WEBVTT 00:00:00.683 --> 00:00:00.924 Amen. 00:00:00.924 --> 00:00:01.425 Let us pray. 00:00:01.425 --> 00:00:02.309 Thank you, linda. 00:00:02.309 --> 00:00:06.527 God, we give you thanks this morning for your presence here and for your love for us. 00:00:06.527 --> 00:00:11.252 We ask God that you give us a deeper sense of your presence here with us in this time and place. 00:00:11.252 --> 00:00:27.071 And, god, even in our suffering, may we see your redemptive work and your hand, and may we also see a future hope of glory and of vindication of redemption. 00:00:27.071 --> 00:00:34.847 And we pray that in the meantime, god, you would help us to have a sense of community with each other in this place and love for each other. 00:00:34.847 --> 00:00:38.941 You give us love for neighbors and love for you. 00:00:38.941 --> 00:00:41.590 Bless us this morning in Jesus' name. 00:00:41.590 --> 00:00:42.412 Amen. 00:00:42.412 --> 00:00:43.656 I mean you can be seated. 00:00:43.656 --> 00:00:45.124 Well, good morning everyone. 00:00:45.124 --> 00:00:46.692 My name is Ryan. 00:00:46.692 --> 00:00:47.435 I'm the pastor here. 00:00:47.435 --> 00:00:49.262 If I haven't said that already, it's great to be with you. 00:00:49.262 --> 00:00:51.270 I just want to ask for your prayers. 00:00:51.350 --> 00:00:57.987 So Sonia Knutson, who, in case you don't know, she's sort of like she's our pastoral associate here at Central. 00:00:57.987 --> 00:01:04.085 She's a wonderful gift and she was supposed to be here this morning, but she is an oatana. 00:01:04.085 --> 00:01:11.909 Her dad is in the last really moments of his life and she called me yesterday and just said that I mean, he's been on hospice for a little while. 00:01:11.909 --> 00:01:13.941 But she called me last night and said, hey, I just can't. 00:01:13.941 --> 00:01:22.682 She was, you know, crying and just said, like he spoke, the nurses had told her he's supposed to be probably dying any moment now between now and Monday. 00:01:22.682 --> 00:01:26.522 And so I said, by all means, stay down there and be with your dad and don't stress out about it. 00:01:26.522 --> 00:01:27.706 And I said we'd love to pray for you. 00:01:27.706 --> 00:01:30.584 So I said I asked her permission to share with all of you. 00:01:30.584 --> 00:01:34.103 She said of course I could, and so be praying for Sonia and her dad. 00:01:34.103 --> 00:01:37.040 And you know, it's been a real gift for her to be down there. 00:01:37.040 --> 00:01:43.483 And she knows that it's imminent and they're ready, he's ready, it's just a matter of time now. 00:01:43.483 --> 00:01:48.581 And death is a sacred thing and it's, it can be a beautiful thing. 00:01:48.581 --> 00:01:50.266 And so we wanted her to be down there. 00:01:50.266 --> 00:01:53.367 I said, by all means, we can figure out worship with that, there's no problem. 00:01:53.367 --> 00:01:54.230 So please be praying for her. 00:01:54.230 --> 00:01:55.445 I mean she's an absolute gift. 00:01:55.445 --> 00:01:58.439 I messed her, but I didn't mean Please be praying for her. 00:01:58.439 --> 00:01:59.001 She'll be back soon. 00:01:59.001 --> 00:02:02.370 That being said, welcome to Central. 00:02:02.930 --> 00:02:06.109 And we are in the middle of our sermon series on 1 Peter. 00:02:06.109 --> 00:02:14.282 1 Peter was this beautiful book, a letter written to what he calls eggsiles and it's in the area of Asia Minor or like modern day Turkey. 00:02:14.282 --> 00:02:17.811 And Peter, who's this old, wise and soul. 00:02:17.811 --> 00:02:21.090 Now he's not young and brash Peter, he's like getting old wise man Now. 00:02:21.090 --> 00:02:22.033 I imagine him. 00:02:22.033 --> 00:02:30.751 He's had all this experience, he's sort of calmed down quite a bit in his in his older age and it's got a little bit of gray in the beer maybe and in that kind of thing. 00:02:30.790 --> 00:02:36.245 So he writes this letter to these eggsiles and they're in Asia Minor, like sort of brand new Christians. 00:02:36.245 --> 00:02:41.031 He wants to give them hope and give them encouragement because they're suffering under immense persecution. 00:02:41.031 --> 00:02:51.705 They're living as Christians, as people of the cross, in a land that is sort of contrary, or unfriendly, to say the least, to Christians and to the way of the cross. 00:02:51.705 --> 00:03:06.469 And so the letter sort of is an encouragement to them and he tells them remember, in a land, in a culture, in a society that is going the opposite direction than the way of the cross, remember who you are, Don't forget who you are, and who you are is. 00:03:06.469 --> 00:03:09.004 You are people that have been chosen by God. 00:03:09.004 --> 00:03:12.117 You've been born again into a living hope. 00:03:12.117 --> 00:03:14.383 You have a different way of seeing the world. 00:03:14.383 --> 00:03:18.706 So don't forget that and your sons and daughters of God, live like that. 00:03:18.706 --> 00:03:22.423 Let your life so shine, or let your yeah, let your life shine before others. 00:03:22.423 --> 00:03:24.540 They may see your good works and glorify your Father in Heaven. 00:03:24.540 --> 00:03:26.426 It's the words we just used for little Rebecca. 00:03:26.426 --> 00:03:39.092 So live like Jesus, love like Jesus, and your life, your place, your being in the world will be a signpost that there is indeed a different way of being in the world. 00:03:39.092 --> 00:03:40.140 Are you with me? 00:03:40.140 --> 00:03:41.685 Now, here's the deal. 00:03:42.126 --> 00:03:52.669 I'm afraid that many times we Christians sort of engage in the culture wars and we end up looking just like the people we're trying to sort of win over to our side. 00:03:52.669 --> 00:04:04.185 And we sort of engage in these wars and you become just as mean and as nasty and as mud-slinging as you know the people on the other side, but we just slap the name Jesus on it and we feel better about it. 00:04:04.185 --> 00:04:05.370 That's not what Peter's talking about. 00:04:05.370 --> 00:04:10.155 He's not saying, hey, be as mean and nasty in order to win this culture war. 00:04:10.155 --> 00:04:10.758 He's not. 00:04:10.758 --> 00:04:11.782 He's saying the opposite of that. 00:04:11.782 --> 00:04:17.468 Don't just do that, because when you do that, you look just like everybody else and you're not winning anybody over to anything. 00:04:17.468 --> 00:04:18.843 In fact, you're a signpost. 00:04:18.843 --> 00:04:21.319 Oh, those Christians are just the same as everybody else in here. 00:04:21.319 --> 00:04:25.634 People need a different way, an alternative path. 00:04:25.634 --> 00:04:29.048 So be different, be a signpost for a different world. 00:04:29.048 --> 00:04:41.072 And so Peter writes this Dear friends, step or two, dear friends, I urge you, as foreigners and exiles, to abstain from sinful desires and which wage war against your soul. 00:04:41.235 --> 00:04:42.615 I love that, by the way. 00:04:42.615 --> 00:04:48.841 But when God says, hey, don't sin, or stop sinning, it's not because he wants you to not have any fun. 00:04:48.841 --> 00:04:50.807 That's kind of what it sounds like. 00:04:50.807 --> 00:04:56.252 But what happens is sometimes these sinful desires can wage war against our souls. 00:04:56.252 --> 00:05:04.449 And if you've ever gone down a pathway that was dark and you knew it, you might have felt like there was some waging war against your soul. 00:05:04.449 --> 00:05:06.036 Talk to an addict. 00:05:06.036 --> 00:05:06.680 It's what it's like. 00:05:06.680 --> 00:05:08.689 It's like it's wage war against him. 00:05:08.689 --> 00:05:15.690 So Jesus is always calling us to a deeper life, more meaningful, robust and vibrant life, not like, don't have any fun. 00:05:15.690 --> 00:05:19.415 No, it's like, hey, there's a deeper, more beautiful way to live life. 00:05:19.415 --> 00:05:24.011 Come be a part of that, because these things can often wage war against your soul. 00:05:24.011 --> 00:05:34.358 Then he says this hey, live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God. 00:05:34.358 --> 00:05:36.245 Even the pagans can glorify God. 00:05:36.245 --> 00:05:37.430 I love this. 00:05:37.831 --> 00:05:42.887 However, you engage in today's modern culture wars, and I'm sure that you are in some ways maybe. 00:05:42.887 --> 00:05:45.766 I've seen some of your Facebook posts, so I know that some of you are. 00:05:45.766 --> 00:05:52.978 Don't be as mean and nasty as everybody else and just put Jesus' name on it or slap a Bible verse on it. 00:05:52.978 --> 00:05:53.901 That doesn't work. 00:05:53.901 --> 00:05:57.490 That's not what Jesus said to do at all, nor what Peter says to do. 00:05:59.343 --> 00:06:07.487 Jesus faces the most brutal injustice that we've ever seen, and he doesn't combat evil with more evil. 00:06:07.487 --> 00:06:11.442 He absorbs it and makes a way for it, for a new way of being in the world. 00:06:11.442 --> 00:06:13.913 We need a better way of being. 00:06:13.913 --> 00:06:18.987 We need another world, and you are to be signposts, indicators. 00:06:18.987 --> 00:06:22.802 There's a signpost for you that there is indeed a better world. 00:06:22.802 --> 00:06:27.452 The world doesn't just need more rhetoric. 00:06:27.452 --> 00:06:32.571 The world doesn't just need another, cooler and hipper church. 00:06:32.571 --> 00:06:34.177 We don't need better coffee. 00:06:34.177 --> 00:06:37.882 We don't need a better sermon or better music or even a new organ. 00:06:37.882 --> 00:07:05.000 I mean, those are all fine and I no-transcript, no-transcript, no-transcript, no-transcript, no-transcript. 00:07:04.672 --> 00:07:05.956 What is your life pointing to? 00:07:05.956 --> 00:07:08.973 Well, I get it. 00:07:08.973 --> 00:07:09.735 No one's perfect. 00:07:09.735 --> 00:07:15.822 I get it, but if you're a follower of Jesus, your life should look a little bit like Jesus. 00:07:15.822 --> 00:07:18.997 I Don't I'm shooting all over you, I get it, I know. 00:07:18.997 --> 00:07:31.536 Forgive me, but your life should have some semblance of the fruit of the spirit love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness and self Dagum, control. 00:07:31.536 --> 00:07:35.031 What if you'll see? 00:07:35.031 --> 00:07:35.653 When they look at you? 00:07:35.653 --> 00:07:38.057 Do they see signposts while they do? 00:07:38.057 --> 00:07:40.663 What are your signposts pointing to? 00:07:40.663 --> 00:07:42.595 We need a better world. 00:07:43.490 --> 00:07:45.978 What do folks see when times are good in your life? 00:07:45.978 --> 00:07:52.202 And, more importantly, what do folks see when times are bad in your life and times of suffering and difficulty? 00:07:52.202 --> 00:07:55.942 Remember, the recipients of this letter were living as exiles. 00:07:55.942 --> 00:07:58.934 They were far from home, not literally, metaphorically. 00:07:58.934 --> 00:08:02.720 They're living in a culture going the opposite direction. 00:08:02.720 --> 00:08:09.050 They're going upstream and they were suffering because of it, because their faith is sort of contrary to the major narrative. 00:08:09.050 --> 00:08:09.550 And I get it. 00:08:09.550 --> 00:08:14.403 And so Peter wants to encourage them and he offers them a framework for their suffering. 00:08:14.992 --> 00:08:17.589 So I encourage you, read all of first Peter's only five chapters long. 00:08:17.589 --> 00:08:18.357 It's very, very short. 00:08:18.357 --> 00:08:19.910 Don't read it now, but read it later. 00:08:19.910 --> 00:08:28.351 And when you do notice the amount of times that Peter talks about suffering, I like that notice. 00:08:28.351 --> 00:08:41.043 It's many, many times, and so today we went jump all around, because I'm not gonna go through one chapter at a time, I'm most like thinking at a time, and so suffering is one of the predominant themes, and he lets the people know. 00:08:41.451 --> 00:08:47.110 Here's how you should handle suffering in a way that bears witness to Christ Suffering. 00:08:47.110 --> 00:08:52.126 How to navigate it is the predominant theme in this book, not so much the way of answering why suffering. 00:08:52.126 --> 00:08:52.929 We call this theodicy. 00:08:52.929 --> 00:08:55.038 Why does what do bad things happen to? 00:08:55.038 --> 00:08:59.081 And you know, if God is all-loving and all-powerful, why do bad things happen? 00:08:59.081 --> 00:09:03.389 That's called theodicy, which is a great question to ask, and it's a fair one to ask. 00:09:03.389 --> 00:09:05.034 Why would bad things happen? 00:09:05.034 --> 00:09:07.201 Or why is there evil and suffering at all? 00:09:07.201 --> 00:09:08.936 But Peter isn't asking that. 00:09:08.936 --> 00:09:10.220 So you can, we can talk about that later. 00:09:10.220 --> 00:09:13.889 What he's doing instead is he's assuming you're gonna suffer. 00:09:13.889 --> 00:09:21.409 I'm gonna suffer, because, after all, we're following Jesus, whose life ended in a suffering and dark moment of death. 00:09:21.409 --> 00:09:25.129 Of course it ends, ends, ends, ends with redemption, but I'll get there in a minute. 00:09:25.129 --> 00:09:37.750 But he's asking how do we view suffering and make it in framing a way that's actually helpful for us in the in the meantime, and is this life worth living while there is suffering, evil going on. 00:09:37.750 --> 00:09:40.779 So a nice light talk this morning if you're ready for that. 00:09:40.779 --> 00:09:45.400 That's why I brought the chair out so I can sit down and have a more of a serious conversation. 00:09:45.892 --> 00:09:49.909 But yesterday I was at the Shiburn County Fair Parade and we go to the parade yesterday. 00:09:49.909 --> 00:09:52.235 Yeah, so the Novotny's there. 00:09:52.235 --> 00:09:53.539 Yeah so the Novotny float. 00:09:53.539 --> 00:09:54.000 Let's go. 00:09:54.000 --> 00:09:55.706 I saw the collar any Collins's. 00:09:55.706 --> 00:09:57.892 I saw the Collins brothers Toe trucks. 00:09:57.892 --> 00:09:58.855 They had like 80 of them. 00:09:58.855 --> 00:10:00.701 They got like so many tow trucks was guys, good for them. 00:10:00.701 --> 00:10:03.575 But the thing, did I miss anybody? 00:10:03.575 --> 00:10:05.259 Anybody else get a float in the parade? 00:10:05.259 --> 00:10:15.710 Okay, but the best part of the parade I'm not gonna lie to you the best part, undoubtedly and all the reviews are in the best part was watching my daughter scarlet dance down Main Street. 00:10:15.710 --> 00:10:19.039 Yeah, 12 years old is she here? 00:10:19.039 --> 00:10:19.520 Oh, no, she's not. 00:10:19.520 --> 00:10:26.206 With showcase dance now I'd have driver of the Dairy Queen at 915. 00:10:26.245 --> 00:10:29.336 The parade started at 10 o'clock, so it's some time to kill and the time to kill I. 00:10:29.336 --> 00:10:31.380 I made my way to the front of the parade where it would start. 00:10:31.380 --> 00:10:34.722 I'm like I'm gonna get here because Katie was at a softball game. 00:10:34.722 --> 00:10:37.812 I was like you need to videotape her, ryan, I know I will. 00:10:37.812 --> 00:10:40.938 You know I've no doubt I got you and so I. 00:10:40.938 --> 00:10:42.582 Nothing stopped me from videotape. 00:10:42.602 --> 00:10:50.840 In scarlet, I'm not was jumping over old ladies, kicking over little kids, you know, knocking dogs into the street, slipping on candy there's candy everywhere. 00:10:50.840 --> 00:10:52.629 You know, it's like better than Halloween in this parade. 00:10:52.629 --> 00:10:55.857 I'm running the trees and I'm like just getting video. 00:10:55.857 --> 00:11:01.634 I had a drone, had three drones coming in a Hotter balloon I'm kidding, but I'm being a TV. 00:11:01.897 --> 00:11:06.399 And then, but you know, we were at the beginning of the parade, so as soon as she went by me, that was it. 00:11:06.399 --> 00:11:11.114 I was done and they had to walk another mile and a half to the end, which is down at the Sherman County fairgrounds. 00:11:11.114 --> 00:11:14.962 So I got in my car and I drove down there and waited for her. 00:11:14.962 --> 00:11:25.322 But down there at the end I had this moment of panic because I got there and there's people everywhere, there's cars, were this traffic and like all the the parade, that sort of arrived and all the floats are being dismantled. 00:11:25.322 --> 00:11:26.232 I'm like man. 00:11:26.232 --> 00:11:27.961 I hope she remembered I told her I'd be here. 00:11:28.744 --> 00:11:33.197 I said, hey, I'll meet you at the end of the parade, I, and I hope that she remembered that I would, that I would meet her there. 00:11:33.197 --> 00:11:35.283 And as a dad I started with a panic. 00:11:35.283 --> 00:11:37.057 She's, she's gonna forget that. 00:11:37.057 --> 00:11:40.350 I said that and like wonder, like who's picking me up? 00:11:40.350 --> 00:11:41.393 But where are they and what's gonna? 00:11:41.393 --> 00:11:45.773 And I thought for a moment she's gonna have this moment of panic and like un unease. 00:11:45.773 --> 00:11:55.235 Well then I saw her and she waved and came and gave me a big old hug and we got in the car, left and I Like, oh, she wasn't afraid at all Because she knew I'd be there. 00:11:55.235 --> 00:11:56.873 She remembered. 00:11:56.873 --> 00:11:58.217 I told her I'll be at the end of the parade. 00:11:58.217 --> 00:11:59.191 Just look for me, you know. 00:11:59.191 --> 00:12:03.210 And and in fact I stood in the very front where all the people were, just so she would see me. 00:12:03.210 --> 00:12:07.774 I'm a kind of I'm a large person anyway, so I Don't blend in super well. 00:12:07.774 --> 00:12:19.899 Oh she, she knew I'd be there and she knew I'd pick her up and so that that that hope at the end I would be there, it would make everything sort of in the middle, maybe a bit more interval. 00:12:19.899 --> 00:12:44.586 You ever notice how sometimes in life, if we know that things will turn out okay in the end, it helps us to endure some of the things that are not so fun in the middle If at the end I know there will be someone to pick me up and everything will be okay, even though it's way out there somewhere far out in the future, I can endure many times the stuff in the middle. 00:12:46.652 --> 00:12:50.561 As a pastor, I get invited to all kinds of interesting situations. 00:12:50.561 --> 00:12:54.818 Oftentimes it's the most intimate places of people's lives. 00:12:54.818 --> 00:13:04.855 I'm invited to baptisms and house blessings and weddings and also on people's deathbeds and funerals and I get sort of shown behind this curtain. 00:13:04.855 --> 00:13:14.773 And just over a year ago some friends now friends of mine, chris and Mike lost their daughter the night before and in her mid-20s. 00:13:14.773 --> 00:13:18.378 It was totally unexpected and I knew Maddie pretty well. 00:13:18.378 --> 00:13:26.049 I didn't know them super well though, to be honest, we had met a few times, but I knew her and I was invited over to come sit with them. 00:13:26.049 --> 00:13:37.042 I think it was on a Sunday, and so I went over there, because that's what pastors do, and I was welcomed into this room with lots of their friends and family and neighbors. 00:13:37.042 --> 00:13:41.498 I didn't know anybody and it was this beautiful, sacred moment. 00:13:41.498 --> 00:13:52.556 Of course it's not lost to me that they had just lost their beloved daughter unexpectedly and unjustly, and there we sat and I just watched them. 00:13:52.556 --> 00:13:56.556 People just told stories around the circle and I kind of chimed in with a few stories. 00:13:56.556 --> 00:14:03.658 I just sat there, mostly otherwise, and was privileged to just be there and there they were. 00:14:04.873 --> 00:14:10.049 And now here's the thing Mike and Chris, I've gotten to know them a lot better of this last year and a half. 00:14:10.049 --> 00:14:25.606 We've talked about a lot of things, including the death of Matty and how they've managed it and how they face each day, and there are many Sundays where I've met them afterwards and they've had tears in their eyes and we've talked about things that I've said from up front. 00:14:25.606 --> 00:14:26.049 And how do you do it? 00:14:26.049 --> 00:14:27.535 How do you go forward? 00:14:27.535 --> 00:14:30.038 How do you know how to face the next day? 00:14:30.038 --> 00:14:42.049 And I heard a pastor one time remark that he had noticed that people who've been through suffering later on down the road they would speak about how the suffering took them down pathways they never would have guessed or planned for. 00:14:42.049 --> 00:14:47.029 And somehow suffering enables people to share in the suffering of others. 00:14:47.029 --> 00:14:47.953 Have you noticed this? 00:14:47.953 --> 00:15:10.236 One of the things that Mike and Chris told me is that there are these support groups that are a part of it and they've been able to share their story with other folks who've also lost loved ones, and it somehow helps as weird as it sounds that somehow sharing our wounds and our suffering with others helps us to move forward, like, oh, I've been through something like what you've been through and let me share my story, I want to hear your story. 00:15:10.236 --> 00:15:14.239 And the wound becomes a healing agent for others. 00:15:14.239 --> 00:15:18.049 That's a way of managing suffering and facing the next day. 00:15:18.852 --> 00:15:23.049 It's never easy, but Peter suggests that life is suffering. 00:15:23.049 --> 00:15:26.049 He never assumes that Christians won't suffer. 00:15:26.049 --> 00:15:31.029 He's like no, no, he assumes that you will suffer, you're not paying in misery and sadness and loss. 00:15:31.029 --> 00:15:34.029 That's just the way that life is, for some strange reason. 00:15:34.029 --> 00:15:36.049 I wish I could snap my fingers and make it not so. 00:15:36.049 --> 00:15:37.436 That's the way that it is. 00:15:37.436 --> 00:15:43.049 So if suffering's a foregone conclusion, how do you get through it? 00:15:43.049 --> 00:15:50.049 Well, he would say, there's no way to get through life except to get through suffering, because it's a part of life. 00:15:50.049 --> 00:16:01.876 And there's no way to get through suffering unless you have and maintain a living hope, what he calls it A way forward, a purpose for continuing on Some light at the end. 00:16:02.956 --> 00:16:04.405 I mean, we all want to know that suffering. 00:16:04.405 --> 00:16:05.049 I think all of us have suffered. 00:16:05.049 --> 00:16:08.841 We all want to know that suffering indeed does have a way forward. 00:16:08.841 --> 00:16:23.029 That somehow I'll be okay, even if I don't quite understand it now, even if I'm not okay now, but that somehow, some way, even if they're in the very end, my suffering will have meaning and it won't be pointless. 00:16:23.029 --> 00:16:38.956 That it might offer me something along the way in my journey now, or to a friend or loved one, and that there's light at the end of the tunnel, that there's someone waiting for me at the end of the parade that will pick me up and drive me home. 00:16:38.956 --> 00:16:42.619 I'm not going to endure all the stuff in between. 00:16:42.619 --> 00:16:47.796 A light, maybe it's vindication, maybe it's resurrection, a better way forward. 00:16:47.796 --> 00:16:56.020 Eugene Peterson says this masterfully A Christian is a person who decides to face and live through suffering. 00:16:57.431 --> 00:16:58.634 That's the job of the Christian. 00:16:58.634 --> 00:17:05.655 And if we do not make that decision, he writes, we're endangered on every side. 00:17:05.655 --> 00:17:14.020 A man or woman of faith who fails to acknowledge and deal with suffering becomes at last either a cynic, a melancholic or a suicide. 00:17:14.020 --> 00:17:22.598 In other words, how you frame suffering can either lead to redemption or some other dark path. 00:17:22.598 --> 00:17:32.394 And Peter calls these Christians, these exiles, to find meaning and redemption in their suffering by framing it in a certain way. 00:17:32.394 --> 00:17:41.049 And so he says dear friends, don't be surprised at the fiery ordeal that has come upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. 00:17:41.049 --> 00:17:51.134 You should expect it how it goes, but rejoice in as much as you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when His glory is revealed At the end. 00:17:51.134 --> 00:17:52.597 There's something there waiting for you. 00:17:52.597 --> 00:18:00.009 If you're insulted because of the name of Christ, you're blessed, for the spirit and the glory of God rest on you. 00:18:00.009 --> 00:18:02.719 When you suffer, especially unjustly. 00:18:02.719 --> 00:18:10.641 And he says if you suffer as a Christian, do not be ashamed, but praise God that you bear that name, then he says so. 00:18:10.641 --> 00:18:18.018 Then those who suffer accordingly should commit themselves to their faithful Creator and continue to do good. 00:18:18.018 --> 00:18:19.615 I love it. 00:18:19.615 --> 00:18:21.916 So here's how Peter frames it. 00:18:22.535 --> 00:18:28.778 I want to tell you a quick story about Victor Frankel and I'm going to give you the four ways that Peter helps us to engage with suffering. 00:18:28.778 --> 00:18:31.049 So here's the framework. 00:18:31.049 --> 00:18:40.901 The framework that Peter offers for Christians and for you and for me to frame our suffering, to understand our suffering, is Jesus' own suffering on the cross. 00:18:40.901 --> 00:18:47.882 It's interesting you ever notice how, for us anyway, everything goes back to the cross. 00:18:47.882 --> 00:19:11.640 This is a story about a divine God who, unlike any other story of the gods, comes down in humility, becomes just like us, mortal, woundable, who gets tired, who sleeps, who gets sick, this kind of God, and then suffers an unjust way and dies. 00:19:13.411 --> 00:19:28.019 This is the story of Jesus, and Jesus' own suffering on the cross helps us to view our suffering in a larger and more grand story, because Jesus is vindicated at the end and his own suffering on death conquers death itself. 00:19:28.019 --> 00:19:31.029 Or, as Luther would say, sin, death and the devil. 00:19:31.029 --> 00:19:33.442 They're destroyed through his work on the cross. 00:19:33.442 --> 00:19:40.710 And then Peter invites you and I to sort of plant our suffering in the suffering of Jesus. 00:19:40.710 --> 00:19:47.977 Now, I don't believe that all suffering comes from God as some grand plan and that God causes all things that are horrible to happen at all. 00:19:47.977 --> 00:19:57.744 But I think the invitation is hey, take your suffering and plant it in the story of Jesus, because then our story becomes his story. 00:19:57.744 --> 00:20:01.921 And if Christ is in you and you are in Christ, then that becomes your story. 00:20:01.921 --> 00:20:05.173 And there's vindication, new life and hope for future glory. 00:20:05.173 --> 00:20:13.296 There's someone waiting for us, indeed, at the end of the parade a light vindication, hope, a better way. 00:20:14.337 --> 00:20:15.580 But this is difficult, right? 00:20:15.580 --> 00:20:20.642 This is not easy, because suffering is suffering and it's easier said than done. 00:20:20.642 --> 00:20:23.731 And suffering raises all kinds of questions. 00:20:23.731 --> 00:20:28.144 One of them is, I think, if you're honest, is life actually worth living? 00:20:28.144 --> 00:20:36.974 So the famous, famous writer, albert Camus, says to decide whether life is worth living is to answer the fundamental question of the philosophy. 00:20:36.974 --> 00:20:41.186 And he says look, all other questions are child's play. 00:20:41.186 --> 00:20:43.592 This must first be answered. 00:20:43.592 --> 00:20:50.184 Is life indeed worth living, even though there's suffering and pain and even death? 00:20:52.432 --> 00:21:01.963 And Victor Franco, if you know who that is, he was a survivor of the Holocaust, wonderful psychologist, wrote many books and lived for 11 months in Auschwitz and Dachau. 00:21:01.963 --> 00:21:10.896 And the mere 11, or actually he lived there for a longer time than that, but a mere 11 months after surviving he takes up this question Is life worth living? 00:21:10.896 --> 00:21:16.457 Look, this guy just survived the Holocaust and lost many loved ones and watch will die right in front of him. 00:21:16.457 --> 00:21:22.960 This guy, among the other survivors of the Holocaust, had every reason to say no, life is not worth living. 00:21:22.960 --> 00:21:25.931 The suffering is too ungodly and horrific and evil. 00:21:25.931 --> 00:21:26.994 Forget it all. 00:21:26.994 --> 00:21:33.996 But he gives some lectures and he sort of prints them and edits them and puts them together in a book called Say yes to Life. 00:21:33.996 --> 00:21:44.153 It's a wonderful short book by Franco and he addresses the question of finding a sense of meaning when the world gives us ample reasons to not view any meaning to life. 00:21:44.153 --> 00:21:51.175 And he takes up the question of continuing to live despite persistent world weariness. 00:21:51.175 --> 00:21:51.857 He calls it. 00:21:51.857 --> 00:21:53.722 That's what he says. 00:21:54.084 --> 00:22:03.073 He warns like pleasure and many of us are taught and told the purpose of life and the way to find meaning is to be have, find pleasure, to seek pleasure. 00:22:03.073 --> 00:22:05.422 Many philosophers would argue this. 00:22:05.422 --> 00:22:08.491 Freud was this way find pleasure and you'll be just fine. 00:22:08.491 --> 00:22:13.384 Or today's modern zeitgeist is just find happiness, be happy. 00:22:13.384 --> 00:22:22.535 Or in the western culture and our sort of American way, it's make more money so you can buy a bigger house and afford a nicer car, and then you'll find meaning. 00:22:22.535 --> 00:22:23.960 Fine. 00:22:24.781 --> 00:22:28.974 But what Franco would argue is that all of those things can be taken from you in an instant. 00:22:28.974 --> 00:22:30.902 And in the Holocaust they were. 00:22:30.902 --> 00:22:34.156 They were gone and, by the way, they'll be gone from you to at some point. 00:22:34.156 --> 00:22:38.394 Like I said last week, I've never seen a hearse or the U-Haul attached to it. 00:22:38.394 --> 00:22:43.951 These things that we spend our lives investing in will let us down at some point. 00:22:43.951 --> 00:22:48.604 They don't last forever, and even happiness doesn't last forever. 00:22:48.604 --> 00:22:53.278 Just ask someone who's lost the child or who's been diagnosed with cancer. 00:22:53.278 --> 00:22:54.323 Those things come and go. 00:22:54.323 --> 00:22:55.607 So, he warns. 00:22:55.667 --> 00:22:58.394 Pleasure in itself cannot give our existence meaning. 00:22:58.394 --> 00:23:05.018 Then he says oh, but also then lack of pleasure cannot take away meaning from life. 00:23:05.018 --> 00:23:11.519 Suffering, he says look, that can't rob you of your meaning, which now seems obvious to us. 00:23:11.519 --> 00:23:14.710 So in the middle of Auschwitz, he's like how do we make sense of life? 00:23:14.710 --> 00:23:20.547 He says the one thing that cannot be stripped of us is how we respond. 00:23:20.547 --> 00:23:28.768 And I will choose to respond in hope and I will treat others with goodness and kindness. 00:23:28.768 --> 00:23:30.875 And he even say, like there are people watching us, love those who've gone before us. 00:23:30.875 --> 00:23:31.818 They're watching us. 00:23:31.818 --> 00:23:38.309 It's almost echoes Hebrews, where they have this great cloud of witnesses, and I don't know what that means or looks like. 00:23:38.309 --> 00:23:44.497 But there are folks, maybe in this metaphorical or literal, I don't know, but watching you and sort of cheering you on. 00:23:44.497 --> 00:23:48.347 That gave people hope to face tomorrow. 00:23:48.347 --> 00:23:52.680 And many people in the Holocaust or in the camps lost hope. 00:23:53.722 --> 00:23:59.923 So he says, in short, our lives take on meaning through our actions, through loving and even through suffering. 00:23:59.923 --> 00:24:01.326 He says this. 00:24:01.326 --> 00:24:01.868 A thought transfixed me. 00:24:01.868 --> 00:24:30.553 For the first time in my life, I saw the truth as it is set into song by so many poets, proclaimed as the final wisdom by so many thinkers the truth that love is the ultimate and highest goal to which man or woman can aspire, that I grasp the meaning and the greatest secret of human, that human poetry and human thought and belief have to impart, that salvation of man or woman is through love and in love. 00:24:30.553 --> 00:24:32.855 I love that. 00:24:32.855 --> 00:24:36.122 Of course, the cross is the greatest love story ever told. 00:24:37.564 --> 00:24:45.242 See, the reason why suffering is so painful is because it makes us acutely aware of how sacred and precious life is. 00:24:45.242 --> 00:24:46.874 Suffering does the same thing. 00:24:46.874 --> 00:24:51.428 It reminds how short and brief and precious all this is. 00:24:51.428 --> 00:24:54.321 I told you a couple of years ago, or a year and a half ago, life is vapor. 00:24:54.321 --> 00:24:54.805 Remember that. 00:24:54.805 --> 00:24:56.791 Here's a picture of it for you, in case you forgot. 00:24:56.791 --> 00:24:58.997 It's here and then gone. 00:24:59.037 --> 00:25:07.083 The writer to Clusias D says and suffering and death and these things remind us that life is an absolute gift. 00:25:07.083 --> 00:25:08.627 This moment is a gift. 00:25:08.627 --> 00:25:10.633 The breath in your lungs a gift. 00:25:10.633 --> 00:25:12.877 The job that you hate is actually a gift. 00:25:12.877 --> 00:25:15.063 Your kids who bug you a gift. 00:25:15.063 --> 00:25:23.616 That spouse that won't do what you want them to do is a gift and it can all be gone tomorrow, and these things remind us of that. 00:25:23.616 --> 00:25:26.523 And the answer to it all is love, love. 00:25:26.523 --> 00:25:31.009 So here's how we approach suffering. 00:25:31.009 --> 00:25:40.116 Then, according to Peter then I'll get out of here he says, look, here's the fourfold ways that Peter says remember that Christ suffered and you're in good company. 00:25:40.116 --> 00:25:43.089 And he says, hey, allow your suffering to refine you like gold. 00:25:43.089 --> 00:25:52.454 I'm gonna unpack these two, but and then, hey, do good and remember that God will indeed vindicate you so quickly. 00:25:52.454 --> 00:25:55.089 Then, number one Christ suffered and you're in good company. 00:25:55.958 --> 00:26:05.089 Look, we wanna be followers of Jesus, and I think too many times in our Western culture that loves winners, we forget that Jesus died on a cross. 00:26:05.089 --> 00:26:06.301 We wanna be like Jesus. 00:26:06.301 --> 00:26:07.109 Give me the glory. 00:26:07.109 --> 00:26:11.089 I want the resurrection, I want goodness and blessing. 00:26:11.089 --> 00:26:15.109 In fact, the prosperity gospel is that if you follow Jesus, you'll be healthy, wealthy and wise. 00:26:15.933 --> 00:26:26.109 Well, jesus suffered and died An unjust death, and just as Christ has suffered, so you should expect the same, according to Luther. 00:26:26.109 --> 00:26:28.109 We should expect suffering. 00:26:28.109 --> 00:26:31.800 It might even be afflicted by those in authority over us. 00:26:31.800 --> 00:26:35.069 It may include betrayal of our closest friends. 00:26:35.069 --> 00:26:44.961 It may include the loss of a loved one or being misunderstood or swimming upstream, and this puts us, though, in a place where Jesus was. 00:26:44.961 --> 00:26:47.109 This is the exact thing that happened to Christ. 00:26:47.109 --> 00:26:55.233 So if you are suffering because of those things Peter says good for you, you are more like Messiah than you know Now. 00:26:55.314 --> 00:27:05.875 Look, I don't wish suffering on anybody, but suffering has a way of sort of opening up windows that were once closed and clearing things up Because Christ suffered. 00:27:05.875 --> 00:27:26.257 We join in His sufferings, and our sufferings point to what Jesus did and His salvation on the cross, when he unmasked and disarmed the powers and overcomes death and the grave and sin, which is easier said than done to remember this, but, again, it at least helps us to approach our suffering in a way that allows us to move forward. 00:27:26.257 --> 00:27:31.016 See, our tendency, in the midst of suffering, is to turn on God, and I get it. 00:27:31.016 --> 00:27:48.477 I've been there To get angry and bitter, to shake our fists in the sky and say God, you don't get it, you don't know where I've been, you don't know what it's like, you don't understand, but the cross is God's way of absorbing our accusations and our fears, and our excuses and our arguments and saying I do understand. 00:27:48.477 --> 00:27:52.939 We don't serve a God who's immune to suffering. 00:27:52.939 --> 00:27:55.069 That's the beauty of the cross. 00:27:55.069 --> 00:27:57.818 It's the beauty, horrific nature of the cross. 00:27:57.818 --> 00:27:59.434 He understands, he gets it. 00:27:59.434 --> 00:28:06.089 And so, after thousands of years, christians have found meaning in the cross and it's central to our life. 00:28:06.089 --> 00:28:08.637 It speaks to God's own suffering. 00:28:08.637 --> 00:28:15.034 God's pain is broken heart and it's God making the first move towards us in our suffering. 00:28:15.034 --> 00:28:17.895 So when you suffer, remember that you're in good company. 00:28:17.895 --> 00:28:18.679 Christ suffered. 00:28:19.289 --> 00:28:22.941 Number two Peter likened suffering to a refining fire. 00:28:22.941 --> 00:28:25.069 Bassist is like hey, suffering will refine you. 00:28:25.069 --> 00:28:27.782 Now, this is painful, but it does. 00:28:27.782 --> 00:28:36.096 In the refining process, metal ore is heated to the point where impurities can be separated and taken out and the metal, the pure metals, retrieved. 00:28:36.096 --> 00:28:43.079 The great Thomas Merton once said I don't know much about heaven, but I know that not much of me will be there. 00:28:45.250 --> 00:28:46.252 Suffering refines us. 00:28:46.252 --> 00:28:50.021 It filters out all the unnecessary and even burdensome elements in our lives. 00:28:50.021 --> 00:28:53.760 If you were here last week, it's all the junk we're trying to drag through the eye of the needle. 00:28:53.760 --> 00:28:56.297 It's the hearse with the U-Haul at the back of it. 00:28:56.297 --> 00:28:57.981 You know you don't need that. 00:28:57.981 --> 00:29:00.994 Let that junk be refined out of you. 00:29:01.316 --> 00:29:03.602 Folks who have suffered have a clarity of vision. 00:29:03.602 --> 00:29:06.375 Many times they realize their priorities. 00:29:06.375 --> 00:29:15.742 They stop messing around, they ask better questions, they stop playing games and they're not duped any longer Like oh, oh, I see what life's really all about. 00:29:15.742 --> 00:29:17.655 Suffering in that way is really a gift. 00:29:17.655 --> 00:29:20.714 Ask anyone who's really suffered. 00:29:20.714 --> 00:29:23.000 They cut all the junk out. 00:29:23.000 --> 00:29:24.022 You don't need it. 00:29:24.022 --> 00:29:26.894 Suffering refines you, so Paul writes. 00:29:26.894 --> 00:29:34.336 Let us, then, also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance, perseverance, character and character. 00:29:34.336 --> 00:29:37.063 Hope, and hope does not put us to shame. 00:29:37.063 --> 00:29:38.576 I love that. 00:29:39.262 --> 00:29:41.914 Number three, then do good to others. 00:29:41.914 --> 00:29:45.412 I know I'm shooting on you again, but do it. 00:29:45.412 --> 00:29:48.662 Be good and trust your life to God by doing good. 00:29:48.662 --> 00:29:54.710 There's still good to do in the world, and in spite of suffering, there's meaning to be had, and it's in loving others. 00:29:54.710 --> 00:29:58.116 If you're suffering and don't know what to do, go love somebody. 00:29:58.116 --> 00:29:59.338 Go serve in a soup kitchen. 00:29:59.338 --> 00:30:01.743 Go minister to a young kid who can't read. 00:30:01.743 --> 00:30:03.895 Go serve and love somebody. 00:30:03.895 --> 00:30:06.385 Do good and bear witness to Jesus. 00:30:06.385 --> 00:30:07.509 And there's another way forward. 00:30:08.614 --> 00:30:19.173 You might even trick yourself, and in reminding yourself, hey, there is hope, I can live for that person, even just for the time being, You're not actually tricking yourself. 00:30:19.173 --> 00:30:22.481 You're revealing the truth of the way the nature's designed. 00:30:22.481 --> 00:30:25.038 So it means bringing. 00:30:25.038 --> 00:30:25.942 By the way. 00:30:25.942 --> 00:30:31.268 Doing good doesn't just mean like, hey, keep your nose clean and don't get into trouble and follow the rules and stop drinking beer. 00:30:31.268 --> 00:30:31.769 Not of that. 00:30:31.769 --> 00:30:40.731 It actually means bringing freshness and goodness, more positive, bringing love and kindness and wisdom to your community, into the family. 00:30:40.791 --> 00:30:49.395 So, to the people we know the street, saying hi to people If you're suffering, say hi to a stranger and just watch what happens With the life you've been given. 00:30:49.395 --> 00:30:52.596 Do something good even though you're suffering. 00:30:52.596 --> 00:30:55.042 You just might find hope, a living hope. 00:30:55.042 --> 00:30:56.775 This is the way of the cross. 00:30:56.775 --> 00:31:01.240 Peter tells them that their suffering is a way of bearing witness to Christ. 00:31:01.240 --> 00:31:07.758 Lastly, then, I'll say this there's vindication of a future hope. 00:31:08.510 --> 00:31:14.923 Peter reminds them of the end, the final judgment, that one day, we believe, all things will be put to right. 00:31:14.923 --> 00:31:24.077 Jesus vindicated the powers, unmasked and robbed of their power, and us vindicated In new life, resurrection. 00:31:24.077 --> 00:31:29.209 If we have been buried with Christ and the death, like he has, we've raised with Christ in their resurrection, like he has. 00:31:29.209 --> 00:31:39.170 Paul writes this is the Christian hope, and there's vindication and someone waiting for us at the end of the parade and we can look, for there's someone there, christ. 00:31:39.170 --> 00:31:41.513 So keep your head up. 00:31:41.513 --> 00:31:54.397 Your conscience is clean and clear and trust that the victory of God would played out in the world in which you're bearing witness to, and then closing them to invitation to imagine a better way. 00:31:54.397 --> 00:31:58.585 You see, suffering demands profound imagination. 00:31:58.585 --> 00:32:05.063 A new future has to be conjured up in the midst of the old one, because the old one isn't there anymore. 00:32:05.063 --> 00:32:09.942 Sometimes you're suffering because something's been robbed from you and you can't go forward with that thing. 00:32:09.942 --> 00:32:12.714 You have to imagine a new way forward. 00:32:12.714 --> 00:32:18.023 Okay, so turn your imaginations on and find a new way forward, because it's there. 00:32:19.410 --> 00:32:26.403 In closing, I want to read you a letter, actually an email, that Chris, the mother of the young girl who died at a young age, wrote to me. 00:32:26.403 --> 00:32:32.061