Rejoicing in our suffering

JUNE 20TH, 2023 

 Have you ever noticed how most of the letters of St Paul are letters to communities, not individuals? We often, and rightly, read Paul’s letters as the first and greatest example of Christian theology, a great mind struggling to understand and to express the meaning of his encounter with the risen Christ - but it’s important to remember that these are first and foremost letters of encouragement to Christian communities living in real-world situations, struggling to live purposefully and faithfully in difficult circumstances. Though the great persecutions of the Church hadn’t yet begun, these early Christian communities struggled to reconcile faithful discipleship with day to day life in the pagan Roman Empire. And Romans - the last of the undisputed letters of Paul - is written as a message of encouragement to a Christian Church struggling to live with integrity and hope in the chaotic and cosmopolitan world of Rome. 

 So, how do you live as a faithful community when you’ve received the gospel and you’ve believed - but actually things are still pretty ordinary? It’s where we come in this morning - and of course it’s the question that is still relevant for Christian communities today. Romans 5 begins a new section in the Epistle, chapters 5 to 8, which could be given the sub-title, "So What?" In chapter 4 Paul has taken us through a long journey with Abraham, the patriarch of the Jewish faith, and he has contrasted the faith of Abraham - which leads to justification, to salvation - with the works of Torah, which in chapter 3 he has insisted don’t work - because of who we are as fallen and sinful people. 

 And before we move forward into chapter 5 I’m going to pause here because - it’s not as clear as it might seem. First, faith - the Greek word for this is pistis which covers a fair bit of ground. It includes belief, and a lot more. To have faith, to live faithfully, to act in good faith, we do need to be sure what we believe. We sign up to something, we say, yes, that’s true, but then we also have to say - I’ll live by that. Paul presents Abraham’s faith as the evidence of his covenant and outworking of his covenant agreement with God - though of course he also knows the actual story of Abraham in Genesis is a long and complex history of living up to and sliding back. A bit like us, really. Faith is complex. 

 Modern psychology talks about cognitive dissonance, the all-too-common phenomenon of saying we believe something but acting as though we believe something different. Cognitive dissonance is unstable, a contradiction in terms, it has to get resolved - and psychology tells us the way we usually resolve cognitive dissonance is by adjusting our mental attitudes to line up with what we’ve been doing all along. Jesus tells us much the same thing: "Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also" (Mt 6.21). If you want to believe something - really believe it - then invest in it! Take the risk of living like what you say you believe is really true. And then, only then - will you really start to believe. So - at the risk of labouring the point - faith in Romans and pretty much everywhere else means being faithful, living faithfully. Faith is not just what we say we believe, it’s the sum total of how we live. 

 And the second point? Well, sorry to be difficult on my first morning preaching here, but - how faithful are you, actually? If faithfulness is the standard of whether or not you are saved, well - whose faithfulness do you want to bet the farm on? Your own? Or the humble faithfulness of God, who takes on the form of a slave and is present in our Lord Jesus reconciling the world to himself? The Greek in Paul’s letters kinda suggests both, actually. We are saved by faith, by the faithfulness of Christ on display on the cross, and Christian living is about learning to live faithfully, in response, with integrity. But - we’re not there yet, to be honest. We’ve still got our training wheels on. 

 And works? Here, Paul is talking specifically about the works of the Law, Torah. His wider argument is that Torah doesn’t do the job. Particularly for Gentile Christians, who never even had the Torah, but also for Jews who were never able to live up to the Law of Moses. The faithfulness of Jesus Christ accomplishes what the Law could not. And to make our own response of faith we need hearts and lives that are fully renovated, and we need to walk the talk. Which is precisely - even though I’m preaching on the Epistle, not the Gospel - precisely what Jesus is telling his disciples to do in Matthew chapter 10. Go - go on! Walk through the streets and villages - proclaim the good news and? Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead. For us, too, the fruits of faith are to be put to work in practical service - healing broken lives, gathering in outcasts and giving hope and new life to those who see no future. 

So, to Romans, chapter 5, where St Paul is tackling head-on the big issues for Christian communities living in the real world. Trying to live as redeemed and redeeming communities in a world that - doesn't seem to be listening. It’s easy to get dispirited in a world that seems to tune out the suffering of so many. 

We are ordinary women and men, not super-Christians. Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians could have been written to us. Not many of you are worldly-wise, he reminds them bluntly. And I myself, when I came among you, came not with clever speech or deeds of power but in weakness and fear and trembling (1.26-2.3) - and he reminds the clever-clogs Corinthians that the message of the cross is foolishness according to the wisdom of the world, and that the God of humble vulnerability chooses what is foolish in the world to shame the wise and what is weak in the world to shame the strong. 

And here in Romans at the beginning of chapter 5, St Paul assures us that as those who are already reconciled with God through the faithfulness of Christ we share in God’s glory. We are at peace with God, set in right relationship with God and we are right now living lives that are different because of grace. All that in verses one and two. So we will share in God’s glory - oh! says Paul - and we also share in the suffering of Christ. Rejoice in God’s glory, and rejoice in your suffering. 

Suffering comes with the territory of faithful discipleship, according to Paul’s version of the good news. Maybe you are persecuted for your faith? Perhaps not so much, in Huonville. Maybe there is some deep hurt or pain in your life. Maybe the more you try to live in imitation of Jesus Christ and the more you give yourself in loving service to others the more you grieve with them. Hearts that are softened are easily wounded. And here, in the letter to the Romans, Paul is talking pastorally, he is offering us practical encouragement, he is talking about what this suffering means in our lives together. 

Rejoice in your sufferings because suffering produces endurance. This is a strong word, isn't it? What comes to mind is the training of an athlete. We’re not in this by accident! And endurance produces character. The Greek word for this is dokime which means tangible proof, a character that is sufficient evidence of its own formation. Our own lives are to be the proof of what we have faithfully endured by God’s grace. So it is not random, we are growing towards Christian maturity. And this character - this tangible proof of what we are becoming produces hope, and the verification and foundation of that hope is the love that is God’s Holy Spirit that has been poured into us. That’s what this jam-packed phrase tells us, verses 3 and 4. 

The whole movement begins with justification, with unearned grace, and at the end of this phrase St Paul reminds us again that we are reconciled with God through the faithfulness of Christ who dies for us - not because we are good but even though we are sinful. And this is the basis of our hope. Not that we will get what we deserve but that we have already experienced God’s grace that is far more than we can ever deserve. 

In plain English? Sisters and brothers, we are right with God not because of anything we have done but because of what God has done for us. That part is for free. But believing it has consequences for how you live. As Christians, the more you grow in faith and try to imitate our Lord, the more you will swim against the currents in a world of innocent suffering. And that can overwhelm you. It’s a long journey. But take heart because you are growing as you are meant to, into people of light and love. And God is with you. 

Amen