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Suffering and Grace

Preached at St. Barnabas Church, Bellville, TX

The Second Sunday after Easter, 2010

by The Rev. Stephen E. Stults

I Peter 2:20  For what glory is it, if, when ye be buffeted for your faults, ye shall take it patiently? but if, when ye do well, and suffer for it, ye take it patiently, this is acceptable with God.

Let me pose a shocking question: Is God the ultimate Sadist? That is, looking at this statement from the Epistle from today, does God take pleasure in our pain and suffering? This is an interesting question, one to which many atheists and agnostics would probably like an answer.

Looking at St. Peter’s statement, it almost seems to be so. It almost seems as if God takes pleasure in our patient suffering, especially when we are “buffeted” unfairly. Perhaps this is what it looks like on the surface. Yet, how well we know that surface reflections can be deceiving.

Two major points need to be made here. First, it is absurd to ascribe to God Almighty the concept of “feelings” or even emotion. We mortals constantly ascribe to God human feelings and emotions, when, in all actuality, His Serenity is so immense and perfect that the Holy Trinity is above such things. Still, we do it, we suppose, to keep some connection to a Being that we cannot ever hope to approach or understand, except through Christ.

The Bible does, of course, speak of the wrath of God. Many times, according to the Bible, His Holiness was offended by the various sins of Israel, most of all their apostasy. He reacted by sending various armies, captivities, and afflictions upon them.  Yet, we cannot make the mistake of thinking that God, who sees all eternity as one continuous scene, acted as one that suddenly became angry with His People and decided to punish them. Once again, this limits the limitless nature of God and His complete, serene, Holiness.

No, the mystery is much deeper than that. The second major point is that God works all things to His Purpose and Design, for His own Glory in some mysterious and wonderful way. This is unfathomable to us, except in the sense that we participate with all faithful Creation for this purpose: giving glory and praise to the Holy and Blessed Trinity: Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. In this sense, we can both understand and participate in the ultimate reality of God.

That may be as far as it goes, however. Paraphrasing Job, God spoke to Him, asking him who has the mind of God, that he may instruct Him? The question is of course, rhetorical.

Thus, we may wonder why God would find it acceptable that we Christians accept punishment patiently when it is not merited.

If it were not for the example of Christ, it would be doubly mysterious. Yet, the reason for God’s “acceptance,” if you will, of our patient suffering is perfectly modeled in Christ. St. Peter takes pains to say that Christians are called to suffer as Christ did, because He suffered for us, the just for the unjust. Christ did not revile, He did not threaten, and He did not complain. He led the only sinless life ever lived, and He was crucified. Quoting 1 Peter 2:21: “For you have been called for this purpose, since Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example for you to follow in His steps.” These are the words that Peter tells us and with them, perhaps God’s purpose for our endurance of unjust suffering becomes clear. In short, it is this: if Christ our Lord and Savior suffered, the just for the unjust, what is our calling?  Not that we choose suffering or that God delights in it, but rather if it occurs, our Christ-like reaction to it is crucial. If we, like Jesus, endure and accept suffering for righteousness’ sake, this is pleasing to God. If we take it patiently, without murmuring against God, this is acceptable to Him, if only for the reason that we are modeling His Son’s behavior. When we do it well, we are actually offering God the sincerest praise we can, simply because we are imitating Jesus.

There is a connection between suffering and holiness. Suffering can draw one closer to God and it often does. One may cry out to God in the midst of suffering for comfort, for help, or just for something to lean on. This is wonderful and blessed, for even in the midst of our suffering, we know God hears us. Yet, it is difficult.

There is another reaction to suffering as well. One may experience hardship and pain, but it causes an opposite reaction to God. Some may blame God for their troubles and loss, running from Him rather than running to Him. This is a common reaction and is understandable, if unpalatable to the mature Christian.

Why do we say that? Simply because the mature Christian knows that suffering and grace go together. Yes, there is suffering in life, yes there is hardship, but thanks be to God, there is grace as well. While the Christian may understand the reaction of the one running from God because of hardship, he rejects the idea that God takes some random pleasure in it or that there is not some purpose in it. The latter is the most difficult, as in the loss of a loved one or the visitation of a grave disease. One person’s faith will say, “Why, God?” while another person’s faith will say, “I don’t understand why, but Thy will be done.” In these two cases, which of the two, the questioner or the accepter, will receive more grace? Perhaps both, but the odds are greatly in favor of the one who accepts God’s Will and prays to see the sense in it. He may be given that answer, but very likely he will not. He will have to content himself with the thought, “Glory be to thee, O Lord, thy will be done.” This very acceptance helps brings grace and peace, even in very difficult circumstances.

One’s reaction may very well be according to the faith that one is given. While we are unable to probe the mysterious and unlimited Mind of God, except as He reveals it to us in Word and Sacrament, we do know that God calls people to Himself. Each call is different, in that God calls each individual soul, yet there is one determinant that God reserves to each man: his own free will. In this instance, some use their free will to cling to God during times of trouble. Others use their free will to question, complain, and ultimately flee from God. After all, He brought all this upon them, right? Another uses his free will to embrace the will of God and thus receives grace in times of suffering, trouble, and pain.

Perhaps one of the most profound and difficult concepts for the Christian to accept is the use of suffering by God to shape and mold the Christian’s character. Our Heavenly Father knows our spiritual disposition and often put us in situations to teach us. Thus, if we accept that fact that suffering is not meaningless, as one with an existential bent might say, we know that a lesson lies in it somewhere. It may be that lesson is simply the availability of grace. That is, Love is the force behind it, as difficult the path to it may lie. It may also be the most troubling lesson for the mature Christian, in that somber time when God withdraws Himself from a soul in order that it may learn its utter dependence on Him. The old adage says that with absence the heart grows fonder. Nothing could be truer, especially when the needy soul is gasping for the presence of God.

The atheist and agnostic will no doubt turn up their noses at this, saying it simply proves the superstition of religion, or worse yet, the need of a “bloodthirsty” God who demanded that His own Son be sacrificed for His satisfaction. How barbaric, how savage, how primitive, they may think.  People today are simply too civilized to accept such a messy, transactional scheme of salvation! This Christianity stuff is simply a myth cooked up by those who need a celestial father figure. After all, I’m OK. I don’t need a Savior.

“Not so fast,” says the Christian. To the atheist and the agnostic he says, “Your view is too simplistic. You simply do not understand the gravity of your situation, nor do you understand the spiritual wasteland inside you. Your soul, despite all temporal efforts to satisfy it, is still empty. Only one thing can fill it and that one thing cannot be obtained by you. You must look to something, or someone else. Finally, you must suspend your questions and your arrogance reflected in your need to bring God to your level.  Acknowledge God for who He is: Omnipotent, Omniscient, and Omnipresent.  More importantly, recognize Him as the One who has what you need and yet gave everything that you could have it.”

“Moreover,” says the Christian to the questioner, “Suffering may have been the gate to lead you to this point. Perhaps your need for God has finally grown to a point where you can surrender your arrogance and your pride so that Grace may enter in. Perhaps now you can see the seriousness and extreme nature of your sin, so much so that 'He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, that you might die to sin and live to righteousness; for by His wounds you were healed'” (1 Peter 2:24).

“Your sins and mine put Christ on the Cross, but it was the Love of God that took Him off. That is, having declared his triumph, he showed it openly, forever defeating sin, death and the grave.”

This suffering of Christ and his magnificent love for us brings us home at last. As St. Peter tells us: “For ye were as sheep going astray; but are now returned unto the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls” (1 Peter 2:25).

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.

AMEN

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