I was thinking about Cathy's Post below when I came across these passages in Barbara Brown Taylor's When God is Silent:

In the silence surrounding his death, Jesus became the best possible companion for those whose prayers are not answered, who would give anything just to hear God call them by name.  Him too.  He wanted that too, and he did not get it.  What he got, instead, was a fathomless silence in which to cry out.  Forever after, everyone who has heard him bellow into it has had to wonder: Is that the voice of God?...

Only an idol always answers.  The God who keeps silence, even when God's own flesh and blood is begging for a word, is the God beyond anyone's control.  An answer will come, but not until the silence is complete.  And even then, the answer will be given in silence.  With the cross and the empty tomb, God has provided us with two events that defy all our efforts to domesticate them.  Before them, and before our God who is present in them, our most eloquent words turn to dust.

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