FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, ATLANTA, GEORGIA

Sermon by Dr. George Bryant Wirth

The Fifth Sunday in Lent

March 29, 2009

THE GIFTS OF GOD FOR THE FAMILY OF FAITH:

ENDURANCE

Scripture: Romans 5:1-5

Text: Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things…

I Corinthians 13:7

INTRODUCTION

In Kenya they tell the story about a young Kikuyu boy who walked many miles from the beach of Mombassa to his village in the bush country, carrying a beautiful shell to give to his school teacher.

The teacher was overwhelmed with gratitude, and said to her student “Oh, you shouldn’t have gone so far to find this shell and bring it all the way back to me.” The boy looked at her with a smile on his face and replied “Long walk was part of the gift.”

Well, we have come a long way, quite a distance since Ash Wednesday, celebrating “The Gifts of God for the Family of Faith” found in I Corinthians 13. The gifts we have embraced thus far on our journey include patience, kindness, humility, forgiveness and joy.

This morning we open and unwrap the gift of Endurance, remembering what Paul wrote long ago, words which still speak to us today:

Love bears all things, love believes all things, love hopes all things, love endures all things (I Corinthians 13:7)

Writing from Ephesus, the apostle sent that encouraging message to the Corinthians around 55 A.D. Just a few years later, when he had returned to Corinth to help the church sort things out, Paul wrote another letter, this time to the congregation in Rome with a similar theme:

We know that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us (Romans 5:3-5)

The picture coming into focus here is this: Endurance is a gift from God, and I believe that’s what all of us need in our lives today and in this family of faith – the Gift of Endurance to go on instead of giving up!

I

During the summer of 2005, as some voyagers from this church sailed the Aegean Sea, re-tracing Paul’s missionary journeys, I remember reading what the apostle wrote to the Corinthians about endurance:

Three times I was shipwrecked; for a night and a day, I was adrift at sea; on frequent journeys, (I was) in danger from rivers and bandits and Jews and Gentiles, danger in the city, in the wilderness and at sea…(suffering) toil and hardship, hunger and thirst and many sleepless nights (II Corinthians 11:25-27)

But never, not even once in recorded scripture, did Paul consider giving up. Why? Because God supplied his every need and helped this missionary proceed to take the gospel into the Gentile world, traveling more than 3,000 miles over the course of 14 years. That’s endurance!

Many of you know about another sea story, entitled “South: The Endurance Expedition,” written by Sir Ernest Shackleton in 1919, the same year this church sanctuary was completed and dedicated.

Five years before, in August of 1914, Shackleton and his crew of 56 men set sail from London, bound for the South Pole in Antarctica. Their ship, named “Endurance,” had been built to withstand the winter storms and frigid temperatures. But four months later, they were frozen in the ice and within a year, the Endurance was crushed and sank to the bottom of the sea.

Undaunted, yet fully aware of the danger, those men had salvaged supplies from the doomed ship and set up camp on the ice. Then, Shackleton and a small group headed toward South Georgia Island in life boats, promising the rest of the crew that they would return to rescue them.

Each morning while they waited, the stranded sailors would wake up, roll out of their sleeping bags and tents, saying “Get ready boys, the boss may come back today!”

And that’s what happened, when Shackleton and the rescuers, having traversed 800 miles through icebergs, sleet, howling winds and threatening waves, reached the sailors and finally brought them back safely – all 56 of them – to Valparaiso, Chile, surrounded by a cheering crowd of 30,000 people before heading home to England.

Shackleton dictated the entire account of the perilous adventure to a journalist from New Zealand, and when it was published, all the world marveled as they read and heard the story. And this entry, on page 230, tells the essence of the journey. Shackleton wrote:

“When I look back at those days, I have no doubt that (Divine) Providence guided us, not only across those snow fields, but across the storm-white sea…to our landing place on South Georgia Island. I know that during that long and racking March…it seemed to me often that (we were not alone). I said nothing to my companions…but afterwards, (one of the sailors named) Worsley said to me ‘Boss, I had the curious feeling that there was another person with us.” (From “South: The Endurance Expedition” by Sir Ernest Shackleton, William Heinemann, London, 1919)

Well, that’s a remarkable story of courage at its best, how Shackleton and his crew faced the test which brought them to the brink of death. But they all survived and returned to England alive to tell the story about a Holy Presence, a Divine Companion who joined them on the journey and gave them what they needed to make it safely to their destination. It’s called “Endurance.”

II

Now, many of us here today are facing the storms of life, especially during this traumatic time of economic crisis. And whether we’re younger or older or somewhere in between, I believe that endurance is what we need.

A little five-year-old boy was crying one morning as he tied his shoes. His mother asked him “Why are you so upset dear?” He answered with tears in his eyes “Because I have to tie my shoes.” The mother said “But you just learned how – it isn’t that hard, is it?” He replied “No, but I’m gonna have to do it for the rest of my life.” That’s a little silly, but children need to learn about endurance as they are growing up. And so do teenagers.

Serving as a youth pastor many years ago, I knew an 18 year old girl who applied to five colleges and universities and was turned down by every one of them. She stopped by the office, and with anxiety in her eyes, asked me the question “What am I going to do now?” I looked back at her and answered “With the help of your parents and admissions counselors and myself, you are going to find the right school that the Lord has in mind for you.” That young lady needed the gift of endurance, and I’m glad to tell you that she was accepted to a good college and graduated with honors.

Here’s a young couple, just starting out in marriage with a mortgage on their new condominium. But the financial crisis has hit them hard, and they are struggling to make the monthly payments. They need the money, and some reassurance. But what they need most of all right now is the gift of endurance.

A middle aged man I know had a PSA test several months ago, and was told by his doctor that he’s dealing with the early stages of prostate cancer. The doctor was encouraging, saying that the treatments will probably be successful. So that man is hopeful, but every night, down on his knees, he’s praying for the gift of endurance to see this through.

And on a lighter note, I have told you before about an older woman in Indiana who, at the age of 105, told her preacher that she was finally content and not afraid to die, because all of her children were finally safe and secure in nursing homes. What that woman had discovered toward the end of her life was the gift of endurance!

You see, whether we’re younger or older or somewhere in between, when the storms of life strike and we get down on our knees to pray, God has promised to give us the courage and endurance we need to go on instead of giving up.

In his book “The Hopeful Heart,” our dear and departed friend John Claypool describes the gift of endurance this way:

“There are times when, for inscrutable reasons, God chooses to solve our problems for us (Claypool refers to those times as ‘miracles’ which often cannot be explained). There are other occasions when the Holy One offers to solve our problems with us (Claypool calls that ‘collaboration’ when God invites us to join forces with Him in bringing about a solution to our difficulties). And then there are times when God seems to be saying ‘There may be no solving of the problem, but I will give you the strength to endure the unchangeable and to experience real growth in the process.” (From “The Hopeful Heart” by Dr. John Claypool, Morehouse Publishing, 2003, page 53)

Most of us have heard Dr. Claypool tell the story about the death of his 12 year old daughter Laura Lue who succumbed to lymphatic leukemia after a valiant struggle. And when it happened in January of 1980, Claypool said:

“From somewhere far beyond me, an energy not my own had silently enveloped me like a gentle mist and enabled me to resist running away in panic, and to stay connected and be present for my suffering daughter…God did not do what I most wanted, which, of course, was to heal Laura Lue; nor did God enable the medical establishment to bring about a much desired recovery through their collaboration; but the Holy One was not absent in all that travail…My brave young daughter and I were given the gift of endurance and along with it, an opportunity to grow spiritually…She never became bitter or lost her love for life. (And) I myself have become a very different person from the one I was before her death…I sense that I am more humble, grateful, and sensitively attuned to the suffering of others than was the case before this ordeal. As I have said, God did not do what I would have wanted most, but what God did do was a grace of tremendous value, indeed.” (Ibid, pages 58-59)

III

Now, if that is where you or someone whom you love find yourselves today, then let me say beyond the shadow of a doubt that God is ready, willing and more than able to give the gift of endurance to each and to every one of us, through the amazing grace, healing power and sacrificial love of His Son our Savior Jesus.

When our Lord set His face toward Jerusalem, He was aware of what could and would happen to him. As He got down on His knees to pray in the Garden of Gethsemane, “Father, not My will, but Thine be done,” His prayer was answered with the gift of endurance to go on instead of giving up. Through His suffering and pain on the cross, He showed us the way to endure the grief and the sorrow, the pain and the loss that we will eventually face in our own lives.

And when that time comes, you and I have a choice to make. Either we can take the road that leads toward what the Presbyterian author Kathleen Norris describes in her recent book as “acedia” – the Greek New Testament word for despondency, discouragement, indifference and despair – and sad to say, I have known some people who have gone there…

Or we can take the road toward finding the help we need, looking for hope on the horizon, seeking encouragement from our families and friends, and receiving the gift of endurance which comes from the Lord and never ends.

CONCLUSION

Yogi Berra, who was a great catcher for the New York Yankees but not much of a theologian, once said “When you come to a fork in the road, take it.” We can laugh at those words, but they don’t leave us with a sense of direction.

So if we seek to know the way that God wants us to go, then listen again to what the Apostle Paul wrote to those first century Christians in Corinth and in Rome:

Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things …and suffering produces endurance, endurance produces character, character produces hope and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.

Almost every weekend, I visit three women who belong to this church and believe those words are true. One of them is 94 years old, another is 98 and the third has reached the ripe old age of 99. They were all happily married, raised their families, and have been blessed with grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

During our visits, they have said how grateful they are for the lives they have lived, growing up in Chattanooga, Tennessee, Athens, Georgia, Havana, Cuba and then coming to Atlanta. Each of their husbands and most of their friends have gone on to heaven, and they have told me that when their time comes, they are not afraid.

Yesterday, one of those lovely, elegant ladies, all of whom I adore, said to me “You know, I didn’t think I would ever be this old – I guess I’m just lucky to have inherited good genes.” And I agreed with her, but there’s more. Because those three women, who are faithful Christians, aren’t just lucky. They have been blessed with the gift of endurance by the Lord. And after every visit, as I go out the door inspired and uplifted by their courage and conviction, I pray over and over again, “Please help me, Heavenly Father, to be able to endure just like them.”

That is what all of us need and that is what God wants to give us, my friends - The Gift of Endurance - from the beginning of life, on to the end.

In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

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