Pentecost 7A

Suffering

In the name of the Father, and of the +Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Brothers and sisters in Christ: grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

What does suffering look like in 2020 America? What do you think of when you think of suffering? I think this word has gotten watered down a bit by marketing and advertising campaigns “do you suffer from heartburn?” “Do you suffer from plaque psoriasis?” or how about this one: “do you suffer from simple chronic halitosis?” I don’t mean to belittle anyone’s medical condition - I picked examples from my own family - but I’m not so sure everything the pharmaceutical companies bring to our attention on the television screen really counts as “suffering”.

Maybe you think of much worse medical conditions like migraine headaches or chronic back pain or heart disease or COPD or diabetes or cancer. I think all of us would agree that these definitely qualify as suffering. Any one of these conditions can absolutely make life miserable, if not unbearable. Those who deal with it definitely suffer…at least to some degree.

Of course if you watch the news or read the paper about what’s going on in our country and around the world, there is a lot of actual suffering going on right now. A LOT. It can get overwhelming trying to take it all in, especially in dealing with everything about the coronavirus pandemic. Some of us know people who are very sick from this virus. I have not only a family member who was seriously ill, but also a colleague who spent 2 weeks in the ICU from complications associated with COVID-19. And these are just the ones close to me. There’s a lot of physical suffering going on.

Some of us know people who have suffered financially as a result of the virus lockdowns. Loss of employment, businesses closing their doors for extended periods and laying off employees, or shutting their doors permanently. Entire industries are on hold: airlines, restaurants, hotels, professional sports, entertainment… all are just barely staying open. And the people who work in or support these industries are suffering because of the lack of work. They are suffering financially AND emotionally. Many are having a really difficult time coping. Some who have lost their jobs are also having a difficult time getting assistance - the government checks are not a guarantee. Some of these innocent people are now having a hard time keeping up with their bills, paying their rent or mortgage, their car payments…and banks and creditors are not offering much grace. Families are starting to lose their homes and their vehicles. These people are definitely suffering.

What does our faith have say to us in times like this? St. Paul tells us exactly that in his letter to the Romans today. “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.” (verse 18) What kind of suffering did Paul endure? Was it anything to compare to the awfulness we’re dealing with? Here’s the list Paul provides us in 2 Corinthians chapter 11:

24 Five times I received at the hands of the Jews the forty lashes less one. 25 Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I was adrift at sea; 26 on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers; 27 in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure. 28 And, apart from other things, there is the daily pressure on me of my anxiety for all the churches.

So yes, Paul knew what suffering was…first-hand. He had been beaten many times for his faith. And this is before Paul talked about God giving him a “thorn in his flesh” - some medical ailment that he had to deal with also. Yes, Paul knew what it was to suffer. I might even say he knew far better than most of us do.

And Paul reminds his church, and us, that our suffering pales in comparison to the plan that God has for us - “the glory that is to be revealed to us.” He is looking forward to the future that God has promised to all of us. But Paul reminds us that it isn’t only us that suffers. Our suffering is a product of original sin. And when Adam & Eve were evicted from the Garden of Eden as punishment for their disobedience, it affected not only them and their offspring; it affected all of creation. Everything that God had created was now corrupted by sin. So what does that mean? What were the real consequences of that sin?

Well first it meant that Adam & Eve no longer had access to the Tree of Life, which meant they were now going to die. It also meant, as we see a little later when Cain kills Abel, that humanity is now prone to violence toward each other. And it isn’t just humanity. We can see the corruption of creation in how animals eat other animals, in crop failures, in storms and earthquakes and other natural disasters - these are all evidence of the corruption caused by human sin, how “creation was subjected to futility”. And these are the groaning of creation that Paul talks about, and he is using it as an illustration of what all of us go through. All of us will see some suffering in our lifetimes, just as creation is experiencing suffering in some place, at some level. So creation groans. Creation is waiting for God’s plan to be realized. What does that look like?

In the end, that’s Judgment Day. God has set a time when all of this will come to an end. He has promised us that it *will* come to an end. There’s a very important point that I learned here from a scholar I respect a great deal: if God had allowed Adam & Eve to remain in the Garden of Eden, and to have access to the Tree of Life, they would have lived forever in this corrupted state. That would NOT have been good for humanity. This is why they were evicted, so they would not live eternally in a state of sin and corruption. This is why God allowed them to die, so that they could be redeemed eventually. Verse 23: “and not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.”

Like Adam & Eve, eventually, we will die. As Dave Ramsey says “humanity has a 100% mortality rate”. But death is not the end. We KNOW this. We know that because Christ himself died, defeated death, and was raised on the 3rd day, we know that God has power over death, and has this planned for us in the end. This is what we confess in the Creed, that we believe in “the resurrection of the body”. This will happen to all of us on Judgment Day. And that is when we will enjoy the redemption of our bodies that Paul talks about here. We have not seen it yet, but we believe in Christ as our Savior, in his redeeming work on the cross and in his resurrection, and we believe that God keeps His promises…so we have hope in this unseen promise. “In this hope we were saved…if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.” This is our hope. Because when we have gotten through all of this bad stuff…when we have endured the suffering, when we have reached the end, then we have eternal life with God. We will have been redeemed and will be able to be in complete, unhindered communion with God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit… in complete peace, joy, and harmony forever, just as God has always intended. That is definitely something to hope for!

But we’re not there yet. We’re haven’t reached that last day yet, and so we can expect that there will be suffering in our path. Not that God wants us to suffer. Far from it. God has NEVER wanted us to suffer. But because of that original sin, suffering will happen. Suffering does exist. As Christians, we don’t have to be stuck in the suffering. We don’t have to live as though the suffering is all there is…because we know God has something better planned for us. But let us never forget that God is not just going to be there for us at the end. God is here for us and with us right now! He does not leave us to suffer alone.

I think this metaphor explains how we as believers endure suffering in faith quite well: The vine clings to the oak during the fiercest of storms. Although the violence of nature may uproot the oak, twining tendrils still cling to it. If the vine is on the side opposite the wind, the great oak is its protection; if it is on the exposed side, the tempest only presses it closer to the trunk. In some of the storms of life, God intervenes and shelters us; while in others He allows us to be exposed, so that we will be pressed more closely to Him. (Today in the Word, April, 1989, p. 17)

And this is the last part that Paul teaches us today. God invites us to pray to Him. He wants us to pray to Him. But if you’ve ever been at the lowest of lows, you just might not even know what to say to God. You just might not have any idea how to even ask God about what you’re going through. So the Holy Spirit jumps in and handles it for you. The Holy Spirit will take your inability to speak, and put your prayer into words, interceding for you and taking your concerns, your worries, your anxiety to the Heavenly Father. This is how God shelters us. Press closely against Him and feel His presence in the middle of that low.

I also find it comforting that the Holy Spirit will help when we pray an imperfect prayer, that is, praying for what we think is best, but might not be what God has in mind… “for we do not know what to pray for as we ought”, and “with groanings too deep for words” He also groans… which is how the Holy Spirit prays for us. He takes our prayer and cleans it up…turns it into a prayer that is “according to God’s Will.” The Holy Spirit ensures that when our prayer goes to the Father that it is an appropriate prayer to go before Him. So when you can’t think of what to pray, you can always say “Holy Spirit, pray for me”. He has promised that He will!

Nowhere in the Bible, certainly not in anything Paul wrote, are we told that life as a Christian will be easy, or that it will be free from suffering. That is not something that God promises us. But what He does promise is that suffering is temporary, and it is not the final state of our existence. God has set in motion a plan that will set right everything that humanity made wrong. And that means that everything that is fallen, everything that is broken, everything that is corrupt…all of it will come to an end. But that doesn’t mean God is done with us. In the end, He will redeem all of creation, and with it all who believe in Him, and we can then enjoy eternity with Him. An eternity free of suffering. An eternity of joy, and peace, and relationships like God has always wanted us to have - with God and with each other. Sounds like something we can definitely look forward to.

So as you encounter suffering, remember that God is with us always, especially when we suffer… and He is there to hear our prayers and offer us hope. And we *do* hope - we hope in His promises and in what He has already done for us in and through His Son. Let us all hold onto that hope and keep it foremost in our thoughts. Because no matter how bad the news on the television gets, it will never overcome the Good News of Jesus Christ and all that he has given us to hope for.

In the name of the Father, and of the +Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.