Rev. Tom Sorenson, Pastor
May 8, 2005

Scripture:

Let us pray: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O God, our strength and our redeemer. Amen.

I don’t know if this story I’m going to tell you ever actually happened exactly this way or not, but I know that this story is true. There was a woman. She had a husband. Maybe they were happy once. Maybe he loved her once, but that was a long time ago. The time came when he began to drink too much, and when he drank too much he got very angry. He vented his anger on his wife, even though she wasn’t really the cause of his unhappiness. At first he just yelled at her and demeaned her, calling her obscene names, taking away her dignity and her sense of her own worth as a child of God. She didn’t say anything to anyone because she was ashamed; but as time went on things got worse. Eventually, when he got drunk (and he was always drunk) he hit her. He beat her mercilessly. Her life was a living hell of undeserved suffering. At last things got so bad that she went to her pastor for help. The pastor listened to her patiently and attentively. He tried to comfort her, assuring her that what was happening to her was not her fault. She began to feel better.

Then the pastor pulled his Bible off the shelf and read to her 1 Peter 4:13: "Rejoice insofar as you are sharing Christ’s suffering." And also 1 Peter 5:6-7: "Humble yourself under the mighty hand of God. Cast all your anxiety on him, because he cares for you." Then the pastor sent her back to her husband with the admonition that she must bear the suffering her husband inflicted on her because Christ bore the suffering the world inflicted on him. We are blessed, he said, when we suffer. So the woman returned to her home, to her drunken, abusive husband. And in the end he killed her. At her funeral the pastor said: "She lives now in eternal bliss with Jesus, for she suffered and was killed as he suffered and was killed." You may find it hard to believe that a pastor would say and do such a thing, but believe me. It has been common throughout Christian history and is still common in many churches even today.

There is a profound danger at the heart of our faith. It comes from the central fact of the Christian story, the fact of that story that distinguishes Christianity from all the other major faith traditions of the world. One scholar puts it this way as the first sentence of his history of the faith: "Christianity is the only major religion to have as its central event the humiliation of its God." The central event of our faith is the torture and execution of our God in the person of Jesus Christ. And that central event has been used again and again throughout Christian history the way the fictional pastor in my little story used it, or rather misused it, to perpetuate suffering, to excuse oppression, to convinced abused and exploited people to do nothing to end their abuse, nothing to escape from their exploitation, nothing to assert and reclaim their own worth and dignity as Children of God, nothing to hold their tormentors accountable and establish justice. That is the danger at the heart of our faith, or at least it’s one of them.

And it’s all a horrible misunderstanding. We can see how it’s a misunderstanding, I think, if we take a closer look at today’s passage from 1 Peter that the pastor in my story used to send the woman back into her abusive marriage and eventually to her death. 1 Peter is a letter written to small, scattered, first century Christian communities in the Roman provinces of Asia Minor. At the time, those communities were experiencing at least sporadic violent persecution at the hands of the local Roman authorities. They were being persecuted because they were Christian. That’s why the author of the letter tells these Christians to rejoice not because they are suffering but "insofar as you are sharing Christ’s sufferings." He says further: "If you are reviled for the name of Christ you are blessed...." This text isn’t talking about suffering in general, as our fictional pastor thought it was. It is talking about Christ’s suffering and the suffering we experience that results from our being His followers. Christ suffered because he was radically faithful to God. Countless Christians have suffered throughout history because they were faithful to Christ. That suffering is the suffering Scripture calls blessed. It is not the suffering inflicted on innocent victims by oppressors and exploiters because of their race, gender, sexual orientation, or class. Suffering like that is not to be embraced and blessed. It is to be ended.

Those of you who are regulars here have heard me preach on theology of the cross many times before. I believe that the cross of Jesus saves us by reconciling us with God and that Christ’s suffering and death were a necessary part of that reconciliation. One of the greatest exponents of that type of Christian theology was the German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who not only taught theology of the cross but lived the kind of suffering 1 Peter is talking about and died a martyr of the faith. Bonhoeffer took great pains to distinguish between the suffering that is a part of the cost of Christian discipleship and suffering from that which is not. He wrote that being Christian does mean taking up the cross of Christ ourselves; but, he said, the ordinary suffering that comes with being human is not the suffering of the cross of Christ. He said:

The cross is not adversity nor the harshness of fate, but suffering coming solely from our commitment to Christ....The cross is not the suffering tied to natural existence, but the suffering tied to being Christian.

What did the pastor in my story do wrong? He misinterpreted Scripture to be sure; but that wasn’t the worst thing he did. He misunderstood what the entire Christian enterprise is about. He forgot that Christ died for the woman he was counseling. He forgot that she is a child of God. He forgot that Christ came so that she might have abundant life. John 10:10 He forgot that Christ’s suffering was suffering he took upon himself freely and voluntarily for her sake.

And he forgot the crucial distinction: The Christian life may lead to suffering, but Christianity can never be used as an excuse for suffering or to justify those who inflict it upon others. Rather, our faith is at its heart a cry and a demand for justice for all of God’s people. The cross does not excuse our inflicting suffering upon others but brings us under God’s judgment when we do.

Let me tell you another story. Again, I don’t know if this story I’m going to tell you ever actually happened exactly this way or not, but I know that this story is true. There was a woman. She had a husband. Maybe they were happy once. Maybe he loved her once, but that was a long time ago. The time came when he began to drink too much, and when he drank too much he got very angry. He vented his anger on his wife, even though she wasn’t really the cause of his unhappiness. At first he just yelled at her and demeaned her, calling her obscene names, taking away her dignity and her sense of her own worth as a child of God. She didn’t say anything to anyone because she was ashamed; but as time went on things got worse. Eventually, when he got drunk (and he was always drunk) he hit her. He beat her mercilessly. Her life was a living hell of undeserved suffering. At last things got so bad that she went to her pastor for help. The pastor listened to her patiently and attentively. He tried to comfort her, assuring her that what was happening to her was not her fault. She began to feel better.

The pastor told her that she was a child of God. He told her that God wants healing and wholeness for both her and her ill, abusive husband. He told her that she had a right to be safe. He referred her to a shelter for abused women, where she connected to other resources for women in her situation. She divorced her abusive husband and moved on with her life. She found new relationships and a deepened faith. She lived safe and free as a child of God. What about her husband? I don’t know. Maybe he got the help he needed and recovered. Maybe he didn’t. Either way, the woman’s pastor brought the Gospel of Jesus Christ to her, bringing to her the good news of God’s care for her and for all who suffer.

So let’s not be taken in by that danger at the heart of our faith. We are called to follow Jesus Christ. Following Jesus Christ may expose us to danger and cause us to suffer; but we follow Jesus Christ by seeking to end suffering, not by perpetuating it. We follow Jesus Christ by bringing the Good News of God’s love and care most of all to those most in need of it, to the victims in our world. And we follow Jesus Christ by doing all we can to lead them out of suffering into abundant life. That, not suffering, is what God wants for them-and for us. Thanks be to God. Amen.