Israel’s history is filled with crying out to God: in Egypt when enslaved by Pharaoh, in the wilderness when hungry, in the Promised Land when enemies attack. Whether guilty of straying or a victim of circumstances, Israel cries out to God. Why? Because in Israel’s experience, the Lord God listens to Israel’s cries and rescues by coming and acting. Israel is a witness to God’s steadfast love and mighty acts. God tells Moses: “I have observed the misery of my people who are in Egypt; I have heard their cry on account of their taskmasters. Indeed, I know their sufferings.” The Lord God sees, hears, and knows.
What is surprising is that God’s seeing, hearing, and knowing aren’t always connected to the one whom we see and hear cry out. In Genesis, Hagar was sent into the wilderness with her son Ishmael. There she ran out of water, cast Ishmael under a bush (!), and began to cry. Yet, Genesis 21:17 states, “God heard the voice of the boy; and the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven, and said to her, ‘What troubles you, Hagar? Do not be afraid; for God has heard the voice of the boy where he is.’” How stunning! God ‘hears’ those who aren’t crying out as if they are! God hears the silent child. Today, Christ hears the silent children of our entire world.
In Genesis 3:9, God asked the man, “Where are you?” This is God’s question to all of God’s creation in all times, all places. And it is the Lord God who answers this question in Jesus Christ, God’s only begotten Son, the Word become flesh. Scripture witnesses to God’s final, unique answer to this question in Jesus: his faithful life, obedient death, and glorious resurrection.
Today we are invited by the Spirit in the places of our living to trust in and cry out to God in Christ Jesus. We do so because God so loves the entire world, because God in Christ through the Holy Spirit calls us to believe this Good News and to go out, proclaiming this Truth. We do so because Christ Jesus himself, very God of very God, cried out on the cross, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” God crying out to God. We follow in Christ’s footsteps by the power of the Spirit. And, as we follow, we join all of creation, those who are crying out and those who don’t know to cry out.
We follow Jesus as he walks to the Cross.
Let us pray:
Lord God, we thank you that before we cry out, you hear and have already acted. Forgive us when we fail to trust in your loving hearing and acting. In your Son, Jesus Christ, through the power of the Holy Spirit, grant to us the strength to trust that you know our cries, the cries of the whole world. In the Name of your Son, our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, we pray. Amen
