Psalm 22:1-31
August 13th, 2023
Ask Boldly
* We had technical difficulties on Sunday and will not be uploading the audio for this sermon, here is the script from Pastor Don Straka.
Kids love to ask why questions. “Why is the sky blue,” “why do we eat broccoli,” “why do zebras have stripes.” Parents don’t always have the perfect answer to these questions because truth be told (though we may not want to admit it out loud often) we don’t actually know the answer to every question. We may have a vague idea why the sky is blue, but even when we don’t it doesn’t really affect our day-to-day so we move on pretty quickly. But other “why questions” don’t allow us to move on as quickly. When pain and suffering hit you personally, we so often get flooded with why questions. Why, Lord, did you take their life so young? Why is cancer even a thing in this world? Why does poverty have to continue? Why can’t we move on from these questions as easily as we can from “why do zebras have stripes?” Well, in part because when suffering hits, these why questions are immediately relevant. The suffering is front and center and the pain so acute and with each nudge of pain comes the downpour of more why questions. Have you ever known those deep-aching “why questions”? Have you felt the pain of a broken world that caused you to question, to cry out for answers, and then to be left wanting? Have you ever known the harsh reality of life that didn’t end all sewn up with a pretty bow or leave you with a vantage point where you see how all the pieces fit together to form some beautiful tapestry? Do you know the feeling of unanswered whys? We are midway through our series on lament, and so far we have laid out the first two steps of lament — steps we took from Dark Cloud, Deep Mercy. In these two steps, we talked about bringing these “why questions” to our God. We talked about turning to God and then bringing our complaints. But today, we turn to what to do when we seem to be stuck at the why. Today, we continue in our walk through lament because lament doesn't end with our complaints. As hard as unanswered why questions can be, lament moves past why questions. God has given the invitation and has a longing to listen to our whys and our complaints. But he does not intend for us to stay there. He doesn’t intend for lament to stop at complaint. To see what we do when we get stuck on a why question, let’s turn to Psalm 22.