1 Peter 2:19-25

James Baldwin in his book, The Fire Next Time, wrote the following: “If the concept of God has any validity or use, it can only be to make us larger, freer, and more loving. If God cannot do this, then it is time we got rid of Him.”

I wonder if Baldwin, for whom I have the utmost respect, made his critique while considering unjust suffering?  If he did not, then he is not alone.

Suffering is not a subject that we wish to discuss, unless we are in the midst of suffering.  And then, it is only to understand the reason.

We do not want to discuss suffering intellectually.  We do not want to discuss suffering emotionally.  Truth be told, we do not want to hear the preacher preaching about suffering on Sunday morning if at all possible.

It begs the question: what is suffering?

For our purposes, suffering is any unwanted condition and the corresponding negative emotion. It is usually associated with pain and unhappiness, but any condition can be suffering if it is unwanted.  

Any pain that we endure be it physical or emotional can be considered suffering.   And only you can determine what suffering means for you in your life.  

What may cause me to suffer may not phase you.  What may drop you to your knees may go unnoticed by me.  In order to understand my definition of suffering you would have had to walk in my shoes.

Suffering also begs the question: why?  Why Jesus, must this pain endure?  Why God must I continue to carry this burden on my back?

Why Lord, must go I day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year with the same old heartache, the same old sorrow, the same old sadness, the same old despair, and the same old misery?

The point, however, is not to find out the root causes of suffering, because that would be a futile exercise.  The point is to remind you this morning that suffering is real.  It is a part of the faith journey. 

It does not discriminate, it does not distinguish, it does not classify, it does not single out, and it does not show favoritism.  Suffering is an equal opportunity employer.  It is always looking to hire.

Suffering does not concern itself with how often you attend church.  Its pain is not immune to those who are the biggest givers in the church.  And it reaches from the pulpit to the last pew.

If you live long enough, suffering will eventually stop by your house unannounced.  There is no way to avoid it.  In fact, if you are a follower of Jesus the Christ you should expect it.

But as much as we seek to avoid suffering, because of the pain associated with it, we tend to forget that it is a natural part of living.

This notion of suffering fits into the category of what the theologian Paul Tillich, considers “a symptom of the ambiguity of life.” 

To be a active participant in life, not simply taking up air until the Lord calls you home, but an active participant with hopes, dreams, and aspirations is to also engage in suffering.

There are two types of suffering.  There is just suffering.  Suffering that you caused.  If you committed the crime and get caught you will suffer the consequences.

The other type of suffering is unjust, which is where we draw our emphasis this morning.  This is the suffering that we have the most difficulty understanding.  We did not do anything, we did not hurt anyone, we did not lie, we did not cheat, but we are suffering anyhow.

Such suffering is not an aberration but an intricate part of the human condition.  This is further complicated by the fact that unjust suffering can lead to just suffering.

Suffering was one of the primary motivations for Peter writing this letter to the underground subversive movement known in the first century as Children of the Way, you and I call them the early Christians. 

They were suffering unjustly, wrongly persecuted, and falsely accused.  Like some of you, they didn’t do anything wrong, but they suffered anyhow.  They suffered because they followed the teachings of Jesus.

Peter reminds these early Christians, just as he is reminding you and I today, that there’s no particular virtue in accepting punishment that we deserve.  But if you are treated badly for good behavior and continue in spite of it to be a good servant; that is what counts with God. 

Because of his unjust suffering, Nelson Mandela is one of the most respected individuals in the world.  How many of us can name 5 things Nelson Mandela did while president of South Africa?  But we all know that he spent 27 years unjustly suffering on Robben Island.

Liberation movements all over the world are influenced by the unjust suffering endured by those within the Civil Rights Movement.

As much as we would like to avoid it, there is something about suffering that makes us stronger, makes us grow deeper in our faith, and opens us up to possibilities they may not have been available had we not suffered. 

Some of you would not be here today, in community, had you not suffered unjustly.  For suffering can serve as a spiritual truth serum.  It has a way of revealing what is in our hearts. 

If its love, suffering will bring it out.  If its mercy, suffering will bring it out.  If its peace, suffering will bring it out. If its anger, suffering will bring it out.  If its false pride, suffering will bring it out.

Whatever is at core of your soul, in the depths of your heart, suffering will bring it out.

Strength and weakness of the heart is found not when everything is going our way, it requires the flames of suffering that will test the mettle of our character.

As gold and silver are refined by fire, and as coal needs time and pressure to become a diamond, the human heart is revealed and developed by enduring the pressure and heat when in the time of trouble.

To paraphrase the words of Thomas Paine, going through suffering are indeed the times that try our souls.

But as much as we try to avoid it, there is a part of suffering that is crucial to our spiritual walk.  Howard Thurman says: “Openings are made in a life by suffering that are not made in any other way.”

It is the words of Thurman that influences the title of this message and it is the words of Peter where we find 3 instructive lessons on what suffering opens up.

Lesson Number One: Suffering is an aspect of our faith

Peter writes in v.19, “For it is a credit to you if, being aware of God, you endure pain while suffering unjustly.”

That doesn’t mean that we should plan a celebration for the day that we suffer unjustly.  But you will have setbacks, you will have challenges, you will have obstacles; and they will happen whether you know God or not.

I know if given a choice we all would rather avoid suffering, but unfortunately life is not constructed that way. Therefore, suffering is at the very core of our faith; it is the vital link between the human condition and that of Jesus as savior.

In our faith tradition we believe that Jesus was a suffering victim who seemed to have been defeated by the earthly powers of his time. But in his moment of apparent weakness and defeat, we see him as triumphant, dying for humanity's sins and opening the way to possibility and hope, opening a way to transformation and renewal, opening a way for second chances.

Peter is reminding us that unjust suffering is what you signed up for.   It may be down in the fine print but it is in the contract.  Not only did you sign it, but Jesus signed it in blood on Calvary, it was certified by the resurrection, and implemented by the Holy Ghost.

Think of suffering as the parsley that comes with the meal that you ordered at the restaurant.  You didn’t ask for that piece of parsley it just came with the meal.  None of us asks for suffering it just comes with faith.

Because suffering comes with our faith does not mean that we must suffer alone, because we can call on a suffering servant.

A servant who was wounded for our transgressions, crushed for our inequities; upon him was the punishment that made us whole, and by his bruises we are healed.

That may not sound comforting to some right now, but it sure comes in handy when you are catching hell from all sides, unjustly suffering for no good reason beyond because, but you can still call on the name of the resurrected Lord in the midnight hour, who in return can say to you: “I know what your talking about.”

For as Peter writes in v. 21 “To this we have been called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, so that we can follow in his steps.

Point Number Two: Suffering is a source of strength.

In verse 20, Peter writes: “If you endure when you are beaten for doing wrong, what credit is that?  But if you endure when you do right and suffer for it, you have God’s approval.”

There is nothing about my successes that can help anyone when they are going through something.  In fact, they can’t help me.  Your strength is not found in the heights that you’ve attained; it comes from the depths from which you came.

The strength is found in the depths, it’s found in the valley of dry bones, it’s found in the fiery furnace, it’s found while we endure when we do right and suffer for it.  It is there, according to Peter, that we have God’s approval.

It is in suffering where we learn to press on.  It is in suffering that we learn to persevere; it is in suffering where we learn to hang on. And it is through suffering where we find strength.

I am not strengthened by being the only pastor in the country with a syndicated column, I’m strengthened by the 7 years that I was turned down by every publication in which I submitted piece.

Likewise, I am not strengthened by Malik doing well in school, on the path to developing into a fine young man.  I am strengthened by being a struggling single parent with $37 to my name, no place to stay, no job in site, and not knowing how I was going to make it.

I am strengthened by making sure Malik had something to eat and the dog had something to eat, but whether or not I ate was optional.

Oh I’m here to tell you, when you go through stuff like that and come out on the other side it will strengthen you.

And if suffering is an aspect of our faith and a source of our strength, it stands reason that the 3rd point is: Suffering gets us closer to God.

Peter writes in v.25: “For you were going astray like sheep, but now you have returned to the shepherd and guardian of your souls.”

It is through unjust suffering that we learn to put our trust in God.  It is through unjust suffering that we learn that God is not about to run out when the going gets tough.

I have lived just long enough to know that it is easy to have friends when everything is going well.  Likewise, it is easy to have faith when everything is riding high.  

Oh but there is nothing like when the hounds of hell are nipping at your heels to get you closer to God.   That’s why Peter reminds us in the text that is what gets God’s approval.

But in order to get closer to God, we must learn to trust God while in the midst of our suffering.  Job was perhaps the most famous sufferer of all time.

Job lost his family to "a mighty wind," his wealth to war and fire, and his health to painful boils. Through it all, God never told Job why it was happening.

As Job endured the accusations of his friends, heaven remained silent. When God finally did speak, God did not apologize for allowing Satan to test Job's devotion to God.

In the end, Job was left to conclude that if God had the power and wisdom to create the physical universe, there was reason to trust that same God in times of suffering.

The Job experience reminds us that in this life we will face obstacles, and we can’t deny it.  We will face heartache, and we can’t stop it.  We will face setbacks and we can’t get around it. We will face suffering and we can’t avoid it.  We will face death and we can’t prevent it.

Suffering gets us closer to God, and to ask God to take away our suffering moves us away from God.

As much as we want God to take away our suffering, God reminds us that if I take away your suffering you won’t have anything in common with Job who said: “Though he slay me, yet shall I trust him.”  Who said: “the wicked shall cease from troubling and the weary shall be at rest.”

If God took away your suffering you wouldn’t have anything in common Joseph who said to his brothers: You plotted evil against me but God used it for good.

If God took away your suffering you wouldn’t have anything in common with David who said: “yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I shall fear no evil for though art with me.”  Who said: “Weeping may endure for a night be joy comes in the morning.

If God took away your suffering you wouldn’t have anything in common with Isaiah who: “No weapon formed against thee shall prosper.”  Who said, “they that wait on the Lord shall renew their strength.”

If God took away your suffering you wouldn’t have anything in common with Paul who said: “I do not consider the suffering of this present time to be compared with the glory that’s about to be revealed.

Who also asked the question: “What shall separate us from the love of God? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?  For in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.

For it is Paul that reminds us that God’s grace is sufficient. That’s not pass tense.  That’s not future tense.  That’s right now.  God’s grace is sufficient, even in our suffering.

When the thorn is in your flesh, God’s grace is sufficient.  When your carrying the cross God’s grace is sufficient. When you’re are carrying the weight of the world on your back, God’s grace is sufficient.

When folk lie on you, God’s grace is sufficient.  When co-workers stab you in the back, God’s grace is sufficient.  After the doctor’s second opinion, God’s grace is sufficient.

As painful as it can be at times, unjust suffering is redemptive.  When we come to the realization that unjust suffering is redemptive, we have liberated hearts so that the love of Jesus can flood our souls with the balm of Gilead. 

For we serve a God that has the uncanny ability of squeezing out good within evil, light within darkness, deliverance within despair, and redemption within our suffering.

Didn’t God find redemption in the lives of those martyred civil rights workers?  Didn’t God find redemption in the suffering of Nelson Mandela? And when you think on your life, didn’t God find the redemptive gift of grace within your unjust suffering?

And without redemptive unjust suffering we would not have anything in common with Jesus who was letdown just like you were letdown, betrayed just like you were betrayed, suffered just like you have suffered, died just as you must die, but only to rise again, just as you will rise from your suffering.

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Therefore, we can leave here today in spite of our suffering nourished by God’s power, comforted by Jesus love, fortified by the Holy Spirit, and affirmed by the words of Howard Thurman: “Openings are made in a life by suffering that are not made in any other way.”

Amen