Suffering and Hope: 1 Peter One

"This letter is from Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ. I am writing to God’s chosen people who are living as foreigners in the provinces of Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia. God the Father knew you and chose you long ago, and his Spirit has made you holy. As a result, you have obeyed him and have been cleansed by the blood of Jesus Christ." 1 Peter 1:1-2, NLT

I’ve always enjoyed the book of 1 Peter. I remember preaching verse by verse through the book twenty years ago when I served a congregation in St. Louis. I’m sure I gave it my best effort, but clearly did not have enough miles on my odometer to appreciate the value of what Peter offered to his audience concerning suffering and hope.

I facilitate a men’s Bible study that meets in the early hours of Thursday mornings at a local supermarket restaurant. Over the next several months we’re going to do work on this marvelous New Testament book. It’s my desire to share some of my reflections on our study and conversation over bacon and eggs.

1 Peter begins with his salutation to a general audience that is scattered over (at least) 5 provinces. His intended readers are Jewish Christians that have been scattered across the region due to persecution that arose in Jerusalem (e.g. Acts 8:1-3). One of his purposes is to encourage the readers to faithfully live their lives as Christians even though they are undergoing suffering and persecution at the hands of those who are hostile to Christianity.

The NLT (I’m a fan!) describes these believers as “foreigners,” which they were in more ways than one. Literally, they were not citizens. They were not native or indigenous to the region they were living. Metaphorically, they simply didn’t belong. They didn’t fit in and were clearly out of place because of their faith. I like Joel Green’s thoughts at this point. In his commentary on 1 Peter, Green remarks, “1 Peter is written to folks who do not belong, who eke out their lives on the periphery of acceptable society, whose deepest loyalties and inclinations do not line up very well with what matters most in the world in which they live. This is not the sort of life that most people find attractive.” (Green, p. 18) For Peter’s audience, this exclusion would have extended to a person’s economics, family, religion, social structure and government.

Perhaps there are times when you feel like you don’t fit in because of your faith. While our government guarantees certain freedoms and protects our rights to worship, Christians can still face exclusion, even if only in social circles. If you have never felt out of place, then perhaps something is wrong!

Peter continues his salutation by referencing our great salvation. In our salvation he references the entire work of the Trinity: the Father who chose, the Spirit who makes holy, and the Son who cleanses by his blood. One may doubt whether or not Peter’s readers understood all of the implications of election, sanctification and justification. After all, we’ve been plumbing the depths of these concepts for 2,000 years. Suffice it to say, all of God was involved and is involved in saving all of me! Salvation has provided grace and peace, which frames Peter’s prayer request at the end of the verse.

Unlike Paul, Peter concludes his salutation with a brief prayer. He asks God to provide “more and more grace and peace.” Given the subject matter of the book, suffering, this is a curious request. It would seem natural and logical for his request to be more akin to God delivering these persecuted sufferers from persecution and suffering. He does not.

Grace and peace are at the front end of our Christian experience. But it’s also the stuff that composes our ongoing life with God. So what does this prayer request tell us about salvation and suffering?

First, my suffering may not be removed. Our obvious prayer is to alleviate or remove it altogether. But sometimes God’s sovereign providence allows us to continue in our pain and suffering. Grace and peace become the things that sustain us in the midst of what we are called to endure.

Second, as grace and peace have brought Christ into my life, grace and peace continue to bring Christ into my life in deeper and more meaningful ways. Suffering becomes a pathway which ushers more and more grace and peace into my life. Grace and peace strengthen my character and transform me into the likeness of Christ.

What Happened? (part 2)

The world has not always been this way. The good news is that it will not always be this way. Even in the midst of chaos in the garden, we find Genesis 3:15, which reads, “And I will cause hostility between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring. He will strike your head, and you will strike his heel.” (NLT).

This verse is the first mention of the gospel in the Bible. This prophetic word anticipates the coming Christ who will turn right side up all that was undone by the fall through his death, burial and resurrection. The good news of the gospel is that God has offered hope to us in the midst of chaos. We are not without hope or help. God has intervened in our broken world and our broken lives.

The work of Christ on the cross enables and empowers us to find hope in our broken world. But that’s not all. Christ provides the assurance that one day we will be completely delivered from the presence of sin, evil and suffering. Revelation 21:3-4 states, “I heard a loud shout from the throne saying, ‘Look, God’s home is now among his people! He will live with them, and they will be his people. God himself will be with them. He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain. All these things are gone forever.’”

The world has not always been this way, and thankfully will not always be this way. In the meantime, our suffering is an invitation for us to look up, seek God, find help, and receive hope.

What Happened?

The story of creation begins with God who spoke, created, named, blessed, finished, and rested. The account is accented with the steady refrain “and it was good…” God created and placed the man and the woman in his creation. Humankind was created with a profound capacity for knowing God intimately. Created in the image of God, they were distinguished from the rest of the creation. There in the garden the man and the woman lived perfectly in the presence of God. But living in the presence of God comes with strings attached. God demanded obedience to his will and his commands. Under those conditions, the man and the woman lived in innocence, perfection, joy, and purpose. What does that have to do with suffering? A lot.

First, we discover that suffering was not created by God. God is good and did not create suffering and evil. He created a good world for the good of his creatures. Humans were good and blessed beyond measure, made in the image of God, with an unhindered relationship with God.

Second, there was a time when suffering did not exist in our world. It is not original and has not always existed. When we look at life and our world today, somehow we are reminded that this is not the way it is supposed to be. What happened?

While not a part of creation, evil and suffering do exist. The world is not the way it was and it is not the way it is supposed to be. Humans were created with wonderful privileges and significant responsibilities. But in Genesis 3 we read that they did not follow God’s will or obey His commands. The account begins with a tempter who calls into question God’s truthfulness, purpose, sovereignty, and goodness. It is interesting to read that from Genesis 2:4-3:24 he is “The LORD God,” the covenant making God who not only creates but enters into relationship with his creation. When the tempter addresses Eve, he simply refers to “God.” Adam and Eve got into trouble when they forgot their covenant relationship with God and focused on themselves. But before we become too hard on Adam and Eve, we need to remember that every day we face the same choice: God or Self?

The results of their fall are devastating:
They experienced shame as they discovered their nakedness;
They became estranged from God and tried to hide from him;
They experienced alienation from one another as they attempted to fix blame;
Pain and sorrow entered the picture: for her, pain in labor and delivery, and for him, toil in working the land;
The pair was banned from the garden;
Ultimately, there was physical and spiritual death.
The creation account of chapters 1-2 is accented with the resounding “it was good, it was good, it was good.” From chapter 4 forward, the story is punctuated with a new refrain “and he died, and he died, and he died.”

We have been born in a fallen world. We have never known Eden. Still somehow we know this is not the way it is supposed to be. The fall disrupted the relationship with God, with one another, and with creation. Sin originated in the garden. But it didn’t stay there. Its effects spread to all people of all time.

#48

Here is Ryan's 2009 SBU Football picture!

Framing the Conversation (part 2)

Now that we’re aware of some potential missteps in the conversation on evil and suffering, how do we proceed in a healthy and productive way that is honest and authentic?

First, any conversation concerning suffering must be conducted with deep and abiding humility. Clearly the most obvious question we pose when we face adversity is the question “why?” That’s a great question that, by the way, never offends God. It is our nature to seek understanding when trouble comes. But the question “why?” often leads to “why me?” If we get locked up thinking about why adversity has struck we’ll transition from seeking understanding to defending our innocence. In other words, we begin to rhetorically declare that we are not deserving of what we are facing. But humble spirits and humble hearts lead us from “why?” to a better question: “what?” What is it that God is saying through my pain? What is it that God is trying to teach me? What is it that God is trying to develop in my character through this challenge?

Second, any conversation concerning suffering must be done with balanced Bibles. If you’ve ever had a tire on your car get out of balance you know the frustration that can develop from such a seemingly small problem. When we think about suffering in a Christian context, sometimes we misunderstand a number of important texts (or ignore them altogether). There are many Christians who possess an attitude of triumphalism that is more American than Christian. I quick reading of Hebrews 11:32-40 will show you what I mean by this. It is true that many times God’s people receive spectacular and miraculous deliverance. It is also true that many times God’s people do not receive spectacular and miraculous deliverance. In this life, anyway.

Next, any conversation concerning suffering must move beyond pat answers and clichés. I have come to the place in life where I can hardly enter a Christian bookstore because I’ve lost patience with the Christian plaques and platitudes that are available for people to adorn their homes and offices. Just once I’d like to see a knick-knack for sale with a scripture reference from Job! As Christians we live in the tension between faith and mystery. We want to know, but many times we don’t or even can’t. We live in mystery, which according to the apostle Paul is like looking at life through tinted windows (1 Corinthians 13:12).

Finally, any conversation concerning suffering must focus on the cross. Romans 8:31-32 declares, “What shall we say about such wonderful things as these? If God is for us, who can ever be against us? Since he did not spare even his own Son but gave him up for us all, won’t he also give us everything else?”
If God has permitted such suffering to come upon his own Son, who am I to think I am exempt? Through the cross we learn that God’s love and presence is constant, and that there is nothing can separate us from the love of God. The cross is not simply the entry point of faith. The cross is the totality of our Christian experience. The cross helps us encounter God through the forgiveness of sin. The cross is the way we understand our lives and our adversity.

Framing the Conversation

This weekend I kicked of an eight week series titled Broken. In the first message I attempted to offer some helpful words that would equip us to frame the conversation about suffering and evil in a healthy and meaningful way. One of the problems I think we face when we discuss suffering and evil is that we make some false assumptions that are counter-productive. These assumptions become “left turns” that lead us down side streets to frustration. Here are three such missteps.

The first misstep is failing to recognize that suffering and evil are universal experiences that touch each of us. How many times have you seen a news story on television where the eyewitness being interviewed regarding the tragedy said something akin to “I can’t believe this happened in our little town (or neighborhood, or community, or school…)?” If we are blind to the universal nature of suffering and evil, we will fall prey to an attitude that affirms that such events are restricted to others who do not have the same advantages we enjoy. It’s the kind of attitude that holds that those events on the news should happen in the slums, among minorities, the poor, or drug addicts or gangs. Evil and suffering are expected in those contexts, but not on our suburban cul de sacs. This conviction affirms the American dream which encourages us to work hard enough to be able to create geographical distance from the existence of evil and suffering in the world. But the reality is that we are never out of the reach of evil and suffering. We cannot isolate ourselves from it.

Another misstep is to believe that our resources and our resourcefulness can insure our security. Or to be more specific, my money will buy my security. When we have this attitude we think we can prevent most anything because of our education and our work ethic. We can beat the odds. If something does happen it can be minimized because we’re pretty smart. But we cannot insulate ourselves from adversity no matter what we have or what we know.

The final misstep is perhaps the most important one I need to acknowledge. It is the conviction that I am entitled to security because God owes me security. When we possess this attitude we believe that God is somehow under our obligation because we are good people who do good things. Don’t get me wrong, character and integrity are always to be affirmed. Moral and ethical behavior should as well. Volunteerism and active participation in any number of good causes should be celebrated. But none of those things will guarantee security. They will not prevent evil and suffering from touching your life. You cannot put God under your obligation.

Next time I’ll post some thoughts I have concerning how we can frame the conversation in a way that will be beneficial to us.

Broken

All we have to do is live long enough and we will suffer. It is one of the universal principles at work in our world. Suffering is indiscriminate reaching all people in all places. Suffering is blind to our ethnicity and our checking account balances. It is indifferent to age, gender and education. Suffering has been a part of history. We can identify eras of suffering with single words like crusade, inquisition, slavery, holocaust, or 911. Suffering has multi-faceted dimensions. One may suffer as their physical body grapples with disease while another is bereaved by the loss of a loved one. Another may suffer financially during a down economy while another struggles to pick up the pieces of a marriage that has collapsed. Some may suffer quietly as they work through clinical depression while another struggles violently to be freed from an addiction.

The question on our lips is one of the prominent questions of the Bible. “I am sick at heart. How long, O Lord, until you restore me?” (Psalm 6:3, NLT) This weekend I'm beginning a series titled Broken. If you're in the DSM area I'd like to invite you to come and worship with us. If not, I'll be posting reflections each week about the previous weekend's messages.