GOD'S SILENCE

Matthew 26:42 - Again he went away for the second time and prayed, “My Father, if this cannot pass unless I drink it, your will be done.”

When something big is weighing on our minds, it’s often not enough to pray once, is it? We often pray the same prayer again and again, hoping for relief of the burden or at least a temporary reprieve from the emotional and mental turmoil. Jesus is so human here. He knows how to still his mind and heart and goes back to prayer, even as he is disappointed that his disciples are not able to keep awake.

This going back to prayer reminds me of Psalm 88. Many of the psalms asking for God’s reprieve from circumstances end with a proclamation of faith in God or praise that God has taken care of the problem. All of them in fact, except for Psalm 88. It ends as it began, with prayers for relief from stress. There is no indication that the psalmist will stop praying and no indication that God has even heard. God is silent, and that silence is both disturbing and hopeful.

To be fair, some psalms continue in the next psalm, so it’s important to ask whether that is the case here. It is not. The psalm just ends with the psalmist still praying, still listening for a response. There is no indication that they will stop or have given up, and that is why I think this is a psalm of hope. In the moment of prayer, before change has come, anything is possible. There is still hope that things will get better, the problem will be resolved, or that the person can come to acceptance.

It is a perfect psalm and mirror for our situations with COVID, climate emergencies, and continued Republican lying and couping. It seems that our prayers aren’t being answered, that God is not listening when God is silent. It seems that there is no hope when others actively work to make these situations worse. These are terrible situations that by themselves are huge problems. It’s understandable that we might not see hope here. We can’t know the outcome of any of them. This psalm is the psalm for those of us whose faith might not be 100% in the midst of these messes, and for those of us whose doubts and fears loom larger than our faith. It might be good to remember that, in the moment of prayer, we are still okay, still hoping for change, still in connection with God, even if God is silent. That small bit of time is hope.

My hope is that we not lose our sense of hope, that we not lose our desire to pray or our connection with God. My hope is that these times might lead to strengthening of our faith rather than losing it.

 B