“When Worlds Collide: Suffering Smyrna” by Rev. Cody Sandahl – July 16, 2017
Lay Reader = 2 Corinthians 6:1-11
As we work together with him, we urge you also not to accept the grace of God in vain. 2For he says, “At an acceptable time I have listened to you, and on a day of salvation I have helped you.” See, now is the acceptable time; see, now is the day of salvation! 3We are putting no obstacle in anyone’s way, so that no fault may be found with our ministry,4but as servants of God we have commended ourselves in every way: through great endurance, in afflictions, hardships, calamities, 5beatings, imprisonments, riots, labors, sleepless nights, hunger; 6by purity, knowledge, patience, kindness, holiness of spirit, genuine love, 7truthful speech, and the power of God; with the weapons of righteousness for the right hand and for the left; 8in honor and dishonor, in ill repute and good repute. We are treated as impostors, and yet are true; 9as unknown, and yet are well known; as dying, and see—we are alive; as punished, and yet not killed; 10as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing everything. 11We have spoken frankly to you Corinthians; our heart is wide open to you.
Introduction
We are going to walk through the seven churches that are mentioned at the end of the Bible in the book of Revelation. Last week we heard from Pastor Carol about Ephesus, which was in danger of losing its love for Christ in the midst of their busy lives. This week we are looking at Smyrna, which I’m sure you are all intimately familiar with. Right? No?
Smyrna was similar to Ephesus in that it was a great port city in what we today call Turkey. It was often called the most beautiful of the Asian cities. It had distinct and noteworthy architecture. It had renowned schools of science and medicine. It was the birthplace of the poet Homer – or at least it was if you asked them. They are on a fairly long list of places claiming to be Homer’s birthplace, but they at least had the good sense to build a large, beautiful building to reinforce their claim. Smyrna had a 20,000 seat amphitheater. And, of particular note for the Christians at the time, Smyrna built a giant glorious temple to the Roman emperor Tiberius and his mother Julia.
Now, to help you wrap your mind around why this was a big deal, let’s teleport ourselves in our minds to New York City. And let’s go to a street on the water – one with a nice view of Liberty Island. What’s on Liberty Island? That’s right, the ugly, green, unfashionably dressed woman with spikes coming out of her head. Oh, and she looks like she’s at a rock concert with that flame held above her head. What would happen if you said THAT to one of the vendors selling little miniatures of the Statue of Liberty? How would most New Yorkers appreciate that description of Lady Liberty? I don’t think that would go very well. So when the Christians said that the Temple of Tiberius was idolatry, invalid, an offense to God – it was kind of like insulting the Statue of Liberty. And they didn’t like the great temple of Zeus in Smyrna either, so maybe throw in some insults about the Empire State Building for full effect.
Or what if someone you know moved to Denver and commented how the mountains just aren’t that impressive. And then they came into this Sanctuary and instead of noticing the charm of the stencils on the ceiling or the beautiful stained glass windows, they started saying how old and stuffy it is? Are you tracking with me? The Christians in Smyrna were swimming upstream. They were downright offensive to many of the constituencies in the city. And that left them vulnerable.
Revelation 2:8-11
8“And to the angel of the church in Smyrna write: These are the words of the first and the last, who was dead and came to life: 9“I know your affliction and your poverty, even though you are rich. I know the slander on the part of those who say that they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan. 10Do not fear what you are about to suffer. Beware, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison so that you may be tested, and for ten days you will have affliction. Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life. 11Let anyone who has an ear listen to what the Spirit is saying to the churches. Whoever conquers will not be harmed by the second death.
Punched in the Gut
My brother and I had an unwritten rule: no punching in the face. Pretty much everything else was in-bounds, well, except one other area you can probably guess. But one day I was just fed up with my brother. I had to do chores and he didn’t – THE INJUSTICE (shake fist)! But to magnify the indignity, my brother filled his free time with a form of entertainment that involved water balloons and a certain younger brother who was mopping. And before you ask, no I don’t think he was trying to help me have enough water for the mop.
As the POPs and SPLASHes piled up, I eventually just snapped. With a war cry to rival the Texans at the Alamo I charged my brother with my dripping implement of destruction. And he thought this image was actually quite funny, right up until the point when I swung the mop with both hands with full intent of wiping that smug smile off his face.
I mean, the rule was no “punching” in the face. There was no clause about mops. But right at the end of my swing, I saw the suddenly surprised whites of my brother’s eyes, and I pulled back. The end of the mop whooshed about a millimeter from his face. We stood there for second that stretched into eternity (I think a tumbleweed blew by in the background), and then he nailed me in the gut with his fist and ran off.
Have you ever been punched in the gut when you weren’t expecting it? I literally couldn’t breathe. I stumbled around trying to choke in some air. I was totally incapacitated.
The church in Smyrna has been the recipient of multiple gut punches over the years. John writes in our text today, “Do not fear what you are about to suffer. Beware, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison so that you may be tested, and for ten days you will have affliction.”
These words were written to the whole church, but especially to its leader Polycarp. He had been personally discipled by John. And he most definitely did NOT die of natural causes. At age 86 he was sentenced by the Romans to be burned at the stake for his refusal to worship the emperor as a god. That was a gut punch for the church in Smyrna. And a wee bit unpleasant for Polycarp himself.
Later on, when Christians were doing much better in the Roman Empire, Smyrna got a gut punch from their fellow Christians. The Eastern churches celebrated Passover instead of Easter as we know it. But the Pope in Rome decided to flex his newly-found muscle and forced out the Smyrna bishop and required the church to change to celebrating Easter. Imagine if someone way back at Presbyterian headquarters in Louisville told First Pres Littleton that we couldn’t celebrate Christmas Eve anymore – we had to celebrate the Sunday after December 25 instead. How would you like being bossed around like that? That was a gut punch to be muscled around by their fellow Christians.
But the biggest gut punch in Smyrna came around the time of World War I. For a number of years around the end of the war and the founding of Turkey as we know it today, a series of genocides were carried out against Christians all around the country. Christians were about 20% of the population, but after more than three million were systematically killed, Turkey boasted the lowest Christian population of any country in their area. Gut punch doesn’t quite cut it for describing that.
That’s what the church in Smyrna has endured. Have you ever been punched in the gut? Have you ever had your life stopped in its tracks? Ever suffered like Smyrna?
One Has to Give
I think there are a couple of ways to see this. One way is righteous indignation. Anger – probably directed at God. I mean, he’s telling the church, which is called the bride of his Son Jesus, you’ll be afflicted for ten days (and that doesn’t literally mean ten days, it means a long time but not forever). And God’s not going to stop it.
Why doesn’t God prevent the suffering? Why doesn’t God avert the gut punch? Why would a supposedly loving supposedly all-powerful God sit on his hands while all of this stuff goes down? Surely God must not exist; surely God must not be loving; surely God must not be all-powerful, right? What other explanation could there be? That’s one way to see this suffering Smyrna or our own suffering.
But on the other hand, what does Jesus say to the church? “Do not fear what you are about to suffer…Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life…Whoever conquers will not be harmed by the second death.”
Basically, Jesus is telling them that their suffering doesn’t change who Jesus is, and it doesn’t change who they are. The fact that Jesus came down to us to heal our relationship with God – that’s still there. The fact that Jesus rose again from the dead to claim power over death – that’s still there. The promise of being united with God some day – that’s still there.
In case you’re wondering about that second death part, it’s referring to the final judgment. And for further details on that event, I encourage you to keep reading the book of Revelation. Simply put, Jesus is saying that having faith even through the gut punch of suffering shows that your eternal destination is secure.
So on one hand you could see the gut punch of suffering as clear evidence that God isn’t who you thought he was. Or on the other hand you could see faith in the midst of suffering as clear evidence that God is exactly who he says he is.
There’s a song on Christian radio called “Oh My Soul,” written by Mark Hall of Casting Crowns. And he shared that he wrote it from the tail end of his battle with cancer. He said that in the midst of the pain and the uncertainty his emotions were running away from him. He would yell at God, curse at God, doubt God’s love for him, doubt God’s existence, stoke the fires of fury within him. But each time his emotions started running away like that, they encountered stiff resistance. They smashed up against the faith that he had built over his life.
He was reminded of Psalm 42:11, where David had to give himself a pep talk – “Why so downcast, oh my soul? Put your hope in God.” It’s the proverbial unstoppable force of your emotions contending against the immovable object of your faith. One has to give.
Have you ever experienced your emotions crashing against your faith like a storm surge trying to overtop a levee?
Adam’s Camp
We just spent a week with a bunch of families dealing with that on a daily basis. Adam’s Camp is up near Granby just a couple hours away, but families from all over the country come here for it. It’s a week-long intensive therapy camp for kids with special needs, developmental delays, debilitating illnesses.
And so there’s the story of the founder of the camp, who was so excited after a long, long battle with infertility to hear the news that she had triplets! She and her husband were young and naïve enough to be confused by the look of horror on their parents’ faces at the prospect of that many babies at once. But that dream turned into a nightmare when they came very early and all three of their two-pound babies had to fight for their lives. After ten days they had to make the heart-rending decision to remove one from life support. One of their sons came out OK. And the third had significant brain bleeding and cerebral palsy. That’s a gut punch.
In our group there was a family who adopted a kid with special needs from overseas, but they thought they could handle it. They were up for the challenge. They knew what they were signing up for. Until he choked one day, had massive loss of oxygen to the brain, and took them on a huge downward spiral. His already dim prospects plummeted after that. That’s a gut punch.
Another family in our group had to spend a couple years essentially living apart because their daughter couldn’t get any help, any services, or any good doctors in their home state. They were essentially medical refugees within the US. That’s a gut punch.
So looking around the room at Adam’s Camp, maybe you could wonder if there’s a God. Maybe you could wonder if God is really loving. Maybe you could wonder if God is really able to do anything. Because it’s a room full of suffering children and strung out families.
But then the founder told about the impact of that first camp 30 years ago. They were being told that their son Adam would probably be confined to a wheelchair for the rest of his life. But after that week of intensive therapy and being surrounded by some other kids to inspire him, he took his first steps and never looked back.
So maybe instead of wondering if there’s a God who is loving and capable of doing things in our world, maybe instead of just seeing all the suffering children, maybe you also see the miracles in the room. Maybe you see moments of impossible grace that change those kids lives forever. Maybe you see therapists from all over the country clamoring to be a part of this. Maybe you see the families getting a break for maybe the first time in years and you see the incredible capacity for good represented by this camp.
Both of those viewpoints are available. Fist-shaking anger or eye-watering grace. The unstoppable force of emotion versus the immovable object of faith. That’s a battle that goes both ways depending on the person. There’s no guarantee that your personal faith will stand the rising tide of suffering. That’s why Jesus says, “whoever conquers” – it’s a war that can be won or lost.
To illustrate the choice, take a look at the photo I included in your bulletin today. The little girl on the left was in my son Charlie’s group at Adam’s Camp. The boy she’s pushing in the little walker was another Adam’s Camper, and every single person in the background that’s wearing a light blue shirt. That was a free concert where the city of Winter Park sets up a special area for the Adam’s Campers to come.
So on the one hand, maybe in this photo you see how many blue shirts there are and you shake your fist at God. Maybe you see a boy who needs a walker and you question God’s existence. The little girl has a rare genetic disorder that results in developmental delays, and a host of lifelong issues. Maybe you see her and you wonder if a loving God would let that happen. After all, DNA is in God’s purview right? That’s part of the design! All of those things are the undeniable suffering in this photo.
But I see a few other things as well. That wonderful little girl has trouble walking, and she couldn’t walk on her own until fairly recently. And yet here she is with a big grin on her face, pushing around a little boy in his walker. She is experiencing joy doing something that her suffering makes very difficult. I see that as grace.
You can’t see it, but just off the frame to the left is the little boy’s father walking a few paces behind. They were really hoping their son would get a chance to interact and socialize with other kids. Here’s his chance. I see that as grace.
The kids in blue in the background. Yeah, they all have developmental delays and most of them will have lifelong problems. But here they are dancing with all their might to the bluegrassy tunes of this band from Wisconsin. In the Bible it says “David danced before the Lord with all his might.” David ain’t got nothing on these Adam’s Campers, Charlie included. I sent a video to my mom of Charlie dancing, and she said if she was going to name his moves, it would be called, “The Joyful.” I see that as grace.
Suffering and grace. Pain and miracle. You can see all of that in this photo.
Summary
But if you spend all your time focusing on the suffering, you’ll be blind to the grace and miracles around you. Because suffering doesn’t change who God is.
Suffering is still suffering, though. I won’t pretend to minimize what we have experienced or what you have experienced. I used to privately wish that Jesus’ return that is promised in the book of Revelation would hold off until at least the end of my life so I could truly live. Now, I’d take his return in about fifteen minutes. Just long enough for me to hit up the food on the hospitality table after church. That’d be great. I’ll take “every tear wiped away from our eyes.” I’ll take resurrected bodies that don’t have to contend with genetic disorders, that don’t have to contend with seizures, that don’t have to contend with cancer. Bring it on.
But in the meantime, there are glimpses of heaven all around us if we have eyes to see and ears to hear. That doesn’t take away the suffering. Smyrna suffered gut punch after gut punch. But those glimpses might be enough to sustain us where we would otherwise crumble. The fact that the parents of the Adam’s Campers are still standing is a miracle! The fact that such a camp exists is a miracle! Those moments of joy in the midst of suffering, like we see in the photo, those are a miracle!
Suffering doesn’t change what Jesus did for you. Suffering doesn’t change the Holy Spirit’s presence. See the grace. See the miracle. As Jesus said to suffering Smyrna, “Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life.”
Or as David had to remind himself in Psalm 42, “Why so downcast, oh my soul? Put your hope in God.” Even if it’s just a little glimmer in the darkness. Amen.
