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Stephen Ministry

It was at our Session meeting, long ago, when our pastor introduced the idea of hosting a pastor from Mexico, as part of our General Assembly mission program. It would be a good way for us to be personally connected to the mission we supported. We agreed but at the last minute it fell through and we were reassigned to a pastor from Egypt that was to change our lives.

Gendi Ibrahim arrived in the dead of winter to our area outside of Chicago. It was terribly cold and coming from the desert he suffered. He was to be with us for six weeks, preaching and teaching about Christianity in Egypt. He was to immerse himself in the life of our church learning our ways too. It was Advent, Christmas and New Years. We saw the culture shock on his face but did not know that we would soon experience a shock too. It began to sink in for me when my husband and I had hosted a New Year’s Eve Party in our home. We had 60 guests in our modest tri level home, most from this church we loved.

All the food, that was considerable, was on the main floor. There were carols being sung around the piano, games in another room, while one of our members was teaching ballroom dancing in the basement, by the washer and dryer. There was even a member who came down at midnight dressed as the New Year’s baby. It was this great time that is still remembered, of connection with people who loved us and journeyed with us.

Just after the midnight champagne, one of my friends beckoned me aside and said, "I think you should go down and talk with Gendi. He seems to be a bit detached." Amidst all the laughter and celebration, I found him unusually quiet. It was his first New Year’s celebration in the U.S. "How is it for you?" I asked naively. He said quietly, "In Egypt we celebrate the new year in worship. We sing hymns. We pray and thank God for our lives together." His eyes grew big as he looked around him. Our celebration had no point of reference for him. He was on the outside looking in. He was in the midst of a desert experience.

I did not know then, that only a year later, 21 of us from our church would be standing underneath the Great Pyramids of Egypt in 130 degree heat, experiencing a desert both inside and out. It was the start of what we called the "Egyptian Connection" that over 30 years later is still alive. We were changed and so was our church. But this is another story.

You don’t have to travel to Egypt in the summer, to experience the desert in your own lives. We don’t have to travel to a foreign land to feel parched and dried up. You know those times, times that are more than culture shock; times when we feel out of step; not included, separated from all we know. When we are out of our element and disconnected, we can feel the pain of Haggar. We either search for someone or something that will help us out of the desert of our lives, or we go it alone, all the more miserable. Either way none of us escape the suffering in our lives.

Why is there suffering? Why does a loving, faithful God allow us to suffer? This is the theological question of all times. If God is all powerful, all knowing, all about love, what is this business about suffering? It simply doesn’t fit. And those of us who think about these things, struggle for answers and for the most part come down without sufficient explanations. Either God is a monster and we divorce ourselves; or God has a purpose and we can’t explain it, but either way we don’t like it.

Suffering seems to be the mistake of God’s creation, say some. Why would God allow us to experience such pain in our lives? So we spend much of our time and effort learning how to avoid suffering as much as we can and we can be pretty successful, but eventually we all find ourselves bereft of comfort, utterly alone inside. Think back over your lives. We all have a list readily available to us. We are unable to have children. We have not had a spouse to share our lives, or lost one. We have never had a fulfilling job. We are estranged from our family members. We don’t feel included by others. Poor health has stolen major portions of our lives from us. Oh yes, we know only too well the meaning of suffering.

Sarah and her servant Hagar knew about suffering too. Sarah, no matter what she did, was unable to have a child of her own. Scorned and mocked by her culture, she was considered a worthless vessel. You remember from last week, 3 visitors arrive, and under the tree by their tent announce that she and Abraham are going to have a baby in their old age. But before that Sarah had decided to correct the situation of being childless, as apparently God was not going to keep the promise made. So she arranged for a surrogate mother through her servant Hagar, who gave birth to Ishmael. In this way, with Hagar as her property, Sarah would also own Ishmael. All is well at first, but then the story takes a twist. Just when Sarah had settled into being the mother of Ishmael she finds herself pregnant in her old age and gives birth to the long awaited joy of her own son, Isaac.

All is joyful, but it is not long before suffering pushes its way in again. Sarah observes that Ishmael, the first born is getting more attention than Isaac. The security and protection she sought might be lost. Isaac might take a back seat to Ishmael in receiving the inheritance. And at this, out of the depths of Sarah, comes an unrecognizable selfishness, anger and jealousy that threatens to destroy the household. I suspect it even surprised her. It is the darkness of revenge that surfaces in all of us when we are threatened, isolated, or harmed in some way.

So Sarah devises a plan to eliminate the competition, by demanding that Abraham get rid of Ishmael and Hagar. Banish them to the desert to die, is her harsh demand, and Abraham agrees. It is here that all suffer.

Suffering comes in many disguises and Hagar soon finds herself under the sweltering sun with only a hunk of bread and a flask of water. She has been abandoned by the very ones she trusted the most and she weeps bitter tears of hopelessness. Just about the time she lies down to die, she has an encounter with the Almighty. Just when her last drop of hope evaporates in the desert heat, an angel of the Lord appears and relief. Her suffering is over; her hope restored.

We know about the desert of suffering; we’ve all been there. These are the times when we think life is not worth the effort, dry dead times that empty our water bottle. These are the times of isolation, judgment, betrayal, when you and I feel evicted from life.

But this story reminds us that whether we take things into our own hands like Sarah, or are devastated by those who do, God comes after us, seeks us out, and offers us a cool glass of water, right there in the desert of our lives. Just when our last drop of hope has evaporated God appears in our lives, taps us on the shoulder and asks, "What’s the matter Hagar? What are you so down about Ruth? What’s the matter Ralph? Have you forgotten me? Did you forget that nothing is too difficult for me?"

We may have found some meaning; some good that arises out of the desert of our suffering, but the total meaning and purpose of suffering is not ours. We can get mad at God for not measuring up to our limited understanding, or we can look for God in the midst of the rubble of our lives. We can say to God, "Either explain yourself, or I’m out of here" and lose everything. Or we can say, "I don’t understand suffering, but I know God keeps promises of being with me when I suffer." No matter how angry or hopeless we feel about the injustice of suffering God is faithful still, even when our demands are not answered.

So enter this passage from Paul with me for a moment; the part where Paul is trying to explain saying, "Suffering produces endurance; endurance character; character hope and hope does not disappoint us." I am not suggesting this passage is the total explanation for suffering. But I do think Paul is saying that God can create good out of our suffering, so good that we can celebrate it. Is anything to hard for the Lord to do? Even create something good our of our suffering?

Barbara Brown Taylor, one of my favorite preachers and authors, in her book God In Pain, offers some provocative thoughts about suffering. She maintains that God suffers with us in our pain. Her observations of human life and God’s interactions with us begin at an early age. She shares her reactions to the first birthday party for her beloved nephew, Will. It was celebrated by family and his godparents who had brought their 7 year old son, Jason. After the cake and presents one year old Will, delighted with the attention he received, offered his thanks by a dance he had invented complete with arm movements. All were gathered around him, when Jason simply could not stand it any longer, burst into the circle and pushed him down. Will fell, cracked his head, stunned at first, then howled loudly. Then Barbara writes:

"His mother hugged him and helped him to his feet and the first thing Will did was to totter over to Jason. He knew Jason was at the bottom of this thing, only since no one had been mean to him before he did not know what the thing was. So he did what he had always done.

He put his arms around Jason and lay his head against that mean little boy’s body, and at that moment all my Christian convictions went right out the door. I will buy him a BB gun for his next birthday, I thought. Iron knuckles. A karate video for toddlers. It just about killed me, to think how that sweet child would have to learn to defend himself."

According to Paul, she continues, Will was right and she was wrong. "Do not repay anyone evil for evil," Paul writes in Romans. What Will offered to Jason put an end to the meanness in that room. Revenge doesn’t eliminate suffering; it multiplies it. Paul offers what appears to be idealistic, impractical and dangerous advice. "Don’t be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good," he advises. Now in today’s passage, we hear equally difficult words. "Boast and be glad of your suffering." Suffering can produce something better.

When we retaliate, our suffering is increased. When we curse our enemy we join them and even if it feels good for a moment, it is still a surrender. The enemy is not the one who pushes us down. Rather it is what’s inside us that wants to annihilate.

When we take justice into our own hands, like Sarah, we suffer and cause others to suffer. When we insist on being the judge pointing the finger of blame at every target we can find, we alienate. When we decide to get even, the desire for retaliation is satisfied, but the suffering continues, in rejection, abandonment or more.

In May, I attended a preaching conference in Minneapolis that attracted over 2000 participants. It was a festival of drinking in some of the most renowned preachers of our day, from many denominations. Otis Moss Jr. has been voted one of the top 12 African American preachers in the nation. He was co-pastor with Martin Luther King at Ebenezer. He is friends with Nelson Mandela of South Africa. He has preached all over the world. I want to share some of his thoughts about faith and suffering with you.

His sermon title was "A Faith To Master Our Midnights". He said "Most of us have a daylight faith when the sun is shining, spring is blooming and all is well. But how many of us have a midnight faith? This is the kind of faith that surpasses the midnights of our lives; the kind of faith that masters our midnights. This kind of faith can hear a baby laugh and cry, before it is born. This kind of faith is seeing a flower bloom before the seed is planted."

Like night follows the day, none of us escape the midnights of our lives. Nothing prevents it; not our zip code, not our bank account, not our good deeds. Midnight comes to all of us and it is our faith that masters it. It is what allowed Paul to pray and sing hymns in jail instead of being afraid. It is what gives the single mom the strength to go on when her husband leaves. It is what gives the man laid off from work the courage to look for another job. It is what helps the patient to endure surgery and follow up treatments.

The midnights of our lives, can lead us into life changing times when we are transformed. Why is there so much suffering in our world? I do not know. But one thing I do know is that God can walk into the darkest times of our lives and shine a light so bright that the darkness is gone. Suffering, endurance, character, hope. In these, we have overcome the midnight and are free.

Amen