Tammy Wynette may have thought that sometimes it’s hard to be a woman but these days I’m convinced that sometimes it’s hard to be a Christian. When life is going well, when there’s money in the bank, food in the cupboard and toilet roll in the bathroom cupboard it’s easy to thank God for all our blessings. But while we can be quick to credit God for the good times, it’s just as easy to point the finger of blame at God when things start to go south. If we are the sort of person that thanks God for the car park next to the shops, we will also blame God for the current state of affairs we are living in. It is times of suffering we find out just how strong our faith actually is.
In our reading today, Peter is seeking to encourage the church to remain faithful during a time of suffering for them. The early church is being persecuted and Peter knows that it is in times of difficulty that people could walk away from their faith. Peter reminds the church that God is faithful and has promised them a future that cannot be affected or destroyed by events on earth. This security is what they need to cling to during the hard times for they too shall pass. By professing a trust in God during suffering they shall show their faith to be genuine. By not being “fair weather” Christians, they can give hope to the world that suffering is not how it is meant to be and will end one day.
Today, this warning still resonates. As the church, we need to be honest that this is a difficult time. But we also need to confess that our suffering is not a punishment from God but simply the way things are in an imperfect world. To point to the fact that God acknowledges the world isn’t right, that’s why God came as Jesus to show us how it looks when it is right. We need to demonstrate that we still have faith in God even during these hard times because we know this isn’t how it is meant to be; we know it isn’t how it is going to be. Having faith in God during the hard times is proof that our faith is genuine and not based on what we think we can get from God for ourselves. It is through our faithful witness to God that we can offer hope to those who feel hopeless. We can shine God’s love into a very dark place so others can see it too.