2 Corinthians 6.3-10

SUFFERING - AN OCCASION FOR GOD'S HELP

(Preached July 1994)

(2 Corinthians 6.3-10)

My heart sank when I put the telephone down last Monday after speaking to my eldest son in Australia.

On Christmas Eve 1992, his wife returned from work, picked up her bags which he had previously packed for their Christmas holiday, and walked out on him after only eighteen months of marriage.

Four months later, his best friend was tragically killed in a road accident and it was left to my son to identify the body and break the news of death to his separated parents and girl friend.

At the same time, he lost his job.

However, he still had a few material possessions left which were the source of some comfort.

He had his four wheel drive which enabled him to escape into the bush and be alone with his memories. He had his collection of compact discs which helped him to drown his sorrows in music. And he had his camera with which to capture significant events and scenes.

Fortunately, he managed to get another job and more recently he was successfully head hunted for a more lucrative position.

At last, his life appeared to be on the turn.

Then a week ago the car, which was his pride and joy, developed a serious mechanical fault and is now off the road until he can afford to have it repaired.

If that was not enough for a 23 year old son, 12,000 miles away from his family, he returned home from work on Monday evening only to find it had been broken into and his compact disc player, video recorder and camera had been stolen.

It seems that anyone or anything he had cared for in his life had finally been taken away from him.

Little wonder that my heart sank when I put the telephone down last Monday.

Whilst some people appear to go through life with remarkable ease and comfort, others seem to find themselves involved in a continual struggle for survival.

Just because we are Christians, it does not mean that we can expect to be spared from personal suffering.

Take for example the case of St Paul, as recorded in the above New Testament reading.

In working for God, he endured distress, hardship and often found himself in dire straits. As a reward for his efforts he was flogged, imprisoned and mobbed by the crowds. As a consequence of his enthusiasm for his work, he regularly suffered from overwork, lack of sleep and food.

Later on, in the same letter to the Church at Corinth, he elaborates upon his experience of suffering as an apostle for Christ.

"I have been beaten times without number. I have faced death again and again. I have been beaten the regulation thirty nine stripes by the Jews five times. I have been stoned once. I have been shipwrecked three times. I have been twenty four hours in the open sea. In my travels I have been in constant danger from rivers, from bandits, from my own countrymen and from pagans. I have faced danger in city streets, danger in deserts, danger on the high sea, danger among false Christians. I have known drudgery, exhaustion, many sleepless nights, hunger and thirst, fasting, cold and exposure". (2 Corinthians 11.23-27)

And he concludes, "Apart from all external trials I have the daily burden of the responsibility of all the churches”. (2 Cor.11.28)

Given such a list of personal suffering, I cannot but wonder how on earth St Paul managed to survive.

After all, I know from my own personal experiences that there have been many a time when I have felt like chucking the whole thing in. I do not have to suffer the rudeness, the abuse, the wilful misunderstanding, the ill-informed criticism, the personality assassination, to say nothing of the personal sacrifice in terms of wealth and family life. Even if I was the Archangel Gabriel, some people would still not be happy!

Yes, there are times when the whole world appears to be closing in upon me and all I want to do is to escape and chuck the whole thing in.

Yet when I compare my experiences with those of St Paul, they are nothing.

So how did St Paul survive?

Quite simply, it is only when we are brought down, when we are willing to acknowledge our human weakness and turn to God in our hurt, that he can intervene and give us that much needed strength with which to persevere.

After all, it is a well-known psychological fact in the caring profession that you can only help those who are willing to receive help.

This can sometimes be a very painful lesson to learn especially when you see people making such a mess of their lives. Try as you can, your help is often spurned and your good intentions are thrown back in your face. All you can do is to wait patiently until such time as the person in need acknowledges their need for help. Only then, are they able to receive the help that is on offer and which they so desperately need.

It is the same with God. God, in his infinite wisdom, chooses not to overrule our stubborn free will. Instead, he waits patiently until we are ready to acknowledge our need of his help. Only then, does he release that inner strength which we so desperately need.

For St Paul, it was the dramatic and humiliating experience on the road to Damascus when he finally acknowledged his nothingness. For the Prodigal Son, it was when he was down on his uppers in the pigsty of life, away in a foreign country.

Once we have acknowledged our need, God is there to arm us with that inner strength which enables us, not only to survive and withstand suffering, but also to rise above those personal and impersonal forces which can threaten to overwhelm us in life.

God does not spare us the suffering of life but he does make available to us that inner strength whereby we can rise above suffering. Hence St Paul is able to observe from his own experience, and that of the early Christians:

"Dying, we still live on;

disciplined by suffering, we are not done to death:

in our sorrows we always have cause for joy:

poor ourselves, we bring wealth to many:

penniless, we own the world".

This is not mere wish fulfilment. This is an observable fact of life. Look at the life of Jesus. Here we see a person who was crushed down by the power of popular opinion; criticised by the so called religious people of his day, and rejected by those whom he thought were his friends. Yet God raised him on the third day!

Look at the life of St Paul. Look at the lives of any of the saints of God.

It remains one of the great paradoxes of the Christian life that in weakness can be found strength. Strength to persevere. Strength to overcome. Strength to rise above. Above all, strength to bear witness to the power of God in our lives.

My friends, being a Christian is not an insurance policy against suffering. However, it can be an occasion for discovering that inner strength which God makes available to us provided we are prepared to acknowledge our weakness and our need of it.