How to Handle Suffering

Suffering as a Christian reveals the Glory of God

Intro

My name is Clint, happy fathers day to you all the dads. It’s been a minute since I’ve given a message, so for those of you who don’t know me let me tell you a little bit about me. I’m 35, I’ve been on staff here for 12 years in this October in different roles. I’ve been married to my amazing wife for 10 years, we have two daughters, Clara (5) and Lucy (3). Last fall I started attending UMD finishing my Social Work degree with an emphasis on Child Protection. I recently bought a smoker, and am going to fire that thing up when I get home, and this year, I got two of the best father’s day presents ever. My girls picked them out for me all by themselves. Clara got me a stuffed birds, because I like bird watching, and Lucy got me this hat……..not sure what she was trying to tell me but I bet I’ll figure it out someday.

Today we are continuing on in our series called Fire and Life, a series on suffering and how God can use the fire, the pain, to bring us to life. Today, we are going to be talking about suffering as a Christian, suffering for the name and mission of Christ, and how we can do that in a way that reveals the Glory of God, and brings us to life, transforms us into who we were created to be.

I want to be clear here though, in the West, we have it pretty good compared to some of the other parts of the world, or even some of the historical time periods of the church. I mean, we have a a sign out front declaring we are a church, and we openly advertise our service times. It’s not like that everywhere else. I met a guy from Egypt once and he told me about the intense peer pressure he felt to convert to a different religion, and he was lucky. He came from a high socio-economic class, he told me that for people closer to the bottom of the rung, it was common for them to get beaten.

Now, I think that every follower of Jesus needs to spend time asking themselves if they would die for their faith. Persecution, death and Martyrdom have been a thing for Christians for a long time, so lets not ignore it. And at the same time, let’s realize that we here in Duluth Minnesota, have it pretty good. Let’s not look for persecution where there is none, rather, today, lets look at how God can use the real, not the imagined, sufferings in our lives, to transform us.

Today we are going to be in 1 Peter Chapter 4 verses 12-19. Let me pray for us, and then we can dive into this verse.

Reveal your Glory. Show us how you wish to use our suffering. Show us how you’d like to use us to bring others closer to you. Help us to trust in you even more.

1 Peter 4:12–19 “Dear friends, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal that has come on you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice inasmuch as you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed. If you are insulted because of the name of Christ, you are blessed, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you. If you suffer, it should not be as a murderer or thief or any other kind of criminal, or even as a meddler. However, if you suffer as a Christian, do not be ashamed, but praise God that you bear that name. For it is time for judgment to begin with God’s household; and if it begins with us, what will the outcome be for those who do not obey the gospel of God? And, “If it is hard for the righteous to be saved, what will become of the ungodly and the sinner?” So then, those who suffer according to God’s will should commit themselves to their faithful Creator and continue to do good.”

No Surprise

The first thing the verse says is to not be surprised when we face the fiery ordeal, when trouble comes our way, when we suffer. I don’t know about you, but often times I am really surprised when suffering comes my way. The other day I picked up a spray bottle to clean something, brand new, and it wouldn’t work. It’s a small thing, but its annoying, and it set me off. I started to get really mad that this spray bottle had one job to do, and it wasn’t doing it. Curse this fallen world! Why on God’s green earth will you not work!!

“Why is this happening to me!!!” You ever have those moments, those Why is this happening to me moments? I do, all the time, and when I really think about why, in the small things or the big things, why it gets under my skin so much, part of it is because I am mad that God hasn’t helped me out with things. You are the God of the Universe, certainly you can help me with this spray bottle, certainly you can help me with this health issue, with this relationship. Why is this happening!

In my human-ness, I want a god who keeps suffering away from me. I want a god who stops all the bad things from happening before they happen, so that I can live a fat, happy, suffering free life! Wouldn’t life be better without suffering!!

Do you see the problem here though? What would God have to do to stop all the bad things from happening? So many of the bad things that happen come from other humans. If he stopped all the bad things, it would mean that He would have to take away our free will. Without free will we are puppets of God, incapable of choosing to love him. We are just dolls in the doll house at that point, and that is not a loving God, thats a cruel master……

Echo’s of Eden, Desire for the Future

The verse says that we aren’t to be surprised at suffering. We live in a suffering world and yet We long for a world with out suffering. Maybe thats an echo humanities pre-fall existence, when we lived in Eden without suffering. Maybe it it’s a longing for the world to come, a world where everything is made right and holy, where, unlike the humans in the garden, the humans in the new heaven and earth choose to use their freewill to love god instead of rebel. But here and now there is suffering.

Living Counter Culturally can bring hardship

There is suffering for everyone, but as Christians, we should expect, dare I say, a unique suffering. Why? Because as followers of Jesus, we are called to follow Jesus’s example, which means that sometimes we will live a counter cultural life. When you live differently than the culture, the culture doesn’t like it and will try to pressure you to conform, just like the guy I met from Egypt.

I remember when I was in middle school one of the favorite things my group of friends would do at the lunch table was to talk bad about other people. “I can’t stand this person” “That person is such a jerk”, “This person is a nerd”…… and believe it or not, awkward middle school Clint was a devout Catholic who took his Faith very seriously. I remember not wanting to talk bad about anyone, so I would try to say something nice about people instead. Well what do you think happened, Clint ended up getting picked on because he was too nice, because he was soft.

That’s a small example, but if you are serious about following Jesus, at some point you will have to choose, will you stay true to the tenets of your faith, or will you bend to the culture. Will you submit to Christ, or will you submit to your need to look good in other peoples eyes, to uphold your statues, to stay “in” with your friend group your political party? Will you do what God is asking you to do even if it costs you, because following Jesus has a Cost.

It may cost you your job when you refuse to operate in that gray legal area to save the company money. It may cost you your comfort when you choose to engage in a hard conversation at the family BBQ when someone starts making inappropriate jokes. It may cost you time, money or energy to help someone in need.

This is what living a Jesus centered, counter cultural life looks like, It’s a life of suffering, sacrifice, and submission. Sounds great, right… Well it is, great because, in the middle of it all, we get Jesus!! If you keep reading the verse it says we are not to be surprised when these things come, but second….

Rejoice

…We are to rejoice when we experience suffering.

Not because of the Pain

Let me be super clear, we are not supposed to rejoice because of the pain. Pain for pains sake….thats not good. Pain, suffering, by itself doesn’t get us closer to God. There have been plenty of moments of suffering in my life when I’ve turned inward, defaulted to self pity, the whole, woah is me mindset, and completely ignored God in my suffering, and maybe came out worse on the other side of it than when I came into it.

Participate in the Suffering of Christ can bring you closer

Look at the verse again: But rejoice inasmuch as you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed.

If we are suffering for Christ, if we are participating in Jesus’s mission to bring hope, healing, and redemption to the world, and if that causes us suffering, then we rejoice, because God’s glory is being revealed.

What is glory? In the original languages, the word glory means weight. God’s glory has a weight to it, its heavy. It means, splendor, power, authority, goodness, and this stuff we can feel, because it’s heavy. When we suffer, for the cause of Christ, the weight of God’s presence and power, the influence in our lives, the realness of our faith, his realness, is made known, to us and through us.

When I began to think on this, of our suffering revealing the glory of God, I was reminded of the Emanuel AME Church shooting, that happened 9 years ago tomorrow in Charleston South Carolina. Can you believe it’s been that long already. On June 17, 2015, a young man who had become a self radicalized white supremist walked into the historic AME Church. He chose this church because of it’s history in working towards civil rights. The senior pastor of this church was a South Carolina state senator who was pushing for police reform including body cameras. He attended a bible study with 13 other people, when he walked in he asked to talk to the senior pastor Clementa (Clemen-tay), his friends called him Clem. After about an hour, during prayer, the shooter stood up, pulled a gun, and pointed it at 87 year old Susie Jackson. Her nephew, a young man named Tywanza Sanders, 26 years old, tried to talk the shooter down, and asked him why he was doing this. The shooter replied with, “I have to” followed by a bunch of evil that I won’t repeat. Tywanza dove in front of his auntie to protect her, he was the first to get shot.

John 15:13 “Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.”

Glory Revealed

Do you feel God’s glory in the middle of that hurt. Here is this person who has chosen to do evil, and this community, first of all, welcomes him in to their bible study. They make space for him. Like Judas, the betrayer in in their midst, and for that hour, they treated him like a brother.

And then, once his intentions were clear, Tywanza tries to talk him down, and then dives in front of his 87 year old aunt. When the rubber met the road, when it was all on the line, the Glory of God was revealed through Tywanza. Hate, was met with sacrifice. This is the way of the Cross. As followers of Christ, we sacrifice. We lay down our lives, in big ways and small ways, for our fellow man.

What does that look like for you? Where is the Holy Spirit nudging you to live differently, to live counter culturally, to sacrifice to reveal God’s Glory? Maybe it’s in the language you use, maybe it’s in what you do for fun, maybe it’s in how you treat your mean, nasty, coworkers, or how you don’t make fun of your boss behind their back. Maybe it’s standing up for those who can’t stand up for themselves, maybe it’s by confronting evil in the world.

When the shooting was done, nine people where dead, a tenth was wounded, Tywanza’s mom and his 5 year old niece pretended to be dead to survive, and the shooter left a the 13th person alive as a witness.

Two days after the murders, family members of the victims confronted the shooter at a bond hearing.Ethel Lance was 70 when she murdered that day, speaking to the the shooter her daughter said ”I will never talk with her ever again. I will never be able to hold her again. But I forgive you,"

In You and to you

“But rejoice inasmuch as you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed. If you are insulted because of the name of Christ, you are blessed, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you.”

When we suffer, when we experience real pain, pain that comes from living out our faith, Spirit of glory rests on us. It empowers us to do the hard things, the impossible things, like forgive our mothers killer. That pain refines us like fire, purifies us like Steph talked about last week, and then what’s left is the raw, real parts of our faith. Getting in touch with who we really are, what we are really about, what we really believe and what we put our weight down on becomes clear in suffering.

The former British Soldier, C.S. Lewis, puts it this way….did you know that about Lewis? Before he was a famous author he fought in the Trenches during WW1 until a British artillery round fell short, wounding him and killing two of his comrades. He puts it this way in his book, the problem of pain (my copy is labeled as the Problem of Paint…..

“Everyone feels benevolent if nothing happens to be annoying him at the moment. Thus a man easily comes to console himself for all his other vices by a conviction that ‘his heart’s in the right place’ and ‘he wouldn’t hurt a fly’, though in fact he has never made the slightest sacrifice for a fellow creature. We think we are kind when we are only happy: it is not so easy, on the same grounds, to imagine oneself temperate, chaste, or humble.”

When we aren’t suffering, it’s easy for us to think we are better than we are. But, when our faith comes under attack, whether that’s from someone hurling insults at us, or when we know we should do one thing, but want to do another thing….thats when we find out how real our Faith is. This is when we can rejoice, because in our suffering, we are being refined, we have an opportunity to be more like Christ, to experience what he experienced, to be about what he is about.

But, this is something we have to choose. When we are in pain, we get to choose if we are going to let God redeem that pain, or if we are going to try and handle it ourselves. Are we going to turn bitter, angry, are we going to seek Vengeance when we are slighted?

That’s one thing to note about this verse, in a cultural context, this would have been written to a society that was very Honor vs Shame based. When it says “If you are insulted” that has this shame thing attached to it. Like, if you lose honor or statues for Christ. Our society isn’t that different in a lot of ways. You ever do the thing where you feel slighted by someone, and so then you start replaying the scenario in your head about all the things that you should have said, or will say next time, so that you get the upper hand? That’s this honor/ shame thing playing itself out.

Saint Peter teaches us here, that when we are insulted, when we are shamed, for Christ we are blessed. When that suffering happens to us, the Spirit of God rests on us, we have an opportunity to draw close to Christ in a way that is much harder when we are pain free. We can, if we are open to it, experience God in a different way when we are suffering.

I was telling my friend Zach earlier this week about my message, and about what we I was going to talk about, and he said something that I wrote down because I thought it was so good. He said “When all you have left is faith, you learn a lot about who Jesus is”

That’s what this verse is telling us! When we are suffering, the pain strips away everything else, it reveals to us that the only thing that matters, is Christ alone. And then, from that place, a place of being united with Christ in his suffering, we experience the goodness of God in our lives.

Where does God want to meet you in your suffering right now? Maybe you’ve lost a loved one and you don’t know how you will move on. Maybe you are having a health scare, maybe you are realizing that there are things in your life that Jesus is asking you to either lay down, or pick up, and you don’t know if you want to. Maybe you’ve been hurt for your faith, people assume you believe one thing, assume you act a certain way, maybe folks don’t understand how important your faith is to you, and they’ve cause you hurt. How does God want to reveal his glory to you in the middle of your suffering today?

Take Stock

The next part of this verse I just love so much, and I think it’s super challenging. So, you know, happy Father’s Day.

If you suffer, it should not be as a murderer or thief or any other kind of criminal, or even as a meddler. However, if you suffer as a Christian, do not be ashamed, but praise God that you bear that name.

When we suffer, we need to take stock. We need to ask ourselves, why are we suffering?

Why are you suffering?

It says to suffer as a Christian, that is, for one who is following Christs example, not as a murderer, or thief, criminal, or even as a meddler. Sometimes, our suffering is brought on by our own actions, sometimes, like my fathers day hat, we are Dumb basses. When it’s our fault, we need to own that, we can’t cry persecution and claim that we are suffering for Christ. If you clock into work, and spend the first twenty minutes of your shift, on the clock, reading your bible, and your boss tells you you can’t read your bible, that you need to work, you aren’t being persecuted for you faith, you are being a trash employee. Don’t do that, that’s not the way of Jesus.

I have seen people weaponize their faith to grab power, to hurt people, to put others down, and then cry persecution when they get called out on it.

I’ve also seen people get into legal trouble and hope that God will get them out of it.

Now, please here me out, we can screw up, suffer the consequences of our actions, and totally encounter God and come out the better for it. About a year ago, I was trying to get the girls out the door to the park and it was just a nightmare. Everything was going wrong, and just when I thought we were ready to go, I realized I didn’t have my wallet. Search for it, can’t find it, get mad, launch a kick at the closest thing I could find in the bedroom…..which just happened to be one of those green, metal, ammo boxes. I was wear these crocs…..broke my big toe. I didn’t throw my hands up and say “Why me God!, or Curse you Satan!!!” I went “Yup, I’m an idiot and this is what I get for losing my temper.”

That week I went to a youth conference, kept smashing it on things. Each bump turned into a prayer “Lord, will you help me control my temper”. Then, I had to tell people about why I was hobbling. Talk about embarrassing, right? I’m a 35 year old pastor, losing my cool and breaking my toe, not a good look. But that was my real life, and I had to own it, and I met God in it.

So, I guess what I am saying, is that we meet God in our suffering when we mess up, he is so full of love, grace mercy, and he is ready to hear our confession, and let us repent…….and, the better way is to suffer for the cause of Christ. Don’t suffer as a criminal, or even a meddler. The use of the word meddler by Peter is really interesting here. Some smart people think it’s unique to that community, like people kept being nosy and getting involved with things that they shouldn’t be involved with. I wonder, if Peter were righting to our church, what would he stay instead? Don’t suffer as one we requests a well done steak at a restaurant? Don’t suffer as one who makes mean comments to social media posts? Don’t suffer as one who refuses to love folks that are different than you, because of political party, their ethnicity, their sexual orientation, their soci-economic statues. Don’t suffer as one who tries to force non-Christians to live a Christian lifestyle instead of extending Christ’s love to them? What would he write? And this is an important questions, because if you keep reading, Judgement starts with the church.

Judgment

1 Peter 4:17–18 “For it is time for judgment to begin with God’s household; and if it begins with us, what will the outcome be for those who do not obey the gospel of God? And, “If it is hard for the righteous to be saved, what will become of the ungodly and the sinner?””

Judgement begins with God’s Household. Now some of you maybe thinking, but Clint, because of the cross my sins have been washed away, what’s this judgement talk? Good point, your not wrong. Jesus’s sacrifice has saved us from the penalty of sin. If you are a Christian, you have eternal life. You will also stand before the Throne and be Judged. It may be helpful to think of this more like the judging at a fair. God will examine us, our actions, our character, everything will be laid bare before him and us. When all of our deeds are laid bare, what will we see?

How does your life Look

Will we see a life filled with submission to God’s will over our own, a life of sacrifice, a life lived in the service of others and God? This is a time for us to take stock of where we are at. If we can’t admit to ourselves where we are falling short, we won’t be able, we will be too proud, to ask for the Holy Spirit to work in those parts of our life, to bring us to life, to transform us, so that our suffering comes from being Christians, not from our own character flaws, weaknesses, and sins. How does your life look? What parts is he asking you to turn over to him now, maybe for the first time. Let the judgement happen now, so that he can bring you to new life.

How does the church look

And yes, we have to look at ourselves as individuals, and the verse says the household of God, the church, the community. How would God judge the American church? Would we get a purple ribbon at the fair? Would we get a rebuke Revelation 3:16 “So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth.”

Are our actions consistent with who we want to be, are our actions Christlike. Are we removing the plank in our eye, so that we can better see the speck to help our brothers out, or are we more concerned with grabbing power, of making this a Christian Nation, rather than living as Christians in a nation we have been exiled too. Look, I love my country, I have sacrificed for my country, I took an oath to lay down my life and to take life if need be for my country…..my country is not my true home. Christ is. Christ alone. It doesn’t matter if the government removes all the ten commandants statues outside of court houses, carved rocks on display don’t reveal the glory of God in the same way that a church living the ten commandments do.

Which brings me to the last part of the verse

Do Good

19 So then, those who suffer according to God’s will should commit themselves to their faithful Creator and continue to do good.

When we suffer, whether thats’s at the hands of the government, strangers, or our own family members, we are called to commit our selves to the Creator, to submit and surrender to his will, to get filled up with his Holy Spirit, and Keep doing good.

Emmanuel AME Church, after the shootings is a great example. After the shooting, the families forgave the shooter, the Bishop of the church said “Someone should've told the young man. If he wanted to start a race war, he came to the wrong place.” They met hate with forgiveness, and then they took action. Members of the community organized, they took their pain, and pressed into doing good. They got the Confederate Battle Flag, a flag that the shooter had posed with, removed from the statehouse. The set up memorials. The family of the senior pastor set up a foundation in Clemen-tay’s honor that supports poor families in the South Carolina Low Country region. They took their pain, their suffering, and they continued to do good.

When we suffer, don’t give up, we keep partnering with God, we keep submitting and surrendering trusting that our suffering isn’t just for sufferings sake, that good will come from it, whether we see that good this side of the veil or not.

Sharonda Coleman-Singleton was one of those killed in the shooting. She was a mother, pastor, a speech therapist, and a track coach. Her son Chris said “Love is always stronger than Hate. If we just love the way my mom would, then the hate won’t be nearly as strong as the love is”

When we face suffering as Christians, this is our response. We commit to God, we do good. We meet hate with love. Jesus met hate with love, by submitting to the Father, suffering, dying on the cross. That must have looked like defeat, like surrender, like shame and failure. It was love, it was goodness, it was power, it was Victory.

Where to do you feel like giving up? Where do you feel like continuing to press in, to surrender, to open yourself up to receiving the glory of God, along with the suffering of a christian, isn’t worth it?

I think that’s where God wants to meet us today, to fill us, so that we can experience his Glory, and so that others will come to know the love of Christ. Would you stand with me as we move into a time of ministry.