Broken with God

Psalm 8 “For the music director, on the Gittith. A psalm of David. Yahweh, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth, who put your splendor above the heavens. From the mouth of children and infants you have founded strength on account of your enemies, to silence the enemy and the avenger. When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars which you set in place— what is a human being that you think of him? and a child of humankind that you care for him? And you made him a little lower than heavenly beings, and with glory and with majesty you crowned him. You make him over the works of your hands; all things you have placed under his feet: sheep and cattle, all of them, and also the wild animals of the field, the birds of the sky and the fish of the sea, everything that passes along the paths of seas. Yahweh, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all of the earth!”

His majesty. Friday morning, February 28th there was a planetary alignment, on full display for all to see. Whether it be a planetary alignment, views of another far off galaxy, views of the the invisible world of cells, viruses and bacteria, God has left plenty to tell us who he is and how important we are to him.

Last week, I preached about limping with God, today we are going to explore what it is to be broken with God.

Isaiah 53:3–5 “He was despised and rejected by men, a man of suffering, and acquainted with sickness, and like one from whom others hide their faces, he was despised, and we did not hold him in high regard. However, he was the one who lifted up our sicknesses, and he carried our pain, yet we ourselves assumed him stricken, struck down by God and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, crushed because of our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon him, and by his wounds we were healed.”

When we look out into God’s beautiful creation, we may wonder like David did in Psalm 8; how can he take notice of me? Isaiah gives us some clues. Despised, rejected, crushed, bruised.

He invites us, broken and having made a mess of our lives to walk with him. Why? He was broken also.

John 4 “Now when Jesus knew that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John (although Jesus himself was not baptizing, but his disciples), he left Judea and departed again for Galilee. And it was necessary for him to go through Samaria. Now he came to a town of Samaria called Sychar, near the piece of land that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. And Jacob’s well was there, so Jesus, because he had become tired from the journey, simply sat down at the well. It was about the sixth hour. A woman of Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me water to drink.” (For his disciples had gone away into the town so that they could buy food.) So the Samaritan woman said to him, “How do you, being a Jew, ask from me water to drink, since I am a Samaritan woman?” (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.) Jesus answered and said to her, “If you had known the gift of God and who it is who says to you, ‘Give me water to drink,’ you would have asked him,…”

Of the 4 gospels, John’s is the only gospel that recounts this story. I wonder, if you read the gospel of John, not only do you see the divinity of Christ on display, but you see the humanity, you also see the humanity of others on full display. Slow runner Pter