Grace and Peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
30 seconds sitting with the one you love kissing and cooing.
30 seconds sitting in the dentist chair with her fingers and drill penetrating your molar.
It’s the same 30 seconds. One seems like an eye blink, the other an eternity. Yet, as we measure time by the clock it’s the same exact time.
Funny too isn’t it? When you were a youth, summers used to seem to go on forever. Toward summer’s end you’d actually get excited about getting new school clothes and seeing your friends. Now you’re a teacher or a Mom yourself and summer seems to fly by yet in reality it is the same 10 weeks. Odd isn’t it how subjectively we measure time depending on where we are in life and what we’re doing at the moment.
In our lesson tonight St. Paul speaks to a body of believers for whom time has become an oppressive force. We don’t know what was going on with them. But listen again as he lists their sorrows:“We are affected in every way, but not crushed:
A good friend in my first parish was in a horrible car accident-not unlike what our brother Pete Lynch experienced. His face was lacerated by shredded glass and in response it puffed up and swelled. Both legs and an arm and a hip were broken in several places. They had him on a machine to breath for him and rotate him so that his back wouldn’t develop sores. For weeks, we prayed and the doctors would offer no firm projection. “He is still critical” is all they would say. We prayed. We didn’t look at all the times our prayers weren’t answered but at the many more God had heard and heeded. Even the oppressive power of doubt couldn’t crush us. The power of Jesus’ life in us keeps us somehow united with hope.
“Perplexed but not driven to despair”
Another friend had been passed over for a job at a place where she had worked 20 years. She felt angry, cheated, hurt, and rebuked. The injustice of it all was oppressive. At first the anger was overwhelming and ate at her like a cancer. She thought of all the years she had given, the loyalty, the personal sacrifices and she burned inside. Yet, God spoke to her when she prayed. I am leading you to a new place and new work, You will use all your talents and the skills you have mastered over the years. Trust me God seemed to say. She read the paper and saw an ad for a job that sounded too good to be true. She interviewed and was hired on the spot. The new job fulfilled her in ways she never thought possible-it was a job and pleasure because it called on all the skills God had given her and provided for her. She wondered about rejoiced in God’s timing, and God’s uncanny ability to make her whole.
“We are persecuted but not forsaken.”
Some of our worst experiences are not actually our own but one’s we participate in vicariously. When we suffer alongside someone who is suffering. A good pastor friend of mine had a daughter addicted to heroine. She had problems in school, had difficulty learning and found that drugs eased her pain but her life became a living hell. Her parents could do nothing but pray for her because the problem was hers and only she had the solution. She got into recovery and stopped but then had several relapses. This happened many times over five years but she hadn’t used in 8 years now. Her Dad learned about faith in a brand new way and learned to trust in God because only Gold could help.
Our lesson from 2nd Corinthians is all about being a part of the world where time passes and we are given over to decay and death. The years take their toll and rob us of vitality, but strangely, as a gift God gives us his presence throughout the trial and lifts us up.
We never arrive and have all sadness and sorrow behind us. But the Sprit does strengthen us through the years. We always carry in us the death of Jesus, so that his life, which we also carry, may sustain us.
Who We Are