This Week's Light Service Sermon

Light Service Sermons for the Month
What does Christianity teach about..?
Suffering
DATE: March 18, 2001
TEXT: II Corinthians 12:6-10

As we look at the world around us and the events that have taken place the last few weeks, we can't help but notice there is a lot of suffering. And it is suffering that touches the lives of so many people. Especially the events that took places like Kosovo, Sanatee, California and now the young girl being shot in a Catholic school in Williamstown, Pennsylvania.
Over the years, suffering has affected our Faith family in many and various ways: job loss, children in danger, marriages in tension, stress related illnesses. Of course, suffering is nothing new to humanity. It has been affecting us homo sapiens since the dawn of time.
In the text we will be studying this morning, 2000 years ago Paul made reference to his own personal suffering when he writes that he "three times...begged the Lord [to] make his suffering go away. But God replied, 'My kindness is all you need. My power is strongest when you are weak.'"
A couple of things to keep in mind about Paul:
1) Paul had a strong reputation because of the incredible letters of great, great theological importance he wrote to churches. He wrote letters to the Romans, the Corinthians, the Philippians, the Galatians to name but a few. He was kind of like a theological Arnold Schwartznegger. But the problem was that when Paul showed up in the various towns and villages to whom he was writing, he appeared more like a Peewee Herman when he arrived. Because Paul was not very big physically, many times the people were really disappointed. (It is kind of like imagining what those booming voiced announcers on radio might look like then seeing them in person. Boy what a difference your imagination can make.) Paul not only looked like a "wimp" he wasn't a very good speaker either. Many times people were disappointed in him.
2) Also, in the verses right before our morning text, Paul talks about his "thorn in the flesh." Evidently Paul had some kind of physical suffering that was of great torment to him. We don't know what that physical suffering was, but within this verse Paul says, "I begged for the Lord to take that suffering away from me." that is what he is talking about.
It's really interesting that when God responds to Paul he says, "Paul, my kindness is sufficient for you. My grace is sufficient for you." Paul is very tempted to be a self-reliant person and he began to focus on his own suffering. And what God was saying to Paul is, "Forget about your sufferings, Paul, keep in mind those things that are important. And what is important is my love for you."
In the next two verses Paul tells us about the importance of relying upon God's trust. "So if Christ keeps giving me his power, I will gladly brag about how weak I am. Yes, I'm glad to be weak or insulted or mistreated or have troubles and sufferings if it is for Christ. Because when I am weak, I am strong." What God is really telling us through Paul is that all of the sufferings that you and I go through in life are really not that important compared to the love of God and because ultimately, none of our sufferings can compare with the glory of eternal life in Christ. What we need to begin to do is to rely and trust upon God.
In his letter to the Romans, Paul talks about some of the positive things that can come out of suffering. "But that's not all. We gladly suffer because we know that suffering helps us endure. And endurance builds character which gives us a hope that will never disappoint us."
How many of you rally like to exercise? Most of us who exercise really don't like to do it because it takes a lot of effort and it's hard. I remember when I was in track and field in high school. We would have these long practices and we would run around the track and we would lift weights and we would be just dead tired at the end of it. Then do you want to know what the coach would want us to do? He'd want us to run wind sprints. I was a field man--a shot putter and discus thrower. I don't run! I remember as we struggled the coach would always say, "You'll thank me later." I never remember thanking him later.
What Paul is telling us that sometimes there will be sufferings that we will have to endure in life. God doesn't want us to experience those sufferings. We don't want to experience those sufferings. But some good can come out of that because it will help us in our faith walk. It will help us in our maturity as we grow in our Christian walk.
The two things that we really need to remember about suffering is that we first need to trust in God. And second as he wrapped up the verse we read in Romans, he talked about a hope that doesn't disappoint us. It is that hope that sustains us through suffering.
Henry Nouwen, a Roman Catholic priest who once taught at Harvard, wrote a book called Compassion. I'd like to read an excerpt from that book.
The word compassion is derived from the Latin words pati and kum which together mean 'to suffer with.' Compassion asks us to go where it hurts, to enter into places of pain, to share in brokenness, fear, confusion, and anguish.
Compassion challenges us to cry out with those in misery, to mourn with those who are lonely, to weep with those who are in tears. Compassion requires us to be weak with those who are weak, vulnerable with those who are vulnerable, and powerless with the powerless. Compassion means full emersion in the condition of being human.
And our God is a compassionate God. This means first of all that he is a God who has chosen to be "God with us." Our God is a God that does not want us to suffer alone. Our God is a God that sent his own Son into this world to live a life just like you and I, to experience everything that this life has. Not just the joys and the incredible happiness of this life, but all of the pain and sorrow that we go through. God has experienced all those same things because God's own son came into this world to suffer with us.
I can think of no better illustration of what I think God has done for us than in a story by Walt Wangerin called "The Rag Man." Walt writes for the Lutheran and is the preacher for the Lutheran Hour. But he is also a consummate storyteller.
("The Ragman" from Ragman and other cries of faith by Walter Wangerin, Jr. Pages 3-6, Harper and Row, 1984)
God has sent his own son into this world. God would want to suffer with us. God would want to expend compassion to each one of us in a incredibly special way.
Jesus in Luke 6:36, says "Be compassionate to others as your father in heaven is compassionate." You and I have an incredible opportunity to be the hands and feet of Jesus in this world, to reach out and touch people, those in need.
The third part of our vision state says that we at Faith intend to joyfully go and share his love in the world.
The fifth value by which we direct our ministry is: To assist in the care of a hurting world.

Service Team

Hospice Soup Teams

Busy Fingers

Women of the ELCA

OPEN M

Our LIFE groups

Endowment Fund

Preschool

Northeastern Ohio Synod

all facilitate this value in the name of Faith Lutheran Church. I encourage you to ask God to work on your heart and if you're not involved in a mission of mercy to do that. Because that's how we are the hands and feet of Jesus in this world.
Bob Pierce was the founder of World Vision, a Christian relief agency. Bob was dying of leukemia. Before he died he wanted to go and visit some friends in Indonesia. While there, he was touring some of the villages and he saw a woman lying on a mat next to the river. He asked his friend, "Why isn't this woman in the clinic?" His friend replied, "She also has cancer. She's dying and she wanted to spend her remaining days next to the coolness of the river that she was so familiar with."
Bob was so struck with compassion that he got down on one knee next to this woman. He touched and began to stroke her hand. He prayed for her. After he was done praying the woman looked up at him and said something. He didn't understand it because it was in her native tongue. He asked his friend, "What did she say?" He replied, "She said, 'If only I could sleep again.'" And with that tears welled up in Bob's eyes and he reached into his pocket and he grabbed out his own sleeping pills.
You see, the leukemia had gotten so painful for Bob that the only way that he could sleep at night was with sleeping pills. And he gave it to his friend and he said, "I want you to use these for this woman for as long as they last to make sure that she is able to have a good night's rest." It would be another 10 days before Bob would be able to refill his prescription. So he would have many nights of suffering and pain ahead. But at that time God gave Bob a supernatural peace because Bob knew that he had done the right thing. That's what our God tells us to do.
In a little while we're once again going to be sharing the Lord's Supper. It's one of the ways that God provides himself for a hurting world. It is a meal of healing. It is a meal of forgiveness. Take and eat. Take and drink. Because God wants to share your life with its pain, suffering, hopes and dreams. Because God wants you to share with him His hope and life.
AMEN