INTRODUCTION
These verses are one of the all-time best passages in scripture concerning how we live & work within the work place. Submission to the grueling boss for the sake of Jesus. There’s a great 3 point sermon in here concerning Christianity in the work place.
But, instead, we are going to look at the massive challenge Peter gives, as he encourages us to bear up under the pain of unjust suffering. So the title of this sermon is Deciding to Suffer?
SUFFERING
The existence of Suffering is, and has been, one of the greatest issues facing the Christian faith, because we believe that God is both good and all powerful.
C.S Lewis highlights the issue succinctly when he says ‘If God were good, He would wish to make His creatures happy, and if God were almighty, He would be able to do what he wished. But the creatures are not happy. Therefore, Gods lacks either goodness, or power, or both’
We need to start by stating that Suffering is not a part of God’s original created order. There was no suffering in the world before humanity rebelled against God.
As we look at suffering, we may chose to view it, or rather the causes of it, in three ways:-
1) A result of our sin – God created this world with laws, both physical, moral and spiritual. If I deliberately chose to disobey those rules there is likely to be consequences. If I drink and drive, I am likely to crash the car and hurt myself. If I have an affair, outside of my marriage, again I am likely to damage myself.
2) A result of other peoples sin – Much suffering is derived from the actions of others. Both previous examples I have just given would have an affect on others not just myself. Much of the suffering in poverty in the world today is there because some want to keep all the wealth in one are, to themselves.
3) A result of a fallen world – It is difficult to attribute some suffering in terms of ‘blame’. But as humans we nearly always try to grapple with suffering in terms of looking for an answer or blame of someone, even if it is God. Some suffering cannot be directly attributed to certain people, but rather to ‘disorder’ in a fallen world.
I am conscious that there are many of us sitting in this building that have suffered in different ways, physically, emotionally, mentally or spiritually. We know that some are still experiencing deep levels of suffering.
It pains us to see some of our own friends and loved ones struggling, trying to hide their pain. We can find ourselves torn between our anger at their suffering and my our failings and feelings of inadequacy, in the face of such suffering.
SUFFERING screams aloud the biggest question of faith -WHY?
David Watson, a notable Anglican clergyman of the last century, grappled with his own suffering as he worked through bad asthma for 20 years and then had to fight cancer to the death, at the age of fifty. He wrote ‘the negative side of all this comes when such heart-searching leads to nagging and unhealthy feelings of guilt, and perhaps to a very poor image of God. Is it conceivable, when we see Jesus healing the sick and forgiving the sinful, that God should say, ‘Ah, there’s David Watson. He slipped up rather badly last month so I’ll afflict him with asthma for the next twenty years’ Or later, ‘He’s upset me again, so this time I’ll destroy him with Cancer’? Such thoughts are not only ridiculous; they are almost blasphemous, and utterly alien to a God of infinite love and mercy as we see him so clearly in Jesus’
But that still doesn’t answer our question of WHY?
But here in our passage this great man of God, & disciple of Jesus, pushes us even further. He not only commends suffering, but one might say the most perverse form of suffering – unjust suffering.
For it is commendable if a man bears up under the pain of unjust suffering because he is conscious of God. [PAUSE]
Is Peter mad? He commends us to suffer the pain of unjust suffering.
Well no, I don’t believe Peter was mad. But I believe he had very good insights into suffering. He suffered physically many times, as he was beaten. He suffered mentally and emotionally as he grappled with his denial of Jesus. And he’d suffered spiritually, as he recalled Jesus looking into his eyes and speaking THOSE words ‘get behind me Satan’. Peter understood something of suffering.
And it is this same Peter who challenges us with his words this morning….
For it is commendable if a man bears up under the pain of unjust suffering because he is conscious of God.
Suffering is never a ‘good’ thing in itself, but God is able to use it for good in a number of different ways. I’d like us to consider four ways in which God uses suffering for His purposes:-
1) Firstly, suffering is used by God to draw us unto Christ. Time and time again we will come across people who only began to think about God as a result of either suffering the loss of a loved one, a broken relationship or some other pain in their life.
Whilst suffering was never God’s planned mission, he never-the-less gives it his permission – as in He allows it to take place. Back in 1940, C.S Lewis wrote a very challenging book called ‘The problem of pain’, in which he wrote ‘God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains; it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world’ [PAUSE]
Suffering is used by God to draw us unto Christ. Do we believe that?
2) Secondly, God uses suffering to bring us to Christian maturity. The writer to the Hebrews informs us that even Jesus ‘learned obedience from what he suffered’ (Hebs 5:8). He goes on, in chapter twelve, saying that we are to endure suffering and discipline for our own good.
‘no discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it’
Peter starts his letter with these words….
‘…now for a little while you may have to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come that your faith – of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire – may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honour when Jesus Christ is revealed.’
Suffering is used of God to bring us to Christian maturity. Do we believe that?
3) Thirdly, God uses suffering to bring about his good purposes. Paul tells us that ‘in ALL things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose’ (Roms 8:28)
We see an example of this in the life of Joseph. He suffered rejection by his family, was sold into slavery, he was imprisoned for a crime he did not commit. For thirteen years he faced trials, temptations and testings, until he was made ruler of Egypt when he was thirty. At the end, after all the suffering, Joseph was able to say to his brothers ‘You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives’
For many people in the Old Testament, like Joseph and Job, the blessings of God in their life- time eventually outweighed the sufferings they went through. But the New Testament never invites us to assume that this will always be the case. Instead we are promised something greater – the hope of being with Jesus in heaven. Summed up beautifully by Paul to the Romans, ‘I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us’ (Roms 8:18)
Anglican Bishop,Gavin Reid, had a boy in his previous congregation, who had shattered his back falling down stairs at the age of one. He was consequently in and out of hospital for many years. When Gavin interviewed him in church he asked, "How old are you?"
The boy replied, "Seventeen."
"How many years have you spent in hospital?"
The boy answered, "Thirteen years."
He was then asked, "Do you think that is fair?"
The boy thought and then replied, "God’s got all of eternity to make it up to me."
What insight and understanding of suffering.
Asked whether heaven is true, the theologian, Alistair McGrath, responded "If the Christian hope of heaven is an illusion, based upon lies, then it must be abandoned as misleading and deceitful. But if it is true, it must be embraced and allowed to transfigure our entire understanding of the place of suffering in life"
We need to view suffering in the context of eternity; not just the here and now.
God uses suffering to bring about his good purposes. Do we believe that?
4) Fourthly, God is involved in our suffering.
The whole of this letter from Peter is addressed to a church, which is being subjected to a constant pattern of suffering, injustice and social exclusion. Yet this whole letter is encouraging the church to submit, to be living sacrifices, live humbly and live for the purposes of God. Rejoice that you participate in sufferings and be commendable to bear the pain of unjust sufferings.
Has there ever been a time when this is further from the way of the world? A world when we are expected to put rights of the individual before duty, or service to others. A world where people chase ambulances to ensure accident victims claim large compensations. A world where doctors live in the threat of being sued as they try to heal and save lives. A world where the church is often seen as an irrelevant, hypocritical, homophobic institution.
Peter invites us to live under the pain of unjust suffering for one reason. It is the way of God.
‘To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps.’
God IS involved in our suffering.
We need to be prepared to acknowledge that there is no simple answer to the WHY of suffering. Instead, perhaps, we need to approach the issue from a different perspective:-
God is a God who suffers alongside us.
Perhaps this fourth insight is the most important for us to grasp hold of. John Stott, once said "I could never myself believe in God, if it were not for the cross" God is not a god who is immune from suffering. Through the cross, Jesus is reconciling the world to himself.
Jesus suffered in all the ways we suffer. He doesn’t just know about suffering – in modern street-language ‘Jesus does suffering’
Knowing that God is there with us in suffering helps. If you like, in the words of the theologian, Moltmann, "it removes the suffering in suffering" We are not alone in pain.
Those who nailed Jesus to the cross intended it for evil – to take a life; but God intended it for good – the saving of many lives.
God IS involved in our suffering. Do we believe that?
So we too are called to embrace suffering in the way that Jesus did. Including the most difficult form of suffering – that which is unjust, not fair and wrong.
But like the art of cross carrying, Peter is not just talking about normal suffering here (if there is such a thing), or suffering in which we have to endure because there is no way out of it. He is actually inviting us to take a positive step by accepting unjust suffering, presumably a type of suffering where we can decide not to accept it, or to complain about it, or be resentful concerning it.
I wonder in what circumstances today I might choose to suffer, or endure, for doing good?
How difficult is that?
CONCLUSION
So in conclusion, we have seen that Suffering is not God’s plan for his created world, but none-the-less he allows it and he uses it for his purposes.
The causes of suffering may result from..
Our own sins – In which case we need to confess that area of our life to God and seek his guidance for the right way of living.
Other people’s sin – In which case we can pray for them.
A result of a fallen world – In which case we can pray that God continues to intercede in this world and may his will be done. But remember, one day all things will become like new as Christ restores a new heaven and a new earth.
Suffering is never a ‘good’ thing in itself, but God is able to use it for good, as we remember:-
Suffering is used by God to draw us onto Christ.
Suffering is used of God to bring us to Christian maturity.
God uses suffering to bring about his good purposes.
God is involved in our suffering.
Finally, Peter draws Jesus as our pattern,in his words
"To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps."
Jesus had a choice to make, as he turned his face towards Jerusalem and chose to suffer unto death on the cross at Calvary.
Peter had a choice to make, as he followed in the footsteps of Jesus and chose the path of suffering, right up until he died, reputedly also on a cross.
I am so conscious that there is so much more that could be said about suffering, and from those that are so better qualified than I to talk about it.
This sermon was entitled ‘Deciding to suffer’
Are you happy with that title? Perhaps, you feel it is inappropriate, or too provocative a choice of words to use, as my wife did. Deciding to suffer? Perhaps it is too harsh, or perverse, or too something else! But then, [PAUSE] isn’t there a sense in which Suffering itself is too harsh?
There is much suffering around in which we personally have no choice. But, equally, I believe that there was an aspect of suffering in choosing to be a Christian when Peter wrote these words. If that is still the case today, then perhaps the title Deciding to suffer is appropriate.
If there is no longer really an aspect of suffering involved in declaring our faith now, what does that tell us about the church, and about the society in which we live? Certainly Peter would have expected a degree of opposition, discomfort and yes suffering in living the Christian life.
Perhaps the real issue for many of us is two fold. How do I view suffering and how can I ‘embrace’ it in my life and the lives of those I love?
And secondly, if Peter’s letter is talking about sacrificial living and suffering for doing good, how and where do I start to be ready to ‘actively’ embrace suffering?
Would I be the only one in this building who has to admit that I don’t even feel close enough to being in a position to be able to decide to suffer? Peter forces me to consider what the Christian life is about and what the role of suffering has in this world.
I have made no claims to being an expert in suffering. I suspect we have ended with more questions that answers! But if God is the loving and powerful God that we believe him to be. Grapple with Him, fight with him, struggle with him, talk with him, and ask Him to start to reveal Himself within the hurt and pain of suffering.
He understands. He understands.
Perhaps we can take comfort from the words of Jesus to St. Paul, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness".
AMEN.
