The First Sunday After Pentecost: Trinity Sunday - The Rev. Colette Hammesfahr
Our texts today are rich with
wisdom and promise about who God is and how God guides us through suffering
into hope by the Spirit. In Proverbs, we learn that Wisdom was present even
before creation. “The Lord created me at the beginning of his work, the first
of his acts of long ago” it says in (Proverbs 8:22). “I was beside him, like a master worker,
and I was daily his delight” (Proverbs 8:30). “To you, O people, I
call, and my cry is to all that live” (Proverbs 8:4). Wisdom was
God’s joyful companion. This gives us a glimpse of who God is…wise, creative,
and joyful and delighting in what was created.
In Romans, we heard the words
of Paul, “Affliction produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and
character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame” (Romans 5:3b-5a). Paul
is teaching us that God restores peace between God and humanity. God does not
always remove suffering but God is transformative by walking beside us as we
work through the suffering. God does not prevent pain. God repurposes it.
In John, Jesus tells his
disciples, “When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the
truth” (John 16:13a). God reveals to us truth…in time. God meets us where we
are and walks us into deeper understanding. God enlightens us as we make our
journey in life.
All of these things are exemplified
in the story of Stephanie Tait. Stephanie had been experiencing excessive
fatigue, pain, neurological issues, and memory problems. When she went to the
doctors, they misdiagnosed her with anxiety and stress. It was years before she
got a proper diagnosis of late-stage, chronic Lyme disease. Because of the
delayed diagnosis, there was long-term damage that could not be fully reversed.
Stephanie’s suffering was slow and grinding. It changed how she parented, it
but stress on her marriage, it affected her work and strained her friendships.
She was brought up in the church and had been taught
that by being faithful she might be protected from the pain she was going
through. She prayed and prayed for healing and relief from her pain every day
but all she heard was silence. Today, Stephanie still lives with the chronic
effects of Lyme disease. She continues to live with daily pain, neurological
issues, and fatigue. Her life is not easy.
In her prayer, and hearing
what she thought was silence from God, she found persistence, presence, and
grace. Her chronic suffering forced her into deeper honesty with God and
vulnerability. Through her pain she realized that she had to stop worshipping
the idea of a God who had to heal her, and instead, worship a God who would
walk beside her in her unhealed body. She came to believe that faith and
suffering are not opposites. Suffering is not failure, but a sacred space God
shares with us.
Coming to these realizations,
changed Stephanie. Her pain made her more observant of others’ pain. It created
space for her to offer empathy to people as she listened to their stories of
pain, instead of interjecting her own present pain. Her suffering didn’t push
her away from God. Instead, it resurrected her faith and led her to be an
advocate for others.
“Affliction produces
endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and
hope does not put us to shame” (Romans 5:3b-5a).
Last week I asked the
Wednesday group, “Can you recall a time when suffering revealed something in
you that comfort or ease never could?” The group shared how they suffered at the
death of a loved one. Some have suffered in their own illness and in illnesses
of someone close to them. In sharing their suffering everyone reflected on how
their lives had changed because of their suffering. Through their suffering,
they are now different people. Now, they realize how much we take things for
granted, especially family and friends. Through loss, one person said they are
now less afraid to die. Others now appreciate more, the blessings they have and
realize the limitation of their days. For some, it changed their prayer life. One person shared that in their suffering they
learned humility. Humility to reach out and ask for help.
In her book Braving the
Wilderness, Brene Brown writes that courage comes when we can stand alone
in our truth, even when it’s painful or misunderstood. She uses the
“wilderness” as a metaphor for the times when we are uncomfortable, fearful,
hurting, and isolated. It’s in the wilderness that belonging and courage are
tested. She writes that we always enter it through some form of emotional risk
or pain – through suffering. “The wilderness is an untamed, unpredictable place
of solitude and searching. It is a place as dangerous as it is breathtaking, a
place as sought after as it is feared. But it turns out to be the place of true
belonging, and it’s the bravest and most sacred place you will ever stand.”[1] Untamed
and unpredictable, transformation is uncomfortable. There is an emotional
discomfort that is essential to belonging. But the wilderness of truth and pain
will lead to something deeply meaningful. Like Paul, in Romans, she believes
that suffering isn’t the end, it’s where character is built and true belonging
begins. It’s in the wilderness that the Spirit transforms us.
Wisdom, God’s voice, calls us
to live courageously through everything we go through in life. When we answer
Wisdom’s call, we begin our transformation. Suffering is not punishment from
God. It’s through suffering that we have an opportunity to learn. We are not
guaranteed avoidance from pain, but we are promised that God will meet us in
our pain. In our pain and suffering is when transformation occurs……………in God’s
time. Jesus promised the disciples, and us, more truth than we can handle right
now – transformation is gradual. We don’t brave the wilderness alone. Spirit is
our guide.
Stephanie Tate braved the
wilderness. She stood in the truth of her suffering. She let go of belonging
that required her to hide her pain. She stepped into sacred solitude that
allowed her to build a deeper connection to God and to bond with others who
suffered as well. Her story is not about illness. It’s about transformation.
She endured suffering and produced real hope. She followed the Spirit into a
truth that she could hardly bear– that her suffering might not ever end. She
braved the wilderness and was transformed by it. May we all do the same. Amen.
[1] Brené
Brown, Braving the
Wilderness: The Quest for True Belonging and the Courage to Stand Alone
(New York: Random House, 2017)
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