When this sermon series started, I didn’t quite envision myself living it out so definitively. It has certainly been a week of expressing gratitude through suffering and coming to a better understanding of what it means to experience a Symphony of perseverance.
A secular definition of perseverance is the 
continued effort to do or achieve something despite difficulties, failure or opposition. A biblical definition might be the steadfastness and endurance in faith and good works especially through trials and suffering. Maybe what all that means is that in our lifetime individually or as a community of faith we are going to face some stuff. Stuff that is hard and difficult. Stuff that will feel like a trial. Stuff that might see us suffering.
And when we face that stuff, how much does our faith and trust in God as well as the path God has put us on allow us to practice perseverance, that continued effort, that ability to run the race amid whatever obstacle gets put up.
It feels like the psalmist gets it. Listen to that first verse again I put all my hope in the Lord he leaned down to me he listened to my cry for help he lifted me out of the pit of death out of the mud and filth and set my feet on solid rock he steadied my legs he put a new song in my mouth a song of praise for our God.
Something has definitely happened in the life of the Psalmist or perhaps the life of the Psalmist’s community that caused hardship. The psalmist’s choice though as they went through this hardship, this trial, this suffering was to put all their hope in the Lord. To be steadfast in their faith. And the Lord responded in a way that gave the psalmist hope and gratitude. A new song of praise was put in the Psalmist’s mouth.
However, I am under no illusion of how hard that can be, to keep your trust and faith in God in trials of life that are just impossible to imagine or endure. Certainly, the early church knew that. Persecuted, meeting in cemeteries, Apostles martyred, not always sure where to turn: the writer of James still says stand firm when your faith is tested, practice perseverance in the trials that come up as you seek to stay on the path God has put in front of you.
But was James talking to the individual or was James addressing a community of faith. How does being part of a community of faith help us persevere and hold onto our faith through even the darkest, hardest times. In his letter to the Church in Rome, Paul is speaking to the community, not just to the individual. The community he writes to is diverse, coming from different cultures and faith traditions; they are mostly poor, marginalized, and perceived by outsiders as suspicious, not beholden to Rome, and engaging in strange practices like eating the body of Jesus and drinking his blood.
Suffice it to say life for Jesus followers, the Saints, was not easy. I think there was always the temptation to leave the community and just go with the flow of Roman life. Resisting that temptation could cause great suffering, but the reward of resistance and persevering was to have the life that God promised. A life rooted in Jesus; a life rooted in love and grace and mercy and compassion. But also, a life rooted in connection and community.
And perhaps that last piece is what we tend to forget because we live in a nation that seems to revere rugged individualism. But we are made for community. We are made for relationship with God and Jesus and Holy Spirit and through them, each other. We are inseparable from God and by extension each other. But that requires us to be vulnerable, to reach out, to sometimes just be available to listen, but to always love and care for God, neighbor, each other.
And perhaps that is the greatest lesson that I have learned this week. I live alone and the prospect of having to deal with this broken clavicle and fractured ribs all by myself was daunting. But then I started reflecting on what happened beginning Monday morning. People just started showing up to help. My kids made a plan. Offers for rides and meals and places to stay poured in from this church, my former church, friends, family. Prayers from all over the Presbytery made their way to me. And I realized as much as I have longed for community, God was showing me there was community everywhere for me, for you, for all of us.
But that meant that I had to be willing to be vulnerable and to ask for help when I needed it. I needed to be vulnerable enough to say that I even needed help. It seems to me that a key characteristic for Saints who are able to persevere is to be vulnerable. To give the community of faith a chance to respond in loving ways.
I see that over and over in the 125th anniversary booklet, particularly in the shift the Church made from being fellowship oriented to servanthood oriented. They didn’t give up fellowship, still had K groups and opportunities for fellowship, but they turned their attention outward to look at what did their community needed.
And they responded. I again encourage you to pick up a booklet and to see for yourself what this church has done and then to look again at what we are doing as we live out our core values. As we persevere through uncertain times, hopefully confident in our faith and trust that God’s path is still the one we need to be going along. And what might that look like.
Lately I’ve been reading about churches clearing medical debt for people through local and national organizations. Earlier this year five churches in the Lehigh Valley cleared $3.5 million of medical debt. I’ve seen restaurants and eateries offer patrons the opportunity to purchase a meal for someone else. They put up a slip of paper on a bulletin board and when someone comes in who needs a meal but can’t afford it, they can just take the slip of paper and let the waitress know. There’s a Facebook story going around now about Midwest diners that set out each shift a free meal for anyone who might need it.
We know that SNAP benefits will likely be end for millions on November 1. What might we be able to do about that?
What might all of this mean for us? How might the act of continuing efforts to serve people with love and grace and compassion even in the midst of trials, temptations, obstacles be an act of endurance, and of growing in our own faith and trust in a God who hasn’t given up on us in 150 years. How might our own experiences of perseverance and vulnerability and need for community guide us to serve others in our community who desperately need to be seen?
I don’t have the answers, but I know the lesson for me this week is to not give up, to not think of myself as alone, and to truly know that putting my hope in God is not a useless act. May God put a new song in my mouth and in all of our mouths so that we might better sing the praises of God and not just sing but act on them as well. May it be so. Amen.