Romans 5:1-5
Rollins Chapel
October 2, 2008
It is hard to know what St. Paul is actually talking about here, isn’t it? We have some idea of what he means by suffering producing endurance. It is the standard philosophy of high school athletics. No pain, no gain. It is the mantra of every coach. Train, suffer, endure. Suck it up. This is one of the lessons, I am told, that athletic participation is supposed to teach. (I will confess that in my case it back-fired. There was suffering, but it quickly led me to realize – “Hey – I don’t have to-do this. Why am I doing it?” – So instead of endurance it led me to do something else. But I know my story is not typical – nor, I fear, particularly morally instructive, and it probably accounts for the defects in character I have today.
So, let’s just grant that suffering produces endurance. It’s the next two links that are more puzzling. Endurance produces character. And character produces hope. Character? The KJV translates the word not character, but experience. It says tribulation produces patience, and patience experience, and experience, hope. So we are certain about the word hope, but unclear about the others. Experience I understand. But character?
So, according to this logic, I must first suffer, and endure, and develop character before I get to hope.
So there is no hope without suffering? I think that’s accurate. Suffering, as the Buddhists rightly teach, is an essential part –if not the whole part – of life. All of us suffer at some time. Sometimes our suffering is obvious, Sometimes not. Sometimes we think that we are the only ones suffering, but we are not. Sometimes we think that other people have it easy and never suffer. And, on a relative scale, that may be true. Few of us have ever experienced persistent hunger or homelessness. Most of us have not lived amid violence or intense physical pain. Indeed, one might guess that many Dartmouth students have experienced particularly charmed lives. No suffering has ever happened to them. But that would be false. The pain of parental divorce, the alienation and anguish from having been an odd kid, the pain of seeing things too clearly, experiences of loss and death, disappointment, the pain from carrying impossible expectations. These are some of the forms of suffering I see at Dartmouth very often. I think it is fair to say that in some sense the Buddhists are right. Life is suffering. This is not the prevalent attitude in our culture, but it may be true.
Most of us do learn to endure suffering, whether we have chosen it or whether it if forced upon us. The capacity that some people have for endurance is truly amazing. Marathon runners come to mind. I do not understand these people. You know, in the first marathon, in Greece, the runner was bringing news from the battle of Marathon, and the story is that he announced the news and died on the spot. I always expect that to happen. But I know that some people love to run marathons, and I assume that this builds character. They have a greater capacity to endure. And I suppose that is what character means. It means the capacity to endure whatever life brings, either good or bad – but especially bad – without giving up, without ceasing being reliable, without ceasing to be compassionate.
And what keeps us from giving up? Hope.
You know, it is easy not to give up when our goal is within reach. It takes no character to persevere if the goal is almost within reach. It’s much harder not to give up when the goal – whatever it is – is a long way off. Or when the path toward the goal leads through dangerous territory. Hope sustains us when the goal seems almost impossible.
Since this is a political season, I will mention John McCain. The story of his imprisonment and torture impresses us all. He was sustained for five years by character and hope. But most impressive is that he did not emerge as an embittered man, but as a man who has stood firm against ever inflicting on others the torture that he received – while others, who never experienced torture, seem all too ready to inflict it.
For Christians, the goal we seek is the kingdom of God, or the kingdom of heaven. Many Christians have come to think of that goal as attainable only after they die. So their hope is to endure this life and to die in faith. There is no doubt that the teachings of Jesus imply that life is eternal. But it is also true that Jesus spoke of the kingdom of heaven as something to be pursued, and even, perhaps, to some extent realized, in this life as well. But the path to it requires, sacrifice – or suffering. It requires endurance. It requires the kind of character that can endure suffering without giving up. And when that character is developed, it builds hope.
Think about people who have never lost hope in pursuing the kingdom of God. Who do you think of? My mind goes immediately to people like Martin Luther King, who were willing to suffer, and endure, and build character in pursuing justice and equality. King was full of hope. And it has taken forty years – precisely forty years – since his “I have a dream speech” to the time when an African American, who could not even vote during King’s life-time, was standing before a stadium full of Americans in Denver accepting the nomination of the Democratic party for the presidency of the United Sates. Whatever your political party, this achievement must be acknowledged as amazing. It inspires us, does it not, to endure suffering, build character, and live by hope. King said he dreamed of a day when little children would be judged not by the color of their skin but by the content f their character. The Tucker Foundation says that its mission is to educate Dartmouth students to think and acts as ethical leaders in a global community through service, character development, and spiritual exploration.
I hope that you are finding hope in your life. And I remind you that the only hope that really helps the world is a hope borne of knowing what suffering is, and enduring it, and developing a character that does not give up. Amen.
