When you sense difficulties how do you react?
When you sense problems what is your response?
Recently I saw some hilarious videos of how people respond when they are in trouble
In one video a man was carrying a box of photocopier paper when some jumped out from the behind corner and scared him….he jumped, dropped the box and put his hand up in the air as if he was surrendering.
In another video someone throws a toy spider at a man carrying a beer, he throws his beer in the air then turns to the person who threw the spider to him in the boxing position.
How do you respond to trouble?
Are you a person who surrenders?
Are you a person who fights?
Or perhaps you are a person who enjoys the challenge of working through problems?
Or perhaps you view problems as an opportunity?
In today’s reading from Luke Jesus highlights that as Christians it is guaranteed that we will face troubles.
That the Christian life is not an easy life.
That following Jesus,
standing up for God’s approach to life
means that we should expect opposition, persecution, betrayal and even trouble.
Imagine that as a slogan,
come join our church and you will be opposed, persecuted, betrayed and experience trouble.
Now the surprising thing is we expect trouble from those who are distant from us.
We expect problems from people who are in another country or not like us.
But today Jesus reminds us that trouble comes not just from people who are distant from us
but from people who are close to us.
Trouble comes from people who are close to us.
Do you experience this at times?
Verse 16 says you will be betrayed by parents, brothers and sisters, relatives and friends.
This is the reality of the Christian life.
We will experience troubles, even from those who we thought would support us.
But this is not what many of us want.
When it comes to Christianity most of us probably look at Christianity similar to some of the followers of Hagar the Horrible view being part of his army as depicted in the following comic script of Hagar the Horrible.
Frame one.
Hagar is inciting his troops. "This is the moment we’ve been waiting for men! The moment we do battle with the enemy! Is everyone here?
They shout: "YES!"
Frame Two
Hagar continues: "Okay men -- repeat after me. ’I am a Viking Warrior!’"
"I AM A VIKING WARRIOR!" they shout.
"And I will fight to the death for what I believe!" (pause)
then silence
Frame four: silence again
Frame five: Hagar asks: "Okay, why aren’t you repeating after me?!"
One meek Viking speaks for them all: "Hagar, the men would like to change that to ’and I will fight hard until it’s time for dinner."
Most of us enjoy the Christian life until it gets a little tough.
The popular view of many people is that if God is on our side then everything should be going right.
Our life should be free of problems.
However this is not the biblical view.
This is far from reality for a Christian.
Jesus didn’t say take up my sack of gold and follow me, he said take up your cross and follow me.
The reality is that following Jesus and living your life as a Christian will not stop you from experiencing and seeing trouble.
In some instances trouble for being a Christian is obvious.
In some places Christians are physically hurt simply for their beliefs.
In your bulletins under the family devotion material you will find the web page www.persecution.org listed.
Here you can read story after story of Christians around the world who are persecuted because of their faith.
One story is that of Christian family living in a village in India who were beaten because they refused to participate in a Hindu ceremony.
Other persecutions are not expected.
We expect churches to be places of peace.
And yet history shows that this is not the case.
Members turn on pastors.
Pastors turn on members.
Members turn on each other.
A significant number of pastors each year leave parish ministry because of burnout, due to personal attacks.
You probably know someone who is no longer attending church because they couldn’t handle some of the conflict.
And remember Jesus reminds us that we will get trouble from those closest to us.
However, if we think about it for a moment.
The church is one of the most likely places for unrest, for conflict.
And there are at least two reasons.
One is the church is what God uses to bring change into the world,
change into your life.
And the social sciences tell us that change will always bring conflict of some form.
Sometimes this conflict is internal.
Some of it is very obvious.
Jill Hudson in her book When Better Isn’t Enough: Evaluation Tools for the 21st-Century Church makes the following observation:
That to grow as a congregation we need to change, and change will always bring conflict.
We know this in our heart, and yet we try to avoid change.
She observes we want the "old" church just as it was, with comforting hymns and songs, informally claimed pews, and familiar liturgies. We also want the benefits of the "new church," full of young energetic families and hope for the future.
We want new believers who mature in Christ and share the responsibilities of church membership.
We don’t want anyone mad -- ever! We want it both ways.
We want the comfort of the past and the promise of the future without alienating anyone.
Change, even change produced from God will bring some conflict.
A friend of mine who is part of a congregation that has an active outreach team says whenever we intentionally get involved in God’s mission, Satan intentionally gets involved in God’s church to disrupt it.
And this leads to the second reason of why conflict occurs in the church.
Satan is always looking for ways to distract us away from the truth.
To see how Satan may work consider the following.
If it is true that by nature we are sinners, that is without God’s intervention our natural tendency is to think of ourself, to sin, to avoid loving God and loving others.
And yet at the same time we know that God’s Spirit is constantly working in us to change us.
God is interfering with our natural tendency to sin and helping us in our lives to be how we should be.
And if this is the case Satan will try everything to prevent us from being changed by God.
Satan doesn’t want you to enjoy heaven.
And he does this in deceptive ways.
For some people who are paralysed by fear he will try to scare you from acting.
Others he will give you the impression that you are alright, that you don’t need to change.
He will encourage me and you to stand in the way of God’s mission.
And so one of the places we will see Satan at work is in congregations.
And the other difficult thing about Satan being at work in our congregations is that it is usually not an individual causing trouble but he attempts to work in each of us.
Now I am not saying we should stir up conflict,
but it is important to realise that God has not deserted us when conflict occurs.
In fact we should expect it when we are involved in God’s mission, God’s dream for us.
The other area many of us face difficulties and troubles is amongst family and friends.
Anyone ever felt the freeze breeze when you happen to mention Christianity amongst certain family members or friends?
Unfortunately some Christians are so intimidated that they refuse to allow their Christian life to enter their family life, their work life, their social life.
Amongst my non Christian friends I expect them to pick up the negative elements of Christianity.
Do you find this?
First of all most of the time they haven’t got the full story.
And secondly when this happens this is an ideal opportunity to share the truth of Christianity.
For instance you may wish to say,
“That yes these things have occurred (if they are truthful) but they are not God’s will.”
They are the result of people trying to use what God has created for good, to get away with something. And at times it is humans wanting to think they are God.
But don’t stop there, then talk about what God and the church are really about.
Focus on why Jesus really came to earth, to give us forgiveness and love.
And give examples from your own life where you have seen this in action and Christians helping others.
This is doing what God suggests is helpful for our lives in 1 Peter chapter 3, verse 15 to always be prepared to give an answer for the hope you have in you.
If you need help with this I am always willing to talk this over with you.
And so we have trouble?
But is this all there is to the Christian life?
As a teenager this always worried me.
That being a Christian meant that my life would be full of suffering.
Well today’s gospel reading reveals more than this.
First Jesus reminds us despite all the issues in our lives that not a hair on our head will perish.
In other words the troubles you encounter are a mere distraction to God’s future for you.
Recently I read a story of a person who had a holiday planned in Europe.
On the way he stopped over in Singapore for two days.
He enjoyed two days of shopping and taking in a different culture.
However this stopover was not entirely pleasant.
His wallet was stolen.
He got lost, a couple of times.
He developed an upset stomach.
However rather than focus on the negative aspects of his holiday, he talked about the great time in Europe he had seeing many historical places, and beautiful landscapes.
The problems he encountered on the stop over were merely distractions to the real thing.
And in our lives we should remember the problems we encounter are not the end of things,
they are simply a stop over,
as we journey with God to the home he has prepared for us.
Secondly view the issues and problems that either we encounter or we see others encounter as an opportunity to be a witness.
Listen again to verse 13.
When trouble and persecution occur this is a time for you to be a witness.
When you are in the middle of a tough situation, often your natural tendency is not to be God’s witness.
But when problems occur, yet it should be.
When problems occur pray to God for guidance and wisdom.
And importantly ask yourself the question.
How can I reflect God’s generous love in the middle of this conflict or trouble?
How can I reflect God’s generous love in the middle of this conflict or trouble?
For most of us we have to be very intentional about this,
we need to go out of our way to reflect God’s generous love when we are in the middle of conflict.
Not just because it is what God wants us to do,
but doing so brings God’s love and grace to people who may not have had the opportunity to experience it.
But who need it.
Thirdly when problems and troubles occur keep focused on God and his ways.
By constantly reading his word, worshipping and receiving his forgiveness,
by taking up the cross and following Jesus we are more accurately seeing God’s perspective on life and not just what we think it should be.
And when we do these things our future in heaven with God will not be jeopardized.
Not because in themselves these activities save us,
not because we gain a heap of rules
but because they help us see God in action.
They help us see that our life is about what Jesus has done, is doing and will do for us.
That essential for life is forgiveness.
AMEN
