Memory Bells Choir – The Church’s One Foundation
Memory Bells Choir – Go Tell It On The Mountain
We pick up our trip with Paul during his second missionary journey. We will in a minute watch a portion of the video for Adam Hamilton’s series, the Call. We have traced parts of his first missionary journey and glimpsed the ancient world where the gospel was lived and shared. In paralleling Paul’s journey, we have heard about how God calls us to choose Christ and how God calls us to GO! Paul’s journey took him to new places, stepping out boldly and seeking to follow where God was calling him to those who needed him most. This call was not without challenge and suffering.
From Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians, chapter 11, we hear Paul recount his trials: “Five times I have received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I received a stoning. Three times I was shipwrecked; for a night and a day I was adrift at sea; on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from bandits, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers and sisters; in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, hungry and thirsty, often without food, cold and naked. And, besides other things, I am under daily pressure because of my anxiety for all the churches. Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is made to stumble, and I am not indignant? If I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness.” Paul, who had plenty to lament and complain about, hears instead the needs of others and seeks to offer them the redemption, joy, and love of Christ. Take a look at this video clip to see more:
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The call to give thanks in all circumstances is an uncomfortable place to be. It was for the early Christian martyrs. Many were young women seeking God above all else. Are we not seeking God above else? It suggests that when it feels like your week cannot possibility get any worse, that you should do the counterintuitive action of thanking God. When the job has taken the very energy from you, the children find you at the end of your last wit, talking to your spouse may require energy and focus already expended elsewhere, and the world’s trouble’s overwhelm you, give thanks to God. Give thanks to God for the opportunity for another day. Give thanks to God for the chance to have even this challenge redeemed.
Paul’s letter to the Romans seeks to make sense of the suffering that he has experienced and witnessed. Paul writes to the Romans to encourage them that their suffering is not in vain. It is not merely an exercise in conditioning or to be tolerated. Rather Paul suggests that God can redeem all suffering. God can turn right-side up all of the ways in which we are upside with world values and world challenges. Paul, speaking to the political elites of Rome, lays out the way in which our lives are redeemed. Our suffering produces endurance. Endurance produces character; character produces hope. And Hope does not disappoint, because of God’s love poured into our hearts. God redeems our suffering, if we allow God, too.
Before we go any further, I particularly want to address one thing. It is common and perhaps easy to suggest whenever we go through difficult struggles that God has sent it to us to test us. We may even think that this is a biblical idea. Some would point to the book of Job and suggest that God sent trials to Job. Some would point to the trials of early Christians and the chosen people in the Old Testament and wonder aloud if God sends tests, trials, and sufferings. I want to clarify that God does not make us suffer. God does not send us trials or tests. The suffering of Job was the work of the Adversary, also called Satan – look at the first chapter of Job. God did send the trials of the early Christians, nor tests to the people of God in the Old Testament. It has become common for religious leaders to declare after a disaster that a particular group is the reason for God’s sending of the disaster. But this is not correct either.
The world is filled with brokenness and pain. The world is filled to the brim with humanity. You and I are afflicted with pain and suffering out the brokenness and the pain of humanity. God does not give us this pain; it exists in the world as a result of our brokenness and sin. It is our individual and our corporate sin that causes the pain and suffering of the world. It is the unfolding of free will and human choice that leads us to the most challenging trials and difficult suffering. God does not foist this suffering upon us. Instead, God walks with us in the midst of it, where God did not have to. God sent Jesus to live among us and show us a different way of living, dying, and life eternal.
Yesterday, I had the privilege of fulfilling one of my Annual Conference relationships. Just as laity serve on committees at the local church level, clergy and some lay folk serve on committees at the district and conference level. I serve on our District Committee on Ministry. The DCOM has the responsibility to discern and support calls to ministry, both lay and clergy. Yesterday, we had our annual local pastor day. All those who serve as licensed local pastors come and share their highlights and joys of ministry as well as their challenges and trials on this day. I hear incredible ministries of feeding and clothing, caring for children and older adults. I heard about creative ways to address poverty, homelessness, immigration challenges, injustices and all in ways that share the gospel of Jesus Christ to a hurting world. Then, connected as intimately as the ligament to the muscle, I hear the challenges of the lives of the pastors and the lay leaders. Leaders who worked multiple jobs to make ends meet so that they could have the joy of sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ. Leaders who children and spouses have chronic and unknown medical challenges and want to share the joy of Jesus Christ. Leaders who have been treated poorly by municipal leaders over parking and zoning issues who just want to host bible studies, worship services, and homecomings. Leaders who are called to suffer as they serve God. Leaders who remind us of the way, when we have forgotten.
We not only lean on the pattern that Paul offered to us; we also turn to Jesus, himself. We read the passage from Mark this morning, out of place. The suffering and death of Jesus belongs during Holy Week. However, I choose to include it here, because it also belongs in every conversation we have about our own suffering. Each time that we think, we are going it alone, we need to remember that Jesus has already been there. Each time that we imagine that we cannot take another step, we need to remember that Jesus walks with us today. Jesus is God with us, Emmanuel. Jesus who has walked the human walk and known the human talk. Jesus who knew suffering and death in order that we might know life and life abundant. For each of us who suffer, Jesus walks with us. For those who endure chronic pain, for those who face discrimination and injustice, for those who know acute pain, for all who know loss and grief, for those for whom depression and anxiety and consistent companions, the call to suffer is not a call to stop taking your medicines, to stop using the support of professionals, family and friends. The call to suffer is a frame work that reminds us the way that we respond to each and every part of life matters.
Each time we experience suffering in our lives, each time we watch suffering happen in the lives of others, you are I are called to offer that suffering for God for redemption. We called to walk together in the midst of the pain and suffering, offering solidarity. And we are called to offer it up to God for redemption and open ourselves to how God might use us as God used Paul to alleviate the suffering of others, to share our own suffering with others, and to seek God in the midst of all suffering.
This is the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ,
Thanks be to God, Amen.
New Testament Lesson: Romans 5:3-10
And not only that, but we also boast in our sufferings,
knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.
For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. Indeed, rarely will anyone die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person someone might actually dare to die. But God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us. Much more surely then, now that we have been justified by his blood, will we be saved through him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, much more surely, having been reconciled, will we be saved by his life.
Gospel Lesson: Mark 15:33-39 When it was noon, darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon. At three o’clock Jesus cried out with a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” When some of the bystanders heard it, they said, “Listen, he is calling for Elijah.” And someone ran, filled a sponge with sour wine, put it on a stick, and gave it to him to drink, saying, “Wait, let us see whether Elijah will come to take him down.” Then Jesus gave a loud cry and breathed his last. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. Now when the centurion, who stood facing him, saw that in this way he breathed his last, he said, “Truly this man was God’s Son!”
Meditations For Your Week
Sunday, January 17 ~ Saturday, January 23
Sunday: “And not only that, but we also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance,” Romans 5:3. God does not cause our sufferings, but can use even them to shape us. How will you offer your suffering for God to use?
Monday: “and endurance produces character, and character produces hope,” Romans 5:4. It seems counterintuitive that suffering brings hope. God works in the upside down. How will God right side up your challenges?
Tuesday: “and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.” Romans 5:5. Spend time today asking the Holy Spirit to open you to God’s redemption of your most painful sufferings.
Wednesday: “At three o’clock Jesus cried out with a loud voice, ‘Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?’ which means, ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’” Mark 15: 34. When we suffer, we often wonder if God has left us. God will never leave us or forsake us, even when we feel abandoned.
Thursday: “And someone ran, filled a sponge with sour wine, put it on a stick, and gave it to him to drink, saying, ‘Wait, let us see whether Elijah will come to take him down.’” Mark 15: 36. Suffering often leads us to try anything. Offer your suffering to God and then let God use you to serve others.
Friday: “Then Jesus gave a loud cry and breathed his last.” Mark 15: 37. Jesus was not without suffering. Jesus even knew death. How is God calling you be with others as they suffer?
Saturday: “Now when the centurion, who stood facing him, saw that in this way he breathed his last, he said, ‘Truly this man was God’s Son!’” Mark 15: 39. Jesus, God’s son, showed us the ultimate way in which suffering is redeemed. Consider today God’s redemption.