St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church

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Fears of Our Lives:  Suffering

Book of Job; Luke 6:17-23

February 11, 2007         (Click the date to see the bulletin)

1. This is the next to last sermon in a series called "Fears of Our Lives." So far we’ve experienced being lost, being alone, and failing. Today we confront the fear of suffering. When you think of the quintessential ‘sufferer,’ whose name comes to your mind? Job. That’s right! Job’s prosperous life came to a screeching halt. All of his children died catastrophic deaths, all of his livestock met a similar fate, and painful diseases devastated his body inside and out, and three "friends" came to tell him it was all his fault.. Surely it could not have gotten worse. It reminds me a bit of the old joke, "‘Cheer up! Things could be worse!’ So I cheered up, and sure enough, things got worse." Suffer, suffer, suffer!

2. What is suffering, anyway, and what do we do about it? On-line dictionaries (which is what I use these days) give us a springboard toward understanding. The first definition is "to be forced to endure." That fit’s Job to a T. He was forced to endure "loathsome sores from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head," the Bible tells us. Ugh! How awful! He also had "to put up with inevitable or unavoidable conditions," another definition. The deaths of his children and livestock were inevitable, as the story goes. In the online dictionary, "Suffering" also means "to endure death, pain, or distress" and "to sustain loss or damage." Job "suffered" distress and he sustained loss and damage. However, to endure death and pain is not suffering, at least in my dictionary. Your dictionary may have another definition of suffering.

3. I have learned that there is an important difference between pain and suffering. Pain is something physical – the pain of a toothache, an ingrown toenail, a cancer eating away at our bodies. But in every one of those instances, there is relief for the pain. Tylenol, Motrin, Advil, all of those over-the-counter drugs reduce or completely eliminate the pain of a toothache. And, if that doesn’t work, you can always ask a dentist to fill it or pull it out. For the pain of an ingrown toenail, you can apply a topical anesthetic until it can be fixed. Even the pain of cancer can usually be eased by morphine or Dilaudin. Pain is a physical phenomenon.

4. Suffering, though, is altogether different. Suffering is when you believe God does not love you, when you cannot see God at work in your life. Last Sunday, Richard and I met a woman who was suffering. Right after worship, a woman called the church asking to speak to me. I had neither seen nor heard from her in three or four years. She was sobbing. Her sister, Stacy, was filled with cancer, and was afraid to die, afraid to let go. Would I please come. So we got in the car, wove through an unfamiliar part of town, and finally found her house. Knock, knock. A man whom I later learned was her father opened the door enough for me to see her agonizing form propped up on the small sofa against the far wall. I introduced myself and Richard; he said he was expecting us, and introduced us to her husband who was sitting on the adjacent sofa holding her hand. I sat down next to her and asked if I could hold her other hand. She nodded, and moaned audibly. I asked her if she hurt. She nodded again. Where? "All over," she said. So one of them pushed the button on her morphine pump. After a while, I asked her if she was afraid. Remember, her sister had asked me to come because Stacy was afraid. When I work with people who know they are dying, I often ask if they are afraid, and I’ve heard a rich variety of answers. But this was a first – as soon as I asked that question, she began to wail the loneliest, most mournful cry I believe I’ve ever heard.

5. I glanced at Richard. He, too, was filled with compassion for this woman. She was suffering. But not from pain. The morphine took care of that. No, she was suffering because she believed she had done something that put her past God’s reach, beyond the boundary where she thought God could love her. She couldn’t realize that God had placed her father and husband nearby, that God had sent Richard and me there. Somewhere along the line, she had been taught the fear of God, but not the love of God. I have no idea what she did that she believed condemned her to spend eternity in the place that Matthew recorded where there would be weeping and gnashing of teeth. She didn’t want to go there, and I don’t blame her! I don’t want to go there forever, either! I don’t mind being there for short period of time, like I was at that moment in her living room, but forever is way too long. And I don’t believe God wants that, either. God did not send Jesus to condemn the world. God sent Jesus to forgive people like Stacy. She apparently didn’t know, so I told her. And once again, from deep down inside, another mournful wail. After a while, it became obvious there was nothing more I could do right then, so we prayed with her and drove away.

6. The memory of Stacy lay heavy on our hearts all night. The next morning, Richard asked me to make something for her. He remembered a sign I had made years ago for his mother-in-law who was also suffering. She was dying of cancer, and had some left-over feelings of guilt about one thing and another. She was afraid that she had not lived her life the right way. Richard asked me to come see her, and I told her God forgave her. But I figured she would not remember that in the middle of the night. So I made a very plain sign that said, GOD HAS FORGIVEN MIKE AND ME, AND IS WAITING TO WELCOME US HOME, or something like that, and taped it to the wall where she could see it all the time. I had long forgotten that sign, but Richard remembered how much comfort it brought to her in her last days. So he asked me to make a similar one for Stacy. He had it laminated and took it to her hoping it would turn her suffering into blessing. The next time I saw her, she was resting comfortably in the hospital. It may simply be the work of the double painkillers she’s receiving. But I’d like to think she finally believed God had forgiven her and is waiting to welcome her home.

7. So, first we have definitions of suffering from the dictionary, then an example of suffering from real life, and now here is the way to alleviate suffering (as opposed to relieving pain): Believe that God loves you and has forgiven you! Jesus says it right here in the Gospel of Luke: "Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God; blessed are you who are hungry now, for you will be filled; blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh." Blessedness is the total opposite of suffering. Blessedness is the joy of remembering that God loves you, and made that love visible in the life of Jesus.

8. Job knew that love of God, long before Jesus ever walked the earth. Even though disaster after calamity came upon him for a while, and for a while he wished he had never been born, he knew that his Redeemer still lived. And that’s the good new for us! No matter what disappointments we face, no matter what health issues confront us, we know the joy that comes from God’s love for us, especially in Christ Jesus. As you live your way through the coming week, you will meet someone who does not know that – or has forgotten. Find a way to let that person know! Suffering does not have to be one of the fears of our lives. Thanks be to God!

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