Sermon from December 11, 2005
My concern for us, the Brandywine congregation, is not for suffering inflicted by hostile outsiders. My concern arises within the context of North American culture. I see something that is defining the character of the Church in North America. It is the unprincipled pursuit of liberty, and it poses a question to the Church: "Can you Christians be people of integrity in a world where you are free to do anything you can get away with?" The fire for Christian Americans is staying true to our Lord, when all around, one allurement after another entices us away from Him.

In baptism we acknowledged and publicly accepted as our own the Church's vocationto be the global community that is gathered around Jesus Christ and serves as the dwelling place where God lives with the human family – a kind of beachhead from which He has begun the liberation of the nations of the world from the disorders of sin. If we are to live a life worthy of this vocation, we have to do it in the face of this unprincipled pursuit of liberty that gnaws at the foundatioins of our culture and at the integrity of our faith.

Having this context in mind will help us to hear the text we are about to read. It is Hebrews 12:4-11, and it talks about suffering for our faith in Christ. In the mysterious providence of God the Church in North America has been spared the kind of suffering inflicted on Christians by hostile outsiders in many other nations. Nevertheless, following Jesus Christ faithfully in our culture has its costs. The text in Hebrews twelve will encourage us in the face of this unprincipled pursuit of liberty to pay the price necessary to lead lives that are worthy of the Church's vocation.

Suffering for Our Faith is a Privilege
In Hebrews 10:34 the writer said this to his readers: You sympathized with those in prison and joyfully accepted the confiscation of your property, because you knew that you yourselves had better and lasting possessions. Against that background Hebrews 12:4 offers an unsentimental observation. In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood. Get a grip. Things could be worse. Others have paid for their faith in blood. That has not been asked of you.

from this bracing common sense, the writer has moved to a bracing Divine encouragement. He reminded them of something they had forgotten. He said at the beginning of verse five: You have forgotten that word of encouragement that addresses you as sons ... Next, he explained himself by quoting Proverbs 3:11-12.

"My son, do not make light of the Lord's discipline,
and do not lose heart when he rebukes you,
because the Lord disciplines those he loves,
and he punishes everyone he accepts as a son."

In the first two lines he interpreted suffering as divine discipline. "My son, do not make light of the Lord's discipline, and do not lose heart when he rebukes you." In the last two lines he interpreted that discipline as evidence of divine love: "...because the Lord disciplines those he loves, and he punishes everyone he accepts as a son." Verse seven puts those two ideas together. Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as sons. For what son is not disciplined by his father?

The man was talking as if they ought to be glad for the hard things that had come into their lives because of their faith. It was evidence that they were sons of God and the apple of His eye. He was not alone in this attitude. In Philippians 1:29 the Apostle Paul wrote this: It has been granted to you on behalf of Christ no only to believe on him, but also to suffer for him. Suffering had been granted to them. He made it sound like a privilege. Jesus joined the chorus when He said, "Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and e glad, because great is your reward in heaven," (Matt. 5:11-12).

So, heaven rewards what we find onerous and are eager to escape. To do them justice, the biblical writers, who made these statements, were not theorists writing in the security of democratic freedoms. They suffered; except for John, the son of Zebedee, they all died a violent death; and they rejoiced and were glad.

Submitting to Suffering
So, suffering for the faith is a privilege, because it is divine discipline and evidence of God's love. With that unsettling idea planted within us, verse nine picks up the truth that we are God's sons, whom He loves, and takes the next step. Moreover, we have all had human fathers who disciplined us and we respected them for it. How much more should we submit to the Father of our spirits and live.

The word that threatens to renovate our assumptions about life is the word submit. How much more should we submit to the Father of our spirits and live. To submit to suffering for our faith is to look it in the face and say, "Bless you for being in my life; you belong here. God put you here." If suffering is a privilege granted by God to show us His love, that is a reasonable conclusion. But it takes some getting used to.

Alexander Solzhenitsyn spent 8 years or more in the Soviet Gulag for a crime he did not commit. Something he wrote about his years there illustrates the submission the Bible is talking about. After release from the Gulag, he wrote:

"Looking back, I saw that for my whole conscious life I had not understood either myself or my strivings. Before my years in the Gulag, I had been striving to go in the opposite direction to that which was truly necessary to me. But just as the waves of the sea knock the inexperienced swimmer off his feet and keep tossing him back onto the shore, so also was I painfully tossed back on dry land by the blows of misfortune. And it was only becuse of this that I was able to travel the path which I had always wanted to travel. ... And that is why I turn back to the years of my imprisonment and say, sometimes to the astonishment of those about me: 'Bless you, prison' ... I ... have served enough time there. I nourished my soul there, and I say without hesitation: 'Bless you, prison, for having been in my life!'" (II, 615-617).

His witness is important, because it challenges the unspoken assumption of our culture that the good life is the indulgent life and that suffering is always an evil to be avoided in any way possible. Suffering for our faith is a privilege. We are to submit to it, to embrace it with eyes wide open. We are to say to it, "Bless you for being in my life; you belong here. God put you here."

Verse ten connects these ideas with our theme for this fall. Our fathers disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness.

No child comprehends what the discipline he is experiencing has to do with being an adult. The faces of children being disciplined by their parents betray no conviction that the pain and anger they fell will do them good 15 years later. The parental sermon that follows does not shake their skepticism. Nor does it shake ours. How does sharing in the holiness of God some day help me now in the middle of pain and unhappiness?

Verse eleven acknowledges our difficulties. No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. But verse eleven does not dwell on the unpleasantness. It points us to where the discipline is taking us. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it. Suffering for our faith is not only a privilege; it trains us for holiness. Here's an example of how it does that.

People who suffer for their faith will sooner or later have to decide if God is in their suffering and if it's worth it. Either they renounce the faith or water it down so the pain will stop, or else they stay the course and praises God in their suffering.

Staying the course and praising God in suffering is how we share the Church's vocation to be the global community that is gathered around Jesus Christ and serves as the dwelling place where God lives with the human family - a kind of beachhead from which He has begun the liberation of the nations of the world from the disorders of sin. Sharing in the holiness of God may mean more than that; it doesn't mean less.

Dangers of Unprincipled Liberty
I said earlier that following Jesus Christ faithfully in our culture has its costs. Some people might take offense at the idea that Christians in this most free of all free nations suffer for their faith. It sounds paranoid, unnecessarily alarmist. It is an insult to Christians in other parts of the world, who suffer physical harm for their faith in Christ.

I don't want to dishonor those heroic Christians who face dangers we may never face. I honor them. I would gladly wash their feet. And I really do not think that some evil conspiracy in this country is out to get Christians.

I see something else at work, whose intended outcome is the same as that of persecution in Vietnam and Saudi Arabia. The means are different: prison, torture, and death by the tyrants of earth; in Western democracies it is the freedom to do anything we can get away with. The intended outcome in both cases is marginalization or destruction of the faith. The Church must resist both. Both involve Christians in suffering for Christ.

Suffering of the Church in North America comes in occasional curtailment of our freedom of speech. I'm not talking about crazy speech like Pat Robertson calling for the assassination of Hugo Chaves, or silly speech such as the evening news report last week that conservative Christians were offended by President Bush's "Holiday Card." I don't want our faith defined by objections to a presidential Holiday card.

People with calm voices and reasoned speech will find themselves under enormous social pressure and sometimes threat to their career aspirations, if they speak their Christian convictions. That is true in many academic and business environments.

Most of the suffering of the American Church arises from curtailment of our freedom to do anything we can get away with. We are called to resist the narcotic effect of unprincipled personal freedom. There is a saying of Jesus that fits our circumstances, as if He were uttering it for the first time this morning. It comes from the parable of the four soils in Mark four. One soil held the promise of a bountiful crop until thorns sprang up and choked out the seed. Here is how Jesus explained the parable in Mark 4:18-19.

Still others, like seed sown among throns, hear the word; but the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth and the desires of other things come in and choke the word, making it unfruitful. We don't escape these realities. We all have the worries of this life. We all have to deal with money. With our discretionary time and money, the other things we all get in are innumerable.

The issue is not whether we will face them; the issue is whether they will come in and choke the word of God, making it unfruitful. They don't have to, but in this culture of unprincipled personal freedom to do anything we can get away with, we are grievously tempted to give them easy access to our lives. Resisting that temptation over and over will cause us to suffer, because it will require enormous restraint on the appetites of the flesh. Let me give you two examples.

Lately, we have heard much about the epiemic of obesity of children and adults. Who is to blame for that? Our culture of victimization says it is McDonald's. Their Big Macs are too good, and their advertising is too slick to be resisted. No doubt they bear some responsibility, but the real problem lies right here – in my heart.

The old-fashioned, uncomplimentary name for the problem is gluttony. The unprincipled pursuit of liberty fuels the problem. To exercise restraint will cost you. If you don't think it will, cut your consumption of junk food in half. You may find it as hard as bearing physical pain.

Another example is our use of credit cards. Too many Americans are filing for personal bankruptcy, because their credit card use has put them into a hole they can't escape. Who is to blame for that? Our culture of victimization says it is the credit card banks. No doubt they bear some responsibility, but the real problems lies right here – in my heart.

The old fashioned, uncomplimentary name for the problem is avarice. The unprincipled pursuit of liberty fuels the problem. To exercise restraint will cost you. If you don't think it will, pay down your credit card balance to zero by summer, 2006. You may find it as hard as bearing physical pain.

The worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth and the desires for other things are relentless in their appeals to us. Just as relentlessly, we must commit ourselves to live lives that are worthy of our God. That commitment will at times be costly. It is our way of keeping faith with brothers and sisters around the world, who find their share in the faith costly in painfully physical ways.

The Pastoral Center of Gravity
I brought with me today my American passport. It is a powerful symbol. There was a time when I thought that our youngest child, Joy, would live her adult life outside the United States. In one of our conversations about where she might live, I held her passport in my hand and said to her, "Joy, you may live somewhere else in the world; but before you surrender this passport, you need to know that half of humanity would like to have one like it. This passport is a symbol of a privilege that is yours by birth."

There is something more precious to me than this passport. In Philippians 3:20, the apostle said that our citizenship is in heaven. We are citizens of the kingdom of God. We are part of the Church, His dwelling place with the human family, this beachhead from which He has begun the liberation of the nations of the world from the disorders of sin. Do our lives testify that He has liberated us from unprincipled pursuit of liberty? That is a privilege beside which American citizenship pales into insignificance. So, let us run well the race that is set before us, run it to the very end. The eyes of heaven are upon us.