Regional Synod of Canada - Reformed Church in America

Pioneer Christian Monthly

Date - Mar/93

Contributor - A. Gardiner Skelly

Title - Wise or Otherwise

Topic - Suffering

Lured by the luxury of retirement, I have been loitering a lot lately along the labyrinthine lanes of long-tem memory. And this morning, this monthly column clamouring greedily for its quota of words, draws me back once again amidst the wispy mists of moments vaguely recollected. So in this mood of reverie I find myself recalling one of my early sermonic masterpieces! Of course, it is well-nigh impossible to be entirely objective in the evaluation of one's own sermons, but to my youthful mind this was a cleverly constructed and perfectly proportioned three-decker discourse of the theme, "The Treasurers of Darkness." (Isaiah 45:3. "I will give thee the treasures of darkness and hidden riches in secret places...

It seemed at the time to be a gift from God and indeed, in a sense, I still believe that to be true. During those student years that sermon had a lot of miles put on it, as all kinds of unsuspecting rural and urban congregations had it laid upon them on wintery Sunday mornings, in ill-heated edifices where the preacher's words were frequently accompanied by discernible shafts of his breath, issuing from his pale lips like clouds of incense!! It was preached far and wide and not always by myself for occasionally some fellow student in dire and urgent need would persuade me to relax the rules of copyright and lend it to him!

All of this has come back to me recently and understandably at a critical time when our life has been deeply shadowed by serious illness within our family. And that antique amateur sermon has spoken a surprisingly sustaining word. Let me share (in mercifully abbreviated form!) the salient points. The sermon took its rise from the obvious question, "what are the treasures which God gives to us in the darkness?" And the body of the sermon consisted of this threefold reply to that question.

First of all, God gives us the treasure of Personal Resources to help us cope in the darkness. Isn't it entirely true that those menacing midnight moments of experience often teach us to reach deep down within ourselves and to find there, secret sustaining sources of strength which we did not even suspect we possessed? Every minister has heard the familiar refrain, "I didn't think I could survive the crisis but I was given strength". Each of us possesses untapped resources of courage and stamina and often these are discovered only when, in the dark night of the soul, we pray for the grace to be delivered from self-pity and also for the grace to draw deeply upon our latent potential.

Secondly, in our darkness, God gives us the treasure of Personal Relationships. "What would we do without our friends?" Those were the very words of a recently bereaved widow when we called her on Christmas morning. It is when the deep shadows of sickness or sorrow fall devastatingly upon our lives that we discover the wealth of human friendship. This is one of God's richest treasures. The loving support of family and friends are amongst His best gifts to us. But as we celebrate this treasure we need to remember that it is not something to hoard but rather to share. A wise man has said that to have a friend one must be a friend.

Thirdly, and best of all, in our darkness God gives to us the treasure of Personal Religion. In the final analysis we know that, as Christian, we are not ultimately dependent upon our own resources nor yet upon the mercy of our friends. The Good News of the Gospel is that, in Jesus Christ, God has broken in upon the darkness of our distress. He has come to us in the personal intimacy and the sustaining adequacy of One born in our human likeness. And in His sufferings, this Blessed Lord Jesus has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. Gethsemane and Calvary stand as the perpetual assurance that because He has drained the cup of suffering to the very dregs, He is able to share and to sustain us in our sufferings. That is treasure beyond price. Thanks be to God.

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