Second Sunday after Trinity
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Readings: Exodus 19: 2-8a and Romans 5: 1-8
Some of you may remember that our former bishop, John Inge, sadly lost his first wife to cancer. After a while, romance blossomed between John and an old family friend, known to everyone as H-J. John eventually proposed, and they married. John was excited, and phoned up Graham Usher, the assistant bishop, to tell him that H-J had accepted his proposal. ‘ That’s wonderful news, John, congratulations’, and so the conversation continued, until Graham Usher asked, ‘By the way, John, what does H-J stand for?’ Silence at the other end of the phone. ‘Do you know,’ replied Bishop John, ‘I haven’t the faintest idea.’ So the former Bishop of Worcester must be one of the few men in this world who has proposed to a woman whose name he didn’t know!
I only relate that story because in one of the commentaries I use to prepare these addresses, John Inge considers the risk anyone takes when proposing to a marriage partner. John says he was very nervous in proposing to H-J. What if she should say ‘no’? Yet, he adds, he had to take that step for anything to happen. Only if we make ourselves vulnerable in our relationships and open ourselves to rejection and hurt can love flourish and grow.
John Inge was thinking about God’s dealings with Israel as related in Exodus. Having brought them out of Egypt, God makes himself vulnerable by offering a covenant – ‘Will you be my people?’ He desired them to be his treasured possession – a priestly people and a holy nation; and he desires the same of us. Here is the astonishing wonder, that the God who flung stars into space asks for your hand and mine in covenant love. But with privilege comes responsibility.
St. Paul reminds us of God’s continuing compassion towards us. ‘While we were still weak; at the right time … while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.’ Paul reminds us that we have been given the Spirit, who overcomes the world. But having said that, he goes on to remind us that life will not be easy for the Christian. We will know sufferings – which William Barclay translates as trouble or pressure. But then, in well-known phrases, Paul says that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit.
Paul’s progression of thought reads well, but our good friend John Ziesler, whom many of you will remember, a NT scholar, takes a realistic look at those phrases, in his book on Romans. ‘Suffering produces endurance’: John says this should not be taken as an unqualified statement. Suffering does not automatically produce endurance; sometimes it may instead produce bitterness, or even collapse. It is those with faith and hope who will not collapse but meet it with active fortitude.
Then John Ziesler comments on ‘endurance produces character’. This, he says, is doubtless true, sometimes. But looking more closely at the original Greek text, he thinks a better translation would be ‘endurance proves God’s sustaining power.’ Then Paul writes that character produces hope, which John Ziesler expands as follows: Finding in experience that God is an unfailing source of support, we are led to have confidence in the future; hope does not disappoint us, or as John says ‘Hope does not let us down.’
Paul was writing to Christians for whom persecution was never far away. So one of his reasons for the letter was to be encouraging at a time of persecution; to urge people to persevere and not to lose hope.
One of the many lessons that people living in the Western world can learn from those living in developing nations is how human character can become grateful and hopeful even with very little by way of financial and material provision. How happy some people are who seem to have very little. Conversely, if we have all the consumer possessions we want, then we can reach a ‘brick wall’ of hopelessness and lack of vision for the future. Of course, that doesn’t mean that we should be content for developing nations to remain in poverty. But it is worth pondering how those who are struggling can lead the rest of the world by example through trust in and awareness of the love of God.
Now, the way we respond to challenges or face disappointments will depend on whether you are a ‘glass half full’ or a ‘glass half empty’ sort of person. A former director of the BBC, Lord Reith, once said, “I do not like crises, but I like the opportunities they supply.” And William Barclay rightly comments, “If we allow circumstances to beat us, if we allow ourselves to grovel under affliction, we make ourselves the kind of people who, when the challenge of crisis comes, cannot do anything but despair. If, on the other hand, we have always faced, and by facing, conquered things, then, when the challenge comes, we meet it with eyes alight with hope. The character that has endured the test always emerges in hope.’ Didn’t Basil Fawlty once famously remark ‘We didn’t win the war by getting depressed.’
Hope, says St. Paul, does not disappoint us. We are talking about the hope of our Christian calling; hope rooted in the belief that God has ultimate charge of the world; that things do turn out for the best, despite the difficulties and daily challenges we face, and, for some, persecutions. Being justified by faith, St Paul continues, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Having peace – knowing that you are on the same side as God, and having confidence in the faithfulness of God.
It is part of the calling of the follower of Christ to look forward to a life when suffering has passed away and we can fully bask in the glory of the risen Christ. Until then, we can only glimpse such glory, which comes through endurance and patience in suffering.
I leave you with this prayer of commitment:
Compassionate Father, though I may suffer, I will persevere,
And through perseverance, my character will grow;
Shape me into readiness to work in your world,
To bring hope to the harassed and helpless amongst those I meet. Amen.