The Blessing In Suffering
Sermon
ACCESS TO HIGH HOPE
Second Lesson Sermons For Lent/Easter
Toni Morrison wrote the novel Beloved to help us appreciate the pain and difficulty blacks had in this country right after the Civil War was ended. One would think freedom would have been especially meaningful for a people who had experienced the burdens of slavery. To be sure, freedom was not only a new but an awesome experience. However, it was also extremely difficult. Imagine having to shape one's career or vocation after having it dictated to you. Imagine trying to adjust to an economy that once treated you as property to be bought and sold. Imagine managing income for the first time in one's life. However, the greatest difficulty of all was to adjust to the society of white people who once owned and abused you. One family discussed the problem seriously. There were those in the family who thought one could relate to the Grangers. They were the people who had owned them. Both Mr. and Mrs. Granger had tried to be nice. However, the objection was that they had been a part of the system. All whites had tolerated the system of slavery. They were all mean and could not be trusted.
The system maintained and used by the whites had been too abusive and too self--serving. If the whites could not see how inhuman the system had been, how could anyone trust them? Our generation is too far removed to be able to appreciate how profoundly difficult it must have been for the black population in those circumstances. However, we can appreciate how many people still suffer from the aftermath of that era that did not separate people by slavery but made the separation totally on the basis of color. In the Second Reading for today we hear how the Apostle Peter addressed the problem of slavery for Christian slaves in his day. What Peter does is to introduce how God enters the picture of suffering. What he says we can apply to all suffering.
You Are Blessed
Peter begins this section of his letter which is our reading for today with a question. "Now who will harm you if you are eager to do what is good?" Ordinarily, that is true. Under normal circumstances people appreciate when you do the good for them. Yet certainly Peter knew that people crucified Jesus precisely for doing good. We all know that people can turn on us when we think we are being most helpful. The situation Peter was addressing was for the slaves. One can imagine in that circumstance that if a slave volunteered to do good, the master would be accepting. Then again, Peter has to admit, "But even if you do suffer for what is right, you are blessed."
Human nature being what it is, a slave master can be terribly abusive for no reason at all, just like some modern bosses or managers. Yet Peter suggests that under the worst of circumstances any of us would suffer wrongfully, we are blessed. We are blessed, because he says, "Do not fear what they fear, and do not be intimidated, but in your hearts sanctify Christ as Lord." The reason we do not have to be thrown in these unfortunate situations is because our faith in Christ helps us to live beyond our self--concerns. To "sanctify Christ as Lord" is to know that one's immediate concern reaches beyond the one who inflicts the injustice. The one who causes us the suffering or the situation that causes the suffering is not the lord of our lives. The suffering that comes to us is not the end--all of our lives. To know that is to be richly blessed. We learn to deal with our suffering out of the source of God's love and providence for us and with the confidence that we are not alone in the situation. We attack the problem of dealing with our suffering and pain knowing that Jesus Christ is the Lord of our lives.
Defend Your Hope
Peter expands on the thought of not being intimidated by the suffering or the abusers who cause the suffering. He suggests, "Always be ready to make your defense to anyone who demands from you an accounting for the hope that is in you." Any pressures on us, any harassment, provocation, or threats that wear on us call forth from us the kind of mettle of which we are made. Then we can step up to whatever or whoever is troubling us to give an account of ourselves by the hope we have in Christ. William Martin tells of a crucial moment in the career of George Washington in a novel called Citizen Washington. The Continental Army was faring poorly in the revolution. The army was under--manned, under--fed, under--clothed, under--armed, and not paid. Defections were all too many. The generals were irate over the pay issue. They called a meeting which was a mutinous act. Washington canceled the meeting, but then called one of his own with the generals. They met at Windsor Tabernacle, a makeshift chapel constructed for the generals' worship. Washington was the last to enter the chapel. He went to the pulpit, drew out huge sheets on which his speech was scrawled out in large letters. It was a brilliant speech about service for the cause of freedom and the necessity of loyalty.
Washington was no great orator. There was considerable rustling until he finished. Then he drew from his pocket a letter from Mr. Jones of the Continental Congress. Washington explained it was a letter on how they could eventually be paid. He tried reading it, fumbled in his pocket for glasses, shamefully put them on, then commented that he not only had grown gray in the service of his country but nearly blind. He read the letter. When he finished, he concluded the generals had read his mind and his heart, bid them good afternoon, and left. The generals unanimously rallied behind him. It was the crowning moment in Washington's career as general. He had given an honest confession of his position and his firm belief in the cause of freedom. He was not intimidated and gave a good defense of his cause. Peter urges Christians to act out of faith in the same way when they are in similar circumstances.
With Gentleness
Peter adds that when we give an account of the hope that is in us we should do it "with gentleness and reverence." That is good counsel. Every one of us can recall situations in which people have behaved very poorly when trying to defend the faith. One does not have to think only of those sophomoric parlor discussions when people loudly debate their religion or what they think they believe. Often that is a part of growing up or taking the faith seriously for the first time. It is a matter of outgrowing Sunday school religion when one had been told what to believe. Peter has in mind those critical moments when faith is on the line.
As campus pastors can tell you, college or university students often find themselves pressed to give an account of the faith. One student reported that he and his buddy were headed for church one Sunday morning. As they left they were greeted at the dormitory door by floormates who were returning from a big night on campus. The night owls asked, "Where are you going?" The faithful answered they were going to church. "To church?" the returnees asked. Then the two young men were able to relate why it was important for them to go to church. Too often Christians feel their defense of the faith requires high--powered and well--phrased theology. What is more important is that they give the simple account of how the faith works for them.
Keep Your Conscience Clear
Peter adds to his instructions the admonition to keep the conscience clear. He writes, "Keep you conscience clear, so that when you are maligned, those who abuse you for our good conduct in Christ may be put to shame." What Peter has in mind here is that if one is maligned for any reason, one should not entertain all the evil notions that can develop in a spirit of rage, anger, hate, and revenge. One should not concentrate on what kind of evil one can spring in retaliation to those who malign us. That would make the conscience sear with guilt. Rather one should concentrate on the example of our Lord Jesus Christ.
One person who heeded Peter's admonition under the worst of circumstances is the Reverend Yung Sen Chen. In the late '40s Chen, a native of Tawain, was held prisoner by Chinese Nationals in the basement of a Buddhist chapel. They whipped the sides of Chen's hands fifty times, plunged pistols into his ribs, and stuffed a pressure hose into his mouth until he was unconscious. Yet Chen rose to sing "How Great Thou Art" over and over again. The Nationals yelled at him to shut up, but they must have been impressed by him. Chen dreamt that Christ told him he would be set free in nineteen days. In time all of his fellow prisoners were taken out and shot, yet on the nineteenth day he was set free. Those who had abused him were put to shame by his calm and confident example. We cannot predict and we do not know under what circumstances the occasions will present themselves for us to make the same kind of witness. Yet the possibilities are many that can evoke from us a spirit of hate and vengeance to load our consciences with guilt rather than for us to imitate the spirit of Christ's love and grace.
Suffer For Doing Good
Peter thinks beyond the occasions when we may have to suffer under some abuses or harassment by others. There are times when we know we may be of service to others by being willing to suffer. Peter writes, "It is better to suffer for doing good, if suffering should be God's will, than to suffer for doing evil." There are times when we know if we are willing to accept a burden, some pain, or just exert ourselves on behalf of neighbors, we will have to pay a very dear price. Vocational decisions often involve a great deal of pain as people try to determine what is the better or best way for them to decide. Young people face this as they decide on the pursuit of careers. Not all young people carve out for themselves vocational decisions that are based on money or job security. Many are service oriented in careers they know will be demanding and cause them sacrifice.
Think of the many people who have to make vocational changes for reasons that may be forced on them from within the field they serve affected by takeovers, mergers, and the like. Some may occur, however, because there are family related problems. The family may need to move closer to aged or ailing parents who need attention. No doubt, we could take inventory of any given congregation on a Sunday morning and find numerous families struggling with questions about how they can best serve family needs involving suffering and sacrifice. These are the situations that Peter is referring to when he writes, "It is better to suffer for doing good, if suffering should be God's will." It is not difficult to size up the situations demanding suffering for good. What we can do is to measure them against God's will, and work to discover how we can best serve God's will in taking on that kind of suffering. Peter moves on to show how we not only have the best model for making those decisions but also the best resource for finding the strength to do so. Peter refers to our Lord Jesus Christ to make the point.
The Living Proof
Peter's effort to encourage us to see some blessing in suffering for the sake of good was not manipulation or playing games with words. Peter offers the hard evidence that suffering for doing good is not only exemplified by the Lord Jesus Christ, but also gives assurance of the wholesome outcome of such suffering. He writes, "For Christ also suffered for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, in order to bring you to God." He goes on that Christ was put to death bodily, but God made him alive in the spirit. The Risen Lord Jesus Christ "went and made a proclamation to the spirits in prison." This is a difficult passage, but we take it to mean that the Risen Christ went and proclaimed his victory over death and the devil to those who had been disobedient and had not believed. Peter indicates that this is not the way God wanted it.
Peter relates how God had been extremely patient during the time of the building of Noah's ark. The time of 120 years for the building of the ark was a time of grace. Witnesses to the ark could have been invited on board the ark. Instead, they were lost in the drowning waters. Not so for Noah. He and his family were saved. The passenger list consisted of only eight people who were the faithful who believed the word of God. Peter says the flood was their baptism. The waters that destroyed others became the waters of salvation for the Noachian family. Peter uses the story of the flood to illustrate the fact that God is constantly reversing what people normally expect. Noah's boat building cost him a price and some suffering while his neighbors laughed. Like the people who laughed at Fulton's folly, the first steam boat, the crowd heehawed at Noah's folly until the ark was raised off the land in a baptism of grace for Noah and company.
How God Works
The salvation of Noah and his family in this remarkable baptism, Peter continues, prefigured our baptism into the Lord Jesus Christ. Our baptism into the Lord Jesus was not simply a ritual cleansing but "an appeal to God for a clean conscience." What Peter indicates is that through the death of our Lord Jesus Christ, God was able to raise Jesus from the dead to make it very plain that through suffering and death God raises us to a new life. The suffering, death, and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ demonstrate how God operates. In 1518 Martin Luther wrote the Heidelberg Disputation, a defense of the theology he had launched with the writing of his 95 Theses. In one of the theses of the Heidelberg work, Luther wrote that most people do not know God hidden in suffering. Normally they hate the cross and suffering. They are apt to call the cross evil, and what they call good are the flawed works of people.
However, it is by faith that we recognize God in suffering and at the cross. Peter says through that faith we are able to share in the victory of our Lord through his suffering and death by which he has gone to heaven and is at the right hand of God ruling over all authorities and powers. The artist Salvador Dali helps us understand Peter's explanation of the cross. Dali painted the cross suspended high above the earth. The painting was designed to reflect the words of our Lord, "And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself" (John 12:32). Through the cross and its suffering Christ draws us to himself. The painting is the artist's means of expressing how Christ welcomed suffering and the cross to achieve salvation for us. Peter encourages us to understand the cross as means of transforming suffering for the sake of the good. Luther would say that thus a theology of the cross enables us to see things as they really are, enables us to call things as they really are, and, above all, to see the blessing in suffering. Luther would warn us against building our own crosses. Enough will come on their own, but when they do, God will help us to make them a blessing.
The system maintained and used by the whites had been too abusive and too self--serving. If the whites could not see how inhuman the system had been, how could anyone trust them? Our generation is too far removed to be able to appreciate how profoundly difficult it must have been for the black population in those circumstances. However, we can appreciate how many people still suffer from the aftermath of that era that did not separate people by slavery but made the separation totally on the basis of color. In the Second Reading for today we hear how the Apostle Peter addressed the problem of slavery for Christian slaves in his day. What Peter does is to introduce how God enters the picture of suffering. What he says we can apply to all suffering.
You Are Blessed
Peter begins this section of his letter which is our reading for today with a question. "Now who will harm you if you are eager to do what is good?" Ordinarily, that is true. Under normal circumstances people appreciate when you do the good for them. Yet certainly Peter knew that people crucified Jesus precisely for doing good. We all know that people can turn on us when we think we are being most helpful. The situation Peter was addressing was for the slaves. One can imagine in that circumstance that if a slave volunteered to do good, the master would be accepting. Then again, Peter has to admit, "But even if you do suffer for what is right, you are blessed."
Human nature being what it is, a slave master can be terribly abusive for no reason at all, just like some modern bosses or managers. Yet Peter suggests that under the worst of circumstances any of us would suffer wrongfully, we are blessed. We are blessed, because he says, "Do not fear what they fear, and do not be intimidated, but in your hearts sanctify Christ as Lord." The reason we do not have to be thrown in these unfortunate situations is because our faith in Christ helps us to live beyond our self--concerns. To "sanctify Christ as Lord" is to know that one's immediate concern reaches beyond the one who inflicts the injustice. The one who causes us the suffering or the situation that causes the suffering is not the lord of our lives. The suffering that comes to us is not the end--all of our lives. To know that is to be richly blessed. We learn to deal with our suffering out of the source of God's love and providence for us and with the confidence that we are not alone in the situation. We attack the problem of dealing with our suffering and pain knowing that Jesus Christ is the Lord of our lives.
Defend Your Hope
Peter expands on the thought of not being intimidated by the suffering or the abusers who cause the suffering. He suggests, "Always be ready to make your defense to anyone who demands from you an accounting for the hope that is in you." Any pressures on us, any harassment, provocation, or threats that wear on us call forth from us the kind of mettle of which we are made. Then we can step up to whatever or whoever is troubling us to give an account of ourselves by the hope we have in Christ. William Martin tells of a crucial moment in the career of George Washington in a novel called Citizen Washington. The Continental Army was faring poorly in the revolution. The army was under--manned, under--fed, under--clothed, under--armed, and not paid. Defections were all too many. The generals were irate over the pay issue. They called a meeting which was a mutinous act. Washington canceled the meeting, but then called one of his own with the generals. They met at Windsor Tabernacle, a makeshift chapel constructed for the generals' worship. Washington was the last to enter the chapel. He went to the pulpit, drew out huge sheets on which his speech was scrawled out in large letters. It was a brilliant speech about service for the cause of freedom and the necessity of loyalty.
Washington was no great orator. There was considerable rustling until he finished. Then he drew from his pocket a letter from Mr. Jones of the Continental Congress. Washington explained it was a letter on how they could eventually be paid. He tried reading it, fumbled in his pocket for glasses, shamefully put them on, then commented that he not only had grown gray in the service of his country but nearly blind. He read the letter. When he finished, he concluded the generals had read his mind and his heart, bid them good afternoon, and left. The generals unanimously rallied behind him. It was the crowning moment in Washington's career as general. He had given an honest confession of his position and his firm belief in the cause of freedom. He was not intimidated and gave a good defense of his cause. Peter urges Christians to act out of faith in the same way when they are in similar circumstances.
With Gentleness
Peter adds that when we give an account of the hope that is in us we should do it "with gentleness and reverence." That is good counsel. Every one of us can recall situations in which people have behaved very poorly when trying to defend the faith. One does not have to think only of those sophomoric parlor discussions when people loudly debate their religion or what they think they believe. Often that is a part of growing up or taking the faith seriously for the first time. It is a matter of outgrowing Sunday school religion when one had been told what to believe. Peter has in mind those critical moments when faith is on the line.
As campus pastors can tell you, college or university students often find themselves pressed to give an account of the faith. One student reported that he and his buddy were headed for church one Sunday morning. As they left they were greeted at the dormitory door by floormates who were returning from a big night on campus. The night owls asked, "Where are you going?" The faithful answered they were going to church. "To church?" the returnees asked. Then the two young men were able to relate why it was important for them to go to church. Too often Christians feel their defense of the faith requires high--powered and well--phrased theology. What is more important is that they give the simple account of how the faith works for them.
Keep Your Conscience Clear
Peter adds to his instructions the admonition to keep the conscience clear. He writes, "Keep you conscience clear, so that when you are maligned, those who abuse you for our good conduct in Christ may be put to shame." What Peter has in mind here is that if one is maligned for any reason, one should not entertain all the evil notions that can develop in a spirit of rage, anger, hate, and revenge. One should not concentrate on what kind of evil one can spring in retaliation to those who malign us. That would make the conscience sear with guilt. Rather one should concentrate on the example of our Lord Jesus Christ.
One person who heeded Peter's admonition under the worst of circumstances is the Reverend Yung Sen Chen. In the late '40s Chen, a native of Tawain, was held prisoner by Chinese Nationals in the basement of a Buddhist chapel. They whipped the sides of Chen's hands fifty times, plunged pistols into his ribs, and stuffed a pressure hose into his mouth until he was unconscious. Yet Chen rose to sing "How Great Thou Art" over and over again. The Nationals yelled at him to shut up, but they must have been impressed by him. Chen dreamt that Christ told him he would be set free in nineteen days. In time all of his fellow prisoners were taken out and shot, yet on the nineteenth day he was set free. Those who had abused him were put to shame by his calm and confident example. We cannot predict and we do not know under what circumstances the occasions will present themselves for us to make the same kind of witness. Yet the possibilities are many that can evoke from us a spirit of hate and vengeance to load our consciences with guilt rather than for us to imitate the spirit of Christ's love and grace.
Suffer For Doing Good
Peter thinks beyond the occasions when we may have to suffer under some abuses or harassment by others. There are times when we know we may be of service to others by being willing to suffer. Peter writes, "It is better to suffer for doing good, if suffering should be God's will, than to suffer for doing evil." There are times when we know if we are willing to accept a burden, some pain, or just exert ourselves on behalf of neighbors, we will have to pay a very dear price. Vocational decisions often involve a great deal of pain as people try to determine what is the better or best way for them to decide. Young people face this as they decide on the pursuit of careers. Not all young people carve out for themselves vocational decisions that are based on money or job security. Many are service oriented in careers they know will be demanding and cause them sacrifice.
Think of the many people who have to make vocational changes for reasons that may be forced on them from within the field they serve affected by takeovers, mergers, and the like. Some may occur, however, because there are family related problems. The family may need to move closer to aged or ailing parents who need attention. No doubt, we could take inventory of any given congregation on a Sunday morning and find numerous families struggling with questions about how they can best serve family needs involving suffering and sacrifice. These are the situations that Peter is referring to when he writes, "It is better to suffer for doing good, if suffering should be God's will." It is not difficult to size up the situations demanding suffering for good. What we can do is to measure them against God's will, and work to discover how we can best serve God's will in taking on that kind of suffering. Peter moves on to show how we not only have the best model for making those decisions but also the best resource for finding the strength to do so. Peter refers to our Lord Jesus Christ to make the point.
The Living Proof
Peter's effort to encourage us to see some blessing in suffering for the sake of good was not manipulation or playing games with words. Peter offers the hard evidence that suffering for doing good is not only exemplified by the Lord Jesus Christ, but also gives assurance of the wholesome outcome of such suffering. He writes, "For Christ also suffered for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, in order to bring you to God." He goes on that Christ was put to death bodily, but God made him alive in the spirit. The Risen Lord Jesus Christ "went and made a proclamation to the spirits in prison." This is a difficult passage, but we take it to mean that the Risen Christ went and proclaimed his victory over death and the devil to those who had been disobedient and had not believed. Peter indicates that this is not the way God wanted it.
Peter relates how God had been extremely patient during the time of the building of Noah's ark. The time of 120 years for the building of the ark was a time of grace. Witnesses to the ark could have been invited on board the ark. Instead, they were lost in the drowning waters. Not so for Noah. He and his family were saved. The passenger list consisted of only eight people who were the faithful who believed the word of God. Peter says the flood was their baptism. The waters that destroyed others became the waters of salvation for the Noachian family. Peter uses the story of the flood to illustrate the fact that God is constantly reversing what people normally expect. Noah's boat building cost him a price and some suffering while his neighbors laughed. Like the people who laughed at Fulton's folly, the first steam boat, the crowd heehawed at Noah's folly until the ark was raised off the land in a baptism of grace for Noah and company.
How God Works
The salvation of Noah and his family in this remarkable baptism, Peter continues, prefigured our baptism into the Lord Jesus Christ. Our baptism into the Lord Jesus was not simply a ritual cleansing but "an appeal to God for a clean conscience." What Peter indicates is that through the death of our Lord Jesus Christ, God was able to raise Jesus from the dead to make it very plain that through suffering and death God raises us to a new life. The suffering, death, and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ demonstrate how God operates. In 1518 Martin Luther wrote the Heidelberg Disputation, a defense of the theology he had launched with the writing of his 95 Theses. In one of the theses of the Heidelberg work, Luther wrote that most people do not know God hidden in suffering. Normally they hate the cross and suffering. They are apt to call the cross evil, and what they call good are the flawed works of people.
However, it is by faith that we recognize God in suffering and at the cross. Peter says through that faith we are able to share in the victory of our Lord through his suffering and death by which he has gone to heaven and is at the right hand of God ruling over all authorities and powers. The artist Salvador Dali helps us understand Peter's explanation of the cross. Dali painted the cross suspended high above the earth. The painting was designed to reflect the words of our Lord, "And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself" (John 12:32). Through the cross and its suffering Christ draws us to himself. The painting is the artist's means of expressing how Christ welcomed suffering and the cross to achieve salvation for us. Peter encourages us to understand the cross as means of transforming suffering for the sake of the good. Luther would say that thus a theology of the cross enables us to see things as they really are, enables us to call things as they really are, and, above all, to see the blessing in suffering. Luther would warn us against building our own crosses. Enough will come on their own, but when they do, God will help us to make them a blessing.
