Sermons/Discussions

“Why Christians Suffer: Part 2”

Proper 28 Year C

By The Rev. Matt Kennedy

The Church of the Good Shepherd

This is the second sermon in a series about the place and purpose of suffering in the life of believers and the church. Last time, I compared the way God uses grief, trial, and persecution in our lives to the way a sword-smith uses the furnace, hammer and anvil. You can't make a good sword without searing the blade in fire, and then bending and pounding it with hammer and anvil. In the same way God does not make strong disciples and vital effective churches without the fire of persecution and the hammer and anvil of grief and trial.

God forges Christian character through suffering to produce a people of perseverance; a people strong enough to stand firm in a fallen and world; a people with a message sharp enough to pierce through the veil of sin and death; a people committed enough to shine the light of the gospel of Christ into the hearts and souls of the lost who Jesus died to save.

This message should hit home with all of us. Together, we are being forged right now as a church as we stand firm through the fire of a crisis that strikes to the heart of biblical faith. And all of us, in one way or another, individually are being forged as believers through the various circumstances of our lives. If you are not being tried in the fire right now then either you have been or you will be. So this message is for everyone.

This morning I want to begin setting out four basic biblical principles about Christian suffering that will guide us throughout this series. I'll only get through two of them today. Next week I'll take up the last two and the following week we'll turn back to second Thessalonians and talk about how these four principles were fleshed out in the experience of a local church and how they're fleshed out here and now. These four principles are applicable to every painful or trying situation you find yourself in whether the suffering is something you've brought on yourself or something that has happened to you. Whenever you're in pain for whatever reason, they apply.

Principle Number One: suffering is never random: For believers there is no such thing as chance. Everything that happens in your life happens for a purpose. No matter how painful, nothing comes to you if you're a believer, a son or daughter of the Almighty God, nothing comes to you unless God allows it and permits it and perhaps even causes it.

In Matthew 10:30 Jesus says, “Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them falls to the ground apart from the will of your father,” If even smallest of birds are of concern to God and nothing happens to them without his knowledge, how much more then does he concern himself with the circumstances of your life? Jesus goes on to say, “even the hairs of your head are numbered.” All the details of your life matter to God down to the number of hair follicles that top off your cranium. If God has every hair on your head numbered and if not even a sparrow can fall to the ground apart from the will of God, then you and I can be assured that nothing happens in our lives that God has not foreseen and permitted. As Jesus says, “Don't be afraid, you're worth many sparrows.”

In some sense this is comforting. The world isn't out of control. God isn't the great watchmaker that the 18 th century Deists thought he was. He didn't just create a world capable of running itself and then walk away. He didn't set the watch and leave. He's intimately involved in the world he created. I can trust that God knows what's going on in my life and he has a purpose and a plan for me that he's bringing to fruition. And that plan goes forward not despite the circumstances in my life, but through them and because of them. In other words, the pain in your life, whether you bring it on yourself or it is brought on you, is not a wrench in God's plan. The pain is part of the plan.   God's plan includes painful circumstances.

But, just knowing that God's in control doesn't answer the “why” question. If God's in control, why did he let me lose my job? Why did he let my friends stop being my friends? Why did he let my mom die? Why did my wife or my husband leave me? Why did people leave the church? Why is this specific pain in my life? That brings us to the second principle.

Whatever the reason, suffering is always intended for your good. We can state it another way, for believers the gifts that flow out of suffering outweigh the benefits of never having suffered.

Before I get too far let me say that I don't think you'll always find an answer to the why question. God allowed Satan to destroy Job's house, for example, take away his wealth, and even his children. And though God eventually restored all of these things and Job died a wealthy man surrounded by family, God never offered him an explanation. The explanation had to wait until heaven. Sometimes that'll be the case for us too.

But while we can't always find answers we can always know that whatever suffering has happened or is happening, it's ultimately for our good and it's best for us, better than if we'd not gone through it at all. That was true for Job and that is true for you and for me.

“And we know,” Paul tells us in his letter to the Romans 8:28 , “that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” In all things God works for your good. Whether painful circumstances feel good or not is another matter, but feelings aside, we can be assured that they are good for us; that God has purposed good for us in and through them.

Do any of you ever watch Animal Planet? Well they have this reality show that I can barely stand to watch set in a veterinary hospital's emergency room. Pets come in--in really bad shape and the vets work to save their lives. I was watching one day and a dog came in that had been hit by a car. She wasn't in that bad of shape and she was going to survive but one of her legs had been knocked out of its socket. The doctor had to re-set it. By her eyes you could tell that she was really in pain and really scared. Her whole body was shaking. Even though the doctor spoke softly to her and stroked her fur and even though her family was standing right there holding her in place, the dog had no idea what was going on. When the doctor began to adjust her leg she yelped and cried and to her it must have seemed like her family was betraying her, holding her down so this evil doctor could torture her. When in fact while the doctor was causing her pain, it was necessary pain and pain that ultimately was for her good.

I think sometimes we can be like that dog. God always intends pain for our good, but because it hurts so much sometimes we just can't see it that way. In my own life, when I feel pain, as Anne will tell you, I most often react with anger toward God. You might despair or feel like God has abandoned you. But none of these feelings reflect reality. The reality is that God is good and that his plans for you are good.

I'll take up the next two principles next week, but let me end this morning with a quote from the prophet Jeremiah that sums up the first two principles. Jeremiah is called the weeping prophet because he lived and preached to the people of Judah during one of the most severe crises they ever faced as a nation. Jerusalem was going to be overrun by the Babylonians and taken captive into exile. God called Jeremiah to let the people know first that He was in total control of their situation and, second, everything that was about to happen to them was part of his will for them and that, ultimately, it would be for their good. Listen to what God said, “I know the plans I have for you…plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you and will gather you from all the nations and places where I have banished you and will bring you back from to the place from which I carried you into exile.” I'll bring you home. That message, the message that God has plans to prosper and not to harm, for good and not for evil is not only for Judah but for all of us.

God's promise was fulfilled. After 70years, God brought his people out of exile. They rebuilt Jerusalem and rebuilt the temple. They emerged from the crisis stronger; more faithful more committed, more unified. 300 years later God prospered them and the world more than they could possibly have imagined when a young Jewish girl named Mary gave birth to God Almighty in a barn in the village of Bethlehem . God's promise to bring good out of pain was ultimately fulfilled in Jesus Christ who, through his death, brings everyone who believes back into a right relationship with God, who delivers us captivity to sin and brings us home to the father's house.

It is this same Jesus Christ who lives in you by the power of the Holy Spirit. It is Jesus Christ who is here with us no matter what happens. It is Jesus Christ who watches over this church, who watches over you and me; who has plans, no matter what the grief, no matter, what the trial, no matter what the persecution,   to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

Amen