The Finish Line—Proverbs 8: 1-4, 22-31; Romans 5: 1-5
[SLIDE 1] The fastest way to feel your age is to attempt to hike up a whole bunch of stairs with someone younger or more fit than yourself. [SLIDE 2] This was a lesson I learned the hard way on my trip to Colorado. One of the days we visited the Garden of the Gods with its beautiful rock formations. To follow the trail, you have to hike up more than a couple of stairs, and by the end of it, I looked and sounded like a dying mule both because it was stairs, and it’s a higher elevation making breathing harder. Life can be a bit like that at times. Problems, tasks, the hills we have to climb may seem quite insurmountable to us.
We may, in some instances, be facing or have faced a difficult and horrendous trial or calling that taxes us to our very core in what we can humanly handle. Paul understood this. Sometimes, I admit, I struggle with Paul. He loved Jesus, but you can see a little bit of Pharisee still in him. But here, in Romans, which was later in his life, you can see that he understood the human condition and human struggle in a very keen and wisdom-filled way. [SLIDE 3] He gives us a pattern: problems and trial bring endurance; endurance brings strength of character; and character brings more confidence is a saving hope. Several times he says that in all circumstances we must have joy. Paul tells us that everything, in all of life, whether good or bad or terrible, should push us more in the direction of Christ and the grace we find there.
[SLIDE 4] As we consider first that problems and trials exist, we look to Proverbs knowing that wisdom calls out to us and rejoices in dwelling with humanity. Please note that Proverbs says wisdom is a she. I’ll just leave that there. But in all of life, the wisdom we find is to seek God in all ways and in all circumstances. Doing so in times of trial is hard. The immediate response is to throw up hands and say, “I’m done with this mess.” Sometimes we may even argue with God that if we have been good Christians, why isn’t God blessing us? Trials and problems are simply an inherent part of life. There’s often not a rhyme or reason, no ulterior motive from a manipulative desire. Trials simply happen. It’s the struggle of living in a broken and often miserable world.
But trials and problems should push us to buckle down and try to endure. Sometimes we respond by losing our marbles. Keep your marbles and find the strength God gives to endure. Romans tells us to rejoice in trials and tribulations because this helps us develop endurance. I’m learning a few things in life. Twenty-five-year-old me could have hiked those stairs in the Garden of the Gods without much trouble. Forty-year-old me needs a couple of months of practice and training to avoid a near-death experience.
[SLIDE 5] Likewise, trials of our faith and spirit help us endure through the really bad things in life. A friend of mine told me about her conversation with an old colleague. She had endured much in life. Two divorces, death of her mother, an abusive husband, and a short period of homelessness. Her old colleague said, “I used to pity you, but then when something minor happened in my own life, I became jealous of how much strength and resilience you had.” He went on to say that he realized her trials and troubles gave her the strength and tools to not only overcome her own problems but to help him too.
What he was alluding to is that building up endurance brings strength of character. Now, that’s a little hard to define. What is a strong character? I remember in the movie Grey Gardens, they refer to one of the folks in the house as a “staunch character,” but that was just a gentle way of saying that she was crazy. Character is found in how one lives consistently each and every day. We will all have isolated incidents and outbursts. Peter, one of the closest disciples, often had little outbursts and messy moments. But the consistency of his devotion and faith showed his good character.
[SLIDE 6] Character is also found in our wisdom. The more tried and experienced a person is, the more wisdom and character they tend to have…not everybody, but for the most part. Proverbs tells us that wisdom was there from the beginning. But wisdom is something that comes from learning and experience. An old Appalachian man from back home once said, “You can be the most well-educated ‘id-git’ in the world and still not find a lick of wisdom.” It is knowledge that tells us how the trial happens. It is wisdom that pushes us to see God in those times of trial.
Finally, that strength of character helps us find hope. We are told in our Romans scripture, “And this hope will not lead to disappointment. For we know how dearly God loves us…” This is really where we want to find ourselves, after all, right? No one is a fan of the problems and trials part. Endurance is no fun at all. Strong character is noble and worthwhile, but we are still enduring problems. [SLIDE 7] But finally we find hope, and nestled into that hope is joy. This progression Paul gives us is a bit hard, and it’s a bit theoretical. By the part of strong character, we may be tempted to say, “So, what?”
But we still live in a time where hope feels very hopeless, more like an idea than a reality, and where joy often just doesn’t happen. Everybody seems irritated everywhere I go. Most of this country feels gloomy and hopeless. [SLIDE 8] Some see all that is going on and feel they’ve lost the country they knew and loved over the years to chaos and unrecognizable ideas. Others, who may look somewhat different, live in fear day by day. We’ve lost hope because in many instances we’ve lost the ability to seek God’s peace over seeking our way. We have replaced understanding with fear, and that fear will always find us unfaithful. That has infiltrated our lives, our relationships, and in many instances, our churches. I daresay that if Paul were resurrected, the American churches would be getting a letter, and I’m not sure it would be a happy one.
[SLIDE 9] But fear also rears its ugly head in seeing not just internal turmoil in hurting cities, hurting families, and hurting souls. We see more rounds of bombs being dropped all across Eastern Europe and the Middle East. We are forced back into a pattern of long endurance. We are forced again to ask how many hungry children could be fed if we invested in bread instead of bombs. How much peace could we find or make if we sought God over all else?
Trials and struggles are meant to draw us in closer to the hope of Christ and the joy of finding ourselves in that loving family. People who have gained wisdom and hope find that the words of Christ saying, “Love your neighbor,” are not so hard as we may think. This pattern of finding hope and joy that Paul gives tells us how we can make it through in the darkest and most difficult of times.
[SLIDE 10] If you want to know what that looks like, the Rev. Bill Hammonds and the Rev. Morris Wood gave me the example. Many of you know I’m not a fan of Father’s Day. Family dynamics make that a less than pleasant day in my world. After a very early sermon in my time here talking about that, Bill and Morris passed by me on the way out while greeting people. Bill slipped me a note saying, “Every man in this church would be honored to be your father. You have MANY fathers here.” Morris simply put his hand on my shoulder and said, “Thank you, preacher.” And he’s been there every time I’ve needed some wisdom since.
If we find in life that hope and joy are lacking, we can be the ones to create just a little bit of that in someone else’s life. Offering hope and joy comes from the depth of our own wisdom forged in enduring through trials and finding the kind of character that gives us an unbreakable hope. Sometimes it only takes a note, a hug, or a tiny gesture to give someone else the strength to endure and build their own character. Because, at the end of the day, we all want to find hope and joy in life.
[SLIDE 11] Sometimes we may have no choice but to pull up our pants and hike right through the middle of the trials and troubles we face in life. But God will give us the strength to endure, the character that makes future trials seem far less overwhelming, and ultimately leads us to a place of hope and joy filled with the gift of wisdom. May our trials push us closer to God, and may our wisdom and character found in endurance help others to find hope in their lives as well.
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