Strengthened
We come this morning with more questions than answers. What is the purpose of pain? How can we persevere in the face of pain? What comfort or relief can we expect from God during times of suffering? Can anything good come out of all the pain?
"In Nickel Mines, Pennsylvania love would have to prove stronger than death. On the morning of October 5, 2006 twenty-five children were studying in the local one-room schoolhouse, a barnlike structure with a simple bell tower and a front porch supported by steel rods. The building, as plain as notebook paper, reflected the values of the
Amish community that educated its children there. The Amish trace their lineage back to pacifist Swiss Christian communities who during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries renounced the trappings of worldliness."
"On that morning in the midst of the Amish, the worst of the world’s madness appeared. At 9:51 A.M., Charles Carl Roberts IV, a thirty-two-year-old milkman, burst into the West Nickel Mines Amish schoolhouse and shattered the community’s serenity. He had thought about the violence that he was about to perpetrate long in advance and he came prepared. He carried a 12-gauge shotgun, a 9 mm handgun, a .30 – 06 bolt-action rifle, about six hundred rounds of ammunition, a stun gun, and two knives. He also had tools and building supplies with him."
"He ordered the young girls to line up quickly in front of the chalkboard. Then he demanded that the teacher, Emma Mae Zook, take her fifteen male students, a pregnant woman, and three mothers with infants outside. Once they were gone Charles Roberts used the tools and the 2 x 6 and 2 x 4 foot boards he was carrying to barricade himself inside. Next, he used flex ties to bind the hands and legs of the young girls, who ranged in age from six to thirteen. When the Amish girls asked Roberts why he meant to hurt them, he said he was angry at God."
[Source: Charles Colson, The Faith, pp 13-15]
Our lives have been shattered by sin.
The testimony of scripture is that like the pieces of mirrors gathered up into these vases, our lives have been shattered by sin. Every week, it seems thatthere are even more pieces to gather up—not less!
Our worship has been shattered. Like Adam and Eve, we hear the voice of the Father walking through the gardencalling us,"Where art thou?", but we do not know how to answer. Who is God? Does he even exist? Does he see me? Can I have a relationship with him? Does he answer my prayers? Does he love me and will he forgive my sin? Does he have a purpose for me? In the case of Mr. Roberts, he’d grown so irrationally angry at God that he was ready to kill.
All of creation has also been shattered. With painful toil we live on this earth and work the ground. Only through the pain of childbirth can life go on. We're subject to tornados, fires, floods, earthquakes, hurricanes, tsunamis, famine, nakedness, cancer, AIDS, disability, and now global warming. There is something broken about our world that defies scientific explanation. Creation groans and is subject to decay.
Our relationships have been shattered. It all began when Cain murdered Abel. Abel’s blood cried out from the ground as God asked Cain, "Where is your brother?" We’ve never had a good answer. Our relationships have been shattered by self-centeredness, greed, jealousy, pornography, prostitution, adultery, divorce, domestic abuse, hatred, racism, crime, murder, child abuse, and child predators. Who do you even trust anymore? Those closest to us have done the greatest damage to our relationships. Did you hear about the lady this week who sat on a toilet for two years, hidden in a bathroom? Her skin had literally grown around the toilet seat. Her boyfriend said that she feared her family.
Our inner-self, our soul, has also been shattered. Like Adam, we're dead in our transgressions and sins. We are without hope andwithout God. Our conscience convicts us daily. We're addicted to food, drugs, alcohol, caffeine, television, internet, i-phones, i-pods, fast cars, big homes, sex, the approval of others, fine foods, and designer clothing. We’re material junkies. Deep down we know that only God can satisfy the soul, but instead we’ve become idolaters, seeking to dethrone andreplace God.
Think about it! We had access to the tree of life, but when given the choice, we thought it best to experience good and evil, pain and death.
It is hard to imagine much good coming from all the shattered pieces in our lives. "Why?" the Amish school girls asked their attacker. How many times in a given week do you ask the same question?
What is the purpose of pain?
What is the purpose of this pain? How can we persevere in the face of pain? What comfort or relief can we expect from God during times of suffering? Can anything good come out of all the pain?
One place we can begin making sense of the pain is in the Garden of Gethsemane. In the garden, Jesus was preparing himself to be crucified. How did he respond to the pain?
Luke 22:39-46 (NIV) tells us, "Jesus went out as usual to the Mount of Olives, and his disciples followed him. On reaching the place, he said to them, 'Pray that you will not fall into temptation.' He withdrew about a stone's throw beyond them, knelt down and prayed,'Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.'An angel from heaven appeared to him and strengthened him. And being in anguish, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground. When he rose from prayer and went back to the disciples, he found them asleep, exhausted from sorrow. 'Why are you sleeping?' he asked them. 'Get up and pray so that you will not fall into temptation.' "
Among many things, pain is an occasion for faith.
Luke 22:39-41 (NIV) says,"Jesus went out as usual to the Mount of Olives, and his disciples followed him. On reaching the place, he said to them, 'Pray that you will not fall into temptation.' He withdrew about a stone's throw beyond them, knelt down and prayed."
Nothing stops us dead in our tracks like pain. One moment we're living life one hundred miles an hour,but the next moment life stops. It is true that some get angry with God. But more often, pain becomes an occasion to change our posture before God from one of self-reliance to total reliance.
Nothing brings us to our knees like pain. Pain is a signal that something is wrong, that something is broken, that something needs to change, that we aren’t where we need to be, and that we can’t fix it! In this sense, pain can be a gift of sorts.
In James 5:13-16 (NIV) we're commanded to seek God in prayer. "Is any one of you in trouble? He should pray. Is anyone happy? Let him sing songs of praise. Is any one of you sick? He should call the elders of the church to pray over him and anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise him up. If he has sinned, he will be forgiven. Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective."
Pain is also an occasion for perseverance.
In Luke 22:42 (NIV) Jesus prays, "Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done."
Once we begin praying, we face this very same choice. Can we trust God through the pain? Can we seek his will instead of our own will? Can we remain obedient and faithful?
In James 1:2-4 (NIV) we are invited to consider the positive effects of pain. "Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything."
James 5:10-11 (NIV) continues, "Brothers, as an example of patience in the face of suffering, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. As you know, we consider blessed those who have persevered. You have heard of Job's perseverance and have seen what the Lord finally brought about. The Lord is full of compassion and mercy."
Pain is an occasion to receive God’s grace andhis provision.
Luke 22:43 (NIV) tells us that, "An angel from heaven appeared to him and strengthened him."
in 2 Corinthians 12:7-10 (NIV) Paul shares how pain becamean occasion for being strengthened by God’s grace. "Tokeep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.' Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong."
Pain is an occasion for fruitfulness.
Luke 22:44 (NIV) says, "And being in anguish, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground."
Isaiah 53:5 (NIV) tells us, "But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed."
It was hard for the disciples to imagine anything good coming from a crucifixion. The cross is a reminder of how God can use our pain and brokenness to reflect his power and love in our lives.
The rest of the story of Nickel Mines.
"The community responded more quickly than Roberts may have anticipated, and the schoolgirls themselves would alter his plans. Their teacher, Emma Mae Zook, ran to a neighboring farmhouse and called the police at 10:36A.M. The police arrived in force nine minutes later. From the loudspeakers on their cruisers they spoke to Roberts. He responded that if the grounds weren’t cleared in two seconds he’d kill everyone."
"The oldest of the girls, Marian Fisher, spoke up. The Amish speak Swiss German as their mother tongue, but she used the best English she could muster. She pleaded, 'Shoot me and leave the others one’s loose.' Marian’s eleven-year-old sister, Barbie, asked to be next. They demonstrated the greatest love a human possibly could."
“Unnerved by the girls’ courage and the police, Roberts tried to execute all ten girls, pouring bullets into them as fast as he could. At the sound of gunfire, the police rushed the building. With one final blast, Roberts committed suicide before they could reach him. Although Roberts shot all ten children at point-blank range, and several of them repeatedly, he did not fully exact the revenge against God he had planned. Five children survived. Marian’s sister Barbie was one of them, which is why we know some of the details of what happened inside the schoolhouse that horrible day. Charles Roberts’s death seemed sad only in that he was no longer available to prosecute.'
"But that’s where this story turns in an unexpected direction. The entire Amish community followed young Marian Fisher’s lead of sacrifice and love of one’s neighbor. While Charles Roberts chose to unleash his anger on the innocent, the Amish chose to bestow forgiveness on the guilty. Newsreel footage showed the Amish horse and buggy cortege rolling along the main road in Nickel Mines on their way to the funerals of the slain children. It was a poignant and picturesque scene."
"But the images that stayed in the imagination were of Amish men and women attending Charles Roberts’s funeral in the graveyard of his wife’s Methodist church. Within hours of the shooting, several members of the Amish community visited Mrs. Roberts and her family to express their sorrow over her loss and to say they did not hold anything against them. Another Amish man visited the killer's father. A Roberts family spokesperson said, 'He stood there for an hour, and he held (Mr. Roberts) in his arms and said, ‘We forgive you'. They insisted it was not their place to judge him. Amish leaders even asked their community to refrain from thinking of Roberts as evil."
"The Amish also reached out to Marie Roberts and her children. They invited the family to attend the girls’ funerals — for the Bible says to mourn with those who mourn, and the Roberts family was mourning their own loss. As money poured in to address the medical bills of the wounded girls, Amish community leaders stipulated that a fund be set up from these resources to take care of the killer’s widow and three children."
[source: http://www.catholicexchange.com/node/66328]
[Source: Charles Colson The Faith, pp 13-15]
On the back of your mirror, write down an area of brokenness in your life that you want God to heal.