Boastful Faith
Easter 6 – Narrative Lectionary 1
May 10, 2015
Grace, Mankato, MN
Romans 5.1-11
I don’t know if it was because of my general upbringing in a typical Scandinavian household or because it was a particular Scandinavian household, but I somehow picked up on the fact you don’t brag much. The closest you come is to grudgingly admit—with no small amount of sacrifice—that you eat lutefisk. After all, it’s not a joke because it’s true: an extroverted Swede is the one that looks at the other person’s shoes when he is talking to him. Furthermore, whenever I tended to get ebullient about something it seemed that the universe beat it out of me. I mention these things because my Scandinavian Lutheran hackles get raised when Paul talks about boasting in today’s lesson.
It’s tempting to think that Paul engages in some Christian theological chest-thumping, if not for himself than on behalf of God. You know what I mean, a kind of “my God is bigger, better, and ‘badder’ than yours. Paul is writing to a church he didn’t found and one that contains both Jewish Christians and Gentile Christians. He hopes to visit them someday soon on his way to a planned missionary trip to Spain, so he needs their support. Last week in chapter 1, Paul laid out some of the themes of the letter, primarily the faithfulness of God. Between chapters 1 and 5, Paul goes to great length to describe the human condition, summed up in the phrase, “all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.” The “answer” to the humanities brokenness comes in God’s love shown in Jesus Christ. Today Paul moves into the “so what” of this reconciliation between God and humanity.
As he did last week with “obedient faith,” Paul creates another oxymoron today, a term that seems to have two contrasting words. This time it’s “boastful suffering.” Now, the problem of suffering is legendary and long debated, more than we can handle here. And if we’re not careful we’ll think that Paul glorifies suffering; nothing could be further from the truth. But first, a brief excursus (which is also an oxymoron): suffering for suffering’s sake is not healthy and we realize there are many causes of it. Sometimes we cause our own suffering, sometimes others cause it, and sometimes suffering happens by simply being human.
But the Bible says something amazing about suffering. God chooses to be present in, with and under suffering and this is the place God is most fully known. The symbol of this presence is the cross of Jesus Christ. But, this is not just a New Testament claim. God promises to be with God’s people in the Old Testament as well. In Isaiah 43, God promises to be with us in water and fire that threaten to overwhelm us and claims us as his own.
So, here’s the key to entering the mystery of boasting in suffering: we can do this not because we can achieve anything on our own, but because we can see the power of God at work in them. Now, you know and I know that quite often we can’t see God at work while we are in the midst of difficult times. But when we look back on events where we have suffered for Christ’s sake, we see God’s hand. So, the upshot of this is that the “so what” is that we actually choose to enter the suffering of others. But notice that the pronouns in this text today are all first person plural. The cool thing is that this is not an individual effort, but rather a communal one.
How can we possibly do this, enter the suffering of others? We can’t, at least not without God. We can do this because God’s love is poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit. When God’s love is poured into our hearts it flows through our hands and feet and mouths. It overflows and enables us to feed a family who has lost a loved one. It happens when we collect pound after pound of food for the hungry. It happens when we send money to places like Nepal and Henrytown. It happens when we adopt or foster another person’s child of people who aren’t able to care for them. It’s not bragging. It’s rejoicing with confidence in the presence a God who pours out himself always, for us and for others. Even Lutheran Scandinavians can get on board with that. Amen
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