Suffering
Suffering
June 12, 2022
Romans 5: 1 - 5
This morning’s lesson is from the Letter to the Christians in Rome – “To all God’s beloved in Rome, who are called to be saints” (Romans 1:7a) , as St. Paul wrote it. This letter is the only one that we now have that was written to a Church that Paul did not know. It is the most complete statement of Paul’s theological thinking rather than a response to questions raised by one of the churches.
Paul’s other letters were written in response to letters or gossip that he heard from churches that he had founded. And, in the way that they were written, we are never sure when Paul is writing his thoughts or where he is quoting the information that he has received from the Church. So, we sometimes have trouble understanding all of the statements, some of which can seem to be contradictory. But not so here.
The Letter to the Romans appears to be Paul’s letter to the Roman Christians preparing them for his arrival – so they would welcome and support him when he got there. (When he finally got there, you remember, he was facing serious legal problems, apparently under some form of house arrest.)
In our lesson from the opening the fifth chapter, Paul writes, “We have been justified by faith, (therefore,) we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” {Romans 5:1). Justified is a legal term meaning that we have been found innocent or not guilty in God’s judgment because of our faith. That does not mean that we have been judged, finding that we have never sinned; we are not at all without sin. But because of our faith, God excuses or looks over or looks past all of our sin – the proper word is that God forgives our sin.
“Through Jesus we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand” (1:2), we read. Paul is talking about himself and his standing in grace. But he is at the same time reminding us that if we are justified by faith – that is, if we have faith in God through Jesus, we, too, are standing in God’s grace -- in God’s unmerited, free, and spontaneous love. So, because of our faith, Paul is saying, God looks past, ignores, and forgives our sin and loves us anyway.
Remember that Paul is in house arrest for charges that ultimately cost him his life by the Roman justice system. But he is proclaiming that he is standing in God’s grace; he affirms that he is forgiven of all his sin and that he is living in God’s grace or unmerited love. He has all that confidence in God’s care even while he is waiting to die in Rome.
And there, in that situation, Paul writes that “we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.” We think that we have difficulties with which to contend – but nothing like Paul’s situation. We may be a few dollars short or putting up with some sore joints or some other bodily pain. But in our situations we, too, need to rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.
Not only that, Paul writes, “but we rejoice in our sufferings.” Can you imagine that? When your hurts show up again, remember to rejoice in them! Sure, you say; not I.
Here is why: 3“knowing that suffering produces endurance, 4and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 5and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.”
Let me try that bit by bit.
Suffering produces endurance. That is like saying, “No pain, no gain.” We can understand that in concept. When we used to work out, our athletic coaches pushed us into the pain range so that our bodies would develop greater capability in the needs of the particular sport. Similarly, our bodies gain greater endurance to suffering when we receive another round and learn that we can handle it, too. It may be that when we experience greater suffering, we learn that handling the older suffering is not so hard any more. But Paul’s argument is simply that handling suffering builds up our psychological and physical endurance for handling that suffering. It is almost saying that suffering inoculates us from the power of future suffering.
Then, endurance produces character. This is not theology; it is Paul’s way of thinking about our human process. I could argue that it is the suffering that produces both the endurance and the character. The exercise pain gradually develops physical stamina – the more physical the activity in which you engage, the greater the physical endurance that you gain. Your character development comes through your learning to tolerate the suffering. The stronger your character is, the more suffering you can make yourself endure. But this argument makes little or no difference.
Paul seems to be trying to understand and justify the suffering that he has already received and that which surly lies ahead of him. Whether it is two steps to endurance and to character or one step to both endurance and character, this suffering that he has and is experiencing “produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit,” he writes.
To short-circuit this argument, suffering produces hope that we who follow Jesus, the Christ, will not be put to shame by the suffering. Rather, the suffering that we experience lets us participate in the passion of Jesus to obtain salvation. Then whether the suffering produces character and endurance to facilitate Paul’s continuing to preach and witness for God about the life and ministry of Jesus or whether the suffering produces his death where he gains the victory of salvation in heaven. As Paul puts it in the first chapter, “For to me to live is Christ and to die is gain” (Romans 1: 19-21).
Well, that is St. Paul. What does that have to do with us? We are not in jail or in house arrest because of our faith or actions.
We have some physical sufferings because we have lived much longer than our bodies were evolved to do. Thankfully, this is not excruciating pain for most of us.
We may have some psychological or spiritual pain because we fear that we do not believe enough in God. That is a question that no one can answer for us; we have to stake our own lives on our own opinions. “Do I believe enough” is the form of the question. And, yes, we might well suffer with this question and associated concerns.
When Jesus was asked about his credibility, he said that if one does not believe him because of what he says, then believe him because of all that he does and has done.
That would seem to be a good standard for us. If we have trouble deciding if we believe enough, then we can look at what we do in carrying out our belief in God through Jesus. Or, said the other way, we can prove to ourselves that our belief is real and true if we order our lives around doing the things that Jesus did and taught.
If we regularly love our neighbors, thinking about them frequently and caring for them and assisting them when needed, then we are following Jesus’ pattern for our lives. If we turn our neighbor’s hate into acceptance through our love or if we assist another neighbor in finding a wholesome and thriving lifestyle, we are living in the spirit of Jesus.
St. Paul would say that we are not saved by this righteous behavior, but these acts are evidence of our faith. And, probably more importantly, through these acts of imitating Jesus, we sense and learn and affirm our faith in Jesus as we live in his pattern of life. By doing acts of love, we learn to love our neighbors. By doing the kinds of things that Jesus did and taught, we come to understand what a Christian life is about and we gradually become Christians in our living.
We have faith, yes. But we practice and refine and affirm our faith within our own selves through this following the examples of Jesus’ teachings and practices. So, don’t suffer with questions of the extent and quality of your faith. Start acting out your faith in practice, then you will build and affirm your faith and convince yourself of your faith – or lack there of.
Through suffering that question of faith, we can learn that we are justified by our faith and that we can find peace in God. We can stand in God’s grace.
Let us grow in this faith and grace and give thanks to God.
Amen.
Sermons\Rom5_1-5.6b22