1 Peter 4:12-14; 5:6-11
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 insofar as you are sharing Christ’s sufferings, so that you may also be glad and shout for joy when his glory is revealed. If you are reviled for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the spirit of glory, which is the Spirit of God, is resting on you. Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, so that he may exalt you in due time. Cast all your anxiety on him, because he cares for you.
Discipline yourselves, keep alert. Like a roaring lion your adversary the devil prowls around, looking for someone to devour. Resist him, steadfast in your faith, for you know that your brothers and sisters in all the world are undergoing the same kinds of suffering.
And after you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, support, strengthen, and establish you. To him be the power forever and ever. Amen.
In Chester’s eyes… all three of them mind you… we’re the aliens! Of course “Chester” is her earth name. Her Zanforb name is Beebglabop, but for the purposes of this story, we’ll just stick with Chester. Now over the years, like all beings in the galaxy, she has experienced suffering. Oh, yeah, the name Chester and the pronoun “she” is confusing, huh? Yeah, it turns out they can figure out how to travel between galaxies but they can’t ever seem to pick earth names that match their gender pronoun preference! Intelligent life… right?!
Anyway... She has, of course, experienced the sort of suffering that just comes with being from the planet Zanforb. Things like droopy eye stalk virus, DFSD, dry flaky scale disorder, and an unfortunate allergy to the purple Bobo Bird cheese they use to construct their homes. She, like all of us, has also experienced the kind of suffering that comes when others, acting out of their own brokenness, have caused her to suffer and also the kind of suffering that comes from just making bad choices. On one of her missions to earth, she decided to take up smoking, which was not a good choice over all, but it turned out to be a PARTICULARLY a bad choice when she was visiting her home on Zanforb and decided to light up there. As I’m sure you know, the Bobo bird cheese they use to construct their homes is HIGHLY flammable and smoking around highly flammable dairy products led her to some real suffering.
But those two types of suffering are not the only kinds of suffering she has experienced. She’s also found, particularly on her expeditions to earth, that she is inextricably drawn into the suffering of the other beings around her. It isn’t the same as the suffering that comes simply from being a mortal being from Zanforb and it isn’t the same as the suffering that happens when you light your flammable cheese house on fire. This third type of suffering is the suffering that comes when we finally come to the realization that WE ARE ALL ONE… when one of us hurts, we all hurt... when one of us has life, we all have life!
This is the sort of suffering that happens when those around us hurt and we make the choice to enter into their pain with them, so that they will not suffer alone… so that we may be ONE, even when being ONE hurts. It is the suffering we enter into by choice when we give up luxuries, conveniences, freedoms, desires, necessities, and in rare instances, even life itself, for the benefit of our neighbors. It is the suffering we experience when we put our neighbors ahead of self… when we act in a way that is best for the community, even when that way might not be best for me, myself or I.
That is the sort of suffering Peter was talking about in today’s second lesson. That sort of suffering is the “fiery ordeal” he tells us should not surprise us, even though in my experience it always does! It is that self giving, empathetic, voluntary entering in to someone else’s pain that we are called to as followers of Jesus. That is the suffering of the cross. Jesus entering into the suffering of the whole world so that we would not be alone… so, as we read last week, we would not be left orphaned. This sort of suffering does not usually lead us into a literal, crucifixion-level of suffering, but it often can feel nearly that bad as we sit with another being and share their darkness.
Part of the Good News that comes with following Jesus into this sort of suffering, is that we are promised it will not be forever. It will likely FEEL like forever while you are in it, but as the lesson from First Peter says, “in a little while, the God of all grace who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, WILL himself restore, support, strengthen, and establish you.” It will seem like forever, but this sort of suffering isn’t ever quite that long and it is always worth it because it is along this path where we will inevitably encounter the Divine.
For Chester, my alien friend from Zanforb, the suffering of humans is difficult to bear at times. She wishes they could be free of the suffering that comes with just being human and she really wishes they would work harder to eliminate the suffering that they cause one another when they act out of their brokenness. But she also knows that, even with all the intergalactic technology at her tentacle-tips, eliminating those kinds of suffering remains out of her control.
What Chester has found IS within her control, however, is the choice to enter into another being’s suffering with them, choosing to act in ways that are in the other’s best interest, and making sure no one sits alone in their darkness. In her electronic cloaking suit which, as you also know, makes her appear as a human wearing a black shirt with a white tab, she finds she has many opportunities to not only do this herself, but to guide others into making these kinds of self-sacrificial choices. What she inevitably tells the people of earth is that living this way… living for the other… living by choosing to enter into our neighbor’s pain with them, is not only the best way we have to bring life into this world, but in fact, it’s the best way to bring abundant life to the entire galaxy. Amen.
