REJOICE IN OUR SUFFERINGS
REJOICE IN OUR SUFFERINGS
Romans 5:1-5
Detroit Annual Conference – May 21, 2009
West Michigan Annual Conference – June 4, 2009
Bishop Jonathan D. Keaton
Has Brother Paul lost it? How can he say, “Rejoice in our sufferings” at a time like this? Recently, Chrysler declared bankruptcy and GM followed suit. Michigan is still plagued with the nation’s highest unemployment rate going on six or seven years. Both Annual Conferences have slashed their spending for 2009. And swine flu has run amuck. It has the world concerned about the makings of a pandemic. Already these human dilemmas have caused a lot of pain and suffering, i.e., joblessness, church closings, budget cuts, death and the loss of hope. Paul has not lost it. Nor has Paul suggested that strategies and plans to solve and/or address human suffering and pain should not be pursued with all deliberate speed.
What then is Paul’s joy in suffering about? It is directly related to his mission and ministry on behalf of Jesus the Christ. Through his carrying the cross for Christ, the kingdom of God comes on earth as in heaven. We see this mindset, perspective, outlook, perception or point of view materializing in Romans 5:3b-5. “Rejoice in our sufferings,” says Paul, “knowing that suffering produces endurance, 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 which has been given to us.” If such joy can overcome our suffering, Paul is convinced that we can accomplish God’s mission in Michigan regardless of the pain and suffering wrought by unemployment, bankruptcy, church closings, swine flue, death, doubt and pessimism.
Suffering Produces Endurance
Paul’s letters and the book of Acts reveal a man who knows suffering and endurance. His first career as a persecutor of Christians is short-lived. Dragging Christian men and women from their houses and imprisoning them is his stock and trade until God intervenes. The Damascus Road experience changes everything. When God confronts Paul with the sin of persecution, he repents. Subsequently, Christ gives this repentant Jew a new life and a new mission. Hear what God tells Ananias to tell Paul. “Go, for he is a chosen instrument of mine to carry my name before the gentiles and Kings and sons of Israel: for I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name.” (Acts 9:16).
From the day of his conversion to the day of his death in Rome, Paul, a Jew, is given a cross-cultural appointment. That’s challenge multiplied. He will spend the bulk of his ministry with gentiles or non-Jews. As a result, his own people reject his ministry. Not only that: fellow Jews do to Paul what he did to Christians in his pre-Damascus life. For embracing a non-Jewish mission; they make him suffer. Paul offers vivid detail of the consequences of his mission in II Corinthians 11:23-32. He is beaten eight times; five of them with the lash, 40 lashes minus one and three times with rods. That’s like being caned in Singapore. Once, they stone him. Three shipwrecks leave him adrift at sea. Danger abounds in the form of raging rivers, robbers, his own people and the gentiles, in the city, wilderness, and betraying disciples. Trouble ensues in toil and hardship, sleepless nights, hunger, thirst, exposure to cold, prison, dodging kings who wanted to kill him and wrestling with his own thorns in the flesh. Through it all, Paul hangs in there. He delivers one of God’s greatest treasures to the world in an earthen vessel – the church – the whole church – growing and replete with all God’s children.
A spirited debate has arisen over the same issue. General Conference passed an amendment to the Constitution redefining inclusiveness of the church. It deleted the words “without regard to race, color, national origin, status or other economic condition” and added “we are in ministry to all.” Another deletion took out similar categories and added “all persons, upon taking the vows declaring the Christian faith and relationship to Jesus Christ, shall be eligible to become professing members in any local church in the connection.” Rev. Walter Fenton disagreed. In the March/April 2009 issue of Good News Magazine, the New Jersey cleric called the amendment “potentially divisive” and “an indirect attempt by special interest groups to ensure the acceptance and full participation of self-avowed practicing homosexuals in all areas of the life of the church.” However the issue is debated – however it is settled, all sides will have suffered. Still, you have been chosen to help chart the path the UMC shall choose on inclusiveness. Other than race, few issues have ripped the so-called unity of the church like the plethora of meanings in the pregnant sentence, “all persons are of sacred worth.”
Paul recognized what we know as well. Unless the church, its leaders and members are fully committed and called to fulfill the mission and ministry of Jesus Christ, they won’t rejoice. They’ll get mad. They’ll get discouraged. They’ll grow weary in well-doing. Eventually, some of them will quit or drop out. But they won’t escape the fate of all those who have decided to follow Jesus. All persons who have decided to follow Jesus are meant to suffer. A songwriter acknowledged the same. “Must Jesus bear the cross alone and all the world go free? No, there’s a cross for everyone and there’s a cross for me.” On God’s behalf, Ananias said as much in his charge to Paul to be a cross-cultural minister. “For I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name.” Every Christian denomination ought to add Jesus’ cautionary statement to its membership vows. If any man (or woman) would come after me, let him deny himself take up the cross and follow me (Mt. 16:24). Self-denial and taking up the cross mean one thing, suffering.
Endurance Produces Character
Near the end of his wondrous cross-cultural ministry, Paul looked back with a degree of satisfaction testifying, “I fought the good fight. I finished the course, I kept the faith.” Herein lays one proof that suffering produces endurance. If one does not quit, give up or throw in the towel when the tribulations of life seem insurmountable, it says something about their character, the inner person, their heart of hearts. Sometimes they achieve the so-called impossible dream. Two well known stories tell us a lot about the character of its main characters: David and Goliath and the tortoise and the hare. In one story, the slow-footed tortoise beats the fast-footed hare across the finish line. How? Foolishly, the speedy rabbit takes a nap during the race. While the hare naps, the turtle passes him by and continues to the end. By the time the hare awakes and speeds to the finish line, the tortoise has already crossed it. The hare is in shock. Giant Goliath does not get the chance to be in shock. His encounter with the shepherd boy costs him his life. A rock from David’s slingshot finds its mark in the middle of his forehead. Goliath falls and is conquered. What is the character lesson of each story? The tortoise understands that “the race is not to the swift.” From past victories over lions and bears, David knows “the battle is not to the strong.” Time and chance happen to them all. Character possesses a corporate dimension as well.
When the bishop asked both Cabinets to provide examples of how and why elected congregations paid 100% of their apportionments/ministry shares, the character of pastoral and lay leadership materialized. Some of the feedback sounded like this: “I didn’t think we had a choice. It’s what we do. Because the pastor said we have to pay them.” Other congregations called apportionments a response to people’s needs – a blessing to someone else. Still others saw apportionments as a response to God’s faithfulness. In essence, paying apportionments brought out a number of character traits in congregations. Congregations responded out of pure obligation, being in covenant, what the pastor saw as important, the desire to be Good Samaritans and a praise offering for God’s faithfulness in their lives. Some of this information is printed in the April 2009 Michigan Christian Advocate and the conference websites.
As usual, something of the bishop’s character is revealed in that article as well. For instance, I thanked every congregation for their contributions to apportionments and/or ministry shares. On the other hand, I mentioned with regret those churches that paid zero or nothing. “It ought not to be,” I said. “Every church has a pastor and laity willing to pay apportionments out of “abundance or scarcity.” Some of you might ask, and then Bishop, “why didn’t they pay?” No single rationale can be cited. But people have continually mentioned lack of pastoral leadership or the inclination of self-first. Scarcity has so imprisoned some of us that the widow’s mite or what belongs to God has little claim on them. Occasionally, I wished I had the money to take folk with a mentality of scarcity to Africa. I have been privileged to visit South Africa, Mozambique, Senegal, Kenya and Zimbabwe. Time and again, Africans in desperate financial situations have overwhelmed rich American Christians, relatively speaking, with gift after gift. Extending radical hospitality was more important than holding on to what they needed. And yet, I have failed to convince and convict some churches to pay anything on apportionment and/or ministry shares. They appear unmoved by a covenant taken or things connectional. A goose egg or nothing given toward apportionments beside their church’s name ought not to be.
In his response to the mission obligation laid on him, Paul gives us a compelling revelation of his character. In Philippians 3:4-6, Paul boasts of his racial and religious heritage. “Circumcised on the eighth day, a member of the people of Israel, of the tribe (that produced Israel’s first king), a Hebrew born of Hebrews, etc.” he writes. And yet, this dyed-in-the wool Jew accepts his life long cross-cultural appointment and makes it work regardless of what he suffers. That’s character. Learning to love those you hate, that’s character. Learning to serve those you hate, that’s character. Not retaliating for the pain and suffering laid on him by his kinfolk for his ministry to the Gentiles; that’s character. Maintaining a healthy respect for governmental officials when they punished him and sought his life on occasion takes character. Paul demythologized the notion that cross-cultural appointments do not work. The results are splattered all over the New Testament particularly in Rome, Corinth, Galatia, Ephesus, Philippi and Colossae. Pauline Christology, theology, ecclesiology, understanding of scripture, witness, tradition and experience is shaped by the overarching vision of Jesus Christ delivered to him via the Damascus Road event and the voice of Ananias. “But the Lord said to him, “Go, for he is a chosen instrument of mine to carry my name before the gentiles and kings and the sons of Israel: for I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name.” (Acts 9:16). Beyond the times when Paul cried because of his thorns in the flesh, his outlook and attitude are best summed up in his letter to the Philippians, “rejoice in the Lord always… again I say rejoice.”
Character Produces Hope
Few of us have heard the name Ty’Sheoma Bethea. But many of us remember what she did. She created hope. Fourteen year-old Ty’Sheoma Bethea wrote President Obama about her dilapidated school in Dillon, South Carolina. The President mentioned her school during his Congressional Address. Darryl Rosser, CEO of a classroom furniture store in Chicago responded. His store donated and installed $250,000.00 wroth of new furniture. Students at the J.V. Martin Junior High were ecstatic and hope-filled. Their learning environment has been transformed. And Ty’Sheoma Bethea’s witness showed what is possible for “all those who believe.”
While Ty’Sheoma wrote the letter that resulted in new furniture for the school, her request had longsuffering behind it. Students at J.V. Martin have used a school facility consisting of several buildings: a partially condemned main building built in 1896, a new wing constructed in the fifties and a fistful of portable classrooms dotting the campus. At present, “stained rugs cover holes in the floor, rain pours in from the ceiling of the classroom, temperatures hover in the fifties during the winter and freight trains passing by the campus shake the ground hard enough to make the lights go out.” Believing that something could be changed, Ty’Sheoma wrote a letter to President Obama. She was forced to use a computer at the public library. Ty’Sheoma had no computer at home. And school computers were not available. Nevertheless, her single act brought hope to a poor black school district in South Carolina getting half of the financial support gong to wealthy districts. President Obama said as much about her role as a change agent by stating, “Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. We are the change that we seek.”
To some, that Presidential statement sounds a bit arrogant. Yet, it matches his quest for the Presidency. Though millions believe that Obama was pursuing an impossible dream, Barack’s campaign mantra of “Yes We Can” gets the job done. That aside; is there too much emphasis on human power and not enough on God’s power in his outlook? Hear it again. “We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. We are the change that we seek.” Maybe the bishop sounds like that too often with regard to growing the church. Some folk take this bishop to task because of my heavy emphasis on “Making disciples.” We don’t make them. God makes them. Yet, making disciples has a hold on me that I cannot shake.
Let me be clear, making disciples occurs in multi-faceted ways, not one way. Social justice, worship, mission projects, soup kitchens, embracing all God’s children, Confirmation rallies, the prayers of a father, the love of a mother, Bible study, repentance and conversion illustrate a few of the ways disciples “are made.” Furthermore, I find it difficult to declare impossible what Christ calls possible. If the translators are right, Christ asks us to make disciples because he permits it. Those who make disciples do not do so for numbers sake. Rather, they seek to carry out one aspect of God’s will for those who follow him.
The bishop recognized this “making” process in some reflections on the recent Confirmands Rally held at Albion College. “If the young people I met are paradigmatic of young people the church is nurturing in the faith, the church of today and tomorrow is in good hands,” I said. Quite frankly, I am emboldened by Jesus’ words in the gospel of John – words I do not live by fully myself. In a post-resurrection appearance, Jesus’ says to a doubt-ridden Thomas and his fellow disciple: “He who believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I go to the Father. Whatever you ask in my name, I will do it, that the Father may be glorified in the Son, if you ask anything in my name, I will do it.” (John 14:12-14)
A new format has been created for the Bishop’s Day in 2010. Two to three districts will be paired up with a focus on evangelism. CALLED OUT, New Places for New Faces will be our theme. Every event must be conducted in February or March. A minimum of 3,500 people will be more equipped to make disciples primarily in the communities where they live. At the same time, I imagined that Bishop’s Day will spark a well spring of creativity in laity and clergy who attend. Among 54 leaders from the North Central Jurisdiction who went on a pilgrimage to Korea, we learned anew what Christ asked us to do. Develop a passion for making disciples who transform the world on God’s behalf, none other. In fact, the Koreans kept praising us. We sent missionaries to them 124 years that taught them how to grow the church. What they learned from American missionaries, we seemingly forgot. But Pastor Hong jogged our memory. His church has grown continually because o fits big vision, excellent stewardship, and empowerment of the faithful majority not the few, class meetings and cell groups, focus on family, relationships and world evangelism. Most of all, their passion for making disciples emerged from an active, corporate prayer life. Seven days a week, 365 days a year, the church gathered to pray at 5:00 a.m. in the morning. Of Bupyeong’s 5,000 members, 1,000 members engaged in public prayer daily. I was there. I saw them. I prayed for you. I prayed for me. And I prayed for a revival, right here, right now. Revival will not come to Michigan if we wait for some other person or some other time. Disciples of Jesus Christ, we’re the ones Christ has been waiting for to help transform the world.
Revival, reformation, Rethink Church, the resurgence of the Untied Methodist Church, etc., will not happen without sacrifice and self-resolve. It’s clear. We rejoice on Good Friday not solely because Jesus suffers valiantly. His suffering and death are a means by which we are saved. That is why the word of hope from Paul about the cross is right; rejoice in our sufferings. Why, because suffering is redemptive. Pain, grief and repentance are part of Paul’s conversion on the Damascus Road. Then he becomes a chosen instrument to carry God’s name before the gentiles. Neither he nor the world was ever the same. Hallelujah. When the once well-to-do saints in Jerusalem fell on hard times, Paul raised money for them on his missionary journeys. The hungry were fed. The thirsty received drink. And the sick were visited. Thank you, Jesus. Paul worked hard to identify pastors for new church starts. He worked even harder to find money, time and talent to build not one church but many. Despite economic downturns in the Roman Empire, church after church was built in every conceivable locale: my God from glory. Facing taunts and threats of bodily harm and murder from his Jewish counterparts egged on by laws they forbade Jews and gentiles to have dealings with one another, Paul opened the church to gentiles. Barriers of religion, politics and marriage came down. First century Christians discovered that cross-cultural appointments could work. My God, what mourning!!
Last, but not least, Paul wrote some of his letters to settle church fights, talk about the body of Christ plus extol the virtues and mindset required to take up the cross of Christ with salvific joy. To the Romans, Paul wrote, “Do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may prove what is the will of God, what is good, acceptable and perfect.” (Romans 12:2) In first Corinthians, Paul confronted the grim reaper, “Grave where is your victory? Death where is thy sting?” (1 Cor. 15:55). In 2 Corinthians 5:7, Paul urges his folk to walk by faith not by sight. That same spirit held in Galatia. Paul embraced the fruit of the spirit disregarding the works of the flesh. What the flesh offers does not compare to love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness and self-control, etc. (Galatians 6:5:22ff). Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in that evil day and having done all…stand,” Paul admonished the Ephesians. (Eph. 6:11, 13). And from another jail cell, Paul penned these words of confidence and hope, “I have learned in whatever state to be content, whether I’m full or hungry, whether I have too much or too little, I have the strength to face all conditions by the power that Christ gives me. In word and deed, Paul’s testimony is crystal clear, “For such a time as this, rejoice in our sufferings,”
One hymn that wrings hope from suffering provides a fitting conclusion for the sermon. “My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus’ blood and righteousness, I dare not trust the sweetest frame but wholly lean on Jesus’ name. 2. When darkness veils his lovely face, I rest on his unchanging grace. In every high and stormy gale, my anchor holds within the veil. 3. His oath, his covenant, his blood support me in the whelming flood. When all around my soul gives way, he then is all my hope and stay. 4. When he shall come with trumpet sound, O may I then in him be found!! Dressed in his righteousness alone, faultless to stand before thy throne. Refrain: On Christ the solid rock I stand all other ground is sinking sand; all other ground is sinking sand.”