Lent 3, Romans - Boasting in our Suffering?

Romans 5.1-11

…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. (Rom 5.3-5)

We rarely choose suffering….unless we have something to gain, like winning a marathon. Suffering simply comes to us, unbidden and often unannounced. Like the earthquake and tsunami and nuclear emergency. Suffering is part of life. It cannot be avoided. All we can do is make the best of it. Paul’s words are not idle speculation; Paul knew suffering.

In the Middle East there are many people who know suffering. Arrest, interrogation, torture, suicide bombers, house demolitions, corrupt government officials…the suffering goes on and on. The question is, What do we do with our suffering? Does it produce endurance, character and hope? Or bitterness, misery and retaliation?

When I first went to the Holy Land, I expected to see a lot of misery, encounter a lot of bitterness. But then I met Angie. A student at Bethlehem University, she was our guide while we were in Bethlehem—setting up the gardening and painting projects we did at the Lutheran school. She told me she had applied for a permit to go to Jerusalem for Holy Week, but was denied.

It’s the custom for Christians in the Holy Land to walk the road Jesus walked, down the Mount of Olives into Jerusalem, waving palm branches and singing. She said that since she was a student at a university where student groups engaged in mass demonstrations against Israel’s occupation, she was deemed a security risk, even though she did not belong to any of these student groups. There was no appeal, no process for proving that she was not a threat. The permit was simply denied, along with most of the rest of the Christians in Bethlehem. And it has only gotten worse. Last year, virtually no permits were issued for Holy Week travel. Photo: protesters who were denied permits for Palm Sunday try to push past the wall at the Bethlehem checkpoint, 2010.

Then Angie told me that she didn’t hate Israelis. She didn’t blame them for her virtual imprisonment behind the walls surrounding Bethlehem. She said she just wanted the occupation to end so that she could go abroad to study…and to Jerusalem for Holy Week.

I thought at the time, “How can this be?” And I realized I was witnessing something miraculous. That’s when I knew I had to tell her story and invite others to “come and see” for themselves. Because Angie is not the only Palestinian I met who carries no hatred for Jews or Israelis—I’ve seen it everywhere in Palestine, this miracle of forgiveness shared by Muslims and Christians.

I think this is what Paul meant. Living behind the 25-foot-high wall, not being allowed to leave Bethlehem….it takes endurance to stay there and not move to your brother’s in Texas—away from the soldiers and the threat of bulldozers. It takes endurance to raise your children knowing they may not be able to go to university abroad to become a doctor. Endurance means not giving up on your future. And somehow, miraculously, hope is born out of the despair. This year Angie is in Wisconsin, working on her masters degree so she can go back to Bethlehem, equipped to be a leader in the new Palestine.

God of unimaginable possibilities, you have created your people with a great diversity of talents and gifts. We are grateful for the opportunities we have been given to use our gifts to bring healing and hope in your world. Amen.