PROPER 28B - Daniel 12:1-13; Psalm 16:5-11; Hebrews 10:31-39; Mark 13:14-23 -

19 November 2006 - A sermon preached by The Rev. Peter A. Munson for St. Ambrose Episcopal Church, Boulder, Colorado

 

How Do You React to Suffering?

 

INTRODUCTION - Resistance to Apocalyptic Writings

 

Today is one of those days when our lessons are more of the apocalyptic ilk than anything else. Apocalyptic - as in special revelations, as in the symbolic depiction of the ultimate destruction of evil and the triumph of good. You hear phrases like “a time of anguish”, “for a time, two times, and half a time”, “the desolating sacrilege set up where it ought not to be” (probably a reference to a statue to Zeus being set up on the altar of burnt offering, in the Jewish temple, around 170 B.C.), “the wicked”, “the elect”, “suffering such as has not been from the beginning of the creation that God created until now”, “false messiahs and false prophets”, and even Jesus saying he won’t be in the know as to the time - “But about that day or hour no one knows, neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.” (Mark 13:32)

 

If you want my confession, just know that if I had to preach on Daniel or even this part of Mark 13 every week, I’d probably be looking for someone else to do more of the preaching. And if I had to preach on the book of Revelation every week, I’d probably be looking for another job. But you know what? These are the scriptures for today. So I need to ask myself the questions: What does all this have to do with me? And what does it have to do with us?

 

SUFFERING HAPPENS

 

Here’s what I make of these scriptures. Jesus predicted that he would undergo great suffering and be rejected by the religious authorities, and be killed, and - oh yeah - that thing about rising again after three days. He also predicted that his followers would go through suffering, even suffering “such as has not been from the beginning of the creation that God created until now, no, and never will be.” (Mark 13:19) It’s a warning, then. There will be the triumph of God in the end, just as God has already triumphed over death in the resurrection of Jesus. But before that, there is going to be suffering. There will be “wars and rumors of wars.” He counseled the disciples, as he counsels us, to not be alarmed, to be alert, to keep awake.

 

One person writes, “The truth is the world has never been without massive suffering: wars, famines, refugee migrations, mass murders and holocausts, natural disasters - when they are happening to you and to people you love it is the great tribulation - it is the end of the world as you know it.” (Elizabeth Parker, as quoted in Synthesis, November 16, 2003)

 

This suffering can come to a whole group of people - think September 11, or even Hurricane Katrina - or to an individual - think Mr. Bingham, who instantly lost his wife and two children in Denver a week ago to a hit-and-run driver. Suffering happens, and when it happens to you, it is awful, and it changes your world forever. How does Mr. Bingham get over what happened to him? How do the people who lost loved ones on 9/11 get over it?

 

The truth is, he won’t, and they won’t. You don’t just “get over” something of that magnitude, when people you love so much are suddenly taken out of your life.

 

HOW DO WE COPE?

 

The lessons today, then, are a warning, a reminder, that this kind of suffering does happen, and that it could happen to you, it could happen to me. How would you react? How do you cope? Do you have some foundations in place where you could cope, you could endure - as it talks about in the Hebrews reading? Or not?

 

You might recall that something happened in the days immediately following September 11. People said it made them think about what was really important, and they talked about realizing that the important things were not things at all, but the people in their lives. They tried to make sense of what had happened, and many of them looked for a new connection with God. In fact, on the Sunday after September 11, people flocked to churches in ways that they hadn’t for quite some time, and in ways that they haven’t since that Sunday. They were looking for meaning, for some type of salvation, for a security that could not be promised them by political leaders or armies or by the creation of a Department of Homeland Security.

 

So, once we break through our denial and acknowledge that suffering happens, and once we are staring it in the face and realize that it has just come to us, how do we cope?

 

OPTIONS

 

A week after the terrible event - the bombing or the buildings collapsing or the terrible hurricane or the sudden funeral for our loved one... whatever it is - do we just go back to work and try to act as if nothing has happened? That’s one option. We can just put up our exterior walls, say to ourselves, “I’m going to be tough”, grit our teeth, steel ourselves, and try to go on as if nothing has really happened. But that way of coping doesn’t honor our loved ones and, if we try to keep it up, will kill us - in one way or another. Because we are human beings, not robots.

 

A second option is to start living in a fearful and hyper-vigilant state. This is beyond being watchful or alert. This is when we start thinking that everyone is out to get us and that we can’t trust anyone. At its extreme we start stockpiling supplies and weapons and determining how we can “hole up” and make it through a long siege. In its less extreme forms we can get super-focused on whether the government has changed the alert level to orange or red - or has it gone back to yellow? - and as every election approaches, from now until we die, we can buy into the ads that want to play to our fears, and then wonder why we are not being played to in the same way once election day has come and gone. The trouble with this approach is that living in a perpetual state of fear is not really living, and is not faithful to the call of God. “Be alert; watch; keep awake.” Jesus said all these things, according to the Gospel writers. He did not say to them, “Be fearful.”

 

Nor was that his example to us. Yes, there was the agony in the Garden of Gethsemane - no question about it. This was this time when he agonized over his fate and the suffering that was to come. But in the end, “...not what I will, but what you will.” (Mark 14:36) Jesus was faithful, in the good times and in the times of suffering - faithful to the end. And that’s what he calls us to be. That’s ultimately the way you watch, you way you stay alert and awake. You remain faithful to God, and you keep loving God and your neighbor - no matter what happens to you.

 

PASSING THE TEST

 

How can we do that? How can we pass that test?

 

I think it helps a great deal if you can pay attention to how God acts toward you in the times when you are not in a time of great suffering. Do you sense God’s presence and love and guidance? Do you sense that God wants what is best for you? Do you recognize that God blesses you and has put all kinds of gifts and blessings into your life, that you didn’t necessarily deserve? For example, are there people in your life who have made your life totally different and totally better than the way it would have otherwise been, and do you recognize God’s hand at work in those people being in your life?

 

When we recognize that God has been faithful to us - in the times of special blessing, in the “ordinary” times, and in the times of significant challenge, even if they don’t reach the level of intense suffering - then I think it is easier to imagine that God will be faithful to us in all circumstances... even during the times when we are going through the worst thing imaginable.

 

There is one other thing, though, that makes a huge difference. It’s that third day thing. If you don’t know God, and especially if you don’t know the story of Jesus’ resurrection, it can be easy to move into denial or despair or to a very fearful place when suffering comes. But if, on some level, you’ve experienced the resurrection to be a reality in your own life... if you know, on a deep level, that God is for me - no matter what... if you know that redemption and forgiveness happen, and that what Paul says is true, that “love never ends” (1 Cor. 13:8), even though all sorts of other things come to an end... if you know that God has already won the victory over Satan and evil and death, and that good does indeed triumph in the end, because God is good, and God, with His love, is more powerful than any force in the universe...if you know all that, then, as awful as the suffering might be, there is hope, and there is a God-given ability to cope, and to do more than cope. There is given to us by God the strength to be faithful, and the strength to love, and to keep loving, even if there is tragedy and chaos all around us.

 

Augustine wrote in his Confessions, “What is it that goes on within the soul, that it takes greater delight if things it loves are found or restored to it than if it had always possessed them?... The victorious general holds his triumph: yet unless he had fought, he would never have won the victory, and the greater was the danger in battle, the greater is the joy in the triumph. The storm tosses seafarers about and threatens them with shipwreck: they all grow pale at their coming death. Then the sky and the sea become calm, and they exult exceedingly, just as they had feared exceedingly... Everywhere a great joy is preceded by a greater suffering. (as quoted in Synthesis, November 16, 2003)

 

We worship a God and follow a Savior who have the power to bring us through the worst of times, through the kind of suffering that we never thought imaginable. We worship a God and follow a Savior who have the power to bring life out of death, and - dare I say it? - even joy out of the midst of suffering.

 

This is why, I think, there is something for us in these apocalyptic writings. There will be suffering. There is also a loving, faithful, life-changing, and life-giving God, who promises to bring us through it. Be alert. Be faithful. Do not shrink back. Watch for how God will save you. For those who have faith will be saved.