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| Calvary Episcopal Church  Memphis, Tennessee November 19, 2000 The Twenty-third Sunday After Pentecost Suffering
Knows No Bounds
Perhaps the greatest mystery surrounding the existence of life is the human condition known as suffering. Suffering knows no boundaries: It does not discriminate on the basis of age, race, color, ethnicity, religious preference, gender, height, weight, geography, economic status or environmental surrounding. Every single human being is prone to suffer and has suffered at some point in life. Suffering is a worldwide epidemic, truly making it--in every sense of the phrase-- an "equal opportunity oppressor." In life, people suffer unexpectedly, while others anticipate its arrival. Suffering hasn't face, it hasn't taste, it hasn't a shape; it gives no warning and may strike suddenly. For the Church and her people, the mystery itself makes it a "silent" killer of the Faith and the faithful. Suffering hasn't a beginning or an end--it just is! And while there may be no medical antidote to eradicate global suffering, there is a Biblical response to such a condition and that is hope--hope manifested through endurance. St. Paul cautions us in today's Epistle lesson not to "abandon the confidence that is ours." Through endurance--endurance in the Faith--we are able to conquer suffering. We are empowered through the Holy Spirit to not only look to God as our source of hope and inspiration, but to take that hope and that inspiration and make a difference. Make a difference not only in our own lives, but also in the lives of all of God's people. For to make a difference in the life of another is to live out that wonderful commandment of Our Lord, "Love one another as I have loved you." The Church's response to suffering is to provide hope. And in order to give hope, we must "love one another as Christ himself has loved us." At the heart of the Christian Gospel is a message of love, and if love ceases to be central to our common mission and life as a Church and as a people, then we cease to be an effective source of hope. When we as the Church begin to minister to all of God's people, then we are able to provide hope, even in the heart of suffering. Suffering must be met with hope, and hope is spawned out of that love which "passes all understanding." To give
that love which "passes all understanding," we must look to
the One who is capable of giving that type of love to us--Jesus Christ.
Paul in his message to the Hebrews reminds us that during those hard,
unbearable times in life, strength and solace were found not only in one
another, but in the God who calls us into being. In our suffering, the
presence of God is manifested in suffering itself. God suffers with us,
and because God suffers with us, he is suffering. God suffers with us
and for us because he loves us unconditionally, and so we must return
that same spirit of love to God unconditionally. It is all too easy for us to say, "That's his problem" or "That's her issue." The truth is that for the Christian, the cares and concerns of one become community property. While response to problems does not call for us to literally take on the suffering of others, we are to encounter the suffering of others through constant prayer. We give a voice to the voiceless and hope to the hopeless when we remember them in our prayers. Prayer is that sacred opportunity to invite God to enter into the sanctuary of our lives and those of others. We pray for one another not because it's our Christian duty or obligation, but because as Christians we truly believe that God responds to prayers. Human suffering is a communal struggle. We must share in each other's suffering through the gift of prayer. We must pray constantly and be vigilant in our prayers--for truly God knows the human heart. Think of the feeling that may come over one when someone says, "I prayed for you today by name." In the whirlwind of life, someone took time out and prayed for the needs and concerns of another. When we pray for each other, we spiritually suffer with that person, so that no one truly suffers alone. Richard Foster, in his book Freedom of Simplicity, reflects on past students of his who were so determined to come into relationship with God, that he sometimes had to counsel them to relax and quit trying to be so religious. Foster writes, "Recently, I had one student who was struggling desperately and praying fervently over an internal matter. I shocked him when I said, 'Please stop praying. You are working at this too hard; let me pray for you.'" Pray, such a small word, and yet it set this student marvelously free. To pray is to set those suffering marvelously free. Jesus himself suffers in agony in the Garden of Gethsemane. The Gospel of Luke says that Jesus was in so much agony that his sweat became like blood. This time was so painful in Jesus' life that he took with him three of his closest friends--his disciples, Peter, James and John. We are told that the disciples became so tired that they fell asleep, and Jesus' response to these his closest friends--those who should have been praying for him by name-- "Could you not watch with me for one hour." Even Jesus himself needed his friends to be in prayer with him. If only the disciples could have endured the night. A third response to human suffering is that the Church must proclaim the Good News of God at all times and all costs. The Church, like Christ, must endure and proclaim the message of redemption to the rest of the world. Through redemption, God is made manifest in our hope, love and prayers--those essential elements needed if the Church is to elevate suffering, replacing it with hope. Through the act of redemption, God gives hope in the midst of world suffering. Suffering is not a means to an end as long as the Gospel is the sum total of our reaction. The total message of the Gospel is to help humanity not become discouraged in the face of oppression such as suffering. We must recognize suffering not as the defining result of life, but as an avenue to beckon the grace of God to enter into the world scene. Human suffering is more than just about you or me--it's about God raising up new life in this broken and fragmented world. And while at times we may lose faith in the world, we as the Church must not cease to endure, constantly looking for God to become evident in the struggle. The evidence of a God present in our suffering is a God in whom we, the Church, must have confidence. What is the Church's response to the human condition of suffering? The Church must continue to endure in hope, love and prayer, "for yet in a very little while, the one who is coming will come and will not delay." Amen. Copyright 2000 Calvary Episcopal Church (Jesus is speaking) "But when you see the desolating sacrilege set up where it ought not to be (let the reader understand), then those in Judea must flee to the mountains; the one on the housetop must not go down or enter the house to take anything away; the one in the field must not turn back to get a coat. Woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing infants in those days! Pray that it may not be in winter. For in those days there will be suffering, such as has not been from the beginning of the creation that God created until now, no, and never will be. And if the Lord had not cut short those days, no one would be saved; but for the sake of the elect, whom he chose, he has cut short those days. And if anyone says to you at that time, 'Look! There he is!' --do not believe it. False messiahs and false prophets will appear and produce signs and omens, to lead astray, if possible, the elect. But be alert; I have already told you everything." NRSV |
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