Rejoice in Suffering?

Old Testament: Proverbs 8: 1-4, 22-31

New Testament: Romans 5: 1-5

While in Seminary, I took a class on Dante and we read through Dante’s Hell and then moved on to Purgatory and then to Paradise. I found that it wasn’t hell that interested me nearly as much as purgatory did. As Protestants, we have not been raised to believe in Purgatory which is something Catholics often professed to believe in prior to the 1970s. I think there are some that still believe in it, but it is not as recognized a belief as it was in the past.

Purgatory is what happens to the people that are not bad enough for hell, but aren’t good enough to enter heaven either. God needed a place to put them, and so God created purgatory to help the not quite good enough people work their way to heaven. I think you can see why Protestants don’t believe in purgatory from that last sentence. We believe that Jesus Christ suffered for our sins and made us good enough to enter heaven. There is nothing WE can do to enter heaven on our own. We have too huge a debt to pay when we are on our own, and so Jesus paid it for us.

However, I’m not sure the Catholics are completely wrong on the idea of Purgatory. No, I don’t think we can earn our way to heaven through good deeds. I think we perform good deeds in response to the amazing gift we have been given through Jesus Christ. That God loved us enough to send God’s Son and that the Son loved us enough to die for us and make us righteous in God’s eyes - that is the amazing gift, and we respond by helping others, loving the unlovable, and giving whatever we can to make the world a better place.

If I believe that, then how can the Catholics be right about purgatory? Well, what if purgatory is happening now, during our lives? In this chapter of Romans, Paul tells us that we are to glory in our sufferings because suffering produces perseverance and perseverance produces character and character produces hope which is hope in God, and God never lets us down.

Protestants don’t like to talk about suffering and we really don’t like the idea of bragging about how much we suffer. We like to say things will get better because we believe in Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior. When someone asks us, “Why do so many children die and why do good people suffer?” we like to change the subject or put the suffering on our own shoulders. We rarely blame God for it.

However, what if we do suffer because God wills it? Not because Jesus is cruel and hateful and demands we work off our sins, but because we need to suffer? Think about that – what if we need to suffer? Paul tells us that suffering produces character which produces hope. I don’t think that means all of our suffering is God’s will, but perhaps some of it is. Let me put it another way.

When a person begins to work out and exercise they will often hear people tell them, “No pain, no gain.” There is an understanding that if you want a better body and a more healthy lifestyle that some suffering must happen to reach that perfect size. The same is true for our spiritual body. If we want to get closer to God, we have to exercise our spiritual body to become perfect in Christ through the Holy Spirit’s guidance. Exercising our spiritual body is not the same as exercising our physical one.

It requires prayer and meditation and cutting away the bad parts of ourselves. Getting rid of things like the tendency we have to lie when we think it will be easier than telling the truth, and being willing to suffer the consequences of that truth. The need we sometimes have to push others out of the way so we can take the spotlight. Our ability to hurt those we care about most. Our inability to sympathize with those who are different from us. These are all things that cause suffering, not only for us but for others, and we need to get rid of them to become closer to God.

Paul tells us that through our sufferings we learn to keep going and tackle any problem. The more we face our sufferings and fear the more character we develop and the easier it becomes to have hope that the Lord will help us through these afflictions.

There is something else from Dante’s purgatory that I think is true about Christian life. The closer a person in purgatory got to getting out of that self-induced suffering, the less pain they suffered. In other words, the closer they got to heaven and to God, the less they needed to suffer for they had learned many of the things they needed to learn to be a person worthy of heaven. The same is true for us in our lives.

The more we tune into Jesus and accept the Holy Spirit’s direction for our life, the less struggle we experience. It doesn’t mean all of our pains go away and that life gets completely easy. It means that we develop the ability to face any pain with fortitude and with peace. Isn’t that what we all want in our life? Peace. Peace and hope and love are the gifts that Jesus Christ offers us when he dies for us on the cross.

We all have the ability to accept these gifts. When we pray to God at the beginning of the service during the confession, we are asking God to bring us closer to God’s self. We are asking to become more like Jesus and we ask for the Holy Spirit to help us to do that. After the prayer of confession, I often say to you that the Lord has created in you a new person, or I will tell you that the Lord is making you whole. These images are used for a reason. We are not complete yet. We need a lot of help from God to be perfected and become like Jesus.

Perhaps some of you know about how steel is made. It is taking iron and carbon and other metals and melting them down. As they melt, the steel is purified. Steel can only be created through breaking down other metals to create the final, perfect product. This process is important and necessary if we want steel that will last for centuries in the buildings we create. If we want strong steel, it must be purified through fire, and it goes from being a collection of softer and less useful metals to the final product that we desire.

We all know we are not perfect. We all have flaws and imperfections. The person I was 10 years ago is a completely different person than the one I am today, and the same is true for you. Through the things you have experienced, the pain you have suffered and the pain you have witnessed in those you love – you have grown and changed. If you allow God to work in you during these moments of suffering, your character grows to be more Christ-like.

My professor called these moments of suffering our wilderness moments. Like Moses, we sometimes have to go through a long journey full of trials and temptations before we learn what we need to learn. The lesson sounds so simple – we need to have hope in God. We need to learn to depend fully on Jesus. However, it’s hard to do which Moses and the Israelites proved when it took them 40 years of going in circles before they got to the Promised Land.

We too want to get to the Promised Land; we want to get to heaven. We cannot earn our way to heaven, but there are things we need to learn before we do step through those gates. Sometimes those lessons require a burning away of our imperfections and it hurts. It’s not easy to change. It takes work. But as that old adage tells us, with no pain there is no gain. Perhaps it is time for us Protestants to stop hiding our suffering and instead rejoice in it like Paul tells us to do. Perhaps it is time for us to stop treating our suffering as a thing of shame. Instead we should remember that we are never alone in our pain for Jesus suffers with us and the Holy Spirit guides us and the Father watches over our whole lives.

When we remember this we are given peace; the peace of a people who know that the ultimate reward is ours, and we are assured that through what Jesus did for us.

Amen. 

Spirit Led Leaps of Faith

Romans 8: 14-17

John: 14:8-17, 25-27

The Lord puts a lot of things in our way and the Lord also gives us people to navigate the different paths we are forced to take because of the way things change so quickly in our lives. The point of this life is not to live a completely smooth course and never hit a bump or rock in the road.

The point of our lives is to get lost and grow and learn and get lost again and have to change direction and then again, and again until we find that when we look back at the journey our lives have taken it is completely different from the one we mapped out so very long ago when we were starry-eyed children.

The Lord has a plan for the world. If you are in the world that means the Lord has a plan for you. The only way for you to recognize your place in this plan is to have faith in one thing. God loves you. Jesus Loves you. The Holy Spirit loves you.

As you are now. If you never change another thing about yourself. If you never grow anymore in your faith. If you never change the things that could be changed and if you never fully realize the potential Christ sees in you – GOD LOVES YOU. Our task in life is to see that God loves us and to love others in the same way. You see, Christ asks us not to change people, but to accept them. Christ asks us to look at a person and not say, “Well, when they start doing this – then I will care about them.” No. Just as Jesus loves you for your imperfect and sinful self – we are called to love one another in the same way.

We cannot change the world. That is for the Lord to do. In the next few months as we explore what the Amos Project has to offer, we will be asked to try new things and we will attempt them and some we will like and some we will hate. But we will be asked to do them because it will draw different kinds of people through the doors of this church and that is important. What is even more important is that we accept whoever walks through the door as they are and not try to change them to conform to what we find acceptable.

We cannot try different music or a different worship style until we have a bunch of people and then slowly go back to the way WE like it to be done. The whole point of attempting the Amos Project is to grow, to change and to become more like the church God wants us to be. Not to just be a church that is so comfortable with itself that we might as well be comatose. It is not about getting a 150 people to show up every Sunday and then go back to the old ways of doing things. It is not about getting people through the doors so that we can change or convert them. They have things to offer just as they are and if God brings them through these doors and they choose to stay then it is because THEY have something to teach US.

It is ultimate arrogance to assume that we have things to teach the world but the world has nothing to teach us. That kind of arrogance was what got many of the Jews in Jesus’ time in trouble with him. The teachers of the law and religion thought they knew all there was to know about God and the path God wanted them to take. They assumed that because they followed all of the rules, that God would approve of everything they did and said.

As we now know, that is not true. These leaders were following the wrong path because they let their traditions and their routines and their perceived ideas of God keep them from seeing that the Lord stood right in front of them. We do not want that here at Trinity. We want to see Jesus. We want to accept Jesus. We want to move with Jesus toward wherever he would take us. Don’t we?!

That will require sacrifice from us. One of the first things we are going to do is over the summer we will move the offering plates to the back of the church. As you walk through the doors, please feel free to put your offering in the plate and sit down in your chosen pew. During the Moment of Offering, the ushers will bring the two plates forward and we will pray over them. If anyone forgot to put their offering in, just raise your hand as the usher walks by and they will stop and collect your offering.

Why are we doing this? Why could this possibly matter to a new person walking through the door if we do it this way or the traditional way?

The reason is because many people who did not grow up in a church, we will call them UNchurched people, have a deep fear that the only reason we want them to come is for their money. And if we do not want them for their money, then we want them to help on committees because we’re tired and overworked. However, the whole point of the Amos Project, the whole point of being a Christian and wanting new people to come every Sunday is not about money or committees at all. I will admit it is a nice side benefit, but it should never be the point of welcoming people through these doors.

Jesus, on this day two thousand years ago, ascended into heaven. The last things he said to the disciples were about loving each other and the world, and spreading the Good News. He tells them that he does not leave them alone, but sends the Holy Spirit as their Advocate to help them on this path. Trinity Church is here to spread the Gospel. We are here to make a difference in people’s lives. If putting our offering plates in the back of the church helps to make new people feel more welcome, then that is what we will try. It isn’t about what has always worked in the past. Maintaining all of our traditions is not always a good thing.

Sometimes there is a lot of fun and a lot of energy to be found in making new traditions and trying new things. Our goal here, our mission as a church is to help others realize their faith; to help them grow in Christian love; and to maintain a good, loving presence in our community. I know some of you do not like the idea of changing the way we are doing offering. I know some of you will downright hate it.

But I have something to tell you. It’s not about you. Church is not just about what WE want and what WE are comfortable with. It is about making the whole community feel welcomed and loved. This is a small change. It’s minor because the whole point of the offering is for us to give freely of the blessing God gave us. Does it matter if that happens as you walk through the door or as an usher walks through the pews? No. it doesn’t. The offerings will still be blessed. Our songs will still be sung, but now, NOW doing it this way – we may make others feel more at ease.

If you want to be a welcoming church, it is about making your guests feel welcome and accepted. Whether they have $2 to give or $2,000. Whether they have 2 minutes of free time to offer the church, or 20 hours a week – church is not about how long you have been a member or how much you give. Church is about making a difference in people’s lives. This church is about making people feel safe and loved and cared about no matter their station, no matter their past, no matter where they are headed in their future.

It is why I will welcome all thoughts and opinions on what we are trying to do with the Amos Project and the different things we will attempt. However, if your sole reason for telling me you don’t like it is because you like the old way better I’m going to respond thusly, “The old way was great. There is nothing wrong with it. There is nothing wrong in trying something new either, especially if it helps others come through these doors. Our goal is not to always feel comfortable, but to make others feel comfortable even at our own expense. That is true Christian hospitality.”

Being comfortable is the worst thing a Christian can be. Being comfortable means you will make no effort to change or to grow because you are satisfied where you are at. However, we’re not really satisfied because we have not fulfilled our mission as God’s people. Therefore, we’re going to shake things up. We’re going to learn together. We’re going to grow together. As I said, there are some things we will like and there are some that we will hate. That’s okay. We’ll make it through because as long as we follow where the Holy Spirit leads us – we’ll be doing God’s work in the world -  and that’s what matters.

We are called to follow where Jesus would lead us. Jesus is never boring, so this could get interesting. I’m looking forward to seeing where the Holy Spirit will lead us on this new part of our journey together. It’s not going to be a smooth ride and I expect we will do our share of resisting because we are human and like our traditions. However, as long as we continue to pray and ask for the Spirit to guide us, just as Jesus told the disciples, we will be lead right to where Jesus would have us go.

Let us take this leap of faith together.

Amen.

The Church Unified

Revelation 22:12-14, 16-17, 20-21

John17:20-26

As today is Mother’s Day, as I was reading the scripture in John I was struck by the love between God and Jesus and realized this is a love that a mother may understand better than most. 

This is not to take anything away from the awesome fathers that are in the congregation today, but there is a bond between mother and child that reminds me very much of what Jesus is praying for in the Book of John. Jesus prays that all may be as one the way Jesus and the Father are one. When parents find out that they are expecting a child, both of them are equally excited by this blessing, and I know all the fathers begin to think about how to protect the child when they are born and what you will teach them as they grow up. For a mother, it is a little different. Everything she does now affects her unborn child. The food she puts into her body. The way she moves around during the day and night. The thoughts she thinks that can make her either happy or anxious. All of these things affect the baby growing inside of her.

Mother and child are one. What she eats, the baby eats. What air she breathes, the baby breathes. If she is anxious, the baby will become agitated. If she is sick, her child may be in danger. So when Jesus prays that we Christians may be one as He and God are one, it begins to take on a new significance to me.

It means that what affects you now affects me too. It means that what worries the person beside you should also be your worry. Christians talk about working together and that is very important. Without many voices raised up in chorus, not many will hear what we are trying to say. However, Jesus is talking about more than just working together on making the world a better place. Jesus has more in mind than all of us working to keep this church going from year to year. As important as it is for us to work together to accomplish our missions and goals every year, Jesus has more in mind in this prayer that we often overlook.

Complete unity is what Jesus prayed for all of us to experience. Unity with God and unity with each other was the ultimate goal. The definition of unity is being undivided or unbroken. Considering the way the world works and how each of us is broken it would make unity an impossible accomplishment. Why would Jesus pray for something so impossible? It can only lead to frustration and anger on our part as we try to achieve it. 

But the truth is that there are many instances in the history of the world where humans have been one in their purpose and goals. A perfect example was how we were unified when the twin towers fell and every person in this country stopped their lives to say a prayer, to send money, to donate blood, and offered their time to help look for survivors and clean up the rubble. It didn’t matter what church you went to or didn’t. It didn’t matter if you were poor or rich. It didn’t matter if you were black or white or spoke with an accent. Every person in this country was horrified and shocked. The whole world was horrified and shocked by what happened. 

Jesus knows that we cannot stay in complete unity all the time. That is something that will come with the grace and glory of God when Jesus raises us all from the dead. But just as we know that we cannot be perfectly loving all the time, it does not mean we do not try for unity. We strive to work together, we sometimes fail rather fantastically, but we get up and brush ourselves off and begin again. This world needs to remember what it is like to work together. It can begin here. In this church. With this congregation. 

What affects one of you, affects all of us. If one of us has a dream, it is everyone’s dream. We have young adults here that have fantastic dreams they are trying to realize. We have older adults who have ideas about what they want to do next in their life. We have children whose only wish is to know that they are accepted as they play while we sing our hymns. We have shut-ins whose only wish is to know that they have not been forgotten by the church they have loved so long. Each of us has dreams. The church’s job is to recognize and validate each of them. Your thoughts are important to me. My thoughts should be important to you, and together we work to make things happen according to God’s will.

We work together to realize each other’s potential. We work together. We love each other. We care what happens to the people around us. Jesus’ idea of complete unity was all of this and more. Complete unity may be impossible for us to attain every single day, but it is possible to come together in perfect accord during certain moments in life.

 The next moment of unity for the church could be this Amos Project, which is the idea of becoming a vital part of the community where both churched and unchurched people will know who we are and that we are there for them. This project isn’t just about helping our church add members because church should never be about something as cold as numbers. Church is the realization of Jesus’ prayer in John; a unity that is manifested through caring and love. No one is unimportant. Everyone has something to offer. There is no weak link for we are all broken in some way, but like these stained glass windows, we create a beautiful picture. We create a family, and this project will help us to become stronger and more unified in our mission as a church of Jesus Christ. 

God has brought us all here together for a purpose. It is our job to ask what that is and to be as one in our determination to fulfill God’s will for us. We are a family, and we will fight and we will laugh and we will sometimes like each other and sometimes we will dislike each other, but at the root of this family is the love of Jesus Christ and that is what keeps us as one. Jesus is the foundation of our church. Jesus’ love is the love that keeps our family strong despite what the world would throw at us. The Amos Project is another tool to help us grow our family and help our community in more ways. Jesus asked us to spread his message to the world so that His love may bring us all together in perfect harmony. 

May we work together to accomplish the goals Jesus Christ has for this church, this family. May we strengthen our bonds and grow in Christian love for one another. 

Amen.