9 The Israelites cried out to the LORD. So the LORD raised up... Judges 3:9 CSB

Then the Israelites cried oute to the LORD.. Judges 4:3 CSB

6 So Israel became poverty-stricken because of Midian, and the Israelites cried out to the LORD. Judges 6:6 CSB

Barth says, poignantly, that the situation “went right into [Jesus’] heart … so that their whole plight was now His own, and as such He saw and suffered it far more keenly than they did.” Jesus “took their misery upon Himself, taking it away from them and making it His own.”

Whom shall I fear, if Thou, O God omnipotent, art my light and my salvation? I give myself all to Thee. Accept me, and then do with me what Thou wilt; chastise me, show Thine indignation towards me when Thou wilt; kill me, destroy me, and I will say always, with Job: Although He should kill me, I will trust in Him.3 Whilst I am Thine, and Thou lovest me, I am content to be treated by Thee with every hardship; to be even annihilated, if it so pleases Thee.

Romans 12:1-3 is pretty clear about our reaction to the grace and work of Jesus Christ. Without restraint, we are to give our bodies to Jesus, a living sacrifice.

One of the aspects of that offering we see in the readings above. Are we willing to give God our lives in a way that allows Him to work in our lives? Does that mean we accept His discipline, discipline to the point of our need to call out for help, in the midst of despair. Israel, who needed that correction, and they experienced God’s faitfulness. For he didn’t allow them to go any further away…but used the consequences to bring them back.

Are we willing to do that?

de Ligouri’s prayer is to that very point. Setting aside fear and anxiety because we know God’s presence is here… we can accept that discpline? Can we accept God allowing us to suffer, that we might realie our need for Him to remove our sin from our lives?

That is why we need to hear Barth’s input. We need to see Jesus taking on our suffering, living in our misery. He made our sin His own, and welcomed a discipline that we deserved….

Why do we still need to cry out? As we do today?

I would assume no one would deny we need what Bard descrived with these words, “Through Jesus, God confronts the situation in Nain when the “alien will and unknown power invaded the general course of things” and actualized an aspect of the realm of God in the very presence of the people.”

We need to cry out because we forget God is there, we forget Jesus took on the consequences of our sin, and we forget to confess our sins, sure of our forgiveness.

And He is here… always here.. always raising up those who cry out, always preparing those who are there to minister to us…

This is our God, who willinging takes on our brokenness… that we would be made whole… for we are His.

Ronald J. Allen, Thinking Theologically: The Preacher as Theologian (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2008), 52.

Alphonsus de Liguori, The Holy Eucharist, ed. Eugene Grimm, The Complete Works of Saint Alphonsus de Liguori (New York; London; Dublin; Cincinnati; St. Louis: Benziger Brothers; R. Washbourne; M. H. Gill & Son, 1887), 100.