God
does interesting things, especially when you don’t plan, like for instance I
started this sermon series, what two months ago, at least, and I didn’t really
look at how any of the dates were going to line up. I just week to week, would
wrestle with each phrase as it came up, but what we have for today, the Sunday
before Thanksgiving of all days, is “be patient in suffering.” Interesting
right. . . and God has a sense of humor I’m sure. Here on the day where
everyone is expecting you to talk about gratitude and giving thanks, why don’t
you take a stab at patient suffering? Yeah wind up this Marks of a Christian
series on that one Pete, go for it. . . and we do wrap up today, having merely
scratched the surface, because next week we begin the Advent Season, and we
need that time to prepare for Christmas, so we’ll end with the Marks today, and
we’ll come back to it at some point in the future, I’m not sure yet when
because I have other, plans for after the Christmas season is over. I’m
planning to step through the life of Christ from Christmas to Easter, so it
might be next summer before we get back to it. So for the last time in a while
here is the Marks of a Christian, that we know so well, Romans 12: 9-21
9 Let love be
genuine; hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good; 10 love one
another with mutual affection; outdo one another in showing honor. 11 Do
not lag in zeal, be ardent in spirit, serve the Lord. 12 Rejoice in
hope, be patient in suffering, persevere in prayer. 13 Contribute to
the needs of the saints; extend hospitality to strangers.
14 Bless those
who persecute you; bless and do not curse them. 15 Rejoice with
those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. 16 Live in harmony with
one another; do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly; do not claim to
be wiser than you are. 17 Do not repay anyone evil for evil, but
take thought for what is noble in the sight of all. 18 If it is
possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. 19 Beloved,
never avenge yourselves, but leave room for the wrath of God; for it is
written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.” 20 No,
“if your enemies are hungry, feed them; if they are thirsty, give them
something to drink; for by doing this you will heap burning coals on their
heads.” 21 Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
So this morning where the bulletin
has all the decoration of our annual celebration of thanks, where the communion
table has been so beautifully decorated with a harvest cornucopia, where all
the hymns, and the choir’s rousing anthem are about Giving Thanks, we turn our
eyes on suffering. I know right. . . we’ll just see, now won’t we. . . I mean
last week we got to talk about hope, and hope would have been perfect to match
with gratitude, but suffering? And if we take a look
back at the journey we have been on this fall with The Marks of a True Christian.
So far we have looked at: Love being genuine; hating evil, clinging to the Good;
Brotherly Love; Competing with each other in showing honor. We’ve talked about
zeal, having that ceaseless energy that is needed, especially when we are
trying to serve the Lord.
Thenrejoicing in hope," all of them would have been great
to match with Thanksgiving, but now this week instead "be patient in
suffering." Well,
so to do this I want to look at the Old Testament and New Testament lessons
first, rather than waiting like I have done in recent weeks. . . first the Old
Testament. . . and what better reading on suffering than the description of Job’s
afflictions, from Job 1, here are the final verses of Job 1, namely 13-22
3 One day
when Job’s sons and daughters were feasting and drinking wine at the
oldest brother’s house,14 a
messenger came to Job and said, “The oxen were plowing and the donkeys were
grazing nearby,15 and the Sabeans attacked and made off
with them. They put the servants to the sword, and I am the only one who has
escaped to tell you!”
16 While he was still speaking, another messenger came and
said, “The fire of God fell from the heavens and burned up the sheep and
the servants, and I am the only one who has escaped to tell you!”
17 While he was still speaking, another messenger came and
said, “The Chaldeans formed three raiding parties and swept down on your
camels and made off with them. They put the servants to the sword, and I am the
only one who has escaped to tell you!”
18 While he was still speaking, yet another messenger came and
said, “Your sons and daughters were feasting and drinking wine at the
oldest brother’s house,19 when
suddenly a mighty wind swept in from the desert and struck the four
corners of the house. It collapsed on them and they are dead, and I am the
only one who has escaped to tell you!”
20 At this, Job got up and tore his robe and shaved his
head. Then he fell to the ground in worship21 and said:
“Naked
I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I will depart. The Lord gave and the Lord has
taken away; may the name of the Lord be
praised.”
22 In all
this, Job did not sin by charging God with wrongdoing.
How about that for a picture of
suffering, and Job accepted it, did not charge God with any wrongdoing. And if
that wasn’t enough let’s look at the New Testament, here 1 Peter 4: 12-19,
which my Bible labels, “Suffering as a Christian” yes I know right, give
thanks. . .
12 Beloved, do not be
surprised at the fiery ordeal that is taking place among you to test you, as
though something strange were happening to you. 13 But
rejoice insofar as you are sharing Christ’s sufferings, so that you may also be
glad and shout for joy when his glory is revealed. 14 If
you are reviled for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the spirit of
glory, which is the Spirit of God,
is resting on you.15 But
let none of you suffer as a murderer, a thief, a criminal, or even as a
mischief maker. 16 Yet if any of you suffers as a
Christian, do not consider it a disgrace, but glorify God because you bear this
name. 17 For the time has come for judgment to begin with
the household of God; if it begins with us, what will be the end for those who
do not obey the gospel of God? 18 And
“If
it is hard for the righteous to be saved,
what
will become of the ungodly and the sinners?”
19 Therefore, let those suffering in accordance with God’s will
entrust themselves to a faithful creator, while continuing to do good.
Now I know that tradition
dictates that I should proclaim this the word of the Lord, and you all would
respond with Thanks be to God. . . but do you want to? I’ll leave it up to you.
. . This is the Word of the Lord. . .
The
reason I asked that question is that there is one
truth that I have found in this our American world and culture, and that is
that suffering does not sell. It is not a great lead. You never see
advertisements offering up suffering. All State doesn't promise to provide
mayhem, it tells you that mayhem is all around you, and if you get their
insurance you will be safe in their "Good Hands." MacDonald's doesn't
advertise that their food is bad for your health, could cause suffering a heart
attack, not your hating it, but instead, "I'm loving it." Pepsi is
the choice of a new generation, a cooler generation, not one suffering from
diabetes. Suffering just doesn't sell, and here I am today saying that one of
the true marks of a Christian is being patient in suffering. I’m not sure they
are hearing this up the street. . . Suffering doesn’t sell, but it is reality.
But the other word in this phrase is no cupcake either, we are
not a fan of suffering sure, but we also are not a fan of patience. In our
world where we want things, now, where everything is available at our
fingertips instantaneously, where if we have to wait even for a moment we try
something else. . . no patience is not a
popular idea either. . . and if we were to pair them together there is nothing
that would make us more impatient than suffering. . . but how true is it that
they are often paired in life. I had a woman at my former church in
Gordonsville. Early in my tenure there she was very active, she was in charge
of getting the mail and bringing it to the church, she was in charge of setting
up communion, she was the first person that anyone called to let them know what
was going on, and she was always the first to be helping other people with
whatever they had going on. I instantly loved her, such a sweet lady, but I
remember clear as day, she came into my office and asked me, Pete what I really
need to learn is patience, is there anything you can teach me about it. . . I told
her we’d work together on it, and be careful what you wish for. . . her trials
piled up right after that, her husband’s parkinsons steadily got worse, she
fell and broke her pelvis, she also hurt her shoulder, and over the span of the
next three years, she went from being active as anyone to being homebound, and
a full time caregiver, even in the face of all her pain, as her pelvis took
forever to heal. . . we joked many times when I’d visit her, that she was
learning patience the hard way. . .
Patience
is a funny word for me because it is tied to a memory. It was one of the first
words that Coralee learned, though the concept still seems to escape her, as it
does us all. I remember one time she wanted mommy really bad, and DeAnna needed
a nap, she'd been dealing with her for long hours and needed a break. I just
happened to come home from work, and could give her such a break. So I'm
holding Coralee and she is freaking out, and I say to her you need to be
patient, and she says back to me, "patient, patient" repeating it
trying to convince herself. "Mommy needs a break sweatheart,
and you need to be patient." "Patient," she meekly
squeaks out again.
Too often I
think we think of patience as patience IN the midst of suffering. As Americans
we do not know real suffering, and our entire life is built around protecting
ourselves from suffering, and I wonder what that does to us. What does it do to
us, to try to block ourselves from suffering? Because this mark of a true
Christian doesn't say, avoid suffering at all costs, but when it eventually
catches up to you, as it always seems to do, be patient and it will end at some
point really soon. For Coralee and her suffering she just needed to chill for
15 minutes or so, so that DeAnna could get some peace, is that being patient in
suffering? Is our suffering, suffering, and are we patient when it occurs? I'm
not sure about y'all, but you can look at me and you know that I have
never wondered about where my next meal would come from. I've also never really
known real persecution for my beliefs, real oppression, real restriction on my
life and my choices. So what this passage, "Be patient in suffering"
means to me is, don't worry things won't be bad so long. Hard rain, don’t last.
You'll get over it. All things come and go. Pain is temporary, but glory lasts.
Football season including the post season for private schools in Virginia ended
yesterday, and for the first time in a long time, I wasn’t a part of it, and
yesterday was cool because I got to see my mentor win his second state
championship, but football season was probably for the last 6 years at least
was the hardest time of the year for our family. It would all start in August, DeAnna
and the girls would go to the beach, and I’d be "suffering" all day
practices in that hot August humid heat. And when I say all day I mean all day,
6 a.m. to about 10 p.m. for two week’s straight, followed then by a week of
long boring beginning of the year faculty meetings. Then the scholl year would
start and I’d work 7 day weeks for 3 straight months. . . it was long, and we
would “suffer through it” Starting with
Hot temperatures, long hours, me being a little bit lonely, missing my girls,
being a little bit bored. Then working a bunch of days straight, that was the
extent of my “Suffering.” So let me be patient in it. Yeah I know I can get
through. Just a little bit more, then I can go home and take a nap. It was bad,
but that is not real suffering, it doesn’t compare to Job, and it doesn’t match
what St. Peter is referring to in his letter.
Even Paul's
audience is different, and his meaning of suffering is different, and his
meaning of patience is different. For Christians in the beginning, there was
real suffering going on. We know in our world that when trouble happens on a
national scale, you know like an economic crisis, that people tend to lose
their civility and their sense of humanity, and things get divided, and people
get blamed, and often groups of people get blamed. On July 19, 64, the city of
Rome burned, the great fire of Rome for which the emperor Nero is famous for
playing his violin while the city burned. The problem was he was a little less
negligent once the fires were out and the blame needed to be assigned. Like
most politicians at this point they looked around and, to quote Mel Brooks, as
the governor in Blazing Saddles, "We've got to protect our phony baloney
jobs, Gentleman." The spin must begin, and so it did. The strange small,
new sect of Christianity seemed to be a good scapegoat. The Roman historian
Tacitus wrote it this way:
As a consequence, to
get rid of the report, Nero fastened the guilt and inflicted the most exquisite
tortures on a class hated for their abominations, called Christians [or
Chrestians] by the populace. Christus, from whom the name had its origin,
suffered the extreme penalty during the reign of Tiberius at the
hands of one of our procurators, Pontius Pilatus, and a most mischievous
superstition, thus checked for the moment, again broke out not only in Judaea,
the first source of the evil, but, even in Rome, where all things hideous and
shameful from every part of the world find their centre and become popular. In
accordance, an arrest was first made of all who pleaded guilty; then, upon
their information, an immense multitude was convicted, not as much of the crime
of firing the city as of hatred against mankind. Mockery of every sort was
added to their deaths. Covered with the skins of beasts, they were torn by dogs
and perished, or were nailed to crosses, or were doomed to the flames and
burnt, to serve as a nightly illumination, when daylight had expired.
Now
here is the big question. . . Could you have patience in that kind of
suffering? Would you still claim to be a Christian when the Roman Centurions
came knocking at your house? I have to be honest that I'm not sure what I would
do, but this is what Paul is talking about when he mentions suffering, being
patient in persecution.
English
translations always seem to down play it, both in the choosing of the word
suffering, and the choosing of the word patient as translations. The Greek word
here used for suffering has more to do with oppression and persecution than,
mere bodily pain. It has more to do with finding yourself in the face of
hatred, in the face of those who want you dead because of who you are and what
you believe. Can we wrap our minds around that 1950 years later in the safety
of America, here safe in Zuni? Can we even imagine what it would be like to
live under such a hostile government, rather than the ambivalent one we
complain often about? Can you imagine living in that world. It's a
world foreign to us, yet it exists all around us. I don’t know how often I’ve
heard people today, completely sure that the end times are near because it is
so bad, but it you look at history and you look at many parts of this world you
see it much, much worse, much more corrupt, much more divided, much more
violent, than anything experience here. . . there is real suffering in the world.
. . and there is real oppression and hatred, like this word seems to suggest
for us.
So that's suffering, but what about patience. It is interesting
that the NRSV committee chose "patience" as the word here because
there are many other words for patience used in the New Testament. And this
Greek word is also translated in other instances as "resist, standing
firm, holding one's ground." That takes on a much more active role than
simply being patient, especially when paired with oppression rather than merely
suffering. It also can be translated as "abide." Now abide is a word
I love, though typically it is a word that is only used in church. How often do
you hear about abiding in our world? Abiding means being there in the midst of
it all. Being there, with, through thick, through thin, in the heart of it.
Going through, seemingly by choice, just to be with and provide comfort. You
could leave, but you have chosen to stay, that's abiding. In my church growing
up, the church's mission statement was, "We could care less, but we have
decided to care more." It seems to me that that is a statement that gets
close to the idea of abiding. You could leave, but you have decided to stay.
The emperor has literally thrown your neighbor to the dogs, and you could
leave, but you have decided to abide with him, through it.
Again that
is what Christ does with us. God sees us, sees our plight, and becomes us,
becomes one of us, to show us simply, hey I'm here. Don't forget, I'm here.
I'll be with you in your suffering, no matter what, no matter how hard.
I'm there. When the storm winds blow, I'm there, when persecution falls I'm
there, when disease strips you bare, I'm there. Awesome, truly amazing, but yet
we run from suffering. We run from suffering avoiding by any means necessary.
Why? Oh yeah it doesn't sell. Perhaps it's just that we are not buying. We are
not buying the fact that God's purpose could include suffering for us, what if
it does, what if it does simply because we need to be reminded that God is
there, that God is there, abiding, and has us in the palm of his hand, right there
beside us in all things. This passage is not saying, hey avoid suffering at all
costs, but once in bear it, instead it is saying go find suffering, be there in
the midst of it, be strengthened by it, and find God in it.
I know it
doesn’t sell, but there is much to suffering that changes the world. How many
times do we see that in the midst of the worst things that happen, terrorist
attacks, flooding, earthquakes, hurricanes, mass shootings, that the best of
people comes out. I know it sounds weird, but I often in some ways yearn for
suffering, because it is real, and you’d know that you were in it. There is
real strength in a situation like that where there is no way of avoiding it any
more, where there is no exit, no escape hatch, no reset button, there is
nothing to do but be in it, in someways we yearn for such in life because it is
life, and it is in such times where we feel the most alive, but we have an
aversion to life like that often, we grow comfortable in our status quo, and
what we have attained, what we have accumulated, and we fear losing it, we hold
onto all of these things, and we become trapped by them, kept away from life. .
.
So here I am on the Sunday
before Thanksgiving saying, we need to embrace suffering, seek it out, and
therefore of course be grateful for it. I know that, that is a tough sell, but
I am giving it a shot this morning because there is life in it, and all life
demands that we give thanks for it, get down on our knees and thank the Lord,
that we suffer, for in suffering we find that life that he gave us, and the strength
that we need to forget about all the small concerns of our daily lives, and
remember again, what it is that truly matters. That God loves us, sent his son
to suffer with us, and that we then can love like our lives depend on it.
Praise be to God, Amen.
Today,
let’s just start with it. We’ve been looking at it for many weeks now. Here are
the Marks of a True Christian according to Paul, in Romans 12: 9-21.
9 Let love be
genuine; hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good; 10 love one
another with mutual affection; outdo one another in showing honor. 11 Do
not lag in zeal, be ardent in spirit, serve the Lord. 12 Rejoice in
hope, be patient in suffering, persevere in prayer. 13 Contribute to
the needs of the saints; extend hospitality to strangers.
14 Bless those
who persecute you; bless and do not curse them. 15 Rejoice with
those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. 16 Live in harmony with
one another; do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly; do not claim to
be wiser than you are. 17 Do not repay anyone evil for evil, but
take thought for what is noble in the sight of all. 18 If it is
possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. 19 Beloved,
never avenge yourselves, but leave room for the wrath of God; for it is
written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.” 20 No,
“if your enemies are hungry, feed them; if they are thirsty, give them
something to drink; for by doing this you will heap burning coals on their
heads.” 21 Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
So if you
are keeping score at home, you’ll know that this morning our line from the
"Marks of a true Christian" is simply Romans 12:12a "Rejoice in
Hope." Since last week we talked about serving the Lord, and the difficulties
that service entails, especially when you look at all the trials endured by the
heroes of the Old Testament, and even Jesus and then the disciples in the New,
but this week we find ourselves talking about the idea of Hope and that we are
to rejoice in it.
Hope is an
interesting topic, and one that I have taken alot of time thinking about this
week, one we’ll revisit in just a few weeks, when of the four Advent Candles,
the first is the Candle of Hope, but do you ever think about what hope is,
whether it's good or not, and whether it is possible to rejoice in it. I chose
a passage from Revelation to get at hope, knowing that for some reason it's
always a little bit intimidating to preach from Revelation. There is so much stuff
in it that sounds a little bit crazy, what with the trumpets and the seals and
the numerology, and the dragons, and there are all kinds of different ways that
people interpret it and use it, and frankly there is a great history of
irresponsible misuse of it. But all in all the message of Revelation is primarily
and at heart completely one of hope and bears witness to that hope, and no
other passage in the entirety of the book represents a witness of hope more
than this one I am about to read, this is the famous Hallelujah scene from the
beginning of chapter 19.
A few weeks
ago, the Session had the pleasure of getting to chat with Rev. Dr. Brian Blount,
who is a native of Smithfield, President, of my seminary, Union Presbyterian in
Richmond, and possibly the leading scholar in the study of the book of
Revelation. Through the years I've had the opportunity to hear him preach and
lecture on this very passage often, and I've enjoyed his take, and his description
of this scene as a major victory party, celebrating an end to oppression, celebrated
by a people who have been oppressed for a long time. The early Christians, and
Jews as well had found themselves in a period where persecution by the Roman
Empire had grown fierce again, and were looking for things in the world that
could give them hope, they needed hope, they needed to find a way to get
through the days and remain faithful. Ever since the fall of the Kingdom of
Israel, the area of Palestine had been controlled by a series of foreign empires.
First the Assyrians, then the Babylonians, then it was the Persians, then the
Macedonians, then the Ptolemies, then the Seleucids , and finally by the time
of Christ, Rome. Much like the book of Daniel and other works written within
the history of being a subjected people, the book of Revelation is from the
genre, from the Greek word, apokolypsis, which means secret teachings,
or disclosure, manifestation, revelation. These were words and books of
hope written to inspire the people to believe in a future state where things
would be put right, where the rulers of the day would be thwarted, the power
structures replaced, and righteousness restored. In other words, a Revelation
of the fact that God is very much in control. It was easy for the Christians in
the first century to look around them and think there must be something more
than this, there must be something better than this, God is better than this,
and God is in control, and God will set things right, we believe this, and it
gives us hope. The passage that I selected this morning to get at the idea of
rejoicing in hope is very much a victory celebration over the evils of the
world. Evils that to the Christians of the first century were certainly
apparent to them and surrounded them in every way, and the victory is complete,
and the host of heaven sing an earth shattering, hell destroying, hallelujah. Probably
ten years ago now I heard this passage preached at the Massanetta Springs Bible
and Music Conference, yes by Brian Blount, and the anthem that accompanied the
scripture reading and the sermon was the Hallelujah Chorus from Handel's
"Messiah" sung by a huge mixed choir of all the musicians and singers
that had been there that week. It was truly moving music because it put you in
that place. You felt like they had almost accomplished the sound that the
writer John of Patmos was describing in court of heaven. So have that song
going through your head while I read: Revelation 19: 1-10:
After this I heard what seemed to be the loud voice of a great
multitude in heaven, saying,
“Hallelujah!
Salvation and glory and power to our God,
2 for his judgments are true and
just;
he has judged the great whore
who corrupted the earth with her fornication,
and he has avenged on her the blood of his servants.”
3 Once more they said,
“Hallelujah!
The smoke goes up from her forever and ever.”
4 And the twenty-four elders and the
four living creatures fell down and worshiped God who is seated on the throne,
saying,
“Amen. Hallelujah!”
5 And from the throne came a voice saying,
“Praise our God,
all you his servants,
and all who fear him,
small and great.”
6 Then I heard what seemed to be the
voice of a great multitude, like the sound of many waters and like the sound of
mighty thunderpeals, crying out,
“Hallelujah!
For the Lord our God
the Almighty reigns.
7 Let us rejoice and exult
and give him the glory,
for the marriage of the Lamb has come,
and his bride has made herself ready;
8 to her it has been granted to be
clothed
with fine linen, bright and pure”—
for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints.
9 And the angel said to
me, “Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of
the Lamb.” And he said to me, “These are true words of God.” 10Then
I fell down at his feet to worship him, but he said to me, “You must not do
that! I am a fellow servant with you and your comrades who
hold the testimony of Jesus. Worship God! For the
testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.”[1]
This is the
word of the Lord, thanks be to God. Look at this celebration. It is celebrating
the idea that God is more powerful than things, all things. He's more powerful
than evil, more powerful than war, more powerful than enemies, more powerful
than hatred, more powerful than injustice, more powerful than genocide, more
powerful than oppression, more powerful than slavery, more powerful than a
"bad day", more powerful than a petty disagreement, more powerful
than a broken relationship, more powerful than doubt, more powerful than sin,
more powerful than our minor disobedience, more powerful than our major
disobedience, more powerful than the outcome of some election, more powerful
than negative adds, more powerful than cynicism, more powerful than any clear
and present danger that we face, and that very fact is cause to celebrate. And
not just is God more powerful, God is also good, all the time, beyond time into
the infinite, the beginning and the end, and so hope springs in the eternal,
the eternity of God.
So we ask
ourselves, why not now? Why all this injustice now? Why all this pain now?
These earthquakes, this disease, this discord, and hatred and war. Why wait?
Why doesn't God just fix it all now if He can? Many agnostics and atheists ask
these questions, and speak ardently that if God exists, God is either a monster
or is completely ineffective, for to let so much pain exist in the world, and
therefore their shouts at God are not hallelujah. I do not hope to preach today
as to why, because I do not know the answers of these questions, but I believe
part of our comfort is found in the today's idea from the Marks of a Christian.
"Rejoice in hope."
It's funny
to me to see rejoice in hope. It is so alien to our world to do so. We don't
rejoice in hope; we rejoice in attaining things, in victories, in gold medals
won, and challenges accomplished, and bottom lines. Those are the things we
tend to rejoice in, but how fleeting are the trophies, how fleeting are the
accomplishments? How much more inspiring and powerful is it to strive, and
having striven felt the extra push of force that hope gives? I'll get back to
that because there is something of truth in that, but we aren't ready yet. . .
***Ha ha got you hoping? Man
I sure hope I can pull this off? Are you hoping with me? I hope so***
If you look
at the prayer of preparation, you'll see the famous line: hope springs eternal.
I chose the passage, coming from one of my favorite poems, Alexander Pope's
"Essay on Man." What Pope is trying to accomplish in the poem is to
describe the human condition. The poem has four parts, and the first part, from
which this passage comes, he is trying to describe the way the world works, and
in his words to "justify the ways of God to man," which is one of the
great poetic challenges taken up by poets since the beginning of time from the
writer of Job, to the psalmist, to Homer, to Shelley, Milton, Keats, all of
them, the greats. He takes a similar spin on it, to the Book of Job, and is reflecting
his time, because he questions whether man is in any position, any moral place
to question God. He wonders how can you question the maker of you? How can you
wish for more than what is? Is it the place of the creature to question the
actuality and the quality of the creation? It is a cool poem placing the
perfection and the sovereignty of God at the forefront of his understanding of
the world, concluding the first section with the poem with some of my favorite
turns of a phrase:
All nature is but art, unknown to thee;
All chance, direction, which thou canst not see;
All discord, harmony not understood;
All partial evil, universal good:
And, spite of pride in erring reason's spite,
One truth is clear, whatever is, is right.
In other
words, Pope puts the sovereignty of God at a premium, first and foremost in his
view of the world and uses that as the lens to view and judge the way the world
operates, made perfect by God, but now let's take a look at the section
including the words "hope springs eternal" because it is here where
he talks about how hope, and hoping is a crucial part of the human condition,
as humans were created by God. I'll begin and include a few lines I left out of
the bulletin for reasons of space:
Heaven from all creatures hides the book of Fate,
All but the page prescribed, their present state:
From brutes what men, from men what spirits know:
Or who could suffer being here below?
The lamb thy riot dooms to bleed to-day,
Had he thy reason, would he skip and play?
Pleased to the last, he crops the flowery food,
And licks the hand just raised to shed his blood.
Oh, blindness to the future! kindly given,
That each may fill the circle, marked by Heaven:
Who sees with equal eye, as God of all,
A hero perish, or a sparrow fall,
Atoms or systems into ruin hurled,
And now a bubble burst, and now a world.
Hope humbly, then; with trembling pinions soar;
Wait the great teacher Death; and God adore.
What future bliss, He gives not thee to know,
But gives that hope to be thy blessing now.
Hope springs eternal in the human breast:
Man never is, but always to be blest:
The soul, uneasy and confined from home,
Rests and expatiates in a life to come.
Pope suggests that hoping is part of our nature, that we were
created to be hopeful, and that there must be some driving purpose to it, in
his words confined from home, perhaps driving back to home. There must be some
purpose to which he suggests we should not question. Paul takes it one step
further, not just to not question, that we are created hoping, but to rejoice
in it. To be thankful for our capacity to hope and rejoice, believing that the
future blessings will be incredible.
Hope is an
interesting phenomenon in other faith systems. It is not found in the eastern
religions and philosophies of India and China at all and to the pagan Greeks,
hope was kind of a mixed bag. As the myth of Pandora goes, when her curiosity
compels her to open the box, out come all of the evils of the world, one by one
and personified, but too, hiding in the bottom of the box, out pops hope. Hope
enters into the world along with the evils according to that ancient Greek
story, which shows their world view. Does this mean they saw hope as a piece of
the evil, or our only positive in a world now fraught with evil.
How do you
view hope? I've spoken often in the last few weeks about cynicism, that most
ancient and hopeless of Greek philosophies, many in the world of today would
say that hope is foolish, or misguided, We say, I don’t want to get your hopes
up. . . or others might say hope is a tool that those of great power,
intelligence, and influence use to control those who are hopelessly gullible,
dimwitted, and weak. Someone intelligent could never be controlled in such a
way. I can see how that would be and could be true. False hopes, or
placing your hope in something that cannot deliver would certainly
leave you out on a ledge, looking foolish, that is why hope is tied to faith,
and love, those spiritual gifts that Paul writes of in his first letter to the
Christians at Corinth. Having faith in the truth, that God is all powerful as I
opened with, and that the hallelujah passage gives witness and testimony of
provides a hope that is not foolish, but if true the only possible source of
hope.
Having hope
in that truth can allow us to see our world in a different light, to see our
place in the world in a different light, and to see our work in the world in a
different life. It allows for the end to be taken care of, to hope for, to
inspire us, to recharge us with ultimate drive and desire, infinitely ahead,
allowing us to love in the present, rejoicing in the present, rejoicing in
hope. I said earlier that trophies and accomplishments sometimes are fleeting
at best or underwhelming at worst, anti-climatic might be the best word. There
is so much build up that once it's all over and achieved there isn't much left,
but life was lived in the achieving. Life is lived in the hope of achieving.
There is something to the wisdom of creating human beings with an innate
capacity to hope. It drives us, it moves us, it is us, it is life, and life is
a gift to be lived, and a gift to be thankful for, and a gift to be rejoiced
in, that when it is all over and we come face to face with the infinite, the
hallelujahs burst forth from our inward parts with a loving chorus of praise
for the amazing love and power that created each and every one of us,
completely unique, with an infinite capacity for hope.
1 Truly my soul finds rest in God; my salvation comes from him. 2 Truly he
is my rock and my salvation; he is my fortress, I will never be shaken.
3 How long
will you assault me? Would all of you throw me down— this leaning wall, this tottering fence? 4 Surely
they intend to topple me from my lofty place; they take delight in lies. With
their mouths they bless, but in their hearts they curse.[b]
5 Yes, my
soul, find rest in God; my hope comes from him. 6 Truly he
is my rock and my salvation; he is my fortress, I will not be shaken. 7 My
salvation and my honor depend on God[c]; he is my mighty rock, my refuge. 8 Trust in him at all times, you people; pour out your hearts to him, for God is our refuge.
If
we think back to last week, we talked about enthusiasm. It was about Zeal and
being ardent in the spirit. We talked about how when you are being what you
are, what you were made to be what you are called to be, then the energy it
takes to just simply be whatever that is, is equal to the energy you have, and
your cup is overflowing, it never runs out. . . and so there is the sense that
we are each called to bring ourselves to the table, to not hold back, but to be
all in. . .and that we wouldn’t necessarily then be doing what every one else
is doing, not looking to mimic what other churches are doing, but instead find
our own way that is right, and that the
rest would then take care of itself. But then came of course the inevitable
question, “What then do we do?” And the answer comes quick on the heals of last
week’s lesson with this one, right after “Do not lag in zeal, be ardent in the
spirit,” closing out the verse is this week’s “Serve the Lord.” Which then is
the answer, this is what we are to do. Simply, serve the Lord, but let’s take a
quick look again at the entire picture, these according to Paul are the Marks
of a Christian.
9 Let love be
genuine; hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good; 10 love one
another with mutual affection; outdo one another in showing honor. 11 Do
not lag in zeal, be ardent in spirit, serve the Lord. 12 Rejoice in
hope, be patient in suffering, persevere in prayer. 13 Contribute to
the needs of the saints; extend hospitality to strangers.
14 Bless those
who persecute you; bless and do not curse them. 15 Rejoice with
those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. 16 Live in harmony with
one another; do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly; do not claim to
be wiser than you are. 17 Do not repay anyone evil for evil, but
take thought for what is noble in the sight of all. 18 If it is
possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. 19 Beloved,
never avenge yourselves, but leave room for the wrath of God; for it is
written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.” 20 No,
“if your enemies are hungry, feed them; if they are thirsty, give them
something to drink; for by doing this you will heap burning coals on their
heads.” 21 Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
So
the answer to what we are to do, is to serve the Lord, and if you put that
together with last week, the basis of our life, what we are created to do is
exactly this. If we were to look at our Book of Confessions, the Book in our
denomination that contains the conversations about what we believe, one of the things
we find in there is the Catechisms of our Church, and the first question of the
Catechism is what is the chief end of man? And the answer, “To glorify God and
enjoy him forever. . .” we have a sense then that we glorify God when we serve
him, and we also enjoy him in this service. . . but what is the enjoyment of
serving God like? What does it mean to serve God? How is God served? How is God
glorified through our service?
This week we celebrated and marked the 500th
year anniversary of the beginning of the Reformation, and as children of the
Reformation we look to scripture for answers to our questions like this. So in
my study this week I started to think about, what are some of the Old Testament
Models of service to the Lord? I could have chosen so many, but I went with
Moses, having led the Israelites out of Bondage, has reached the end of his
service. This is Deuteronomy 31: 1-8
31 Then Moses went
out and spoke these words to all Israel:2 “I
am now a hundred and twenty years old and I am no longer able to lead you. The Lord has said to me, ‘You shall not cross the Jordan.’3 The Lord your God himself will cross over ahead of you. He
will destroy these nations before you, and you will take possession of
their land. Joshua also will cross over ahead of you, as the Lord said.4 And the Lord will do to them what he did to Sihon and Og, the kings of
the Amorites, whom he destroyed along with their land.5 The Lord will deliver them to you, and you must do to them all
that I have commanded you.6 Be strong and courageous. Do
not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the Lord your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor
forsake you.”
7 Then Moses summoned Joshua and
said to him in the presence of all Israel, “Be strong and courageous, for
you must go with this people into the land that the Lord swore to their ancestors to give them, and you must
divide it among them as their inheritance.8 The Lord himself goes before you and will be with you; he will
never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged.”
So if we were to look at
Moses as an example, we find the sense of serving the Lord is that you do God’s
will, you set captives free, you stand up before the rulers and in God’s name
defy them, and lead grumbling people into and then through the wilderness, and just
when you are about to find the fulfillment of all your labors, you hand the job
over to someone else to finish it. Hmmmm. . . .
Well
maybe we can look at Jonah, he’s another servant of the Lord in the Old
Testament. . . he runs away at first, because he doesn’t want to do it, but the
reason he doesn’t want to do it is because God wants him to go to Ninevah and
preach to them about repenting and turning to the Lord, or else. . . . but he
knows that if he goes, they will repent, and then there will be no, or else. .
. and this makes him mad. . . but he does it anyway, and he is right, the Lord
relents, and Jonah is angry sitting in the shade. . . hmmm.
Ezekiel
serves and gets in hot water with Jezebel and Ahab. . . Daniel serves and finds
himself in the Lion’s den, Shadrach Mesach and Abednego serve and they find
themselves in a fiery furnace. . . Noah has to built a big boat and fill it
with animals. . . then of course there is the man that God refers to as, “my
servant Job” have you considered, “my servant Job” he asks. . .
You
see what I mean there are a lot of different models and paths for servanthood
that we find there, and many are challenging, to say the least. . . the very
act of serving the Lord seems to be fraught with many different paths, and many
different obstacles. . .
If we were to look at history there are
many different understandings on what it means to serve the Lord. You can look
in the Gospels and find Jesus embodying the idea of servanthood, healing the
sick, feeding the multitudes, caring for the lowly, eating with outcasts, and
of course going to the cross, bearing the cross himself, he even says to his
disciples in the Gospel of Matthew 20: 25-28,
But
Jesus called them to him and said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles
lord it over them, and their great ones are tyrants over them. 26 It will not be so
among you; but whoever wishes to be great among you must be your servant, 27 and whoever wishes
to be first among you must be your slave; 28 just as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve,
and to give his life a ransom for many.
So
we can see that Christ is an original model for this notion of service. The
early church had some ideas about service, and if you look at all of Paul’s
letters, including this one of the Romans, you can get a lot of different ideas
of what it means to serve the Lord, many connected to serving those around you,
serving your brothers and sisters in the faith, being united together, etc.,
and then there was another generation of Christians who was forced to face
persecution at the hands of the Romans, and if you read the Book of Revelation
you can see a view of service that was about witnessing, proclaiming the idea
that Christ is Lord in a society where such things could cost you status, could
cost you business, and in some cases could even cost you your life. But then
eventually things change as the church has more success than it has ever had before
because the church and the state gets combined when Constantine converts the
Empire to a Christian one, and then being a Christian gets connected to serving
the state, being a good citizen, etc. As the Roman Empire Falls and Kingdoms
develop in Feudal Europe during the middle Ages, serving the Lord might be
connected to serving your Lord if you are a peasant, it might have to do with
being a good vassal, serving in the military if you are asked. . . during the
Crusades, serving the Lord meant going to the Holy Land to fight the infidel
Muslims. In the late Middle Ages serving the Lord took on many faces, the claim
of tradition included things like indulgences, where serving the Lord somehow
got connected to making payments to restore your soul back in the grace of God,
but then during the Reformation serving the Lord took on new meanings, like
studying the Bible, believing, having faith. Here in America even more meaning,
perhaps serving the Lord meant having the right political views, attending
church, wearing the right clothes to church, but also teaching Sunday School,
feeding the poor, finding ways to help those in need through financial
contribution, etc. If you study it closely, there are as many different ways of
serving the church as there are people, and some are problematic and some are
very noble, and why would that be. . . it is because of the Lord we serve, and
the fallibility of human beings as servants. . . let’s look to our Gospel reading
from this morning: Luke 9; 57-62
57 As
they were walking along the road, a man said to him, “I will follow you
wherever you go.”
58 Jesus
replied, “Foxes have dens and birds have nests, but the Son of
Man has no place to lay his head.”
59 He
said to another man, “Follow me.”
But he replied, “Lord, first let me go and bury my father.”
60 Jesus
said to him, “Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim
the kingdom of God.”
61 Still
another said, “I will follow you, Lord; but first let me go back and say
goodbye to my family.”
62 Jesus
replied, “No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for
service in the kingdom of God.”
You see, one of the reasons serving the
Lord looks so diverse is the very nature of our Lord. God in the Old Testament
cannot be tied down. He is the God who is. . . the Hebrews believed that they
could not even say His name because even a name trapped him too much. They
couldn’t put him in a box, they couldn’t depict him in anything made by humans,
he defied such things, and so since he is the God who created everything and
cannot be nailed down into any one thing. . . serving Him takes on as many
different modes as he does. . . and Christ is the same, he says follow me, leave all
behind and follow me, and do so right now, again the Lord we serve is a God on
the move, and when given the chance to serve himself. . . he himself goes to
the cross.
Serving a God like that then takes on a
life of its own. . . and we are lucky enough to live in a time where we are
free to serve him, individually and as we are created to because now, in 2017, we
have mostly rid ourselves of the trappings of power, where we stand with only
Christ as our intermediary between ourselves and God, where Church and State
are mostly separated by a wall, where Christianity is not imposed on us by any
state, and where we as individual followers of Christ need nor have anyone
between us and the Lord to tell us what it means to serve him, yes that means
even me, even Pastors, no, the question comes to us each again, what does it
mean to serve the Lord when we are completely free as Christians, as Americans,
as Presbyterians, as members of Bethany Presbyterian Church to do so? How can
we get back to following the Lord, rather than all the Lords of this world?
One answer and maybe the most important is
that we cannot trade back our freedom for something else. . . . even though it
is in our nature and in our history to do so. We cannot flee from the danger of
serving the Lord, we cannot cling to the safe, we cannot avoid the difficult
questions seeking common answers. . . but instead each individually wrestle
with what we are, and what we are called to do as servants of God. Because though
we are all here together, each of us has a unique path, and so I cannot tell
you exactly what your path is, though I can seek to help you find it, because just
like we can learn from the great servants in the Bible, we can learn from history,
and we can learn and help each other on our way. We can’t do for, and we cannot
take the place of, but we can seek to discern together, and walk our own paths,
side by side and parallel, for it is true that the Lord we serve has brought us
each to this point.
I believe that serving the Lord takes on a
7 part pattern. . . and I’ve developed this by looking at the common threads
between those who I think have effectively served the Lord in their lives,
those characters I have seen in the Bible, those saints throughout history,
whom I have admired, and the great saints that I have been blessed in my life
to walk this Earth alongside. . . . and the beautiful thing about these 7
patterns is they are always occurring, constantly and repeatedly throughout our
lives. . . they aren’t really stages that you go through once in life, but
rather ones that you constantly find yourself in.
These are Humility, Discernment,
Resolution, Perseverance, Fulfillment, Legacy, and Retirement. I want to take a
minute to go through each of these, and say a little something about each one,
and then walk through an example or two. . .
Humility is the point where you admit that
you don’t know what to do, and you give up yourself. . . the idea of being a
servant means that you are not doing things for your own benefit, nor your own
purposes, but instead are aligning your purpose to what you are serving. . . so
this unselfing is an important part of it. . . so many people who claim to be
serving the Lord throughout history do not begin with this important piece. . .
they hold on to themselves, and either do not have the staying power to finish
the race, or corrupt the God’s purposes to achieve their own. . . I think of
all those Medieval kings and Popes who used the name of Christianity to enrich
and empower themselves at the expense of others. . . and we can still see this
today. . . Humility says, it is not about me, but thee Oh God. . . and this is
the crucial step. . . but the great thing about it, is there is the constant
and recurring chance to start over if you go astray because realizing you are
or have been wrong is . . . yes. . . humility. . . kinda like the Go space on
the Monopoly board. . . you can always get back to that grab your $200 and start
your way back around the board again.
So you are standing there in humility, and
you ask the next question. . . what am I to do? This is called discernment. . .
discernment as the question, who am I and what am I being called to do? Where
do you go to find out? Since we begun with humility, the first thing we must do
is ask, and ask anew, and ask again and again, seek and keep on seeking, ask
and keep on asking, knock and keep on knocking. Never stop asking until you
have a good idea of what you are supposed to do and be, and not just on the big
full life scale, but in the little questions, remember these are patterns that
are constantly repeating. Am I called to do this? Am I called to do that? What
are these things? It may not be what you have always done, remember starting
with Humility opens us up to whatever God is calling, whatever God is doing in
and through our lives. Sometimes it is a major shift in what you may have
thought about yourself previously. . . but alas God’s will is what is to be
done. . .
And that brings us to the next step, which
is Resolution. Having discerned what you are being called to the next step is
to take it. To do it, to dive in, to go all in,
to commit yourself. . .
The next two often happen interchangeably
and simultaneously and that is Perseverance and Fulfillment. . . . . They go together because God gives us a
little of both when we are serving. Sometimes the challenges come and we have
to persevere, and we can if our Resolution was strong. . . but also along the
way our cup runs over, and we feel that fulfillment, we feel like we are at the
right place at the right time, and it all just works out right. And that brings
us to the next part:
Legacy, people will see your energy, your attitude,
your accomplishments, your strength, all of it, and it makes a difference, you
leave behind that kind of legacy, you are remembered for what you have done,
and then you give God all the glory. . . because the last part is the most
difficult, modeled by Moses in this morning’s Old Testament Lesson.
The last is Retirement. . . . stepping
away, passing on what you have done so that some one else can finish. The play
goes on, and you have contributed your verse and now it is time for someone
else to finish. You started with humility, you were serving the Lord and not
yourself, can you remain humble enough to let go, and move on to the next
thing? So very important, but so very challenging.
Now I know that I have built up serving
the Lord to a high level, using big words to describe it, but I want to close
with a reminder that this is about the small things as much as the big. If you
can do everything in life, as part of your service to God, then you will always
be in the right place. . . George Herbert’s poem which I quoted in the bulletin
gets at this idea. Let me close with it.
