This is where you come in
Commentary
Object:
Is it blasphemy to preach about human beings on Trinity Sunday? Is it arrogance to take texts that reveal the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and turn them into a homily about you and me? We run that risk, I’m sure, but chalk up the risk to our fallen nature rather than to the gospel. For the gospel does precisely this: it includes us in the conversation about the persons of the Trinity.
The lectionary texts for this Sunday are inviting us to contemplate the Trinity. Of course, as most folks trained in theology are aware, there isn’t a single place to turn in scripture for a teaching about the Trinity. We know where to go for what the Bible says about the gifts of the Spirit, about justification by faith, about marriage and divorce, and more. But it’s hard to cite chapter and verse for someone about why we believe what we do about the Trinity.
No deliberate effort is made in the Bible to explain the mystery of the Trinity. How are we monotheists without being Unitarian? How are we Trinitarian without being polytheists? The two natures of Christ, questions of substance, the filioque clause. These nuanced matters of theology were left to the early church councils to consider, trying to discern what doctrinal expressions are an appropriate reflection of what is in scripture.
When we look back at the Old Testament through the lens of the New, we can see hints and shadows of what is more fully revealed later. But what is revealed later is never really formally introduced; it is just assumed. And so we are left to pull together a collection of stories, references, and imagery to help us formulate our doctrine of the Trinity.
Perhaps that’s as it should be, though. The Lord came teaching in parables, you remember. And the writer of Hebrews helps us understand how much God also taught through types and pictures. This is, it seems, his preferred way of communicating truth. And, not surprisingly, his approach is the wisest, for truth is too broad and too deep to be confined by a finite number of words. It requires something more expansive and expressive, like stories and pictures, to carry it all.
And so none of our three lections this week are explicitly teachings about the Trinity. But they all lend insight into our understanding of “God in three persons.”1 And as startling testament to God’s love the subject involves us, for talk of the Trinity becomes talk about you and me.
Proverbs 8:1-4, 22-31
Sometimes you’ll hear people say that the real opposite of love is not hate; it’s indifference. In its own perverse way, hate is a way of caring about another person -- not caring for them, to be sure, but at least having strong feelings about them. Indifference, on the other hand, is the state in which the other person doesn’t move your needle at all, good or bad.
See, then, this image of love: the exhortation. The wisdom of God personified does not just sit, idle and complacent. She is not indifferent to those of us who come to life’s crossroads. Instead she cries out, urging us to choose the right ways.
The selected passage jumps, then, from wisdom at the crossroads to wisdom at creation. It is still wisdom personified, but now she is the companion and instrument of God’s creative work. Wisdom is God’s creation, and wisdom characterizes his craftsmanship.
Interpreters through the centuries have offered a variety of speculation about the meaning of this “person” who accompanies God at creation. If there is some person of the Trinity being implied here, it was almost certainly unknown to and unintended by the original author. He personifies wisdom here, but also personifies foolishness elsewhere. The same bold kinds of claims are not made about foolishness, but of course it would not qualify because it does not have great accomplishments. In any case, it seems that, for the original human author, the personification of wisdom here is just a literary technique.
Wisdom is the central theme of Proverbs, and this brief excerpt helps to crystallize for us the book’s understanding of the role of wisdom. We cannot exhaust the principles in our short space here. But let us highlight a few key points.
First, we see how wisdom is a kind of intermediary between God and humanity. Not in a priestly or intercessory sense, but inasmuch as wisdom comes from God and calls to humans. One might even say that wisdom functions as the voice of God in our lives.
Second, we observe the connection between wisdom and creativity. Elsewhere in Proverbs, we discover that wisdom builds things while foolishness is always destructive (e.g., Proverbs 14:1). Wisdom edifies -- it builds things up -- from major projects (see, again, the historian’s example of Solomon) to individual homes (Proverbs 23:3-4; 31:10-31), from wealth to reputations to relationships. Folly in its several forms, however, brings ruin to all areas of life. And so, in this tribute to wisdom’s role in creation, we are shown that this principle has been true from the very beginning -- it is a truth woven into the very fabric of our world.
Third, this passage’s connection between wisdom and creation is as important as a statement about creation as about wisdom. That is to say, it is essential to the writer’s larger paradigm that the world should be an orderly place that functions according to wisdom’s design. That proves, you see, that we are on the right path when we ourselves live according to wisdom. We are encouraged by the awesome example of nature around us. And we are in harmony with creation when we order our own lives by God’s wisdom, while the fool is cutting across the grain of nature itself.
Finally, we see evidence in this passage of the larger interest in nature that characterizes the wisdom tradition. When the Old Testament historian wants to illustrate the scope of Solomon’s famous wisdom, he reports that Solomon “would speak of trees, from the cedar that is in the Lebanon to the hyssop that grows in the wall; he would speak of animals, and birds, and reptiles, and fish” (1 Kings 4:33). The writer of Proverbs elsewhere shows a keen eye for observing nature. And the book of Job -- most notably the Lord’s words to Job -- features a similar sort of poetic celebration of the mysteries of creation as “wisdom” articulates here.
Romans 5:1-5
We celebrate Trinity Sunday this week, which suggests a certain overarching theme to our readings, and thus to our preaching. Tellingly, though, our epistle lection is not overtly a teaching about the Trinity. Rather, Paul is explaining to the Christians in Rome his understanding of our salvation. And we discover that the doctrine of the Trinity is naturally and irresistibly woven into any adequate discussion of our salvation.
Paul’s several uses of the word “God,” of course, refer to the First Person of the Trinity. That is not to deny the divinity of the Son or the Spirit, of course, but within this context, that is how the terms are being used. And so we could break down the text in terms of three columns, tracing the references to each person of the Trinity.
With regard to the First Person, we observe this pattern. Paul refers to the glory of God, the wrath of God, the love of God, and the grace of God. That collection by itself inspires an entire sermon series, not merely an observation within a single Sunday’s sermon. Suffice it to say, though, that the whole salvation scheme is a reflection and extension of the attributes of God.
The Christology of this excerpt, meanwhile, focuses almost entirely on Christ’s death. His death is explicitly for the ungodly, for sinners. It is, therefore, gracious and merciful. Further, his death is efficacious in that it reconciles us to God, is the key to our justification, serves as the catalyst for the free gift of salvation, and makes us at peace with God. Again, we see that a single theme from just one of our three passages provides enough material for many Sundays, let alone part of one.
Meanwhile, it is worth noting that Paul’s discussion of the person and work of Christ here has nothing to do with his earthly ministry. That is to say, much of what immediately comes to folks’ minds when they think of Jesus is not involved here. His teachings, his healings, his other miracles -- these are all eclipsed by the primary business of his saving death.
Finally, the Holy Spirit is only mentioned once in this passage, but that lone reference is meaningful and significant. “God’s love,” Paul declares, “has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.” The Spirit, then, is depicted as both given and giver, which is appropriate.
And it may also be appropriate that the Spirit is given the least attention of the persons of the Trinity. That seems to be his modus operandi. The Holy Spirit does not draw attention to himself, but rather works quietly, unseen and unheard. He does not draw attention to himself, but rather directs our attention to Christ. And Christ reconciles us to the Father. Mission accomplished.
John 16:12-15
Our brief gospel lection comes as just a slice from the much larger passage that is John’s Last Supper scene. While all four gospel writers include a report of that night, including some of what Jesus said and did then, John devotes multiple chapters to that occasion. Indeed, he gives it more space than any other single part of Jesus’ life and ministry.
If you have a red-letter Bible, then you see a lot of red in these Last Supper chapters. John records for us a large treasury of Jesus’ words to his disciples that night, as well as a lengthy prayer of his. One of the primary things he talks about is the Holy Spirit. Indeed, that section of John may be the best single resource about the Spirit that we have in the Bible.
That said, it would be misleading to say that our selected lection or the larger passage is a teaching about the Spirit. It’s a promise of the Spirit and a revealing portrait of the Spirit. But it is not the sort of theological discourse on the Third Person of the Trinity that we might desire.
Of course, it’s actually better than what we might desire, for a dry, technical treatise would rob the subject of its true beauty. The tone and content is entirely relational, and so the Spirit is not so much to be studied as to be welcomed, embraced, and enjoyed.
There is a small and tight network of relationships portrayed in this brief passage. We see all three persons of the Trinity. And then, in addition, there is “you.”
We are not privy to the relationship within and among the persons of the Trinity, but we do catch glimpses. So, for example, here we sense the profound selflessness of the relationship. The Spirit does not speak on his own, you see; he is not renegade or independent. He speaks what he hears. Likewise, the Spirit does not glorify himself, but rather glorifies Jesus. And the Father, likewise, has demonstrated his selflessness is sharing with the Son.
This is only a small sample size, of course, but it is easily buttressed by reading the rest of the gospel of John. Jesus speaks frequently in this gospel of both the Father and the Spirit, and we see those same principles evidenced in abundance. Taken together, we sense a constant flow of giving glory to the other and sharing in the work of the other. It is a model of selfless love and unity. Perhaps this is a part of what Charles Wesley had in mind when he sang that we were “meant to be transcripts of the Trinity.”2
Application
As I indicated above, I am not personally sold on the personification of wisdom in Proverbs as a representation of one of the persons of the Trinity. Yet we may take it as a metaphor and discover in our Old Testament lection an illustration of a principle. The passage portrays wisdom in two relationships; in relation to God the Creator, and in relation to human beings. Wisdom accompanies God, and wisdom exhorts us.
What is implicit, then, in Proverbs becomes magnificently explicit in our two New Testament passages. The Trinity is not insular. Self-sufficient? To be sure. Yet not self-absorbed. Instead, God reaches out to us and we become part of the story of the Trinity.
The apostle Paul writes to the Romans about our salvation. Our selected passage comes in the midst of a longer and complex discussion. At this stage in the development, he is building on the idea of justification by faith. And, as we explored above, the discussion of our salvation naturally elicits references to each person of the Trinity. Each engages us. Each participates vitally in our salvation.
The whole matter is even more dramatically revealed, meanwhile, in the brief excerpt from Jesus’ teaching in the gospel of John. As we noted earlier, there are four parties referenced in this passage: the Father, the Son, the Spirit, and us. Consider the flow and connections portrayed there.
First, there is the manifest truth of God coming to us. Jesus’ presence there in that room, having that conversation with the disciples, is an embodiment of the gospel truth that God comes to us. And that good news is reinforced when, as Jesus prepares to leave, he promises that the Spirit will come to the disciples.
Next there is the Spirit’s role. “He will guide you into all the truth.” God does not stand aloof, merely watching and judging us. No, he comes to us, and he guides us.
Furthermore, that guidance from the Spirit is an extension of the interconnectedness of the Trinity. For “he will not speak on his own, but will speak whatever he hears.” Thus we are invited into the communion of the Godhead.
And finally, Jesus declares that “all that the Father has is mine.” The matter is not itemized; it is left to our imaginations to wonder at all that that means. At its core, it means such a selfless love that there is no holding back between the Father and the Son. Fine and good. But see the astonishing next step: the Holy Spirit “will take what is mine and declare it to you.” So what the Father shares with the Son, the Spirit shares with us.
On this Trinity Sunday, we affirm the deity of the Father, of the Son, and of the Spirit. And we also affirm the unity of God. But beyond those theological complexities, we must also affirm the relational beauties. Specifically, we affirm that God is love, and that he manifests that selfless love even within himself. And we affirm that that love reaches out to us. It exhorts us and guides us. It forgives and reconciles us. And it draws us into the Triune God himself.
Alternative Application
Romans 5:1-5. “Produce Department” We gather that Paul may have dictated large portions of his letters, for he makes a point in several places of signing or writing with his own hand (e.g., 1 Corinthians 16:21; Galatians 6:11). Likewise, it seems that a man named Tertius was the amanuensis for Paul when he sought to write to the Christians in Rome (Romans 16:22). And so it may be that the passage we consider this week from that epistle was originally spoken aloud by Paul and written down by Tertius. I imagine, therefore, Tertius stopping, looking up, and asking Paul to repeat himself when he came to verse 3.
“We also boast in our sufferings,” Paul said. The New American Standard Bible translates the original Greek as “exult.” The New International Version renders it “we also rejoice in our sufferings.”
Say what? Did I hear that correctly, Paul? Was there perhaps some other word you meant to use?
Have the folks in your congregation make their own individual lists, with two columns. In the first column, list “our sufferings.” Then, with those before us, list in the second column the verbs that express what we do in our sufferings. Most folks could make very, very long lists without coming to “exult” or “boast,” let alone “rejoice.”
We don’t know whether Tertius stopped Paul or not in the midst of his dictation, but we do know that Paul offered an explanation. “Suffering produces endurance,” Paul continues, “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.”
How many times have we tried to encourage the son, stressed with schoolwork, who wonders when he’ll “ever use this stuff”? How many times have we urged the daughter to hang in there as she struggles to learn how to play some instrument? Nothing discourages us like seemingly fruitless labor. But the parent knows that if the child will persevere, the final product will be worth the effort.
And the apostle Paul seems to know the same thing about suffering. It is not an end in itself. Neither is it a fruitless trial. Rather, suffering has a product -- a good product -- and it becomes the start of a marvelous chain reaction. As the woman’s pain in labor gives birth to a beloved and beautiful child, so “suffering produces endurance.” Endurance, in turn, gives rise to character. And character yields a sure hope.
If we know Paul’s biography, then we know enough to take his word on the subject of suffering. He has what’s called “street cred” in this matter. And so if he assures us that our suffering will become this sort of produce department, then we may rejoice in it indeed.
1 Reginald Heber, “Holy, Holy, Holy! Lord God Almighty,” United Methodist Hymnal #64
2 Charles Wesley, “Sinners, Turn, Why Will You Die,” United Methodist Hymnal #346
The lectionary texts for this Sunday are inviting us to contemplate the Trinity. Of course, as most folks trained in theology are aware, there isn’t a single place to turn in scripture for a teaching about the Trinity. We know where to go for what the Bible says about the gifts of the Spirit, about justification by faith, about marriage and divorce, and more. But it’s hard to cite chapter and verse for someone about why we believe what we do about the Trinity.
No deliberate effort is made in the Bible to explain the mystery of the Trinity. How are we monotheists without being Unitarian? How are we Trinitarian without being polytheists? The two natures of Christ, questions of substance, the filioque clause. These nuanced matters of theology were left to the early church councils to consider, trying to discern what doctrinal expressions are an appropriate reflection of what is in scripture.
When we look back at the Old Testament through the lens of the New, we can see hints and shadows of what is more fully revealed later. But what is revealed later is never really formally introduced; it is just assumed. And so we are left to pull together a collection of stories, references, and imagery to help us formulate our doctrine of the Trinity.
Perhaps that’s as it should be, though. The Lord came teaching in parables, you remember. And the writer of Hebrews helps us understand how much God also taught through types and pictures. This is, it seems, his preferred way of communicating truth. And, not surprisingly, his approach is the wisest, for truth is too broad and too deep to be confined by a finite number of words. It requires something more expansive and expressive, like stories and pictures, to carry it all.
And so none of our three lections this week are explicitly teachings about the Trinity. But they all lend insight into our understanding of “God in three persons.”1 And as startling testament to God’s love the subject involves us, for talk of the Trinity becomes talk about you and me.
Proverbs 8:1-4, 22-31
Sometimes you’ll hear people say that the real opposite of love is not hate; it’s indifference. In its own perverse way, hate is a way of caring about another person -- not caring for them, to be sure, but at least having strong feelings about them. Indifference, on the other hand, is the state in which the other person doesn’t move your needle at all, good or bad.
See, then, this image of love: the exhortation. The wisdom of God personified does not just sit, idle and complacent. She is not indifferent to those of us who come to life’s crossroads. Instead she cries out, urging us to choose the right ways.
The selected passage jumps, then, from wisdom at the crossroads to wisdom at creation. It is still wisdom personified, but now she is the companion and instrument of God’s creative work. Wisdom is God’s creation, and wisdom characterizes his craftsmanship.
Interpreters through the centuries have offered a variety of speculation about the meaning of this “person” who accompanies God at creation. If there is some person of the Trinity being implied here, it was almost certainly unknown to and unintended by the original author. He personifies wisdom here, but also personifies foolishness elsewhere. The same bold kinds of claims are not made about foolishness, but of course it would not qualify because it does not have great accomplishments. In any case, it seems that, for the original human author, the personification of wisdom here is just a literary technique.
Wisdom is the central theme of Proverbs, and this brief excerpt helps to crystallize for us the book’s understanding of the role of wisdom. We cannot exhaust the principles in our short space here. But let us highlight a few key points.
First, we see how wisdom is a kind of intermediary between God and humanity. Not in a priestly or intercessory sense, but inasmuch as wisdom comes from God and calls to humans. One might even say that wisdom functions as the voice of God in our lives.
Second, we observe the connection between wisdom and creativity. Elsewhere in Proverbs, we discover that wisdom builds things while foolishness is always destructive (e.g., Proverbs 14:1). Wisdom edifies -- it builds things up -- from major projects (see, again, the historian’s example of Solomon) to individual homes (Proverbs 23:3-4; 31:10-31), from wealth to reputations to relationships. Folly in its several forms, however, brings ruin to all areas of life. And so, in this tribute to wisdom’s role in creation, we are shown that this principle has been true from the very beginning -- it is a truth woven into the very fabric of our world.
Third, this passage’s connection between wisdom and creation is as important as a statement about creation as about wisdom. That is to say, it is essential to the writer’s larger paradigm that the world should be an orderly place that functions according to wisdom’s design. That proves, you see, that we are on the right path when we ourselves live according to wisdom. We are encouraged by the awesome example of nature around us. And we are in harmony with creation when we order our own lives by God’s wisdom, while the fool is cutting across the grain of nature itself.
Finally, we see evidence in this passage of the larger interest in nature that characterizes the wisdom tradition. When the Old Testament historian wants to illustrate the scope of Solomon’s famous wisdom, he reports that Solomon “would speak of trees, from the cedar that is in the Lebanon to the hyssop that grows in the wall; he would speak of animals, and birds, and reptiles, and fish” (1 Kings 4:33). The writer of Proverbs elsewhere shows a keen eye for observing nature. And the book of Job -- most notably the Lord’s words to Job -- features a similar sort of poetic celebration of the mysteries of creation as “wisdom” articulates here.
Romans 5:1-5
We celebrate Trinity Sunday this week, which suggests a certain overarching theme to our readings, and thus to our preaching. Tellingly, though, our epistle lection is not overtly a teaching about the Trinity. Rather, Paul is explaining to the Christians in Rome his understanding of our salvation. And we discover that the doctrine of the Trinity is naturally and irresistibly woven into any adequate discussion of our salvation.
Paul’s several uses of the word “God,” of course, refer to the First Person of the Trinity. That is not to deny the divinity of the Son or the Spirit, of course, but within this context, that is how the terms are being used. And so we could break down the text in terms of three columns, tracing the references to each person of the Trinity.
With regard to the First Person, we observe this pattern. Paul refers to the glory of God, the wrath of God, the love of God, and the grace of God. That collection by itself inspires an entire sermon series, not merely an observation within a single Sunday’s sermon. Suffice it to say, though, that the whole salvation scheme is a reflection and extension of the attributes of God.
The Christology of this excerpt, meanwhile, focuses almost entirely on Christ’s death. His death is explicitly for the ungodly, for sinners. It is, therefore, gracious and merciful. Further, his death is efficacious in that it reconciles us to God, is the key to our justification, serves as the catalyst for the free gift of salvation, and makes us at peace with God. Again, we see that a single theme from just one of our three passages provides enough material for many Sundays, let alone part of one.
Meanwhile, it is worth noting that Paul’s discussion of the person and work of Christ here has nothing to do with his earthly ministry. That is to say, much of what immediately comes to folks’ minds when they think of Jesus is not involved here. His teachings, his healings, his other miracles -- these are all eclipsed by the primary business of his saving death.
Finally, the Holy Spirit is only mentioned once in this passage, but that lone reference is meaningful and significant. “God’s love,” Paul declares, “has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.” The Spirit, then, is depicted as both given and giver, which is appropriate.
And it may also be appropriate that the Spirit is given the least attention of the persons of the Trinity. That seems to be his modus operandi. The Holy Spirit does not draw attention to himself, but rather works quietly, unseen and unheard. He does not draw attention to himself, but rather directs our attention to Christ. And Christ reconciles us to the Father. Mission accomplished.
John 16:12-15
Our brief gospel lection comes as just a slice from the much larger passage that is John’s Last Supper scene. While all four gospel writers include a report of that night, including some of what Jesus said and did then, John devotes multiple chapters to that occasion. Indeed, he gives it more space than any other single part of Jesus’ life and ministry.
If you have a red-letter Bible, then you see a lot of red in these Last Supper chapters. John records for us a large treasury of Jesus’ words to his disciples that night, as well as a lengthy prayer of his. One of the primary things he talks about is the Holy Spirit. Indeed, that section of John may be the best single resource about the Spirit that we have in the Bible.
That said, it would be misleading to say that our selected lection or the larger passage is a teaching about the Spirit. It’s a promise of the Spirit and a revealing portrait of the Spirit. But it is not the sort of theological discourse on the Third Person of the Trinity that we might desire.
Of course, it’s actually better than what we might desire, for a dry, technical treatise would rob the subject of its true beauty. The tone and content is entirely relational, and so the Spirit is not so much to be studied as to be welcomed, embraced, and enjoyed.
There is a small and tight network of relationships portrayed in this brief passage. We see all three persons of the Trinity. And then, in addition, there is “you.”
We are not privy to the relationship within and among the persons of the Trinity, but we do catch glimpses. So, for example, here we sense the profound selflessness of the relationship. The Spirit does not speak on his own, you see; he is not renegade or independent. He speaks what he hears. Likewise, the Spirit does not glorify himself, but rather glorifies Jesus. And the Father, likewise, has demonstrated his selflessness is sharing with the Son.
This is only a small sample size, of course, but it is easily buttressed by reading the rest of the gospel of John. Jesus speaks frequently in this gospel of both the Father and the Spirit, and we see those same principles evidenced in abundance. Taken together, we sense a constant flow of giving glory to the other and sharing in the work of the other. It is a model of selfless love and unity. Perhaps this is a part of what Charles Wesley had in mind when he sang that we were “meant to be transcripts of the Trinity.”2
Application
As I indicated above, I am not personally sold on the personification of wisdom in Proverbs as a representation of one of the persons of the Trinity. Yet we may take it as a metaphor and discover in our Old Testament lection an illustration of a principle. The passage portrays wisdom in two relationships; in relation to God the Creator, and in relation to human beings. Wisdom accompanies God, and wisdom exhorts us.
What is implicit, then, in Proverbs becomes magnificently explicit in our two New Testament passages. The Trinity is not insular. Self-sufficient? To be sure. Yet not self-absorbed. Instead, God reaches out to us and we become part of the story of the Trinity.
The apostle Paul writes to the Romans about our salvation. Our selected passage comes in the midst of a longer and complex discussion. At this stage in the development, he is building on the idea of justification by faith. And, as we explored above, the discussion of our salvation naturally elicits references to each person of the Trinity. Each engages us. Each participates vitally in our salvation.
The whole matter is even more dramatically revealed, meanwhile, in the brief excerpt from Jesus’ teaching in the gospel of John. As we noted earlier, there are four parties referenced in this passage: the Father, the Son, the Spirit, and us. Consider the flow and connections portrayed there.
First, there is the manifest truth of God coming to us. Jesus’ presence there in that room, having that conversation with the disciples, is an embodiment of the gospel truth that God comes to us. And that good news is reinforced when, as Jesus prepares to leave, he promises that the Spirit will come to the disciples.
Next there is the Spirit’s role. “He will guide you into all the truth.” God does not stand aloof, merely watching and judging us. No, he comes to us, and he guides us.
Furthermore, that guidance from the Spirit is an extension of the interconnectedness of the Trinity. For “he will not speak on his own, but will speak whatever he hears.” Thus we are invited into the communion of the Godhead.
And finally, Jesus declares that “all that the Father has is mine.” The matter is not itemized; it is left to our imaginations to wonder at all that that means. At its core, it means such a selfless love that there is no holding back between the Father and the Son. Fine and good. But see the astonishing next step: the Holy Spirit “will take what is mine and declare it to you.” So what the Father shares with the Son, the Spirit shares with us.
On this Trinity Sunday, we affirm the deity of the Father, of the Son, and of the Spirit. And we also affirm the unity of God. But beyond those theological complexities, we must also affirm the relational beauties. Specifically, we affirm that God is love, and that he manifests that selfless love even within himself. And we affirm that that love reaches out to us. It exhorts us and guides us. It forgives and reconciles us. And it draws us into the Triune God himself.
Alternative Application
Romans 5:1-5. “Produce Department” We gather that Paul may have dictated large portions of his letters, for he makes a point in several places of signing or writing with his own hand (e.g., 1 Corinthians 16:21; Galatians 6:11). Likewise, it seems that a man named Tertius was the amanuensis for Paul when he sought to write to the Christians in Rome (Romans 16:22). And so it may be that the passage we consider this week from that epistle was originally spoken aloud by Paul and written down by Tertius. I imagine, therefore, Tertius stopping, looking up, and asking Paul to repeat himself when he came to verse 3.
“We also boast in our sufferings,” Paul said. The New American Standard Bible translates the original Greek as “exult.” The New International Version renders it “we also rejoice in our sufferings.”
Say what? Did I hear that correctly, Paul? Was there perhaps some other word you meant to use?
Have the folks in your congregation make their own individual lists, with two columns. In the first column, list “our sufferings.” Then, with those before us, list in the second column the verbs that express what we do in our sufferings. Most folks could make very, very long lists without coming to “exult” or “boast,” let alone “rejoice.”
We don’t know whether Tertius stopped Paul or not in the midst of his dictation, but we do know that Paul offered an explanation. “Suffering produces endurance,” Paul continues, “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.”
How many times have we tried to encourage the son, stressed with schoolwork, who wonders when he’ll “ever use this stuff”? How many times have we urged the daughter to hang in there as she struggles to learn how to play some instrument? Nothing discourages us like seemingly fruitless labor. But the parent knows that if the child will persevere, the final product will be worth the effort.
And the apostle Paul seems to know the same thing about suffering. It is not an end in itself. Neither is it a fruitless trial. Rather, suffering has a product -- a good product -- and it becomes the start of a marvelous chain reaction. As the woman’s pain in labor gives birth to a beloved and beautiful child, so “suffering produces endurance.” Endurance, in turn, gives rise to character. And character yields a sure hope.
If we know Paul’s biography, then we know enough to take his word on the subject of suffering. He has what’s called “street cred” in this matter. And so if he assures us that our suffering will become this sort of produce department, then we may rejoice in it indeed.
1 Reginald Heber, “Holy, Holy, Holy! Lord God Almighty,” United Methodist Hymnal #64
2 Charles Wesley, “Sinners, Turn, Why Will You Die,” United Methodist Hymnal #346
