Sermons

“Sowing Hope”

Psalm 8; Romans 5:1-5 – Rev. Rebecca Littlejohn

Vista La Mesa Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), La Mesa, California – June 16, 2019

 Holy God, bless the speaking and the hearing of these words that we might always seek your love in the face of suffering and live in hope.  In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen.

I wonder if any of you had the sort of childhood that involved “character-building” activities.  Was there something you were made to do, that you didn’t really enjoy doing, that you were told was important because it “builds character”? Can anyone give us an example? Character building tasks were generally tedious, right?  They were often repetitive but required attention to detail so you couldn’t space out and think about something else.  And they took a while, because part of good character is knowing that speedy gratification is not the reward we might imagine.

The question I would ask is whether these tasks were necessary or not.  It’s important for all of us to learn that we need to take our turn at doing the mundane chores that life requires, like washing the dishes, or doing the laundry, or mowing the grass, if there is any.  But sorting things that don’t need to be sorted, or washing things that are already clean, or any other of a variety of make-work tasks seem to me to build resentment rather than character.

Our scripture lessons today contain an interesting confluence of questions, especially when combined with reflecting on fatherhood, as today’s secular holiday invites us to.  First of all, let’s look again at that very quotable line from Romans: “suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us.” It sounds like the kind of thing someone would recite to you when they were interested in developing your character, right?  But does it sound true?  Does suffering produce endurance?  Here we are likely to recall another cultural bromide: “That which doesn’t kill us makes us stronger.”  I think most of us would agree this is generally true.  Once we’ve been through hard times, it’s easier to remember the next time that hard times end.  When we practice our coping skills, they improve.  Knowing we’ve survived something gives us the confidence to face whatever is coming next.  So sure, suffering can produce endurance.

But the deeper in we go, the more conditional this gets.  Does endurance produce character?  Does how we get through things shape who we become?  Definitely.  But it’s important to remember that character is kind of like power, as we discussed it last week.  Just as power can be used for good or for evil, character can be good or bad. Enduring suffering could make us more compassionate and resilient and humbler and wiser.  It could also make us bitter and closed off and pessimistic and self-centered.  Here is where it becomes necessary to look at the larger context of what Paul was saying. The suffering he was talking about was specifically the repression Christians faced under the Roman regime.  It was the suffering of a community that was living at peace with God, in the grace they had accessed through Jesus Christ.

Not every experience of suffering leads to the kind of character that produces hope.  Only when suffering is for the sake of love is it likely to carry us through to the hope that does not disappoint.  So let’s back up and think about all the suffering people endure that is not for the sake of love.  The 8^thPsalm is mostly a hymn of praise, but it’s a remarkably philosophical one.  It rhapsodizes about the wonders of creation, but also expresses stark surprise at the prominence of humanity in the grander scheme of things.  And then it’s got that word, that word that has so often messed things up for us.  Verse 6 says, “You have given them dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under their feet.”

We have not handled “dominion” well, have we?  The power has gone to our heads, and we haven’t always used it for good.  Our character has often been more influenced by the notion that we’re almost like God, rather than the truth that we’re not God.  And now I have to say the hard thing that Father’s Day brings up, namely that our tradition of calling God “Father” like Jesus did has multiplied these problems, leading some among us to wield dominion over others, exercising power for the sake of feeling powerful, rather than out of compassion and care.  We have allowed our language to trick us into believing that some are more like God than others, and more deserving of authority over others, such that suffering is caused that has nothing to do with peace or grace and definitely does not lead to hope. And we’ve seen these distortions travel down through generations till they feel like just the way things are and who are we to question how our people have always done things?

When someone tells you that the suffering you’re experiencing is going to build character and should make you hopeful, the moment is ripe to examine what is really going on.  The suffering Paul was talking about was, in fact, caused by the dominion certain mortals were exercising over others.  But the ones causing the suffering were not within the community of believers, claiming that their actions were righteous.  Their actions were not righteous.  There is no claim to righteousness by anyone causing suffering, even if the victims do emerge stronger and more resilient.  It is not Christian to create suffering in order to produce endurance and character, and it does not lead to hope.

Too often, humans have been tempted to put ourselves in the place of God and devise tests for others that will “make them stronger”.  There have, in fact, been fathers who considered this their role, in relation to their children.  Boy children, especially, have been seen as in need of “toughening up”.  Perhaps these men were put through similar misery by their own fathers and are just passing down that trauma.  There is nothing of peace or grace in parenting this way.  It does not build character.  It does not lead to hope.  Parenting that uses this “endurance test” approach leads instead to alienation and rage, which then continue to snowball down the generations.

It is time to cut through this cycle of trauma and re-assess how we teach our children and ourselves about enduring suffering and building character and sowing hope. We had an excellent example this week of how to do it differently.  Our flood didn’t exactly cause suffering, but it was a minor calamity.  And there are ways in which it can teach us the lessons we need to learn.  First of all, this flood was not something someone did to someone else.  There is plenty of suffering in the world without any of us deciding we need to inflict more on anyone else.  This is perhaps the most important lesson for us to absorb; though our conscious minds may consider it obvious, our subconscious tendencies bend in slightly more questionable ways.  We strive to be kind, but often we fail.

Secondly, this calamity happened to us as a community.  When anyone one of us suffers, all of us suffer.  Monday night, multiple church members came out to help deal with the immediate needs.  Members of Gamblers Anonymous, who are almost as invested in the welfare of this place as the rest of us, stuck around to help move chairs.  We moved quickly into the endurance phase, hoisting boxes and moving heavy wooden furniture.  Our shoes were soaked; our brows were sweaty.  But we did it together.  And you know what?  I do think it built character!  For each of us as individuals, but also for us as a community.

And here’s how I know it was the kind of character that produces hope:  almost immediately, we started thinking of all the reasons we had to be grateful.  That GA was here to notice the water and sound the alarm, that it happened on Monday, that the fire department came as quickly as they did, that it happened after the weather had turned hot, that the water was clean, that we’d already held Welcome Saturday this month, that our insurance agent was responsive, that there was professional assistance readily available.  So much to give thanks for!

And in the end, it’s gratitude that leads to hope, isn’t it?  Character is perhaps most simply defined as being able to give thanks in all circumstances.  When we help each other endure, when we teach our children the lessons that build character, we do it by walking with one another through the suffering, remembering to look for the blessings.  We do it by going through things together and giving thanks to God.  That is how we sow hope.  That is how we live in the peace and grace of God.  That is how we share in the glory of God.  Alleluia and Amen!