Suffering at Christmas

 

Large crowds were traveling with Jesus, and turning to them he said: “If anyone comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters—yes, even their own life—such a person cannot be my disciple. And whoever does not carry their cross and follow me cannot be my disciple. (Luke 14:25-27)

Humanity has experienced suffering ever since sin entered the world in the Garden of Eden. While sitting in agony on a pile of ashes, Job lamented that “man is born to trouble as surely as sparks fly upward” (Job 5:7). Moses wrote that “we finish our years with a moan (Ps. 90:9). Even Jesus was homeless for much of his life (cf. Luke 9:58). Paul’s physical sufferings would have been a medical insurance company’s worst nightmare (cf. 2 Cor. 11:23-28). Throughout the Bible, suffering in this present age is regarded as both universal and normal.

Our awareness of  humanity’s pain is intensified at Christmas by the familiar angelic announcement which echoes in the Christmas carols, “Peace on earth, goodwill to men.” At Christmas in 2023, world headlines are about suffering in Israel and Gaza as the world grapples how to respond to ongoing terrorism and a humanitarian crisis of proportions unparalleled since World War II.

It seems that Job was right. Mankind is born to trouble, even at Christmas.

Have you ever noticed that those who suffer the least seem to complain about it the most? Some three decades ago, I heard a missionary who was serving the Lord faithfully in the jungles and deserts of Africa say, “Comfort is important.” He was speaking as one who had left the comforts of the United States to serve in the extreme discomforts of primitive Africa. To this man, a day of comfort meant a walk with his family to the cool waters of a river for a picnic in the shade, if they could find any. Never mind the snakes, crocodiles, or hippos!

This godly servant was communicating that when we choose suffering to follow Jesus, we need momentary reprieves to regroup and recover. By what he didn‘t say, he communicated that those who suffer the most complain about it the least.

Two months ago–just three days after the terrorist attack in Israel–our district superintendent, Dr. Dan Scarrow, spoke to District and Prayer Conference about suffering in ministry from Luke 14:25-27. I found his words helpful, especially because it seems more and more Christians are enticed by a prosperity gospel to turn off the narrow path of following Jesus with a cross on our shoulders. Here are Dr. Scarrow’s three applications:

1) In order to be fully engaged in an important task, you must pre-decide your commitment to the inevitable suffering…. A necessary precondition for total engagement is acknowledgement of suffering as a likely outcome of this decision.

2) You’re only truly committed to those things or people you’re willing to suffer for. If you want your church to care about the lost, maybe you need to teach them about suffering. Maybe instead of trying to develop a program to teach them how to evangelize, we need to say, “this is going to be hard.”… I wonder what the teaching of suffering would look like reintroduced into our church in this culture.

3) Much of our stress is created by the expectation of comfort in life or ministry or relationships in the midst of our encounter with suffering. And you when encounter suffering but you really expect comfort, it creates a dissonance in your spirit.

In our district superintendent’s message, I find a challenge and an explanation. First, it challenges me to apply Jesus’ call to suffering in Luke 14:26-27 instead of rationalizing it away. Second, it explains to me why fewer Christians raised in comfort are engaging in cross-cultural ministry, especially in the hard places of the world. Even rural churches in America are having trouble finding pastors.

In a world of intensified and unresolved conflict, this Christmas we worship a Child who, someday, will establish genuine justice and peace. We can shout the angelic announcement with joy and hope to a suffering world. Merry Christmas!

What Does God Want to Do in Your Community?

“It is my judgment, therefore, that we should not make it difficult for the Gentiles who are turning to God.” (James, the brother of Jesus)  Acts 15:19

Several weeks ago Mark Thomas, our district’s Associate Superintendent for Church Revitalization, challenged me to ask God what he wants to do in Clarkfield. I readily agreed to do so, but this is a different kind of prayer for me. I’m not accustomed to praying open ended questions. My first several attempts at this prayer were hesitant and awkward. As a result, I’ve experienced a few uncertain moments in prayer. As time has passed, this prayer has become a bit more familiar. Almost from the beginning, I lengthened the pre­­scribed prayer about what God wants to do in Clarkfield by adding, “What is my role in it?”

I have no idea how God might answer such a prayer. He’s not obligated to answer at all, much less with definitive statements. By nature and by training, I don’t traffic much in the murky, mystical world of direct revelation. I’m not about to assert, “I’ve heard from God!” I don’t trust my motive or my maturity nearly enough for that. If I were to announce, “God has told me we are to do such and such in Clarkfield,” it would place the congregation in a difficult position. They would have no way to prove God spoke to me. And they would have no way to prove God didn’t speak to me unless I came out with something plainly out of order. A divine whisper is impervious to both falsification or verification by those who didn’t hear it. The Apostle John warned his readers not to believe everything they hear, but instead to “test the spirits” (1 John 4:1).

A couple weeks ago, I asked the C&MA prayer area pastors how God might answer such a prayer. Micah Siebert, the pastor at Redwood Alliance Church in Redwood Falls, Minnesota, responded, “I would expect that you would hear things that are universally true.” He quickly added that the answer must be hinged to Scripture.

That interests me because an answer to my question has begun to form in my mind, based on a single Bible verse which is cemented in my mind. “It is my judgment, therefore, that we should not make it difficult for the Gentiles who are turning to God.“ (Acts 15:19)

I believe God wants to make it as easy as possible for lost people in Clarkfield to turn to Jesus. Again, I certainly don’t claim God has been speaking to me with those words. But there is universal truth in this powerful verse (and its context) which keeps returning to my thoughts. To be fair, this verse has been on my mind much longer than I’ve been praying the prayer Mark Thomas asked me to pray. It’s a judgment from the lips of the Apostle James. It articulated the conclusion of the first council of the church, which was called to address false teaching which had circulated in the early church. This definitive statement reduced the complexities confronting the early church in Acts 15 to their lowest common denominator. This verse has been forefront in my mind ever since I read Andy Stanley’s account of how Acts 15:19 has impacted his life and ministry. Here’s what he wrote:

I love that [Acts 15:19].

Imagine where the church would be today if we had kept that simple idea front and center. Years ago, I printed that verse and hung it in my office. Before long it started showing up on walls and plaques in all our churches. I look at it every day. Perhaps James’ statement should be the benchmark by which all decisions are made in the local church. The brother of Jesus said we shouldn’t do anything that makes it unnecessarily difficult for people who are turning to God….” (Andy Stanley, Irresistible, p. 124)

In recent years I’ve become more aware of how the American evangelical church often makes it unnecessarily difficult for those far from God to come to Christ. Some of these observations have become recurring themes in my leadership: politicizing the gospel, verbal abuse of out­siders, legalism, judgmentalism…. We can add to that list a failure in the church to discern truth from lies in the age of social media and disunity within the body of Christ. Ugly church fights make it difficult for outsiders who are turning to God, especially when true believers embrace false conspiracy theories (cf. Acts 15:1-6). When the gospel is garbled inside the church, it’s very difficult for those outside the church to turn to God.

So I have to ask myself:

What am I doing that is making it unnecessarily difficult for lost people who could be turning to God?”

“What can I do that will make it easier for them?

We need programs, but programs alone won’t remove the unnecessary obstacles outsiders face. The challenge facing our local church (and many other churches) is deeper than a need for more programming. For example, beyond the culture gap, there is a pronounced generation gap between our church and the community of Clarkfield.

I often think of Clarkfield as an old community of senior citizens. But the data says there are many others, too. A high number of children live in Clarkfield, well above the national average. I often think of Clarkfield as a poor area of high unemployment or low wages. But the data says otherwise.

We could add another twist to this exercise. Even if I’m running properly with Acts 15:19, that may be just a slice of the complete picture. What if God wants to do some­thing in Clarkfield that has escaped my radar? What if I have a blind spot? For example, how might our brothers and sisters in the Hispanic church across town answer the same question about what God wants to do in Clarkfield? What they hear from God might be very different from what I hear from God, even if it’s universally true and based on Scripture. I believe more voices, including diverse voices, are helpful, even necessary, for the church to discern what God wants to do in Clarkfield.

I invite you to participate in the prayer challenge from Mark Thomas.

What does God want to do in your community?

How can you be a part of it?