The Birthpangs of Thanksgiving

“When you hear of wars and rumors of war, do not be alarmed; this must take place, but the end is still to come. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; there will be earthquakes in various places; there will be famines. This is but the beginning of the birthpangs.” (Mark 13:7-8 NRSV)

Jesus is very prophetic in today's gospel reading. He's short explanation of the upcoming future is not painted by words of rainbows and puppies or group singalongs. The world Jesus paints for us is a very bleak world with what appears to be without hope because these events are just the beginning of the birthpangs. We could think of our world around us and we could say without doubt that there is great evidence of these birthpangs and grieve; but are we really without hope? Are Jesus' words absent of hope?

There is an old quote from one of my favorite movies that I am reminded of when I read this passage: “Life is pain, Princess. Anyone who says otherwise is selling something.” Life is very painful. If you're not careful just stepping outside your front door can be a painful experience. You might be whisked away on an adventure to save the world; you might stub your toe or get stung by a bee; you might fall in love and have your heartbroken; or you may even get in an accident and lose your life. Life is pain but life is not hopeless. The pain of life is not something we may want but life, a life that is well lived, is a life that bears the scars of its journey and it is a thankful life.

We have become a peculiar society in many ways but the most peculiar for me is the effort we put into to living comfortable lives. We seek life without pain or hardship and this is evident of a little creation known as indoor plumbing. To protect ourselves from the elements, creatures, and long walks after $1 taco night, we created indoor plumbing. We dump (pun intended) a lot of money into things that will provide us comfort and make life easier and we do the same when it comes to the world we live in.

People invest in things, people, companies, or ideas that make their lives better. Some of the things we invest in are good such as investing in companies that work to provide clean water to poverty stricken countries, medical supplies for those who need them, shoes for kids, Christmas gifts for needy families, etc. For a majority of us, we constantly invest in things that do not necessarily provide us with a better life, they just pretend to do so. We are sold on the idea that this product, this person, this car, or this dish-washing soap will make our lives better so we send them our money. People invest in things that they believe or are told they need to have to live an easier life: Life is pain so we must have lights that clap on and off so we do not have to get out of bed.

But is joy and hope possible without a little pain? Is it truly possible to enjoy life without life's birthpangs? Is it possible for Jesus to usher in the kingdom of God without a little bit of pain?

The Christian story is full of birthpangs: from the massacre of apostles and followers of Christ by the Roman Empire to the struggles of today. We forget that the scriptures speak to suffering and pain as being a part of being a Christian, of being a part of the Christian community, of the ushering in of the kingdom of God. We are told that following Christ means there will be moments of great pain and great joy. As the hymn goes “my joy comes in the morning light” and I cannot have the joy of the morning light without the darkness of midnight. I cannot know the need for peace if I never walk through the valley. Pain and joy are not absent of one another and our Christian tradition reminds us of a God who is faithful in times of great joy and great despair. Christianity is not supposed to make our lives easier. Christianity is supposed to fulfill our lives.

The Christian life is not something we come to on Sundays but something we live into every day of the week. The Christian life does not avoid the pains of life instead the Christian life embraces it, trusting that God does indeed have the whole world in his hands. The writer of Hebrews urges the Christian community to endure the hardships and to look to Christ as they run their race for they have not suffered yet to the point of losing their lives. The writer of 1 Peter argues that we are blessed when we suffer for the name of Christian. The birthpangs are more than a foretelling of the signs, Jesus is telling us that the kingdom of God comes with pain. If we wish to build a beautiful city, there will be some pain and discomfort, there will be blood and there will be suffering. The story of God is not a story about the individual but a story about the whole world. We live as if the story is about a tree in a forest when the true story is about the forest itself. And that should give us hope.

Last week I said the widow's offering gives us a glimpse into what it means to be a part of the kingdom of God. She offers us, in her offering, a way to see life as a gift and all gifts come from God. Jesus, in his description of the coming times, offers us a dose of reality in the coming of the kingdom. The kingdom of God takes work, effort, and enduring the birthpangs.

If the story of the widow's gift is an offer to live in a different reality, the reality of the kingdom of God, then Jesus is telling us the cost of living in the kingdom of God; that being follower of his comes with pain as well as joy. The disciples do not get to experience the joy of resurrection without the pain of the cross. They do not get to experience the joy of walking on water without crossing the sea. They cannot experience the calming of the storm if there is no storm to calm. This does not justify suffering in our world but it allows to approach the pain of life with a spirit of peace and hope.

Every day I get a variety of emails on a variety of ideas and concepts regarding church, specifically church growth. I recently received one from a prominent Christian author that guaranteed our church would grow 30% in three months if we used his study. I received one titled, “Does Build It And They Come Still Work?” I received an email once on how to turn around the statistics of a recent survey that said only 18% of people go to church. Each one promises to grow our church within a year and each one has a reason why people are not coming to church. Each email I receive gives reason why giving is down and church participation is down. The reasons range anywhere from too much stuff going on, priorities to the negative perception of the Christian church in America. Those reasons reinforce the question I asked last week, “Is what we are about worth the time, energy, and money, we are asking people to give to it?” In other words, are we, the church, worth being invested in?

If I may offer my own opinion about the decline of attendance in the American church, I would say the reason has to do with two perceptions by those outside the church walls: 1) The story we tell is different from the story we live. 2) We care more about investing in “stuff” that protects our place of power. The story we tell is one of a loving God who created the earth and everything in it, culminating in the coming of the Messiah, fulfilled in Christ, whose death of the cross and resurrection defeated the power of sin and death, and a faith of a people who were persecuted to the point of death. The story we live is the complete opposite. Instead of being a people who live by the hope of the scriptures, we place our hope in things of this world because, I believe, deep down inside, we are afraid God is not really all that loving. So we look to invest our time and money in “things” that are not of the kingdom, things that keep us remaining in control and in power. To quote a former popular Christian rock group: “The greatest single cause of atheism in the world today is Christians who acknowledge Jesus with their lips then walk out the door and deny him by their lifestyle. That is what an unbelieving world simply finds unbelievable.”

We can change our programs, our sanctuaries, our music, our worship style, our Sunday school time; we can close our doors every other Sunday and do mission projects; we can take hardline stances on social issues and encourage people to vote for the right cause or the right candidate; but what that says to people is that we are not really about the kingdom; it says we are about protecting what is ours. The most common factor the birthpangs bring with them is nostalgia but nostalgia can be a dangerous thing. Nostalgia is what led the Israelites to believe they were better off as slaves in Egypt then they were starting over as the nation of God in the Promise Land. Nostalgia urges us to turn around and go back to the way life was, remembering the good and ignoring the bad. The story we ask people to invest in is a story of nostalgia, not a story of the kingdom of God; and that is not a story worth investing in.

A story that is worth investing in is a story of a people who seek to honor God and live faithfully to their call as God's people in the midst of the birthpangs and holding onto the hope of the One whose kingdom is coming. The birthpangs will bring joy and we must not give into the temptation to return to a time that was but strive for a kingdom future that will be and live out the kingdom in the present that is. We can build a beautiful city if push through the birthpangs and allow God to continue to work in our world. We can give people something worthwhile to invest in and use their gifts to bring about the kingdom of God if we just try and have a just a mustard seed of faith.

The story God is writing is not a story about us. It is the story about the world and that gives us hope and given time, we will come to trust in that hope.