The Suffering Servant Rev. Jessie Colwell October 7, 2018

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Audra Summers
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1 As a little girl one of my favorite book was Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day by Judith Viorst. This book is about a little boy who has the worst day ever. No matter what he does everything keeps going wrong and at the end of each page comes the line it was a terrible, horrible, no good very bad day. Have you ever had one of those days, where everything goes wrong? For me this happened on Wednesday. I was downstairs printing the bulletins for Sunday. The printer wouldn t work, I dropped a glass of water on the floor. When I looked on the floor I noticed that some paper towels had been chewed up by mice. Then I looked up and saw a black racer snake staring at me. Needless to say, it was a terrible, horrible, no good very bad day. Now there is a happy end to the story, Mary Fraces granddaughter, Amanda, came and wrangled the snake so the parsonage is now safe, but you better believe I spent a better half of that day feeling sorry for myself and being frustrated I could not complete all the things I had planned on doing that day. Have you ever had one of these days? In the Bible, the person in the Old Testament who seemed to experience the most suffering was Job. Poor Job could not catch a break. He felt like he was being picked on. He experienced physical, emotional, and spiritual suffering and lost everything he had, and yet he remained faithful. The story of Job is one of the most controversial in the Bible. It causes many to ask the question: Why does a good God allow us to suffer? This is a question I am sure we have all asked at some point. A question I will address a little later in the sermon. What is the most interesting about the book of Job in the Old Testament is how it begins. The question posed at the beginning of Job is a question from Satan. The question is will Job remain faithful to God if his faith is tested? Satan argued that Job had been protected by God and had not really had to embody the practice of his faith. Satan said that without God s protection, and without all the amenities of life that Job had become accustomed to like wealth, and a wonderful family, that surely Job would lose his faith. So the All Knowing and Almighty God allowed Satan to test Job knowing that Job would not lose his faith. Even through all these different types of suffering Job was able to keep his faith. This book of the Bible teaches us to keep our faith, even in the midst of extreme suffering. 1

2 It is so much easier to trust in God when things are going well isn t it? When we are happy with our lives we sing praises to God, praises of thanksgiving. It is a lot harder to praise God during seasons of suffering, and yet this is what we see all throughout the book of Psalms. In Psalm 25 for today we read: O my God, in you I trust; do not let me be put to shame; do not let my enemies exult over me. The psalmist was able to keep their faith, even in the midst of persecution. So many Psalms start with stories of suffering, and so many of them end with praises to God. Our question for today is how can we embody our faith even in times of suffering? Just like Job in the Old Testament, we see that the Apostle Paul experienced so much suffering. What is interesting about Paul is that before his conversion he caused the suffering and even death of other Christians. After his conversation he experienced extreme suffering, he was stoned, he was imprisoned, he experienced a thorn in his flesh which many scholars believe was a physical ailment he suffered from for the duration of his life. Paul experienced extreme suffering and yet, he kept his faith in Jesus Christ and was the most powerful evangelist in the Bible. Perhaps the question for us today is how can we glorify God through our suffering? This is what Job did, this is what the Apostle Paul did, and ultimately this is what Jesus Christ, the one who was made perfect in his suffering on the cross did for us. Do you believe that God inflicts innocent people with suffering? This type of conversation about God is called the theodicy of God which asks the question: Does God allow bad things to happen to good people? I do not think that God causes our suffering. I believe we live in a fallen world where sin runs rampant. Since the fall in the Garden of Eden, we live in mortal bodies which fail us for reasons we don t always understand. We experience suffering as a result of our sins, but we also experience suffering that is not related to our sins. John 9:1-3 addresses this issue: As he walked along, he saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked him, Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind? Jesus answered, Neither this man nor his parents sinned; he was born blind so that God s works might be revealed in him. 2

3 I believe that this scripture from the Gospel tells us that we will experience suffering that has nothing to do with our sin, just like Job, and just like the Apostle Paul, and like his blind man, what we are called to focus on is how the glory of God may be revealed through our suffering. At My Brother s Table this past week, I was blessed to get to spend some time with people in the Front Royal community who have experienced great suffering and find a respite in this feeding ministry each week. I sat at a Table with three young adults and a young man about 35 shared his story with me. He had been an addict for many years. He had an accident at work and became addicted to pain medication and lost everything. He lost his job, he was imprisoned, he lost his family, he lost everything. He lamented about the years of his life that he thought were lost forever and deeply grieved for the time spent away from his wife and two children with whom he is now reunited with. Through his journey of addiction, Jon found Christ and now passionately tells others his testimony to give them hope. These are the kind of stories that save people s lives literally and spiritually. I told him that he had a powerful testimony to share and I thanked him for sharing it with me. When we share our suffering with one another, we share in the human experience. On this World Communion Sunday we join with Christians everywhere as we focus on the universal and inclusive nature of the church. This means that Christians all over the world today will celebrate communion joining with their brothers and sisters in Christ in unity through our faith in Jesus Christ. Our faith brings us together on this day. No matter where we live we can celebrate with Christians everywhere that our hope lies in Jesus Christ. We are also linked by our common experience that being a Christian can be really hard sometimes, because to truly follow Jesus Christ, the suffering servant, we too will undergo seasons of suffering in our lives. In America we are very blessed, we do not experience the level of persecution of people in other countries, for which it is illegal to practice their faith. There are still people dying every day as they are professing to others their faith in Jesus Christ. As Christians we experience mutual suffering together. In Romans 12:15 the Apostle Paul tells us to Rejoice with those who rejoice; [AND] mourn with those who mourn. Each day we mourn with those who are mourning and take on their suffering as our own. We see this in the book of Job where his friends sat with him for seven days, when Job could do nothing but mourn. 3

4 We suffer for Christ when we grieve the injustices in the world, when we see people who are hungry, homeless, undervalued, forgotten, and mistreated. We suffer when we lose relationships with other people because in this loss we miss an opportunity to share the love and grace of Jesus Christ with them. In this life, we will experience suffering, but it is what we do during these times of suffering that define our faith. Some of the most powerful writing in the world happened during times of suffering: 1) The Apostle Paul wrote many of his letters to churches from jail. These are teachings we still use today as we embody what it means to be the church. These are the scriptures that encourage us today and give us hope during our times of suffering. In Romans 5:3-5 the Apostle Paul said: 3 we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, 4 and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 5 and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. 2) The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. wrote a profound letter against injustice when he was imprisoned in the Birmingham Jail in which he stated: just as the Apostle Paul left his village of Tarsus and carried the gospel of Jesus Christ to practically every hamlet and city of the Greco-Roman world, I too am compelled to carry the gospel of freedom beyond my particular hometown. Like Paul, I must constantly respond to the Macedonian call for Aid. i 3) Jesus Christ, the suffering servant, knew our suffering. During his life on earth, he was chastised, and criticized, even by people in his hometown. He was disowned by his fellow disciples and gave his life to take on our pain and to take on our suffering. The good news for our lives today is that we do not suffer in vain. There will be a day like Revelations 21:4 tells us Death will be no more; mourning and crying and pain will be no more. There will be a day when we do not suffer anymore, where we are reunited with those who have loved and lost through our faith Until that day, we are called to hold on and evangelize to others in spite of our suffering. This is what Job did, this is what the Apostle Paul did, this is what Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. did, and ultimately this is what we are called to do. 4

5 In your suffering God is with you. Your church family is with you and Christians all over the world are sharing in your suffering and lifting you in prayer. We do not suffer in vain through our suffering we can make the choice to glorify God, even when we do not feel like it, even when being a Christian is hard, even in our times of deepest despair. Our stories of suffering and how we continue to worship God in the midst of our suffering may be the thing that gives someone else hope. So let s share our stories with each other! Jesus, the one who suffered even death on a cross, so that we could be free from suffering through our faith in Him, this Son of God calls to us. He says, Stop feeling sorry for yourself. He says, Things will get better I promise! He says, 28 Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light (Matthew 11:28-30). Jesus made us a promise and in our suffering, we have to hold on to this truth and promise from John 14:1-3: Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father s house there are many dwelling-places. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, so that where I am, there you may be also. In our suffering Christ is with us, may we hold on to the promise of hope through eternal life in Jesus Christ, and continue to share the good news of Jesus Christ, even in the midst of our suffering. In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen. Endnotes i Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Dr. Letter From a Birmingham Jail Online: Resources Sakenfeld et al. The New Interpreter s Dictionary of the Bible. Vol 3. Abingdon Press: Nashville, Tennesee Why Did God Allow Job to Suffer Revelation.Co. Online: World Communion Sunday. UMC.ORG. Online: Pio9m5KXI0yRVd0FgNkaAigGEALw_wcB 5

Three Simple Rules Rev. Jessie Colwell October 14, 2018

Three Simple Rules Rev. Jessie Colwell October 14, 2018 I have always been a rule follower and found comfort in following rules. These helpful guidelines shape the way that we live and keep ourselves and others safe. My son Dean however, does not have the same