What is Real?

What is Real? <-- Audio file link. 
A sermon based upon Romans 5:1-11.

Good morning. On this 3rd Sunday of Lent, we’ve now made it half way to Holy Week and that’s no small task. I hope you’re finding this Lent meaningful in whatever way you need but particularly in the ways God wants for you. I know I am.

And today’s scripture text is one that may offer us different kinds of support and hope depending upon where we are in our journey and what we need. There are many ways to dig into Romans chapter 5 and unearth blessing. But today, we’re going to focus in on the first part of the scripture passage and talk about the character and quality of life in Christ.

You see, last week we said that the phrase “eternal life” is not just about the hereafter. To live eternally is also about our life here and now. It is about abundant life. Yet, it’s one thing to talk about it and another thing to live it.

I say that because life is messy. It’s not always full of joy. In fact it has a good deal of tragedy. And sometimes we find it hard to feel love at all due to physical or emotional pain and suffering.

So, this is where we find Paul’s letter to the Romans today. Paul was a very realistic guy. He knew that just because we have been reconciled to God through Christ didn’t mean that babies would stop dying, poverty would go away, and all war would end. He knew that we would live in the midst of real life but that we might be able to live into it differently… with hope.

Let’s re-read part of this text. Paul tells us, “Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand…”

You see, Paul wants us to hear that part of life in Christ is one of faith where we trust and don’t have to worry about whether we are okay in our relationship with God. This is not like a relationship with a fickle friend who gets mad when we didn’t say the right thing about her or his new car and doesn’t speak to us for weeks. Rather, “we have peace with God” is what the scripture says. Peace is a gift of never having to wonder if the relationship is solid because it always will be. And in Paul’s mind… and hopefully in our lived lives, this peace frees us to live more abundantly.

But if our justification or atonement is complete in Christ, why is it that we have such a hard time feeling that peace? Why do we struggle so to feel and experience the presence of God? Why are our lives often more full of turmoil than a sense of reconciliation? I suspect as did Paul that it might be because we confuse God’s love and blessing with the absence of suffering.

We are quick to talk about God’s love and bountiful blessing when things are going well for us but when life gets hard, we quickly retreat into “my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” And I don’t say that to shame us because even Jesus sank into such sorrow on the cross as the pain overtook him. So clearly that response is part of our human nature. But Paul is asking us to live into a more divine nature because of the love poured out on us.

When we read further in this passage, Paul says, “… we boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God. And not only that, but we also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.”

Paul has just in some ways summed up a lifetime of wisdom but it’s wisdom that needs some unpacking. First of all, let’s look at this word “boast.” The way this word is being used when we look at the original Greek is not about bragging. Paul has already stated earlier in this book that bragging is not the way we should handle ourselves. In this case to boast means something that doesn’t quite translate into a single word. It means that we won’t be shamed in our hopeful orientation toward life. This hopeful and confident life is a lived expression bursting forth in us. This is what Paul is getting at.

So what does all this mean that we live confidently in the face of suffering? I ask because it’s important that we understand what is really being talked about here. You see, I’ve heard an abusive husband justify his abuse by saying that his wife needed to suffer so that she would grow stronger. And I’ve heard a politician justify his inaction on issues of poverty by quoting this passage and saying that the poor would be made rich by their sufferings. And in our everyday lives we often have an inner voice that says, “God won’t put more on us than we can handle.” But are these the things Paul meant?

I feel that I can confidently say no. No, suffering in abuse and oppression is not what God wants for us. And though it’s a popular saying in Christian circles, “God won’t put more on us than we can handle” isn’t actually biblical. Such notions suppose that God is doing these things to us rather than the reality that we suffer under the brokenness and falleness of humanity.

Paul is actually just being realistic. We do suffer under the brokenness and falleness of humanity. We do encounter sickness, death, depression, poverty, war, racism, and all manner of pain and oppression. It is simply a characteristic of the lived life. But Paul is telling us that God’s love is not only in the times of peace. God’s love is poured out on us at all times. And if we will recognize God’s presence, the gift is that even in times of suffering, we will grow in endurance, character, and hope.

So what does all this look like? Well, when I read this passage, I can’t help but think of The Velveteen Rabbit by Margery Williams and the passage about “What is real?” If you don’t know the book, the story opens with a boy receiving lots of toys for Christmas. He received toys with wind up springs and fancy clock works. And he also received a simple velveteen bunny. That bunny made friends with the wise old rocking horse and they would talk at night in the nursery while the boy slept. So, if you will, I’d like to read to you from The Velveteen Rabbit so that maybe we catch a glimpse at what this real life is that Paul wants for us.

The Skin Horse had lived longer in the nursery than any of the others. He was so old that his brown coat was bald in patches and showed the seams underneath, and most of the hairs in his tail had been pulled out to string bead necklaces. He was wise, for he had seen a long succession of mechanical toys arrive to boast and swagger, and by-and-by break their mainsprings and pass away, and he knew that they were only toys, and would never turn into anything else. For nursery magic is very strange and wonderful, and only those playthings that are old and wise and experienced like the Skin Horse understand all about it.

"What is REAL?" asked the Rabbit one day, when they were lying side by side near the nursery fender, before Nana came to tidy the room. "Does it mean having things that buzz inside you and a stick-out handle?"

"Real isn't how you are made," said the Skin Horse. "It's a thing that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you become Real."

"Does it hurt?" asked the Rabbit.

"Sometimes," said the Skin Horse, for he was always truthful. "When you are Real you don't mind being hurt."

"Does it happen all at once, like being wound up," he asked, "or bit by bit?"

"It doesn't happen all at once," said the Skin Horse. "You become. It takes a long time. That's why it doesn't happen often to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept. Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and very shabby. But these things don't matter at all, because once you are Real you can't be ugly, except to people who don't understand."

"I suppose you are real?" said the Rabbit. And then he wished he had not said it, for he thought the Skin Horse might be sensitive. But the Skin Horse only smiled.

"The Boy's Uncle made me Real," he said. "That was a great many years ago; but once you are Real you can't become unreal again. It lasts for always."

The Rabbit sighed. He thought it would be a long time before this magic called Real happened to him. He longed to become Real, to know what it felt like; and yet the idea of growing shabby and losing his eyes and whiskers was rather sad. He wished that he could become it without these uncomfortable things happening to him.

The book goes on to tell the story of love between the boy and the rabbit. It was a love so full that it transcended all the bad things that happened and the bunny became real. This is a story of abundant and eternal life.

And I think Paul is talking about living a real life too. A real life is one that springs from abundant love but contains both peace and suffering. Does becoming real hurt? Sometimes. Is it a process? Most definitely. Can it make us the worse for wear? Quite possibly but “once you are Real you can't be ugly, except to people who don't understand.”

Sisters and brothers, God loves us abundantly. The character of that love is not in how easy a life we have. Rather, the quality of that love is made full by being present with us even when things are difficult. God is with us in the dark places just as much as in the light. Our calling is to carry the peace we have in God with us so that we trust in that love. Our calling is to live the life of love in such a way that we are made real and help others to become real too. This is not a life without struggle but it is life where we can cultivate hope.

As we continue our sojourn through Lent, may we love and receive love in ways that makes God’s abundance manifest all around. Amen.