Why?

Why do we fast, but you do not see?” God’s people ask in the fifty-eighth chapter of Isaiah. “Why humble ourselves, but you do not notice?”  It is not just an individual complain; it is a human complaint that affects our lives in community as well as our lives at home.  “Why do we worship but you do not reveal yourself to us?  Why do we pray, Sunday after Sunday, for peace, for health, for safety, but you do not give us those things.  Why is the world is far from our desires for it……?

                                                              Barbara Brown Taylor Gospel Medicine, p.67

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Seriously God

Why are you silent?

Why when evil flourishes do you not act?

Why when lies abound, do you not act?

Why when power is abused, do you not act?

Why?

Why?

Why?

We are frightened Lord

We are tired

And we sit in the silence

And wait

And wait

“How long O Lord how long?”

How long will the rich oppress?

How long will a narcissist smugly preen and boast?

How long will the poor be neglected?

How long will the stranger be turned away?

This is not a new question

This is not merely a question for our times

It has been echoed throughout the ages

As people of faith

Have cried to heaven

Searching for an answer

Asking God for justice

Asking God to act, now!

It is the eternal question

How long O Lord?

The problem is, perhaps

That God is not where we think God should be

The people of Israel sought God in the temple

In the synagogue

They sought God in festivals and prayer

And they sought to obligate God through

Their ritual and their sacrifices

And they were good people

And yet God said

“I hate, I despise your feasts!

I cannot stand the stench of your solemn assemblies (Amos 5)

Why?

Because they were not engaged in making God’s way real

Day by day

All their posturing was empty

Because they were not

Actively doing good in the world

“God was not at their prayer desks with them. God was in the streets, warming hands over a can of burning garbage with a bunch of drifters, delivering sacks of groceries down at the housing project, handing out blankets to those who slept shivering in the bushes  God was not parked in their sanctuaries, waiting for one of them to stop by for a talk.  God was in the ER at the city hospital, in the waiting room a the labor pool, in the lobby at the police station, not only to comfort those who were stuck there, but also to stir them up, reminding them of their birthright….” (Barbara Brown Taylor, pp 68,69)

God was their reminding them that they were Children of God

Carriers of the Spirit

It is not that God fails to act

As much as it is that God expects us to act

God expects us, as Spirit powered people

To be the answer to our own prayers

God expects us to tap into Sacred Power

And Sacred Love

And do what needs to be done

God expects us to be the answer

To welcome the stranger

Feed the hunger

Clothe the naked

House the homeless

God expects us to be generous

And kind

God expects us to seek the truth

And reject the lies

And refuse to hate

God expects us to put Love first

Not money and power

And God expects us to hold our leaders accountable

And God expects us

To speak out

And vote

Is God silent?

Hear the world of God

“It is not I who have forsaken you, but you who have forsaken me

If you cannot hear me it is because you have strayed far from my voice.  It is not I who am ignoring you, but you who are ignoring me.”  Isaiah 58

We ask God, why don’t you feed the hungry

God says, you feed them

We cry to God about injustice

God says, fight for justice

We cry to God about the abuse of power

God says, vote

The Bible says it many ways

We are Christ’s ambassadors

We are the Body of Christ

We are the Children of God

We are Salt

We are Light

We are

It is not that we might be

We ARE

So let’s be who we are