Song Number 22
A Service and Sermon for 6-29-25
Call to Worship:
L: Come! Let’s call to mind the deeds of the Lord.
P: We’ll remember God’s wonders of the past,
and look to God’s wonders all around us today.
L: God redeemed the descendants of Jacob,
P: and led the people by the hand of Moses.
L: So let us call on the name of the Lord,
and eagerly proclaim God’s actions in today’s world.
P: With joy, we celebrate God’s Way and seek God’s wonders in our world.
Collect:
Gracious God, you have made a Way through generations of those who worship you. Thank you for your beloved Son, whom we know as the Christ.
Hear our prayer today, that our eyes might be opened to see your Spirit at work in each of us and in this congregation, even in the face of challenges all around us. AMEN
1st Reading: Psalm 16
Protect me, O God, for I take refuge in you;
I have said to the Lord, "You are my Lord,
my good above all other."
All my delight is upon the godly that are in the land,
upon those who are noble among the people.
But those who run after other gods
shall have their troubles multiplied.
Their libations of blood I will not offer,
nor take the names of their gods upon my lips.
O Lord, you are my portion and my cup;
it is you who uphold my lot.
My boundaries enclose a pleasant land;
indeed, I have a goodly heritage.
I will bless the Lord who gives me counsel;
my heart teaches me, night after night.
I have set the Lord always before me;
because he is at my right hand I shall not fall.
My heart, therefore, is glad, and my spirit rejoices;
my body also shall rest in hope.
For you will not abandon me to the grave,
nor let your holy one see the Pit.
You will show me the path of life;
in your presence there is fullness of joy,
and in your right hand are pleasures for evermore.
2nd Reading: Matthew 27:35-50
And when they had crucified him, they divided his clothes among themselves by casting lots; then they sat down there and kept watch over him. Over his head they put the charge against him, which read, “This is Jesus, the King of the Jews.”
Then two rebels were crucified with him, one on his right and one on his left. Those who passed by derided him, shaking their heads and saying, “You who would destroy the temple and build it in three days, save yourself! If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross.” In the same way the chief priests also, along with the scribes and elders, were mocking him, saying, “He saved others; he cannot save himself. He is the King of Israel; let him come down from the cross now, and we will believe in him. He trusts in God; let God deliver him now, if he wants to, for he said, ‘I am God’s Son.’ ” The rebels who were crucified with him also taunted him in the same way.
From noon on, darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon. And about three o’clock Jesus cried with a loud voice, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” that is, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” When some of the bystanders heard it, they said, “This man is calling for Elijah.” At once one of them ran and got a sponge, filled it with sour wine, put it on a stick, and gave it to him to drink. But the others said, “Wait, let us see whether Elijah will come to save him.” Then Jesus cried again with a loud voice and breathed his last.
It wasn’t enough to just kill him; they wanted to make it as physically and mentally painful as possible. They wanted to erase all hope and make a statement of who had the power. That was the point of crucifixion, a punishment reserved by the Romans for criminals and rebels to crush dissent and disorder. Indeed, as that fateful afternoon played out it seemed that they had gotten their wish, that hope and love itself was agonizingly dying up there on that cross. Even the words the man laboriously cried out seemed to the untrained ear to verify the victory of the earthly powers…”My God, my God, why have your forsaken me?” But to those who knew, to those who followed and loved him, these words were not those of defeat but a declaration of victory and a reminder of who really has the power.
Now you may be wondering how I can say that those words were more than what they appeared at face value, so I want you to hold onto that question…put a pin in it for a minute because we need to pause and rewind the story a few centuries and gather some context.
In our modern world we often take for granted the myriads of ways that information…and misinformation, can be shared. Books, magazines, newspapers, TV, Radio, Email, Text messages, websites, podcasts, and social media. But in the time of Jesus none of that existed…the predecessor to the book, known as a Codex, was still just being developed. The only way information could be stored and shared were carved tablets and scrolls, both of which were expensive and required someone who could read and write…which is also something we take for granted these days. So, information, including scripture, was mostly stored and transmitted orally. As a child, Jewish folks of the time learned to memorize scripture from the scrolls housed in the local synagogue. Most of the little education they received was committing scripture to memory. Paul it is said, had committed almost the entirety of what we now call the Old Testament to memory in his training to be a Pharisee. We also know Jesus had also committed scriptures to memory as he directly quoted, paraphrased, and alluded to scripture over 300 times in the surviving Gospels. It’s really quite impressive especially considering I often have a hard time remembering the dozen items on a grocery list much less the book of Exodus.
Now, we must not forget that Jesus was a Rabbi…a teacher, and his apprentices, his Disciples were given daily instruction in not only scripture, but what it meant and how to live it out faithfully. A common teaching tactic, kind of a fun learning game if you will, was for the Rabbi to state the first line or sentence of a piece of scripture and the students had then had to determine which one it was and then say the rest of it. The Psalms especially were a favorite for this tactic and if you remember the Psalms are poetic songs and so they were set to music. So, for example, let’s play a little game…see if you can guess the song and say the next line of these songs:
“Hello Darkness my old friend…”
“Just a small town girl, living in a lonely world…”
“Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy…”
“I am a man of constant sorrow…”
Catch my drift, the Rabbi reciting the first line was a clever memory game to help teach his students…and Rabbi Jesus was no different. So back to the matter at hand for today, when Jesus was up on that cross and he said “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” he wasn’t in a moment of doubt he was reminding those around him including his followers to take encouragement and wisdom in a scriptural song…Psalm 22. So my friends I want you to dust off those books in the pews that say Bible and open them with me to Psalm 22, and we are going to read that together…I’ll read it out loud and you can read along quietly.
Psalm 22
For the director of music. To the tune of “The Doe of the Morning.” A psalm of David.
1 My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
Why are you so far from saving me,
so far from my cries of anguish?
2 My God, I cry out by day, but you do not answer,
by night, but I find no rest.
3 Yet you are enthroned as the Holy One;
you are the one Israel praises.
4 In you our ancestors put their trust;
they trusted and you delivered them.
5 To you they cried out and were saved;
in you they trusted and were not put to shame.
6 But I am a worm and not a man,
scorned by everyone, despised by the people.
7 All who see me mock me;
they hurl insults, shaking their heads.
8 “He trusts in the Lord,” they say,
“let the Lord rescue him.
Let him deliver him,
since he delights in him.”
9 Yet you brought me out of the womb;
you made me trust in you, even at my mother’s breast.
10 From birth I was cast on you;
from my mother’s womb you have been my God.
11 Do not be far from me,
for trouble is near
and there is no one to help.
12 Many bulls surround me;
strong bulls of Bashan encircle me.
13 Roaring lions that tear their prey
open their mouths wide against me.
14 I am poured out like water,
and all my bones are out of joint.
My heart has turned to wax;
it has melted within me.
15 My mouth is dried up like a potsherd,
and my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth;
you lay me in the dust of death.
16 Dogs surround me,
a pack of villains encircles me;
they pierce my hands and my feet.
17 All my bones are on display;
people stare and gloat over me.
18 They divide my clothes among them
and cast lots for my garment.
19 But you, Lord, do not be far from me.
You are my strength; come quickly to help me.
20 Deliver me from the sword,
my precious life from the power of the dogs.
21 Rescue me from the mouth of the lions;
save me from the horns of the wild oxen.
22 I will declare your name to my people;
in the assembly I will praise you.
23 You who fear the Lord, praise him!
All you descendants of Jacob, honor him!
Revere him, all you descendants of Israel!
24 For he has not despised or scorned
the suffering of the afflicted one;
he has not hidden his face from him
but has listened to his cry for help.
25 From you comes the theme of my praise in the great assembly;
before those who fear you I will fulfill my vows.
26 The poor will eat and be satisfied;
those who seek the Lord will praise him—
may your hearts live forever!
27 All the ends of the earth
will remember and turn to the Lord,
and all the families of the nations
will bow down before him,
28 for dominion belongs to the Lord
and he rules over the nations.
29 All the rich of the earth will feast and worship;
all who go down to the dust will kneel before him—
those who cannot keep themselves alive.
30 Posterity will serve him;
future generations will be told about the Lord.
31 They will proclaim his righteousness,
declaring to a people yet unborn:
He has done it!
Pretty cool isn’t it? Notice a few things and events in our reading from Matthew that echo and mirror that Psalm? How many of you knew this correlation previously? Jesus was still teaching, still loving even in the midst of what had to be unbearable pain. The world had thrown the worst it could conceive of at him and love still won.
So, my beloved family, I encourage you this morning to set your mind to memorizing some scripture that speaks to you. I’m not saying you need to commit the entire book of Leviticus to memory or anything but perhaps there is a paragraph or two from the Gospels or one of Paul’s letters that gives you comfort and strength. Perhaps even a Psalm or two. I couldn’t tell you how many times in my life when faced with fear, anxiety, and doubt out of nowhere my lips begin to speak “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want…” or when someone had pushed every button I have and I was on the verge of erupting in anger God would send me a reminder in the form of Paul’s words “Love is patient, Love is kind It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails.”
What scriptures does God call to your heart with? Read them over and over out loud, meditate on them, write them out several times, and treasure them as the blessing they are. But remember, above all else, that even when humanity did it’s worst…God still loved us and would not let anger and violence have the last word. Whenever you are at the end of your rope and you think all is lost, God is still there with you…protecting you…loving you…asking you to remember. AMEN.
Benediction:
May the Lord bless you and keep you; may the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace, filling you with love and courage for the journey of life. In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.