"Response to Suffering" Judy Skaggs, UPC
1 Peter 2:19-25
Two weeks ago we began looking at the lectionary passages from 1 Peter for the season of Easter. The opening of the book reminded us that we are being born into a new family, a community of faith, and that new family is based on the hope of resurrection. The early church needed that reminder perhaps even more than we do today. They did not have 2000 years of history and tradition of the church to look back on and rely on to teach us about who we are as the church of Jesus Christ in the world.
So today we go on to a passage from the second chapter. If you have been reading 1 Peter (and I hope you have) then you know that those who chose the verses for the lectionary made a particular choice about where to begin this reading. They have left out verse 18 where we find out that this admonition is addressed to slaves. At first we might think that we cannot learn from a passage addressed to slaves in the first century – how could we identify with them or their circumstances.
But looking more closely, we discover a different way to listen to this passage. First of all, the word for slaves used here is not the Greek term for slaves in general, but the word which indicates a member of the household. Given 1 Peter’s emphasis on the household of God that is being created, that would make sense. All believers are part of God’s household, no matter what their station in life.
But another thing is that in both Peter and in Paul’s writings as well, slaves are often used as a metaphor for our relationship with Christ. Christ’s death and resurrection has freed us, and yet because of our willingness to follow Christ, we submit ourselves to God’s will, thus becoming willing slaves to Christ.
So any person can hear this passage because we are all members of the household of God. Let us hear now how the Spirit is speaking to the church today. Read 1 Peter: 19-25.
There are several places in 1 Peter where suffering is addressed. In this text today, the writer first addresses the way he thinks all believers should respond to suffering. Then secondly, he reminds all of us how Christ dealt with suffering.
Peter begins by saying that it is a credit to anyone who endures when suffering unjustly. If we suffer because of the wrong we have done, then that is just a natural consequence of our actions. But in those instances when we have done nothing wrong, and yet we suffer because of it, then Peter says that we have God’s approval.
In many ways, this way of thinking is foreign to our culture. Our first inclination is to strike back, to retaliate, to look for who is to blame. Rarely are we able to endure with patience when we suffer unjustly.
And yet Peter goes on to remind us that Christ is our example, for he had committed no sin and there was no deceit in his mouth. And yet he suffered in horrid ways. He was betrayed and deserted by his closest friends. Peter himself denied that he even knew Jesus three times. Jesus had to undergo trials and was accused falsely. And then of course, he endured physical pain that we cannot imagine.
Peter turns to the prophet Isaiah to get his description of how Jesus dealt with suffering, from Isaiah 53, one of the “suffering servant” passages. “When he was abused, he did not return abuse; when he suffered, he did not threaten; but he entrusted himself to the one who judges justly.”
This passages just keeps pointing us toward the fact that Jesus did not retaliate; Jesus did not repay evil for the evil done to him. Instead he prayed from the cross that God would forgive all those who had harmed him.
Week before last, we had a wonderful service here put on by the Austin Center for Peace and Justice that remembered the 40th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King’s death. All of us who were here were touched as we heard his words and remembered the events of that time.
That same day, I heard a story on the radio about another event that took place on April 4, 1968. Robert Kennedy had arrived in Indianapolis that evening for a political campaign rally, and when he got off the place he was informed of Dr. King’s death. He was advised by the police against making the campaign stop because it was in one of the ghettos of Indianapolis. But Kennedy insisted on going. He arrived to find a large gathering of African-Americans in a very upbeat mood, anticipating the excitement of his appearance. And he realized that they did not know about Dr. King’s death.
I found his speech on the internet, and I’d like to share part of his speech that night.
“Ladies and gentlemen, I’m only going to talk to you for a few minutes this evening, because… I have some very sad news for all of you, sad news for all our citizens, and people who love peace all over the world, and that is that Martin Luther King was shot and was killed tonight in Memphis, Tennessee.
Martin Luther King dedicated his life to love and justice between fellow human beings. He died in the cause of that effort.
For those of you who are black, considering the evidence that white people were responsible, you can be filled with bitterness and with hatred, and a desire for revenge.
We can move that direction as a country, in greater polarization – black and white – with hatred for one another. Or we can make an effort as Martin King did, to understand and comprehend, and replace that violence, that stain of bloodshed that has spread across our land, with an effort to understand, to have compassion and love.
For those who are tempted to be filled with hatred, I would only say that I can also feel in my heart the same kind of feeling. I had a member of my family killed.
But we have to make an effort, we have to make an effort to understand, to get beyond these difficult times.
My favorite poet is Aeschylus. He once wrote, “Even in our sleep, pain which cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart, until, in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom through the awful grace of God.”
What we need is not division; what we need is not hatred; what we need is not lawlessness and violence; but is love and wisdom, and compassion toward one another, and a feeling of justice for all who still suffer whether they be black or whether they be white.
Bobby Kennedy urged them all to go to their homes and to say a prayer for Dr King’s family and for our country.
The radio story said that on April 4, 1968, in almost every large city in the country, there was violence and rioting, but not in Indianapolis. And many attribute it to Kennedy’s willingness to talk with the African-American community that night. He identified with their suffering because he had suffered in the same way. And they listened and did not retaliate.
As I studied this passage from 1 Peter this week, I just kept thinking about Kennedy’s call to nonviolence. And I hear that same call in the words of 1 Peter.
Our example is Christ, and Christ did not return abuse when he was abused. Peter reminds us that there was purpose in Christ’s suffering. Through his suffering we are made righteous, “for by his wounds, we are healed.” Even for us when we go astray like lost sheep, there is healing.
Christ, our Good Shepherd, cares for us, his flock, in every way. We are given guidance, sustenance, healing balm, rest, but more than anything, we are promised over and over again, the constant presence of the Shepherd especially in the midst of any suffering we have to endure. “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, you are with me.”
And we pray with the Psalmist, “surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.” Amen.