Listen to the sermon here
Sunday, October 27, 2024
The Rev. Megan Collins
Dave and I have a dog, a black labrador named Stella. Stella’s life, by a dog’s standard, is pretty great. She gets several walks a day in the park. She gets at least three minutes of belly rubs first thing every morning. We put warm water on her kibble to make it softer and sometimes we even add a little peanut butter or chicken. When she isn’t playing with a tennis ball or walking by a lake, she is napping happily on our leather ottoman (which is her favorite spot) or in her ridiculously large pillow on the floor in our bedroom. When she sleeps, she sleeps on her back, belly in the air, fully confident of her safety.
But the other day, something bad happened to her. She had been playing outside, just like normal, but when we brought her back in, something was wrong. She was laying on the ground, and her ears were back. She wouldn’t get up. She could barely walk but when she did she had this awful limp. She wouldn’t even take a dog treat. After a few hours of this we got really worried so took her into the animal hospital. At this point she was so scared she climbed all 70 pounds of dog into Dave’s lap. The vet came in and we were prepared for terrible news, a broken leg, maybe surgery. The vet looks her over, from head to toe and says "It looks like she hurt her paw pads.” Did she need surgery? Did she need to have her paws bandaged to heal? Could she walk or does she need to be carried? Then the vet kept going. “It’s just a scrape, like the equivalent of a skinned knee in a human."
Our dog might be a little dramatic. I think she is the only dog in history to need pain killers and a hospital vet visit for a skinned knee. But this was the first time in Stella’s four years she had experienced pain and struggle. It was her first time facing adversity. When that time came, did Stella summon her inner strength, her will to overcome? No.
Stella cannot do hard things.
But you can. You can do hard things.
You can face pain and struggling. You can summon your strength and courage when you face adversity. That’s what I’d like to talk about today.
We’re in a series called Odyssey, where we’ve been looking at the journey of our lives through the lens of faith. We spent a few weeks talking about our past, and how God works with us with what we’ve been through. Then we looked at our present, who we are now, and what God calls us to today. Dave preached an awesome sermon last week starting this final section on our future. Next week we’ll finish the series with a message about the final future, about death and heaven and the resurrection and what hope we have for what comes next. Today, let’s talk a bit more about the future on this side of the resurrection, our future life, here. When you sit down, and really think about the future, there’s a lot you could worry about.
Many of you are facing really difficult questions when you think about your future. Some of you are dealing with health issues, that make your future really uncertain. Some of you aren’t sure about the stability of those important relationships, your marriage, your partner, your kids, or you have someone you love that is struggling. This makes you worry about what will happen over the next few years. Maybe you have some uncertainty about your job, or how you will pay your bills. There’s plenty of things to keep you up at night as you think about what’s next.
Then there is the future of our country. I’m not sure if you’ve heard, but there is this little election coming up. Every commercial on TV reminds us of what is at stake. There are the multiple texts we get a day on our phones asking for just $5 more dollars before it’s “too late.”Regardless of which side you are on, most of us worry about the future for our country if the “other candidate” wins. There’s the fear of more division and violence before and after the election is settled. I have been in more than one conversation lately where people shared their concerns about what to do if “our candidate” loses. There is plenty to worry about when it comes to our country too.
Zoom out even more to think about the future of our world. What will it mean as climate change really takes hold? What will we do when there isn’t enough food and water for the population? Is this AI stuff leading toward a robot human war? (Okay, not really, but also - did you see Terminator?)
Thinking about the future can bring up plenty of things to worry about. That’s quite a list we just made, and I know I”m only scratching the surface. When it comes to the future, we can’t help but think what if? What if the worst happens? What will we do if these things we are worrying about come true? For that, I actually have an answer.
What will we do if the worst happens?
We will do one simple thing.
If we get to tomorrow or next year or the next decade, and things didn’t turn out the way we wanted them to, if the things we were worried would happen, do in fact happen, here’s what’s next, here is what we will do:
We will do hard things.
Because unlike my sweet, precious but very fragile labrador, we can.
We can do hard things.
How do I know? Because we always have.
You’ve done hard things before. You aren’t like Stella, where life has just been a series of naps and belly rubs and peanut butter on a spoon. You’ve done hard things before. Bad things have happened before, and here you are, still standing. One of my favorite scriptures comes from Romans 5:3-5 and it says:
"And not only that, but we also boast in our sufferings, knowing 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 that has been given to us."
I wouldn’t wish suffering on anyone. I certainly don’t like it when you or I suffer. But it’s good to know that not only is God with us when we deal with difficult seasons, God is also giving us what we need to bear up under it. Everytime we go through something difficult, we develop more endurance. Over time that endurance builds our character, and in a crazy twist that only God could orchestrate, our experience with suffering, the very thing that should make us want to give up, morphs into this unshakeable hope. It is hope as God’s love, poured into us, keeps us going.
You can do hard things because you’ve done it before. God has been building you up.
You come from a long line of those who have been built into people of hope.
God’s people have always done hard things.
When God’s people were enslaved in Egypt, God called Moses to lead them out. It was dangerous and he didn’t feel equipped, but he did it. Moses did hard things.
When God’s people were going to be killed, Esther persuaded the king in order to protect them, even though it meant risking her life. Esther did hard things.
When the earth was going to be consumed by a flood, Noah was obedient to God and built a boat. Noah did hard things.
When Jesus died, and it seemed like all hope was lost, the women overcame their grief to go to the tomb to anoint his body. Then they went on to share the gospel. The women did hard things.
God’s people do hard things.
When we get to our future, to our what’s next, and if it’s hard, if it’s not comfortable, if it’s not what we hoped, we’ll do what God’s people have always done. We will do hard things. Difficult times are always going to be a part of our future.
There’s this common thought in Christianity (not in the Bible, but in churches and in Christian conversations) that if you are a good and faithful Christian, if you just pray hard enough, that nothing bad will ever happen. Maybe bad things will happen far away, in another place, but not here, not to you. But that’s just not what the Bible teaches.
James 1:2-4 says:
My brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of any kind, consider it nothing but joy, because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance; and let endurance have its full effect, so that you may be mature and complete, lacking in nothing.
Consider it joy when you face trials. James doesn’t say if your faith will be tested by trials, if, on the off chance something happens. No, James says when. And then, somehow, we count it all joy.
1 Peter 4:12-13:
Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal that is taking place among you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice in so far as you are sharing Christ’s sufferings, so that you may also be glad and shout for joy when his glory is revealed.
1 Peter takes it a step farther. It’s not just that trials will happen, but it is so sure to happen that you should not be surprised.
John 16:33:
I have said this to you, so that in me you may have peace. In the world you face persecution. In this world you will have tribulation.
Difficult times, difficult seasons in our life are going to happen. By now maybe you are wondering why you came to church this morning. If you wanted to be bummed out you could stay home and read the news. But stick with me - because that’s not the whole story. Look at the next part of John 16:33
But take courage; I have conquered the world!’
Jesus said this to the disciples just before he was arrested. You will have hard times, Jesus tells us, but be brave - I have already won. Just after he says this, his closest followers would see the one they had followed get taken away. It would be the darkest time of their lives.
But God has overcome the world. Past tense. It’s already done. Even if things aren’t exactly the way we hoped, God has already won. God is still working. God is in charge.
There is no future where sin wins, once and for all.
There is no future where death has the final word.
There is no future where evil is in charge forever.
God has already overcome the world. Some of that victory we get a glimpse of, now. Some of it we’ll see later, and we’ll talk more about that next week. God has already overcome the world. No matter how things look in your life. No matter how scary things get out there, we know God is in control. We have this hope, this hope that is burning like and ember in us. We have hope not because things have always been easy, but because we have faced darkness before, and when we did, we felt God’s love pour into us.
But what do we do? If all the things you are worried about in the future come true, if just one of them comes true, what will you do? You will do hard things.
When it seems like evil is in charge, you will defend the good. You will stand up against injustice, you will work for love and for peace and for all the people who are on the margins or who are being harmed. You will be that light on a hill. You will not grow weary in doing good. You will do hard things.
When things feel uncertain, when you aren’t sure if you can face the future, you will keep getting up, keep trying, keep taking the next right step that God calls you to, even if you don’t know where it is headed. You will do hard things.
When it’s the end of the line, and you or someone you love is facing death, you will face another day with the weight of grief. You will surrender your control, and hold on to your faith in the resurrection and God’s embrace that is waiting for you. You will do hard things.
Somewhere along the way, we became convinced that we couldn’t do this. We began to believe that we, as God’s people, at the first sign of a scraped paw, at the first inclination of discomfort, that we couldn’t possibly go on. We wondered if that endurance and character and hope would fail us. We began to believe that our faith was dependent on our circumstances working out just the way we planned.
I wish life could be easy, all the time. I want everything in your life to work out, just the way you hoped. To be honest, I want everything in my life to work out just the way I want it to. Most of us do have times where things are really good, and we get to wake up everyday, filled with gratitude. What a gift. But as we saw in the scriptures, there are also going to be times that are hard. it’s not that God wants you to suffer. I don’t believe that God brings much of the suffering and struggle into our lives just to teach us something, or to humble us.
But I do believe that God has something so much bigger for you than just your comfort. That perhaps, if in the future, the what-if questions you have turn out to be true, if you do face those trials and seemingly impossible times, I believe God will pour into you with God’s love and hope. I believe that God will equip you to do hard things.
That you, like Esther, will be called for such a time as this.
That you, like Moses, will be able to say say “Here I am.”
That somehow we will even do it with joy.
I have the privilege to know some pastors who work in South Asia. They face insurmountable obstacles, everyday. All of them work in areas of tremendous poverty. One of them right now is helping their community recover from a devastating flood. Another lives in an area that is under a violent military coup, where civilians, children and families, lose their lives, everyday. Another supports a group that is completely cast aside by the government, and doesn’t have even the most basic human necessities. Persecution, hunger, violence, loss - just all the time. But you know what comes through when I listen to them? Joy. The joy they have in seeing what God is doing, in spite of it all. The joy of their persistence they have in doing whatever they can to help. The joy in seeing hope and healing. The joy of knowing what God has promised. The joy of seeing the fruit of doing hard things.
Through the power of God, they are doing hard things.
You can do hard things.
Together, we can do hard things.
Perhaps our biggest obstacle is believing that we can.
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