“FOR He has graciously granted you the privilege not only of believing in Christ, but of suffering for Him as well –

Well, I wonder how a pastor in Argentina feels about that after he received threatening letters.  Posters of his face were displayed in the town after the city’s mayor closed down that pastor’s congregation’s newly constructed ministry center.  The closure in March a year ago was for alleged building code violations.  The reality is that this was all part of a harassment campaign mounted against that pastor for exposing corruption in the administration of the mayor.

            On November 5, 2007, Egyptian police released two Christian rights activists who had been detained for three months on UN-substantiated charges of insulting Islam and tarnishing Egypt ’s reputation abroad.

            Chinese authorities seized the assets of a foreign-owned company and placed its Christian owners under house arrest in mid-October, 2007.  Authorities have since moved to shut down the company and freeze nearly $13 million in assets and patents.  Sources say the raid and seizures were intended as a warning to other foreign businesses in China - owned by Christians.

            We do not suffer like the church in other parts of the world.  We could someday, but we don’t, in fact, now.   However, we the church do suffer…as individuals and together.   We are anxious when one of our own enters the armed forces.  And that is bad enough.  But when the orders come to be deployed to – say Korea , Afghanistan , Iraq , or Kuwait …well that’s different.  That is different news.   That is a different sort of suffering for the person and for the family and for us, the church.   The news is shared about the death of a spouse, a grave illness of a child, or parent.   There are people who, behind the smile, have a marriage that is about to fold.   Others among us experience and suffer through unseen and chronic illnesses, which is their daily living hell.  Another parent’s son is on drugs, another’s daughter is pregnant –without benefit of marriage, another child is suffering from an eating disorder. 

We go with another when there is a doctor’s appointment with probably frightening news coming up.  When there is major and scary surgery – be it heart, lung, brain – yes, the anxiety level is beyond high.  Is it cancer, is it malignant, what is the diagnosis?  What will be the outcome?  And what about when a life-long disease is diagnosis and given to child who now has to deal with it?  With each - the questions always include “What sort of future will there be?”  “Where there even be a future?” “How will I cope?” 

And that is when the phone calls of genuine concern and how to help, and prayers all begin.   The notes, cards and emails find their way through tears and hugs.  And did I say prayers.   In all this the suffering is shared.  But what makes this suffering different from our non-Christian friends, whom we know offer similar support and care?   The difference is that we allow the fear, the pain, the agony, the unknowing, the uncertainty, the loss to be held by Christ, who also gives it to us to hold with Him.   Yes, Christ allows us to hold that pain with Him.  We allow our hearts to join the heart of Christ to suffer with our friends and loved ones.  That means that as our hearts break with Christ's heart, we suffer WITH Christ.  The burden is shared, and prayerfully and hopefully even lightened.    This is like what some have you have experienced and most recently Steve Rankin of our congregation.  Soon after Steve Rankin was diagnosed with cancer and before the second on slot of tests and further diagnosis – the elders were called to gather around Steve for prayer, laying on of hands and anointing him with oil in the name of our Lord, just like we are told to in James 5:14.  None of us present, elders, deacons, friends, has what Steve has.  None of us experience what he and Maureen and the girls are going through.  However it has touched our lives.  In that circle of prayer that morning there were several who prayed, “Lord if it is possible, lift this from Steve and place it on me.”   We share in their pain and uncertainty.  This whole experience and the what Mark and Lisa Fischinger are going through has touched our MPC family.  Therefore, Christ’s heart is touched also.  Because Steve and Maureen and the girls, and Mark and Lisa and the boys are family, we are their family.  No matter the news, we stand firm with the Rankin’s and the Fischingers and you – yes each other – together with Christ.  We acknowledge God’s presence and power.  When miracles happen we break out in tears, hugs and applause to Jesus…who cries with us and also rejoices with us.

Yes, we suffer with Christ.  And we also suffer for Christ.   I think we might all

remember the shootings at Columbine High School on April 20, 1999.  Two of the students who were shot, Cassie Bernall and Val Schnurr, were both apparently shot because of their faith in God.  Both Christians - Cassie died.  Val continues to live, dare I say, continues to suffer physically and emotionally.  You see, Val Schnurr experienced something quite different from Cassie, and yet the same.  She experiences survivor’s guilt and wonders why she was spared, even after receiving 34 shots to her body.  Val says, “There’s got to be something to why I’m still here….so I’m looking for it, with Jesus.”  Even in the midst of her suffering she continues to look to Jesus.

I have been teaching the Presbyterian Creeds and Confessions in my adult Sunday School class this quarter.  And we are reminded Sunday after Sunday how blessed we are today because of all who have gone before us.   And still I have a clergy friend who is suffering for Christ today.  There are those in her congregation who want her, the session and that church to take a “softer stance on Jesus Christ being the only way to salvation”.  That church is suffering.  Many people have stopped attending because the preaching and teaching have been God-breathed and Christ-centered.  No doubt, as those who stay become stronger and more theologically and biblically educated, the church will probably grow in numbers once again.  No matter the numbers, the preaching and teaching must continue to be God-breathed and Christ-centered.   

But just what is all this suffering about?   The Apostle Paul tells us in Philippians

1:29-30, part of which I read earlier, so let me read it now, “For He has graciously granted you the privilege not only of believing in Christ, but of suffering for Him as well – since you are having the same struggle that you saw I had and now hear that I still have.”   This is God’s word…and, honestly, it does sound strange what Paul says.  We often think that suffering is an accident or at best a bi-product of our faith.  Paul says, “NO. This is a favor, a gift.”    And God gives gifts on purpose.

So Paul means, wherever Christians live as we ought to, the way we know is God’s way, where we will aggressively, or even not aggressively, seek to spread the gospel, wherever we seek to share what Jesus Christ is doing in our lives, there will be persecution of some sort in that Christian’s life.  This is true for all Christians.  If we bear a proper witness for Jesus Christ, as God intends, as He plans and purposes, for us to do, there will be persecution for us.  It will not always be physical persecution as it was in the Apostle Paul’s day and others in the Early church.  But we will suffer in some way for Christ.  This will be the natural result of our confessing Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.  And in this, both our salvation and our suffering are gifts-granted and graced to us from Christ.

And in that gift, sometimes suffering comes in the form of ridicule.  There is a story about American Christian preacher Donald Grey Barnhouse, who started a radio program known as “The Bible Study Hour” way back in 1949.  He also pastored the Tenth Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia , Pennsylvania .  Apparently he was also on the receiving end of ridicule because of his faith.  While he was parked on the street of one of our West Coast cities, he witnessed an accident a few yards away involving a drunk driver.  Another man in that car pushed the drunk aside and got behind the wheel himself.  When the police came, the sober man began to berate the driver of the other car, saying the driver of the other car was at fault.  At this point Barnhouse came forward and gave his testimony to the police.  He said, “I saw what happened.  This drunk was the man who was driving; the accident was his fault, and after the crash this man exchanged places with him.” As Barnhouse said this, the crowd that had gathered around the scene of the accident began to grow nasty and yelled:  “What business do you have interfering?  Leave it to the police!”  Barnhouse replied that it was not a matter of intrusion, but of right and wrong:  “If this man perjures himself in court by saying that it was the innocent driver’s fault, I will fly to the West Coast from Philadelphia and will testify against him.”   As he walked away the crowd yelled out after him and cursed him.  Barnhouse believed that a Christian must stand up and be counted whenever there is a clear-cut moral issue.  He also knew that the world will hate us Christians for it.

Sometimes other conduct will lead to persecution.  A Christian friend of mine was in real estate many years ago, for many years.   His colleagues got to know Bill as the one you “do business with.”  But that was only after he was shunned by many because of his “luncheon tactics”.  We know that even today, many a deal is made over lunch or dinner.  Many a drink of alcohol is ordered at those meals.  The same happened where Bill was trying to do business.  Bill would say, and mean it: “No problem we can sit here and drink and eat, and chat.  But we will not do any dealing.  We will put deals together without liquor, another time.”  He lost quite a few real estate deals.  He also kept his Christian self-respect and integrity.  Eventually he did make other and more deals.

I had a very different experience in the almost 20 years I worked for a Bank in the loan department.    I was not ridiculed or ostracized.   I was not passed over for promotions.  I was involved in the start up a Bible study there.  The Bible study group continued to meet after I transferred to a different loan branch.  I did not suffer for Christ.  I do believe I have been honored to have suffered with Christ with many of you and your family members.   Whether the sharing of your suffering was in my office, over the phone, in your homes, in doctor’s offices, in hospital rooms or emergency rooms, Christ was there.   In your pain, your loss, your hopeless moments, your terrifying experiences, Christ has allowed me to suffer with Him – with you.

And yet, I believe some of you are thinking, with head down and eyes averted:  “Gosh, I must not be an effective witness for Jesus – I am not suffering.  And honestly, I’m not sure what all this suffering for and with Jesus is all about.”  I say, please expand your borders of concern.  Pray for those who are going through some sort of ridicule, torment or suffering or struggle because of their belief and faith.  Pray also for yourself that when – yes when – suffering does come to you, you will be able to stand up and be counted for Christ. 

And in all this there is a direct implication in Scripture that pain and adversity become God’s opportunity to bless our lives – in a way that success and health are not.  C.S. Lewis has said:  “God whispers to us in our well-being; He shouts to us in our suffering.”

I believe it is true that when everything is going along splendidly, we become somewhat immune, a little distant from the leadings of God and His desires for our life.  But when we are in trouble, our career, our family, our health, our children, are in trouble, we not only have God’s attention, GOD HAS OUR ATTENTION.

And no, God does not send any of the uncomfortableness or anxiety or other adversity that we experience – not necessarily.  No, God does not give us cancer, remove our career from us, take our spouse or child from us after giving them a terrible disease.  However, it is in those times; those adversities God has such a wonderful opportunity before Him.  He takes that opportunity to speak to us in a way we are not open to hearing from Him when all is going well.  And when God does choose to take the opportunity, He is expressing His loving concern for us. 

So when we are in trouble, we can either get bitter or we can get better.  We can get angry at the world around us, or we can get angry at God, and we can poison the atmosphere in which we live.  We all know people like that – the very air we breathe is poisoned by the presence of such people. 

On the other hand, we can get better.  Scripture tells us to welcome adversity – not to go looking for it.  Rather we are to embrace hardship.  We are to see God taking that opportunity in adversity in our life to discipline us, to teach us – certainly.  But also to strengthen us, to draw us to a closer and deeper relationship with Him.

And in Him we have the greatest example of persecution suffered for the sake of righteousness.  This is in the life of Jesus Christ.  Jesus came into the world as the Light of the world.  But the world was in darkness.  Where there is darkness, people do the works of darkness, and they do not want their deeds to be brought to light because their deeds are evil.  When Jesus appeared, His life cut like a knife into the human conscience.  Consequently, those who felt His judgment eventually crucified Him.

It is often the same with Christ’s followers even today.  Christ is still the Light of the world.  And those who follow Him should also be lights in the world.  Jesus said in the Gospel of John, “Whoever follows Me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life (John 8:12).”   If you believe in Christ, if you have committed your life to Him, then that light and life should be revealed in and through you.  The world should see it.  And where it shines forth, there will usually follow – at some point – some sort of persecution or suffering.   

Yes, we all suffer.  In some ways suffering is a part of everyday life – especially when we are even half open to seeing the world with Jesus’ eyes and heart.   And as we suffer in this way, be assured that God knows it and permits it.  And with that we are to receive suffering as a gift from God, as the Apostle Paul tells us.  And we are to  recognize that in it God is accomplishing His purpose.   Real Christianity embraces the Jesus who is bleeding and suffering for the world.   As we welcome Jesus into our hearts each day, we take up our crosses and follow as He leads us into the world – suffering right alongside Him, rejoicing right alongside Him.  For you see it is better to suffer with Christ and in Christ than without Christ.

If you are here today suffering without Jesus, come to Him.  He will lift you up.  Come talk with Dave or with me.  We can help you discover that Jesus can bear away your burdens.  He can heal the sorrow in your life.  He can nullify the bitterness of the years that you have brought to church today. 

We all suffer.  It will come whether we want it or not…or whether we have a talent for it or not.   However, suffering without Jesus is suffering alone and suffering without hope.  Suffering with Jesus means we are not alone.   Suffering with Jesus is suffering alongside the One who has the power of the Resurrection, and hope for the future.   That is the community of suffering to which we belong.