Romans 5:1-5
Holy Trinity Sunday May 22, 2016
Whatever follows the words “I am” will always come looking for you. So, when you go through the day saying: I am blessed…blessings pursue you. I am talented;…talent follows you. I am healthy;…health heads your way. I am strong;…strength tracks you down…. You can choose to rise to a new level and invite God’s goodness by focusing on these two words: I AM![1]
This is the good news according to the popular televangelist Joel Osteen. A good life of talent, health and strength is all up to us. We only need to be optimistic. Oh, the power of positive thinking! If only St. Paul had been able to tune in to Joel, our gospel today might make us feel good! It might have us believe that we are in control, that it is all about us and what we can do! We could have gone right from Palm Sunday to Easter and skipped Good Friday altogether!
Listen to Paul’s words, written in the book of Romans before the prosperity gospel was broadcast. “We…boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope.…” What gives you hope? Is it suffering? “Suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope.” If I were writing this, I might say that suffering produces pain which produces anxiety which produces fear which produces hopelessness. Paul also says that hope does not disappoint us. Really, Paul? In addition to asking what gives you hope, I will ask, what crushes your hope? I had hoped that I would not need chemo. I had hoped that my marriage would last happily ever after. I had hoped to be able to see him before he died. I had hoped that my parents would love me no matter what. I had hoped…fill in the blank.
What is it that gives you hope? Almost 40 people responded when I asked this question on my FaceBook page. Some answered this question with the most marvelous pictures of children and grandchildren. My friend Faith sent a picture an old wrinkley couple laughing with the person posting commenting, “Honesty and humor… Knowing that others experience the same struggles and pain and live through it to tell their story and maybe even laugh again..”
My friend Teresa sent a picture of her and her husband, covered from head to foot in white soapy foam, kissing each other. She wrote, “I never thought I’d laugh again or feel love. I cried every day in fear of nothing good ever happening again. He gave me hope and helped me rebuild my foundation.”
A picture of the brass letters “J” and “M”, for Jeremy and Matthew, connected with an “and” sign, also answered my question posted on FaceBook. Here is what Matt wrote. “This picture gives me hope….the fact that I can marry my best friend and love of my life in the church (denomination unimportant) gives me hope that all denominations will allow this one day. Plus it gives me peace and hope that God loves us all….”
Hear Paul’s words again, with my commentary added: Therefore, since we are justified, (we are set right with God), by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand (God sends Jesus to embody God’s love and mercy); and we boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God. And not only that, but we also boast, (we do not have shame), in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.
Paul does not tell us that our suffering will end. And hear this clearly! Paul also does not say that if you are in anguish that it is because you have offended God. Remember that Christ died for us even while we were sinners.[2] Paul says that because of God’s love for us, given to us through Christ, poured into us by the Holy Spirit, our suffering can be redeemed. Like death on a cross, our suffering and pain are changed through the light of God’s love.
After all, this is the God whose love was strong enough to cast seven demons out of a woman, and whose love sat down at the table to eat with the one who would betray him. Jesus in his compassion fed those who were hungry, and made the blind see. “Take up your mat and walk,” Jesus’ love commanded the paralyzed man, and he did.
The love of God through the cross of Christ helps us to know with sure and certain hope that we live in God’s love no matter what our circumstances. There is life beyond our frailties and that transcends our suffering. God takes that which killing us and creates something new. With faith in God’s promises, we can find peace. Because of Christ’s suffering and death, because of Christ’s resurrection, because we are joined with Christ in the waters of baptism, we are promised new life. Our eternal life with God begins with our baptism and we are living in that eternal life now.
It is through suffering and death that God brings new life. It is only through Good Friday that we have Easter, and we are Easter people. It is God’s love that gives people the strength to endure through suffering. It is God’s love that gives us the way to turn endurance into character. If our hope rests on our efforts, we are certain both to disappoint and to be disappointed. It is God’s love that gives us hope—hope that will not disappoint us.
~Pastor Cheryl Ann Griffin
[1] Taken from the description on Amazon.com of Joel Osteen’s book I Am. http://www.amazon.com/Power-Am-Words-Change-Today/dp/0892969962/ref=pd_sim_14_5?ie=UTF8&dpID=51tLr-zIDvL&dpSrc=sims&preST=_AC_UL160_SR106%2C160_&refRID=11HV340YTZASM7HM8FF7 .
[2] Romans 5:8