Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through Whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out His love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, Whom He has given us. You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates His own love for us in this: while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.  (Romans 5:1-8)

 

 

     We live in different worlds simultaneously. I'm not talking about some weird science fiction idea. I'm not talking about parallel universes or anything like that. Nor am I suggesting that any of us are suffering from any type of psychological disturbance. I'm not suggesting that we have multiple personalities that aren't even aware of each other's existence. I'm not even referring to the problem called “compartmentalizing” - where we just keep the different parts of our lives separate and unconnected from each other. No. I'm not talking about anything strange, disturbed or unhealthy. I'm just talking about what I think is the self-evident fact that each of us live in multiple worlds simultaneously. Just think about your lives for a moment and you'll understand what I mean. You have your world of family and then you have your world of friends; you have your world at home, your world at work, your world at school and your world at church; you have a world of hopes and dreams and you have a world where those hopes and dreams sometimes seem to fade away in the face of grief or sadness. You have many of these worlds all working together as integral parts of your reality that you slip into and out of as you go through life and face different experiences in different settings with different people. You live in all these worlds simultaneously. I know you do. I know it because I have them too. So for the last three weeks I've been in Chicago in a world where I was a student learning more about this artform the church calls preaching; now I'm in Port Colborne, in a world where I'm supposed to be able to put all those learnings into practice. For the last three weeks I've been living in a seminary residence with nine other people; now I'm back home with Lynn and Hannah. They're different worlds – but they're all part of me; each has shaped me and transformed in some way from what I was to what I am and even to what I'm going to be. These different worlds we live in are always shaping us from what we have been into what we are and ultimately into what we will be – and we all have these different worlds in our lives.

 

     Different worlds or different environments or different settings – whatever you may choose to call them – are just a part of our reality, and I would say that's kind of what Paul was speaking about in Romans when he spoke of the relationship between suffering and persecution and character and hope. All too often we misunderstand  the point Paul was making here and in other similar passages. We think that Paul was speaking about these things as if they're a progression – nothing more than points on a journey as we make our way to an ultimate destination and that once we pass each point we're done with it. On the surface Paul might seem to be saying that having faith means moving through these stages until one finally arrives in the wonderful world of hope that makes all the other things he mentioned go away – or at least that makes them seem unimportant. It makes it seem as if a truly faithful Christian life is supposed to be easy. It's supposed to be filled with blessings, isn't it? Remember that old Gospel song? “There shall be showers of blessing.” Blessings are good, so the Christian life should be a pretty good one, shouldn't it?

 

     It's a little bit like the misunderstandings that have arisen over dealing with grief. Back in the 1960's Elizabeth Kubler-Ross wrote that there were five stages of grief (denial, bargaining, depression, anger and acceptance) and people got the idea that they were supposed to move bang-bang-bang through these stages of grief until finally one reached the stage of “acceptance” and moved on with grief left in the dust behind us. But Elizabeth Kubler-Ross never said that. She said that you move back and forth through the five stages – sometimes repeating stages, always jumping back and forth in a process that can go on for years. Years after a loved one's death and for no particular reason a person can suddenly find themselves angry or depressed again – and that's all right. Paul I suspect was saying something of the same thing. It's not that having faith moves us past suffering; it's that suffering is one of those human experiences that faith helps us get through. Whether we're suffering through a time of tragedy, or persevering through hardship or showing character in times of chaos or living in hope no matter what our circumstances, God is with us. This is what Paul was telling us. Not that faith will exempt us from some of the unpleasant business of living a full life but that faith will see us through the unpleasant business of living a full life as life's challenges inevitably pop up over and over again.

 

     If we don't understand that – if we start to believe that everything about faith is supposed to let us leave all the bad things behind and simply live lives full of hope and joy  - the consequences can be devastating, because if that's what we believe then how do we explain a person of faith who starts to suffer? If we don't understand – if we start to believe that the whole point of faith is to leave suffering behind – we can easily fall into the grossest of heresies, because then we start to proclaim that the whole point of faith is self-centred; that it's all about the rewards we get. If we start to believe that then it's an easy move to believing that it's a lack of faith that causes our our troubles – and that leads to a laying of guilt on others: if you're sick it's because you don't have enough faith; if you're poor it's because you don't have enough faith – a “blame the victim” mentality that's popular in our society but that Jesus Himself rejected. You may remember the story of the crippled man Jesus and His disciples encountered. The disciples asked “Who sinned, this man or his parents?” And Jesus' reply was basically “You don't get. This isn't punishment. This is life. And life has both joys and sorrows, sickness and health. This man was born this way so that you could see the glory of God.” Jesus then healed the man, but I wonder if seeing the glory of God meant seeing Jesus heal this man, or if it meant seeing the man have the strength to persevere through his suffering?

 

     You see, troubles don't come to us because we've sinned, as a punishment for some unresolved guilt or some unconfessed sin. In fact, Jesus came to untie the bonds of guilt and all the troubles they cause. Jesus came to set us free – to forgive us and renew us and transform us and invite us back to God and to demonstrate that God is always with us. This is the good news of the gospel – not that God magically makes everything better  but rather than God stays with us in spite of our circumstances. You might be living in hope one day and find yourself in utter despair the next – but God is there. You might be comfortable one day and suffering the next – but God is there. You may have the strength to persevere one day and be so weak you can barely drag yourself out of bed to face the day the next – but God is there. You may be a person of good character one day and be falling into deep sin the next – but God is there. God does not walk away from us when the walk becomes tough; God does not abandon us to our circumstances. Faithfulness is no guarantee of ease – but it is a guarantee that we'll have God's presence with us, upon us and within us no matter what we're facing.

 

     I don't want to deny the importance of either hope or faith, of course. We need hope, and Christian faith does produce hope. I certainly wouldn't argue that point. But I'm not convinced that the point of a journey in Christian faith is to leave everything else behind. Paul is reminding us that the lives we lead contain all of these different experiences and produce all of these different character traits – that we exist in all these different worlds at the same time (at least sometimes) and our faith becomes real and its true value is revealed only when it's processed through each of those four lenses and so many more. Paul wasn't saying that these stages in a Christian life all have to be experienced; neither is he saying that we'll be able to avoid any of them; neither is he offering an exhaustive list of what make up a Christian life. He's simply saying that no matter what experience we might be facing at any particular moment in time God is with us. In our baptismal liturgy, we proclaim that “even though our faithfulness may waver, God's faithfulness will never waver. And it's true. God is always faithful to us. “Great is Your faithfulness, God our Creator.” God's faithfulness to us will never waver. No matter what - God is with us. Thanks be to God!