Present Sufferings
Sunday, 20 July 2014 - Romans 8:18-25
Rev. Bruce Skelton, Holy Cross Lutheran Church, Highlands Ranch, Colorado ☩ www.hclchr.org
The first time that I preached on this text was in August of 1992 and hurricane Andrew had just blown through the carribean, Florida and Lousianna and killed 65 people, destroyed 63,000 homes, left hundres of thousands of people homeless and without power, and done over 34 billion dollars in damage. At that time it was one of the worst hurricanes in the history of this nation and today it still stands as the fifth worst of all time. The second time I preached this text was in July of 1996 hurricane Bertha had just run up the eastern seaboard and was considerably less awful, killing only 1 person and doing about 335 million dollars worth of damage up, but shortly after that TWA flight 800 had gone down just off Long Island killing all 230 people aboard and causing quite a panic, because of the rumors of terrorism.
I suppose the next time I will preach this text, I will point to all of the terrible suffering that has recently happened: the passenger airliner shot down over the Ukraine, the terrible bloodshed that is currently taking place in the middle east, particularly in Gaza, Syria and Iraq, as well as the humanitarian crisis that is currently taking place on the southern border of our nation. All of these crises and all of this suffering, causes us to ask two very important questions: First, why is there so much suffering or why is this world such a mess? And second why God does allow it?
Well, to answer these questions we must begin at the beginning. According to the Bible, things haven't always been this way. Yes, as hard as it is to believe once there were no natural disasters. There were no hurricanes or hailstorms or earthquakes or floods. Likewise, there were no man made ones either; no wars, or terrorism, or humanitarian crises. The book of Genesis tells us quite clearly that on the sixth day after God had surveyed all that He had created, he pronounced it “very good” and for an omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent, holy and perfect God to say such a thing, it must have been very good indeed. We are told that it was, in fact, paradise. And then something came alone that would change paradise and mankind forever and that something was sin and with the fall into sin came all the suffering, decay and death we see around us every day.
Now this is where many people have a problem, yes, even some Christians misunderstand or they grossly underestimate the impact of sin upon the world and how far-reaching its effects really are. They tend to look upon sin as just a slight imperfection, like a pimple on a teenagers face. They believe that it is a sort of like a blemish on the face of humanity that can be overcome with the right hygiene or proper topical medication. If we just educate people properly, or create the right environment, or come up with the right government program, then people would do better and won't behave so badly.
My dear friends in Christ, I have to say that nothing could be further from the truth. Sin is actually more like leprosy which not only disfigures us, but is killing us and everything around us. It is like a huge black shroud that cuts us and everything around us off from God’s light and life.
Again and again in the Scriptures sin is presented as the cause of everything that is wrong, not only with people, but with all of creation. When Adam and Eve rebelled against God they messed everything up. Not only did they fall out of a right relationship with Him, but they fell our of a right relationship with eachother and with nature. From the moment they defied Him, everything became messed up, even nature which originally had been our friend, suddenly became our adversary. Once it had been so plentiful and generous in delivering food, but then then sin turned it into a miser and Adam and all his sons would have to work ceaslessly to make a living off of it. Originally, giving birth to children was to be an easy thing, but when sin entered the picture it was only with great pain and travail that Eve and all her daughters would bring their children forth into the world.
Interesingly, this is the illustration St. Paul uses to talk about this fallen creation in verse 22 of our text when he speaks of the whole creation which "has been groaning together in the pains of child birth until now.” What an apt lillustration of what is going on in nature. Ever since mankind first transgressed God's law, the whole of creation has been experiencing great pain and suffering right up to today and as is the case with childbirth these convulsions, these birth pains, will continue to increase in frequency and severity, until the new world, the new heavens and the new earth are born after Christ’s second coming, the resurrection of the dead, and the judgement.
Paul also uses the metaphor of imprisonment or slavery in this text when he speaks of all of creation being in in “bondage to corruption.” With sin everything grows old, gets rusty, wears out, runs down, dies, and rots. Yes, everything is subject to corruption including us, perhaps especially us. Did you ever notice how quickly things that start off as being something good, like for instance love of one's country or one’s people suddenly turns into something bad, like hatred of someone else's country or people? My how our enemy the devil, Beelzebub, the Lord of the blowflies, is good at tempting, deceiving, and destroying us. Yes, if we are honest we must admit that more often than not he has his way with us, while our loving God, our true creator is forgotten or openly defied and ridiculed.
Well, that is the bad news, but there is good news and it is to be found in answering the second question I posed at the beginning of this sermon which is: Why does God allow us and other people to go through these present sufferings?
The answer is simple. So we could hope. Hope that things would once again be returned to the way they were in the beginning. Hope that we would one day regain paradise. Hope that nature would once again be our friend. Hope that we would again have a right relationship with God and with our fellow human beings.
Now if we had it already, we wouldn't have to hope for it as St. Paul points out: "Who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it patiently.” And with these words we see the utter brilliance of our God and the ingenious purpose behind these present sufferings. He allows us to undergo them to prepare us for something better, which is an eternity with Him.
And chief to that preparation is the recognition and acknowledgement of our sin, our desperate need for a Savior. You see the chief cause behind most if not all of our sin, is the idea that we don't really need God or that we can play God. We foolishly believe that we can save ourselves or that we can go it alone and do it all on our own. So God allows hurricanes and hailstorms and earthquakes and automobile accidents and cancer and financial ruin or whatever other disaster it takes to help us realize that we can't do it on our own. We need Him. We need His Almighty help, in fact spiritually, we need Him to do it all.
That is why He throws us like good seeds into a weedy field filled with thorns and thistles. That is why we throws us into a world filled with evil demons and deceit and problems and worries and the deceitfulness of wealth. So that we would become frustrated with this decaying dying world and repent, so that we would by the power of the Holy Spirit, abandon our rebellious ways and seek His face and live, live in hope.
And our hope is not in vain. For as Paul writes, we have the first fruits of the Holy Spirit, we have the blessed Gospel. We have the good news that there is a hole in the black shroud of sin and death that has been cast over the world like a shroud. And that hole is in the shape of a cross. The cross born by the only begotten Son of God, Jesus Christ. Who suffered for us and who died to remove our sins from us as far as the east is from the west and who said to the penitent thief who was suffering next to him, "Today you will be with me in paradise."
My friends how can we not hope? In God’s Holy Word we ample testimony that sin and the effects of sin have been effectively dealt with. In it we have eyewitness accounts of Christ’s perfect life lived in our behalf, we have true stories of miracles where the effects of sin were undone. Most especially we have the account of his own glorious resurrection from the dead, proving that he has defeated death and if he did it once he can do it again. And best of all we have His promise. The promise of a Lord who always keeps His promises. And that promise is that He will return one day to set things right, that He will create a new heaven and a new earth were the Scriptures say there will no more suffering, no more sin, no more sorrow, no more crying, no more pain, no more death, “for that is the old order of things” St. John writes in his revelation, “and the old order of things has passed away.”
So, it was armed with that knowledge that the Apostle Paul could write: For I (Paul) consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed in us. And Paul went through a lot more than any of us ever will. He lists some of them in 2 Corinthians chapter 11: Five times I received at the hands of the Jews the forty lashes less one.Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I was adrift at sea; on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers; in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure. And, apart from other things, there is the daily pressure on me of my anxiety for all the churches.
And the list goes on. And he endured them all because of his faith in Jesus Christ who suffered, died and rose again for him. And faith is defined for us in Hebrews 11:1: Faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.
Paul hoped because he trusted in the Lord Jesus Christ and His gracious promise to return and reveal the sons of God, that is to redeem His children on the last day. And it is in that same faith and hope that will bring us through any suffering we face as well. For not only we, but all of nature awaits that glorious day when it will at last set be free from the bonds of sin and corruption, death and decay so that it might be right and beautiful and perfect as it was in the beginning and as it will be again when our blessed Lord Jesus comes again to set us free. To Him be all the glory power and might, now and forever. Amen.