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Aug 28, 2016

Experience the Wonder of God's Presence in . . . Our Pain

Passage: Lamentations 3:19-33

Preacher: John Huizinga

Series: Experiencing God through the Wonder of . . .

Category: Practicing the Presence of God

Keywords: , hurt, jeremiah, lamentations, pain, sin, steward of pain

Summary:

Because Jesus Christ is God-with-us-always, we are meant to live in the grace of his presence in all things and at all times. We’ve noticed these blessings of our Heavenly Father to help us experience the wonder of God’s presence: creation’s proclamation, our prayers, God’s pardon of sin, and Christ’s passion. Another kind and tender way we experience God-with-us is in our pain. In Lamentations 3 we read of Jeremiah’s and all Judah’s pain. But with these hurtful cries comes the hopeful reality that God’s compassions never fail and because God is faithful we can respond to our pain with hope. We’ll talk together about being hopeful stewards of our pain, since even there we experience the wonder of God’s presence.

Detail:

In 5th grade over at the old Timothy Junior High

on 60th Court in Cicero,

we boys played a game at recess

when there was a little snow covering the asphalt. The game is officially called American Eagle.

I don’t know if 5th and 6th graders still play it today. But we called it tackle.

The object of the game was to run from

one end of the parking lot playground to the other without getting tackled.

2 or 3 boys were picked to be tacklers

at the start of the game,

and when you got tackled to the ground,

you then became a tackler too,

until there was one boy left.

Good thing there was an inch or two of snow

on the asphalt, helped a lot. J

 

I think most of us try to get through life this way.

We try to keep going and not get tackled.

But sooner or later something bigger and faster

and stronger comes along and down you go.

And what we try to avoid being tackled by the most

is pain.

 

Pain: the word is first used in the Bible

after Adam and Eve disobey the command of God. We call that ‘the fall.’

And refer to their disobedience as ‘original sin.’

Then and there all creation was broken.

Now pain is introduced into life.

Our own pain is not necessarily

a result of an action of ours, tho it may be.

Some pain is just because things like pain,

trouble, violence, hurt, and disease

are now let loose in this broken up world.

 

Your pain may be physical.

For the wages of sin is death, reveals the Bible, meaning that we are mortal.

Our DNA bears this out.

Our bodies are wired to wear out over time:

heart or mind or organ failure,

disease or accident.

Each human being has a shelf life.

Pain will come on us physically if it hasn’t already.

Everlasting life is a gift of God

by grace through faith alone.

When we are in physical pain we suffer,

sometimes in awful ways.

You women know that there is nothing worse

than when your man is sick.

We don’t do pain well. J

It causes you your own kind of pain

to suffer thru it with him.

 

As the church we remember

that Jesus came to teach and to preach AND to heal, says the gospel of Matthew.

So we make it a part of our life together as believers to do what we can to help those in pain.

Historically, hospitals are the result

of Christian mercy.

We can be a blessing to those in pain

by helping show mercy as we can:

visiting the sick is one way

that Jesus comes to know us, he says.

When we help the sick we are doing this for him.

And we have to be more aware of

the justice issues in health care.

The pharmaceutical and health insurance industries are adding their greed to our pain.

Health care spending is approaching 20%

of our economy,

which means a significant part of our economy

is based on making money off of sick people.

I think we have to learn to protest this

in some meaningful way

in the name of God who made us in his image,

leaving us an example to care for the sick.

 

But there are other pains

that are much worse than the physical:

the pain of regret,

when we lose heart,

or bury cherished hopes,

when addiction masters us,

when we fail,

when loved ones pass away

or wander away from the faith,

when we lose precious gifts like freedom or peace.

There is much that frustrates us and pains us

that also makes us wonder about God

and whether the LORD is loving or kind or helpful

or makes a difference.

That’s what we get here in Lamentations,

a whole book of the Bible

devoted to the cry of those in pain.

 

Jeremiah composes this song

to bring his grief and pain to the Lord.

In the original language

each verse starts with the next letter

of the alphabet in order, from first to last.

So this is not just a snapshot of pain,

or a venting of his hurt,

but the whole picture of it.

What we learn is that even our deepest pains

are not outside of God’s presence

or providential care.

Even in pain,

we can meet the Lord there.

 

In the Bible, the word pain is used the most times

in the book of Job.

Job never knew why he suffered as he did.

He journeyed in faith and hope

and found restoration in the presence of God.

He says, My ears had heard of you

    but now my eyes have seen you. (Job 42:5)

In his pain he experienced God with him

in ways he never could have otherwise.

 

Jeremiah’s lament leads us to hope

to meet the Lord in our worst.

Jeremiah appeals to God in his pain.

He will not hide his agony.

Nor will he let his pain master him.

24 I say to myself, “The Lord is my portion;

    therefore I will wait for him.”

25 The Lord is good to those whose hope is in him,

    to the one who seeks him;

26 it is good to wait quietly

    for the salvation of the Lord.

 

So what do we do with our pain?

Frederick Buechner tells about a time

he described a painful event in his life

that might have changed and formed him forever

but for the grace of God.

And how in the telling of the story

he learned from another what to do with such pain: be a godly steward of it.

Here’s his story:

I was a young boy at the time

and my father had come back from somewhere.

He had obviously had too much to drink.

My mother did not want him to take the car.

She got the keys from him somehow

and gave them to me and said,

"Don't let your father have these."

I had already gone to bed.

I took the car keys

and I had them in my fist under the pillow.

My father came and somehow knew

I had the keys and said,

"Give them to me.

I have got to have them.

I have got to go some place."

 

I didn't know what to say, what to be or how to react. I was frightened, sad and all the rest of it.

I lay there and listened to him, pleading really,

"Give me the keys."

 

I pulled the covers over my head

to escape the situation

and then finally, went to sleep

with his voice in my ears.

A sad story which stood for

a lot of other sadness of those early years.

 

After he shared that story a friend said,

"You have had a fair amount of pain in your life,

like everybody else.

You have been a good steward of it."

 

Frederick responded:

That phrase caught me absolutely off guard –

to be a steward of your pain.

 

And so reading this from him,

I learned these things

about being a steward of our pain:

 

First, there are choices we can make

that are not stewardly when it comes to our pain.

We can instead choose to avoid dealing with it. Whether that means keeping it secret,

putting on a brave face,

pretending it never happened, or suppressing it.

This is how life teaches us to deal with it.

We learn early that the way to answer the question, how are you? is to say, I’m fine.

We will keep up appearances,

but we will also prevent ourselves and others

from growing in compassion.

Are you keeping your pain a secret?

Ask the Spirit to lead you in courage

to the right person to share it with.

 

We can also be tempted to deal with our pain

by using it to our advantage.

Whole religions like Islam are built on

playing the victim.

And whole lives can be built

on the dangerous scaffolding of victimhood.

 

This can easily lead us to deal with our pain

by using it as an excuse for failure.

Of course I can’t do that or be that

because look at the pain I have to deal with.

We make pain the lens through which our soul sees –

and then blame God, or blame the church,

or create caricatures of the divine

and never open the windows we’ve shut

to let the light in.

 

Until finally we get so bitter

we are trapped by our pain.

And what’s wrong becomes what’s wrong with me.

An example of that is the sad character

of Miss Havisham in Charles Dickens's novel,

Great Expectations.

She was deserted by her bridegroom

on her wedding day.

She spent the rest of her days

sitting in the room where the great reception

was to have been,

her wedding cake turning to mold,

her dress long since turned to rags,

the clock stopped at 20 to 9,

the exact moment she found out she was abandoned,

imprisoned by pain,

choosing to live by pain alone.

 

Each of these is a way to react to our pain,

but none of these is a way to be a steward of it.

Has life and faith stopped for you at the moment of your pain?

How about trying to be a steward of it instead?

 

We start being a steward of our pain

by acknowledging it and recognizing it is there.

Jeremiah cries out:

I remember my affliction and my wandering,

    the bitterness and the gall.

20 I well remember them,

    and my soul is downcast within me.

 

When we do this we are most open

to others and to God.

Because in this world you will have trouble,

Jesus said,

inviting us to him when we hurt.

It is tempting in pain to head off

by ourselves into our own loneliness,

but pain should draw us closer.

It is one thing we all share in common.

In acknowledging our pain

we are most able to open our souls

to the pain of others.

After all, we love best

when we take on the hurts of others.

 

I believe this is a way for many of us

to begin to understand

in a helpful way

what’s going on with

the Black Lives Matter protests

and the LGBTQ community

and other movements like these

that can anger us

and divide us because of the violence

and pride of such groups.

Whatever else is there,

pain is there.

And perhaps the way to cut through the

political correctness, judgment, and excess of it all

is by learning to listen to the pain,

in the sharing of our pains,

we can find a way to bring

the witness of Christ’s presence

uniting, instead of dividing even more.

 

For acknowledging our pain leads us

to be aware of our powerlessness

and loss of control

to depend on the Lord.

Jeremiah exercises a humble hope and says:

24 I say to myself, “The Lord is my portion;

    therefore I will wait for him.”

25 The Lord is good to those whose hope is in him,

    to the one who seeks him;

26 it is good to wait quietly

    for the salvation of the Lord.

 

So in some sense being a steward of our pain

means to learn to treasure it.

Not liking it or looking for it or looking forward to it,

but trusting there is value in it

as a holy moment or season.

Jeremiah says,

vs 32 Though he brings grief, he will show compassion,

    so great is his unfailing love.

 

We don’t thank God for our pain and suffering,

but we thank God IN all circumstances.

We thank the Lord differently

for blessings than we do for pain.

When we thank God for blessings

we are grateful for the mercy and grace

of what we’ve received,

in painful circumstances we thank God

for suffering with us,

and powerfully providing for our deliverance

if not in this world but the next.

Because our Heavenly Father

is not the cause of our pain

but there with us in it

to guard our identity in Christ,

to raise us to a new life not of our own making;

to heal,

to strengthen,

to lead us in becoming people of compassion and empathy,

to wrestle away our pride,

or maybe simply to show us that our trust cannot ever be in the things of this world and life.

 

To do this we must remember the cross.

Because of the cross,

Jesus is strong enough to be there

and meet us in our pain.

We treasure the cross,

we do not scorn the cross

so let us not scorn our pain:

instead of being afraid of it

and avoiding it at all costs,

or despairing of it

as if our pain judges us

as somehow failing at life . . .

In pain we are not missing out on the life

we should have had or deserve

or experiencing all that life could be.

For Christ is there and he is powerful to save.

Our life is hid in him.

To live is Christ.

 

The cross of Christ testifies

that out of that greatest pain

endured in love and faithfulness,

comes the greatest beauty and our greatest hope.

Isaiah 53 describes the Messiah

and we see Jesus fulfilling this ancient prophecy.

Isaiah says,

surely he took up our infirmities

and carried our sorrow and pain.

So as heavy as your burden is,

you never carry it alone.

Jesus is lifting the heavy end.

 

The result is a life made holy, changed for the better.

Maybe not a life of no pain,

but of compassion lived.

I think of the short little story tucked away in 1 Chronicles 4.

It’s the story of Jabez.

You may remember a little devotional book

about the prayer of Jabez some years ago.

The story briefly is this:

1 Chron 4 - 9 Jabez was more honorable than his brothers. His mother had named him Jabez, saying, “I gave birth to him in pain.” 10 Jabez cried out to the God of Israel, “Oh, that you would bless me and enlarge my territory! Let your hand be with me, and keep me from harm so that I will be free from pain.” And God granted his request.

 

Pain was his name.

Here’s a man who’s identity was pain itself.

But he’s remembered as one who was honored.

Who was set free.

For God granted his request.

 

This world IS full of pain.

Biologists note that nature includes

way more death than life.

Of all the species that ever existed,

fewer than 5 percent remain.

Of every creature born, few survive infancy.

Eggs and animal young

make excellent meals for predators.

Every cupful of ocean water

is a cold soup of dead parasites.

Soil is made from the decomposition of flora.

In the middle of all this death

and the pain that goes with it,

does the cosmos care for us humans

more than parasites?

Are we to believe and hope in a Creator

who cares not to stop

all the animal and plant death

yet still cares for us,

who do we think we are?

We are his people, the sheep of his pasture.

His eye is on the sparrow, and I know he watches me.

Yes, in this world you will have trouble,

but do not be afraid, blesses Jesus,

I have overcome the world.

 

There is an exercise printed on the back of our worship handout to help us become stewards of our pain.

Please try it this week and share with another how the Spirit has counseled and comforted you in your pain.

 

Here is a spiritual exercise for this week to guide us toward being stewards of our pain:

Read today’s scripture passage from Lamentations 3, especially verses 19-26.

Be silent for a minute, then read it again, this time focusing on a word or phrase from these verses.

What does that word or phrase say to you about your pain and the Lord’s presence with you in that pain?

 

Now ask yourself, what am I doing with my pain?

Am I tempted to hide it or pretend it isn’t there?

Am I tempted to use it to my advantage by playing the victim?

Do I use my pain as an excuse for failure whether in life or faith?

 

If you sense any of these, confess each to the Heavenly Father. Then read verses 22-26 again from Lamentations 3.

 

Now ask the Spirit’s leading to make you a steward of your pain:

Let me keep in touch with my pain by acknowledging it in prayer and thanking Jesus that he suffered for me.

Then ask the Lord to help us treasure our pain in the sense that the Spirit is leading me in compassion and care for others because I am aware of my mortality and limitations.

End with this short prayer: Thank you, Lord Jesus that you suffered for me. Lead me in the hope of your faithfulness. Amen.