![]() ![]() Suffering, Paul tells us, can produce endurance, and endurance can produce character, and character can produce hope, when we are on this path. In five brief verses in his Letter to the Romans Chapter 5, Paul gives us a path toward better, a path that leads from suffering to hope. Paul became better, not bitter, as he faced challenges in his life.Īnd in today’s second reading, he gives us an insight into how we can do that, too. He accepted the thorn in his flesh, as he called his physical ailment he sang praises to the Lord when he was imprisoned for proclaiming the Christian faith he learned to be content with whatever he had and as he awaited his execution he wrote letters encouraging fellow Christians. The apostle Paul is someone who responded to his ups and downs by becoming better. But we do have a choice about how we respond to those ups and downs. And life has plenty of ups and downs, doesn’t it? It doesn’t matter how strong our faith is, or whether we believe in God or not, we will have ups and downs in life. We become bitter or better as we go through the ups and downs of life. I don’t know who first said, “ People become bitter or they become better,” but in my experience it is true. This passage is about suffering and hope, so it seems fitting to preach today, in many ways. ![]() I am going to base this sermon on one that I preached six years ago, on today’s second reading. Worshiping our living and loving God with you.Īnd for my sermon today, I am going to cheat a little. Maybe not bringing my “A Game,” so to speak, but I am here. But it was important to me to be with you today. As some of you know, I just got home from a very trying time with my family in Florida. But I wanted to be with my church family, and so I prayed and shared a sermon on this powerful passage from Romans. I was tired, grieving, and still processing a very difficult couple of weeks. I got home from attending my father’s funeral the night before. And not only that, but we also boast in our afflictions, knowing that affliction produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to 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, and we boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God. ![]()
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