Romans 5:1-11 (New International Version)
1Therefore, since we have been justified through faith,
we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2through
whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which
we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of
God. 3Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings,
because we know that suffering produces perseverance; 4perseverance,
character; and character, hope. 5And hope does not disappoint
us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by
the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.
6You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless,
Christ died for the ungodly. 7Very rarely will anyone die
for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might
possibly dare to die. 8But God demonstrates his own love
for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died
for us.
9Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much
more shall we be saved from God's wrath through him! 10For
if, when we were God's enemies, we were reconciled to him
through the death of his Son, how much more, having been
reconciled, shall we be saved through his life! 11Not only
is this so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus
Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.
___________________________________________________________________
Everybody has difficulty in life, but several years ago,
Brian Hise of Provo, Utah experienced more difficulty than
any human being should have on a single day—or even
a whole month!
First, a water pipe broke in the upstairs apartment above
his own and flooded his apartment. So the manager told him
to go out and rent a water vacuum.
That's when he discovered his car had a flat tire. He went
inside to phone a friend for help. Standing in the water,
the electric shock he got from the phone startled him and
he ripped the phone off the wall.
Before he could leave the apartment a second time, a neighbour
had to kick down his apartment door because water damage
had jammed it tight.
While all of this was going on, somebody stole Brian's car.
But it was almost out of gas, so he found it a few blocks
away. He then had to push it to a gas station.
That evening, Hise attended a military ceremony at B.Y.U..
He injured himself severely when he somehow sat down on his
own bayonet, which had been tossed onto the front seat of
his car.
Doctors were able to stitch up his wounds but no one was
able to resuscitate Brian's four canaries, which were crushed
to death when wet ceiling plaster in his apartment fell on
them while he was gone.
When he got home, Brian slipped on the wet carpet and badly
injured his tailbone.
Mr. Hise said he began to wonder if "God wanted me
dead but kept missing."
The suffering Mr. Hise endured borders on the absurd. As horrendous as it was,
though, listening to it causes us to smile or chuckle nervously, kind of the
way we first react to someone slipping on a banana peel.
But we know that suffering isn’t funny.
As we live our comfortable, and relatively contented
lives, suffering is something we dread. It lurks in the
background of our existence. Even when we aren’t
experiencing it we’re anxious about the possibility of its intervention
into our lives. We see it all around us—narrowly in the lives of people
we know and widely on the news every day.
It’s a part of life.
Everyone here, in pulpit or pew, has suffered in one way or another.
Everyone here will experience suffering in the future.
It’s not something we like or look forward to.
It’s something we fear and feel anxious about.
That’s why the Apostle Paul’s perspective sounds so strange. In
our Scripture lesson from Romans 5, Paul writes of “rejoicing in our
sufferings”.
What on earth is he talking about?
How could he possibly come up with that one?!!
Like any piece of Scripture we need to be aware of the
context of any given verse. Pulling out the phrase “rejoice
in sufferings” and throwing it around when people
are in pain can cause even more hurt and damage.
And so we need to look at what Paul was writing about to
understand how he got to his rather unusual perspective.
Before he wrote about it Paul built a rather strong foundation
in which to anchor his comments about suffering.
The cornerstone of this foundation is justification. Paul
had been writing about justification for a chapter or so
before our lesson.
Justification is one of those complicated theological terms,
which actually has a fairly simple meaning. When we are justified
we are brought into a loving relationship with God. Justification
is the time when, in Christian terms, we are saved. We reach
back in love to God who has been reaching out to us all along.
Our reaching back occurs because we have developed faith
in Jesus Christ. We are justified by our faith.
Paul went on to write that through justification we receive
certain blessings—blessings that add to the foundation.
He writes of the blessings of peace, grace and hope.
These blessings are life changing. They are blessings, which
will touch us in this life and assure us of eternal life
with our loving God. These blessings truly form a mighty
foundation.
With that foundation, then, as a significant part of our
life, Paul is able to speak of rejoicing even when things
don’t seem so wonderful. Being justified by faith and
knowing peace, grace and hope, we are in a position to live
our lives with purpose and joy no matter what. No matter
what—even through the inevitable times of suffering.
Paul doesn’t say that the sting of suffering will
be taken away. The foundation doesn’t assure us that
pain will never be a part of our lives. We have no guarantees
of a life free of struggle, trouble and hardship. The reality
of suffering isn’t downplayed. But neither is the
reality of the foundation we have built our lives upon.
There is a balance.
Paul’s honesty is to be commended. Nowadays there
are those who ignore it by going around saying that suffering
is a punishment for sin or suffering comes because we don’t
have enough faith or suffering is a sign of God’s
displeasure with us.
Such teaching is false.
Suffering is a part of life.
The balance Paul offers is this: Suffering happens. We will
not be able to avoid it. But we aren’t in it alone.
We have a foundation upon which our lives rest. We have
a relationship with God that offers us peace, grace and
hope.
God stands with us in the very midst of our suffering.
But there’s more!
Along with the foundation of faith and relationship that
is ours, Paul goes on to say we can face suffering with
an attitude—an attitude that allows us to learn and
grow from our suffering.
He doesn’t say that suffering is good. He doesn’t
say that we should be thankful for suffering. But suffering
doesn’t have to be pointless. It doesn’t have
to be meaningless. It doesn’t have to just happen to
us and leave us devastated. We can find ways of redeeming
our suffering because God and God’s care are there
to help us through it.
Monica Hellwig wrote of the advantages of being poor. Her
words have been adapted by Phillip Yancey to speak to suffering:
"Suffering, the great equalizer, brings us to a point
where we may realize our urgent need for redemption.
Those who suffer know not only their dependence on God and
on healthy people but also their interdependence with one
another.
Those who suffer rest their security not on things, which
often cannot be enjoyed and may soon be taken away, but rather
on people.
Those who suffer have no exaggerated sense of their own importance,
and no exaggerated need of privacy. Suffering humbles the
proud.
Those who suffer expect little from competition and much
from cooperation.
Suffering helps us distinguish between necessities and luxuries.
Suffering teaches patience, often a kind of dogged patience
born of acknowledged dependence.
Suffering teaches the difference between valid fears and
exaggerated fears.
To suffering people, the gospel sounds like good news, and
not like a threat or a scolding. It offers hope and comfort.
Those who suffer can respond to the call of the gospel
with a certain abandonment and uncomplicated totality because
they have so little to lose and are ready for anything."
Suffering can be a learning time—a time of growth
and maturing.
Now we have to be careful here.
Seeing someone suffering brings all kinds of feelings to
the surface as we watch and care. We desperately want to
do something to make the suffering go away. We’re uncomfortable
watching and listening to someone struggling. We’re
reminded that suffering can pay an unwelcome visit to us
too. We can feel helpless and uncertain of what to do or
say but we want to do or say something.
It’s too easy, as our response, to tell someone who
is suffering that good will come of it. That might be
true but when people are going through terrible times such
reassurance
may ring hollow.
Rejoicing in suffering isn’t necessarily what people
want to hear about when they are struggling. When people
are hurting they want our support, our understanding and
our care—not a quick platitude. We should never use
this teaching as an easy way out of dealing with suffering.
This lesson of learning and growth is best absorbed before
and after our times of suffering. When we are in the midst
sometimes just holding on is all we can do.
And so I invite us all to look back—look back at the
occasions when life was difficult. I invite us to remember
what our relationship with others and with God meant to us
in the low times. I invite us to reflect on how we were changed
by struggle—what lessons for life we learned. I invite
us to rejoice in the perseverance, character and hope that
developed when we were doing the best we could just to
hang on.
And I invite us to look ahead—look ahead knowing that,
now when things are going well, we have the time to spend
with God in prayer, study and worship. Now, when things are
going well, we have the opportunities to add to the foundation
of our faith by giving ourselves more and more in love to
our Lord. Now, when things are going well, we can prepare
for the inevitable times of struggle and even suffering by
walking closely with God—so close that we realize
nothing and no one will ever separate us.
May we rejoice in the foundation of faith given to us.
May we rejoice in the suffering that leads to growth and
hope that can never, ever be taken away.
(1624)
© The Rev. Dennis Cook, St. Timothy’s Presbyterian
Church, Ajax, ON, Canada
