I was not at Southside yesterday and Lindsay, the kids, and I are in Minneapolis. In a little bit, I will be attending my first doctorate class. While I did not get to hear Dan preach, I am sure that it was thought-provoking and I would love to hear your thoughts.
Through First Peter, the motif of suffering is very pervasive. It is mentioned 11 times throughout the book. One scholar said, "The issue is not that or what the early Christians are suffering, but how to make sense of suffering." Basically it is just assumed that these Christians are going to suffer and he tries to offer some theological help in trying to deal with it. But here's my question. As I have read through Peter several times, I have had the sneaking suspicion that this assumption and expectation of suffering is not just for those early Christians in the first century, but also for Christians in general. I know there situation was a little different than ours, but should it be that we are to be living in such a peculiar way that there might be some suffering involved? I mean not just a hard time (non-Christians have hard times), but actual ridicule, physical harm, unjust treatment, etc because of our faith in Christ. If that is the case, what does that mean for Christians whose life is relatively easy and comfortable?
I would love to hear from some of you what you feel the role of suffering is in the life of Christian and how it might be felt (or is being felt) by 21st century American Christians today.
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This question, as one might suspect, is a hard question for most present day Christians to answer. Most of us have not been ridiculed, or received physical harm, or even unjust treatment because of our faith in Christ. I have been called “goody two shoes” which I took as a compliment. So that would not actually count as ridicule. Early on in my walk with Christ I had to persevere somewhat with my family that I grew up with for they thought that I was a religious fanatic. However, this gave me even more reason to study His word so that I might be able to show them why I converted to New Testament Christianity. My family was afraid of the changes I was making and tried to hinder my progress by making it difficult for me to attend worship. With further study, patience, and striving to be a good example, my family came to accept my changes and even embraced them after a few years. My sister put on the Lord in baptism a year after I was converted. My brother began to study the Bible more and years later my mother became a Christian.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I have been on mission trips in the past where I experienced some ridicule while door knocking. Fortunately, I had someone working with me and we discussed how much more the early Christians had to go through: many were jailed for their beliefs: Peter, Paul, and Silas were jailed as found in the book of Acts. Furthermore, Stephen was stoned for his faith. Of course the ultimate sacrifice was the beating, flogging, and death of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Such examples of true ridicule reveal more than anything most of us have ever experienced. Paul offers this encouragement: “Since we are His children, we are His heirs. In fact, together with Christ we are heirs of God’s glory. But if we are to share his glory, we must also share his suffering.” (Romans 8:17-19). Peter and John were ordered to stop speaking or teaching about Jesus in Acts 4.
Those early believers kept their faith and went on to further the work of the church with a new boldness. We can learn to persevere despite difficulties. When we bring our problems to God, He can turn seemingly devastating circumstances into occasions for joy. In I Peter 4:19 we are encouraged to keep doing what is right even if we are suffering. God will take care of the details if we trust Him with our trials. When we are experiencing God’s power in our life, we can boldly carry that message to others without apology, fear, or shame.
Thanks Linda for that wonderful reflection. I hope that you keep serving the Lord with a steadfast faith.
ReplyDeleteI appreciated Jason’s comments filled with love and Bekah’s comments filled with honesty. I, too, like Bekah had to think on your heartfelt questions for a few days. We, as Christians, call each other brothers and sisters in Christ, but do really love each other as Jesus would have us to do?
ReplyDeleteIn John 13 Jesus tells us to “love one another.” “By this all men will know you are my disciples, if you love one another.” Taking on the role of the servant, Jesus began to wash the feet of the disciples in order to teach them the need, not for power or position, but for humility and service to others. Having loved His own who were in the world, He now “showed them the full extent of His love” (John 13:1-5). For Jesus, love was concern and compassion for those in need. Love was a spiritual relationship with the people in His life. Love was the motivation for emptying himself of the glory of Heaven to become a broken sacrifice on our behalf. Love, for Jesus, was not a noun, but a verb. It was compassion in action. It was relationship with interaction.
As Jason so eloquently stated, Southside is a congregation of diversity. In that way we are enormously blessed! However, this leads to the question: How do we love or serve those that might be “different”? One way would be to mentor a new Christian or someone in the Hope class that is has “different” needs than we do. Other ways to serve are: To help in the clothing room, to help sack groceries with the Pantry Program, to carry groceries for those in need, and to help interview potential clients of the Pantry Program. Furthermore, one might serve by teaching children…there you will find diversity at its best and you will have an opportunity to meet the parents of these sweet ones that are dear to the heart of Jesus.
That Christ would humble himself to come to this earth and take on our struggling humanity is amazing love. Furthermore, for Jesus to have washed the feet of His disciples, an act normally performed by household servants, makes such a dramatic point about love. Through this simple act Jesus, God’s own beloved Son, Creator of the universe and the Son of God on high, totally redefined love as servant hood. Like His tender, compassionate, loving example, let us “love one another” for loving those in need is loving Him indeed!