job says about God,	8:25
	"But He stands alone and who can dissuade Him	8:30
	what He desires, that He does."	8:34
	God is holy, and powerful and free.	8:39
	When God is hidden, we are reminded	8:45
	that we don't control God.	8:47
	And sometimes it becomes an unexpected grace	8:50
	to wheen us of the tendency to fashion God	8:53
	in our own image.	8:56
	By refusing to be a puppet on a string,	8:58
	or a genie in our bottle,	9:01
	God frees us from false idolatrous images.	9:03
	We can only affirm with Job that God is God,	9:08
	and what He desires, that He does.	9:12
	And yet, in that living relationship,	9:16
	we are free to let God know how we feel.	9:19
	We can pray the prayer of complaint that Job prayed,	9:22
	and we can pray the lament of the Psalms,	9:26
	we can shout out our forsakenness,	9:29
	we can shake our fist at God one moment,	9:32
	and break into doxology and praise the next.	9:35
	We can declare our reverence and our disappointment,	9:38
	our fear and our hope.	9:42
	The honest expression of our deepest feelings	9:45
	can become the path that leads us back to God.	9:49
	Let The Scriptures guide you in learning	9:54
	to let God see into your depths,	9:56
	for The Scriptures are concerned that all times	9:59
	to be true to life, and not to hide from God	10:02
	the worshipers conflicting or negative emotions.	10:05
	Look at Psalm 22, and you will see how the Psalmist	10:09
	moves back and forth from despair, to hope, to fear,	10:13
	and finally to praise.	10:17
	You truest thoughts and your deepest feelings	10:20
	are good prayer.	10:23
	Offer these up to God, even when you aren't sure	10:26
	that there is a God there to receive them.	10:29
	For it is important in times of greatest uncertainty	10:33
	to keep doing what we know to do.	10:37
	Even though God was hidden, Job kept praying and seeking.	10:41
	Even though the Psalmist felt abandoned by God,	10:46
	he kept crying out and asking for God's help.	10:49
	When we don't know what to do, we do what we do know,	10:53
	we pray, we listen, we attend worship,	10:58
	we carry out the duty of the present moment.	11:02
	What we learn to do in the light of God's love,	11:06
	we also do in the dark of God's absence.	11:10
	We ask, and continue to ask, even when there is no answer.	11:14
	We seek, and continue to seek, even though we do not find.	11:19
	We knock, and continue to knock,	11:24
	even though the door remains shut.	11:27
	John Calvin once said,	11:31
	"In the Psalms we may frequently observe how the faithful	11:33
	when almost wearied with praying, seem to beat the air,	11:37
	and God seemed deaf to their petitions,	11:41
	yet they did not desist from praying.	11:45
	Because the authority of the Divine Word is not maintained	11:49
	unless it be fully credited, not withstanding the appearance	11:52
	of any circumstances to the contrary."	11:57
	We keep praying, we keep asking,	12:01
	we keep seeking, we keep hoping.	12:05
	It is this constant longing for God and seeking for God,	12:09
	even when there is no sign of God,	12:14
	that produces a firmness of life orientation in us.	12:16
	We learn to love God more than the gifts God brings.	12:21
	It is a kind of, purification when we get weened	12:26
	from our dependence upon exterior or interior results	12:29
	and proofs of God.	12:34
	Like Job, we serve God even if he slays us.	12:36
	Like Mary, we say freely,	12:41
	"Here I am, the servant of The Lord,	12:43
	let it be to me according to Thy word."	12:46
	And like Jesus, we pray,	12:49
	"Not My will, by Thy will be done."	12:51
	When God is hidden, we fall back upon the relationship	12:56
	that we once had with God,	13:00
	and trust that it was real and true.	13:03
	Just because we can't perceive God now,	13:07
	we don't become like the fools who say,	13:10
	"There is no God."	13:12
	It is okay to doubt ourselves,	13:15
	it is okay to doubt God,	13:17
	but continue to pray and seek God anyway.	13:20
	As the Psalmist said,	13:25
	"Oh my God, I cry by day, but You do not answer,	13:27
	and by night, but find no rest.	13:30
	Yet, You are holy.	13:33
	Enthroned on the praises of Israel.	13:36
	In You, our ancestors trusted,	13:39
	they trusted, and you delivered them.	13:42
	To You they cried and were saved.	13:44
	In You they trusted and were not put to shame."	13:47
	When we can't find God no matter how hard we try,	13:51
	we can rest in the assurances of our faith.	13:55
	When we have no faith of our own to fall back on,	13:59
	we can let the faith of the community sustain us.	14:04
	Though I now experience myself to be forsaken by God,	14:08
	my community tells me that this God	14:12
	is a very present help in trouble.	14:15
	Though I can't see any proof that God sees me	14:18
	and cares about me, my faith community tells me	14:21
	that God has known me from before I was in my mothers womb,	14:24
	and that not one hair falls from my head	14:28
	without God's knowledge.	14:31
	Though I can't see any way out of my current predicament,	14:34
	my faith community tells me that this is a God	14:38
	who makes a way out of no way.	14:41
	When our faith is shaken,	14:44
	we need to stay close to our faith community,	14:47
	which reminds us of who God has been in the past,	14:51
	so that we can trust who God will be in the present,	14:55
	and in the future.	15:00
	As the Psalmist says,	15:02
	"In You, our ancestors trusted,	15:04
	they trusted, and You delivered them."	15:07
	Psalm 22, which begins with the lament of forsakenness	15:11
	ends with praise and thanksgiving for deliverance.	15:15
	The time of abandonment did not last forever.	15:20
	This Psalm is a reminder to the community,	15:24
	that even in it's darkest hour of forsakenness,	15:27
	God was trustworthy and deliverance came.	15:31
	The experiences of the faith community	15:35
	can give us confidence in the trustworthiness	15:38
	and the character of God, so that even when	15:41
	we don't understand what God is doing,	15:44
	or where God is, we can yet believe that God	15:47
	is out to do us good.	15:51
	There is a final reason I want to mention	15:56
	that we can have faith even in the midst	15:59
	of our forsakenness.	16:02
	And that is because Jesus has already walked	16:04
	this path before us.	16:07
	Remember, that He said those words from the cross,	16:09
	"My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?"	16:13
	It was the supreme moment when the faithfulness	16:17
	of God was put to the test.	16:20
	Did God abandon Jesus on the cross?	16:23
	On the contrary, our faith says that God answered his prayer	16:29
	in such a way that none of us would ever be abandoned	16:33
	to the experience of suffering and forsakenness again.	16:37
	We believe that God was there with Jesus	16:42
	in all the horror of the cross.	16:45
	Sharing his suffering and tragedy,	16:48
	not in a detached and distant way,	16:50
	but as a father with a son.	16:53
	At some point in His agony, Jesus was reassured	16:57
	of God's presence with Him, because His final words were,	17:00
	"Father, Father, into My hands, into Your hands,	17:03
	I commit My Spirit."	17:08
	His final act was one of absolute trust	17:11
	in the nearness and presence of God.	17:15
	God was with Jesus even unto death,	17:19
	working His deliverance and ours.	17:23
	In Jesus Christ, God reached across the abyss	17:26
	that separates us.	17:30
	For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son,	17:32
	so that whoever believes in Him, may not perish,	17:36
	but may have eternal life.	17:40
	Through Christ, God works to bring our deliverance	17:43
	not from the outside, but from the inside of our experience.	17:47
	In Jesus, God has thrown his lot in with us,	17:54
	so that even when we feel most abandoned,	17:58
	God knows and carries that agony with us.	18:02
	Even when it seems that God is hidden,	18:06
	and we are most alone, even in our darkest hour	18:08
	of forsakenness, know, especially then,	18:12
	God is with us, like a father with a son.	18:17
	Sharing our suffering, and working our deliverance.	18:22
	In Jesus, God is with us and has committed to remain with us	18:27
	in life, in death and life beyond death.	18:32
	That is a love we can trust, even when God is hidden.	18:37

Item Info

Title:

Debra K. Brazzel - "The Hidden Love of God" (October 12, 1997)

Description:

Sermon start time: 00:10. Sermon end time: 18:41.
Often, God will appear to be hidden and unresponsive to our prayers and difficulties, but God will be there when we need God, as long as we have faith. (Abstract created by Duke Divinity School staff.)
Key quotation: “When we can’t find God no matter how hard we try, we can rest in the assurances of our faith. When we have no faith of our own to fall back on, we can let the faith of the community sustain us.”

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https://idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/r4x34n611

Date:

October 12, 1997

Speaker:

Brazzel, Debra K.

Liturgical Calendar:

Ordinary Time

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Duke University. Chapel

Identifier:

UA.17.01.0003 CS-0875
ref9900_8i5
uachapelsermaud
duke:320621
dcrau001520
ark:/87924/r4x34n611
68d5be9a-738c-4375-9d62-91e7ecc71a34

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Debra K. Brazzel - "The Hidden Love of God" (October 12, 1997)

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