I love this iceberg image. It’s often used as a reminder that what we know about people…what we see in their behaviors…in how they act and what they do….is just the tip of the iceberg. There is always so much more going on in people’s lives. I’m guessing you’ve heard people say “Be kind…you never know what someone is going through.” And that’s what this picture reminds us of. We do not know the pain that people have experienced. We do not know all the stories that have shaped them, their hurt, their grief, their suffering. We just see what makes its way to the surface.
I bring this up because in our reading from Romans this morning, Paul says that he boasts in his suffering….because, he says.. it has led him to hope. For Paul, all the pain he has experienced…all the things he’s gone through, all the stuff below the surface — how he was beaten and imprisoned…how he was rejected by those he once was admired by…how he lost the faith that once defined his whole identity…that pain and suffering has not brought him to despair…but hope. Because through his suffering, he has come to see God in a new way. Through Paul’s suffering, he has come to know Jesus…who never turns his back on those who are in pain, but goes to them and takes their hand and calls them beloved children of God. Wherever they are, whatever their story, whatever cross of desperation they are hanging from. Whatever lies below the surface.
In suffering, Paul meets Jesus, whose heart breaks with the pain of this world and whose only purpose is to reveal God’s love for all. And so Paul isn’t ashamed or discouraged by the struggles he has faced or the pain he has endured. Instead…being broken by the world brought him to know Jesus… who brings redemption, forgiveness, new beginnings each day. It brought him to know Jesus…who dares to love us at our most unlovely.
For many people…suffering and the enormous amount of pain that people experience in this life..is the reason they reject God. How could children be abused…how could women be violated…how could bombs strike hospitals and earthquakes crumble buildings…how could cancer ravage bodies and how could people treat others with such cruelty and violence….how could there be so many shattered lives…so much suffering in the world if there is a God?
It can’t be that suffering and evil are what God wants in the world…because that would make God a monster. But the truth is that suffering is interwoven into the fabric of this life…with the reality of sickness and death, storms and tragedies… and the limitations of our human goodness. And none of us comes through unscathed. Beneath the surface, all of us have pain we carry. But there is another truth, isn’t there? And that truth is that in the midst of that pain, we have also witnessed beauty and hope and love. And that is what Paul sees in Jesus. The wonder of God’s love on a cross…in the midst of the worst of life. And that is what our faith clings to….the love and hope that persists and gives us new beginnings despite the suffering around us.
The truth remains that suffering does not seem to drive out faith. No, in fact…it is often those who have suffered most…who have walked hard, hard roads in this life… who are the very ones whose faith in God’s love and grace is strongest.
Those who have been persecuted. Those who grieve. These are the ones who grasp what God is truly about….God who is love and mercy in the face of all that is wrong in the world. They may have been broken by the world…but they have found that their broken hearts are completely submerged in God’s grace.
And that’s why Paul boasts in his suffering. Not because it makes him stronger or holier…but because it has broken his hard judgmental heart that judged people by the tip of the iceberg that he experienced….and made him tender to the pain of others and the deep compassion of God. Because in the midst of his suffering, he has experienced God’s love being poured into his heart…not just a splash over the tip of that iceberg…but penetrating into the depths of all that he is. Even the parts of Paul that he would rather hide….even the ugly acts of violence he committed when his heart was hard..the violence that broke God’s heart…the violence that deserved God’s wrath.
We don’t like to talk about God’s wrath, God’s anger. And sometimes, it seems awkward to talk about it like Paul does here, right alongside the pouring out of God’s love. But what would God be, if God were not angry at Paul’s stoning of Stephen…at his persecution of Christians. What would God be, if God were not angry when people exploited and abused others. Again…God would be a monster. God’s anger is just. But here is what we must remember. God’s anger doesn’t lash out in retaliation….with an eye for an eye or a tooth for a tooth. God’s anger does not seek vengeance. Rather, God’s anger seeks reconciliation. God’s anger seeks to heal our wounded and twisted souls. God’s anger reaches out to hold an umbrella of grace over us….and to pour love into us even when we are most unloveable. God seeks to redeem us …all of us…to save the whole world…with love. Love that has no end. That’s what Jesus does. That’s who Jesus is.
Jesus is God’s love that holds us all…all the pain, all the suffering, all our blindness, all our weakness, all our sin…the whole story of who we are. The whole iceberg that floats in the waters of God’s grace. You are known. You are loved. And all is well.
It’s mother’s day….and one of my favorite mothers in the faith is Julian of Norwich. She was a 14th century mystic and teacher….and she would share her visions of God and God’s unending and all encompassing love in Jesus. One of her most known quotes was simply that no matter what happens…no matter what sin we face or suffering we endure… “All will be well, and all will be well, and all manner of things will be well.”
Dear friends…we know so little of one another in this life….but God knows it all. And God’s love will not be shaken. Find shelter in God’s grace and trust that all will be well. All will be well. Amen.
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