When You’re at the End of Yourself
Lectionary Reflection: June 22, 2025 | Proper 7(12)c
When You’re at the End of Yourself
Lectionary Reflection: June 22, 2025 | Proper 7(12)c
Luke 8:26-39, Galatians 3:23-29, 1 Kings 19:1-15a, Isaiah 65:1-9,, Psalm 42 & 43, Psalm 22:19-28
Isolation
There are weeks when the lectionary feels like it’s reading us instead of the other way around.
This is one of those weeks.
The stories and songs from Scripture echo with a deep ache: of exhaustion, disorientation, haunting isolation.
Elijah, unraveling in a cave.
A psalmist, downcast and thirsting for God.
A man in the tombs, chained by trauma.
Israel, stubborn and scorched by sin.
Even Paul, naming a time when the law held people captive.
This week is for the ones who feel frayed at the edges.
For the ones who are barely holding on.
For the ones crying, “Where are you, God?”
And for the ones desperate for just one more breath of grace.
Scripture Highlights
Luke 8:26–39
A man haunted by demons: naked, isolated, bound in chains.
Jesus crosses the sea just to reach him. And in a scene full of reversal, Jesus casts out the torment and restores the man to himself.
The community isn’t ready for that kind of healing. But Jesus leaves the man with purpose: “Go and tell how much God has done for you.”
Galatians 3:23–29
Paul announces a seismic shift in identity. In Christ, the old divisions dissolve.
No longer Jew or Greek, slave or free, male or female. We are all one, heirs of grace, clothed in belonging.
1 Kings 19:1–15a
Elijah, fresh off a miraculous victory at Mount Carmel, crashes into depression.
He flees. He lies under a broom tree and prays to die.
But God doesn’t scold or shame. God sends an angel to offer food and rest, then speaks not in earthquake or fire, but in a gentle whisper.
Isaiah 65:1–9
God reaches toward a rebellious people with heartbreak and longing: “I was ready to be sought… I said, ‘Here I am, here I am.’”
It’s not condemnation as much as it is grief, the divine ache of a spurned love.
Psalms 42 & 43
A three-part lament of spiritual thirst and inner turmoil. “Why are you downcast, O my soul?”
And yet, this is not despair without hope. The psalmist keeps returning to the refrain: “Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him.”
Psalm 22:19–28
This is no sanitized faith. It’s prayer in the middle of pain.
And yet the psalm turns, “You have answered me.”
Even in lament, there is praise.
Main Thread: God Meets Us in the Wilderness of the Soul
From the desert cave to the decaying tombs,
This week’s passages draw us toward one central truth:
When we are at the end of ourselves, God is just getting started.
This is not the God of escape,
But the God of encounter.
Not the God who shouts from a mountaintop,
But the one who whispers in the silence.
Not the God who avoids our demons,
But the one who sails through storms to meet us in them.
Intersection Points
Luke 8 - The healing Jesus offers is holistic: mind, body, and spirit.
Galatians 3 - Healing leads to inclusion. In Christ, no one is left out.
1 Kings 19 - God doesn’t demand productivity, He provides rest. God doesn’t overwhelm, He whispers.
Isaiah 65 - God keeps reaching, even when we turn away.
Psalm 42–43 - Honest grief and stubborn hope walk side by side.
Psalm 22 - Even in lament, worship is possible because God shows up.
Final Word
If you’re in a cave, or a tomb, or a place of deep unknowing,
Hear this: God is not distant.
God is not waiting for you to get it together.
God is drawing near,
Whispering in the silence,
Crossing the sea just to get to you.
Because resurrection doesn’t always look like triumph.
Sometimes it looks like breathing again.
Like being clothed and in your right mind.
Like whispering “hope” when everything in you wants to give up.
You are not alone.
You are held.
