MARCH 30, 2008
Psalm 16; 1 Peter 1:3-9
That was easy. Those words are the trade-named company slogan of Staples, the rising star among office supply megastores. When it comes to meeting our office supply needs, Staples has us covered, piece of cake. Fans of the NBC television hit sitcom “The Office” will recognize Staples as a primary sponsor of the show as well as a character in the plot line. Staples is the national chain that the little guy paper company of the series always loses to.
The crew of the office is old school about sales techniques, business to business, the old fashioned way, no computers, and no websites. But not Staples, they use this newfangled thing called the Internet. The office continues to lose clients to Staples because it’s so easy. Just a little subtle ad placement in an otherwise brilliantly written television show, this ad campaign for Staples has won industry awards for its creative spots containing the easy button. You may have seen the easy button in staples TV commercials, it’s a cherry red plastic dome shaped button with the word easy emblazoned across the top. It would look more at home in front of a game show contestant. The concept of this magical device is that with just one click of the easy button, poof, Staples fixes any problem that comes up in the office. Business clients can download the easy button onto their computers. Just click the button on your computer and you can send orders, buy supplies and get technical support. It’s actually very easy. So think of all of the life situations, past and present, where we could use an easy button fix. How about college exams, asking a girl out on a date for the first time, getting the house clean and the laundry done, getting the kids to bed and that never ending home remodeling project. Or how about an easy button for pastors, sermon preparation, finding volunteers, meeting the budget, help the committee meetings get something done efficiently. Staples has an easy button, life does not. Staples says that was easy, Jesus says this might hurt.
This might hurt; you hear this in life sometimes. Every time you donate blood or get a shot, this might hurt, how about the dentist every once in a while? The mantra this is going to hurt you more than it hurts me. There are two clear this might hurt elements to this passage in Verse 6, “even if you know for a little while you have had to suffer various trials” and in Verse 8, “although you have not yet seen him”. Clearly there are elements in life and the Christian journey that are hard, and if we are honest we all want God to make things easy for us. A bit like a genie emerging from a lamp to grant wishes. But it doesn’t work that way. Life and faith are often bumpy roads and not efficient highways. This scripture passage is important for all of us in developing a healthy and viable theology of suffering. The Lenten season has just invited people into personal and reflective experiences with God. But for many, life’s suffering or their sense of God’s absence is a problem and keeps them separated from God. Just examine how we talk about suffering in western church culture. In our multimedia-connected world, we hear stories and view images of religious persecution and abject physical poverty that seem remote from the typical American experience. It is easy to inadvertently conceive of real affliction as exclusively the property of the third world. While our predominant western lifestyle is comparatively blessed and easy, it does not mean that suffering is absent. Suffering does tend to find us all in many ways.
There is emotional suffering, there can be depression or anxiety, traumas impact our self worth almost daily, people suffering, whether temporary or long term people are not well at times and as we age this becomes more so. Whether it be ourselves or loved ones, there is illness and pain in our world. And there is spiritual suffering, people in the church have doubts, we all face unanswerable questions, sometimes we feel life is not fair, and sometimes it isn’t. Along with an expanded sense of what suffering constitutes we need to recognize that in various capacities all of us suffer, not just Christians, not just the disobedient who bring it upon themselves but all of us. No person, whether a Christian or not, is immune to potential suffering in life and faith. But this text can offer some hope amidst affliction.
First, suffering must have meaning. Many people will voluntarily suffer for an important cause but few can tolerate suffering without perceived meaning. Look at verse 7, “so that the genuineness of your faith may be found to result in praise and glory and honor”. What does this mean? It means simply that what is brought into being through great effort, practice, endurance and pain has great value. Life and Christianity are not easy. There is sacrifice, sweat, perseverance and hurt. Even when things go well in life and we are victorious we may say that hurt, that hurt a lot, but it had meaning.
Secondly, suffering brings transformation. We need to be awakened to the spiritually formative elements of hard knocks. How might Christ be at work in us and upon us through suffering? How are we being changed? How can we bring glory to God through the way we respond to trials and afflictions? Still we may experience a sense of God’s absence during our suffering. Mother Teresa wrote, “ that even though I suffer I pray that I may have the courage to keep on smiling for I know God will find me”. In many of our “this may hurt” life experiences we understand that the short-term pain prevents long-term suffering. While a shot at the doctors may have momentary hurt it prevents long-term suffering. Despite a fear of needles it’s better to have 10 seconds of hurt rather than catching Polio or Smallpox. And most people are stronger for their suffering. But there is pain and hurt and difficulty that does not go away and is difficult to explain. And so for we Christians it is back to the big picture, suffering means finding God at work in our afflictions. And there is no red button we can push to ensure it will be easy. There is only a cross that says this might hurt. But the cross speaks to us in our hurt and suffering. The cross tells us that God still cares and is still there no matter what happens, that hurting will eventually end where salvation begins. That is the Easter message. That God is victorious in the grand scheme and his salvation will be revealed.
This eschatological perspective finds hope in God’s ultimate sovereignty and demands that those who are a new creation in Christ, who accept the Easter story and the empty tomb must remain faithful. We have to suffer various trials but we must keep our eyes and faith on the journey’s end. The story of Easter is the story of a resurrected Jesus who sees our suffering and guards us through faith. It is appropriate that this letter ends in the manner it began and after you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ will himself restore, support strengthen and establish you. To him be the power forever and ever.
Amen.
Let us pray.