“That was easy!”  The slogan for Staples, encourages us to believe that with the push of the easy button life’s problems simply melt away.  “Dave don’t fret we have an easy button…oh”  While Staples may make it easier to purchase printer ink cartridges and office supplies I am afraid life does not come with an easy button.  Jennie, Andrew and I spent the week in Norfolk VA visiting with family over spring break.  We had a great time but it was not easy.  There was the good bye Friday which our nephew Ethan took fairly hard not understanding why we had to go home wanting us to stay.  There was the trip itself long and tiresome fighting exhaustion and fighting the other drivers on the road.  On this particular trip there was the added challenge of wondering what may befall us traveling I64 though Charlottesville VA.  Jennie wasn’t aware of the shootings that had taken place there the day before, but thanks to a couple phone calls from Mom; I was aware the shootings had taken place and that one of the two suspects had been caught.  As we drove through that area Jennie remarked “there are two different news trucks parked at that rest area back there I wonder what is going on.”  I wondered “have they caught the other sniper.”  There was the dense fog as we traversed the mountains just east of Beckley West Virginia late Friday night making it extremely difficult to see the road in front of us.  Even Andrew found the trip to be trying protesting mightily each time he was repeatedly strapped in his car for the second day in a row as we finished the trip home yesterday.  There was writing this sermon last night after having spent two days on the road.  Again this is not to say it wasn’t a good trip.  We had a great time and it was well worth it, but it wasn’t easy.  Contrary to what Staples would have us believe there is no magic easy button and few things in life are easy. 

            That seems to me to be the message of the passage we read a few moments ago from 1 Peter.  There is no easy button for life, we have to suffer various trials, but that does not mean that we are without help.  Only our help comes from the Lord, not Staples.  In the opening sequence of the movie Major Payne we see Major Payne a heroic and battle hardened soldier on the battlefield.  He comes upon a fellow soldier who has a terrible leg wound and is writhing in agony screaming “Oh my leg, my leg.”  Major Payne showing compassion for this man says “You want me to show you a little trick to help you forget all about that leg?”  He then proceeds to take the man’s index finger in his hand and says “Now you may feel a little pressure…” before snapping the man’s finger leaving it hanging sideways.  The man begins screaming “Oh my finger my finger.” To which Major Payne says “Works every time.”  What I hear being said in this passage is “as you go through life you may feel a little pressure.”  It is the classic “this may sting a little” just before the nurse jabs the needle in your arm.  I think we have this same sort of feeling when we read “Suffering various trials, tested by fire, and although you have not seen him.” 

            We might expect that with faith things would be easier, that faith would be easy, that life would be easier because of it; and that is true in a manner of speaking.  However many people writing about their faith journey recount going through the dark night of soul; those times when life isn’t easy, when it isn’t easy to believe, when it isn’t easy to get out of bed in the morning.  Clearly there are elements of the Christian journey that are difficult.  If we are honest with ourselves we will admit that at times we are resigned to looking to God, expecting God to be, wanting God to be our divine easy button in the sky.  But it doesn’t work that way.  Life and faith are often difficult roads to navigate, and things have a way of getting bumpy along the way. 

            When the ways of life and faith get bumpy there are three basic ways we can respond to the suffering we encounter.  1^st we can simply give up hope all together, and throw in the towel.  I didn’t say option one was a good option but it is an option.  We can allow ourselves to become bitter, give way to despair, and simply let the trials of life and faith to steamroll over us and not even try to get up again.  Second we can downplay our suffering by comparing it to even greater suffering.  This is the Major Payne approach, let me help you forget all about that leg, only most people don’t break your finger they simply say well at least you aren’t… you fill in the blank.  I admit the trials of my recent road trip aren’t that bad when compared to say the plight of starving people in Third World Countries.  The uneasy feeling about a possible sniper on the road Friday is not much compared to the men and women in the armed forces, fire fighters, police officers, and so on who put themselves at far greater risk each day.  I must admit at times I do find it helpful to put these things in perspective but needing someone to suffer worse than me doesn’t seem to be a particularly helpful way to address my suffering either.  While drawing these comparisons may help me avoid being stuck wallowing in self pity it doesn’t do much to address the issue of my suffering no matter how small it may be in comparison to someone else’s suffering.  I may not be suffering as bad as someone else but that doesn’t mean I don’t suffer in my own way.  And what happens, God forbid, if I can’t think of someone suffering worse than me?  The third alternative is to trust that even in the midst of our suffering that we are in the hands of a God who loves us, and who will see us through if not in this life then in the next.

            The third way is the way of 1^st Peter.  This letter written to despairing Christians some 2000 years ago reminds them that their real hope is in the resurrection of Christ.  It serves as a reminder to those who were suffering mightily, not the pains of a long road trip kind of suffering, but those who were suffering great persecution for their faith that no matter what happens in this life, Christ has won for them…Christ has won for us…an inheritance in heaven that is imperishable, and unfading.  You might be thinking well option three has its own problems too; this is a pie-in-the-sky approach.  What about here and now?  This is all well and good but it doesn’t put food on the table, pay my mortgage, heal my broken family life, or cure my cancer.  This is not simply an escapist approach to real suffering; it is not simply another Major Payne way to help us forget about our suffering.  This approach to suffering is not passive it is meant to be active.  Much of 1^st Peter is about how we are to act as believers.  There is not a choice to be made between resurrection hope and taking action, because resurrection hope leads us to action.  We take up our cross knowing the cross is not the end.  I am sure you have all heard the story about the woman who wanted to be buried with a fork in her hand to remind those who saw it that much like saving your fork at a church potluck because the best is yet to come that with God the best is yet to come.  The best is yet to come, but there is a meal to be had here and now, we have a fork in our hand and let us not forget about the main course.  God is with us here and now, and God loves us still. 

            During this season of Easter we are reminded that when it comes to life and faith there is no easy button, but that is not to say we are helpless and hopeless.  Indeed quite to the contrary…at Easter we celebrate the ultimate reason for our hope: Christ is risen and invites us to rise with him to new life.  Even though we can not see Christ now we believe and we know that Christ’s love is there for us to see us though and therefore we have hope.  Hope that one day God’s plan for creation will come to completion and everything will be made perfect, but hope also that here and now God’s transforming power is at work within our lives to help us, to pick us up when we suffer, and make us new.

            Easter is a time to yet again with God’s help try to break the addiction with which we have suffered.  Easter is a time to with God’s help work at renewing and revitalizing the marriage that has suffered from neglect.  Easter is a time with God’s help to reach out to our neighbors whom we have neglected.  Easter is a time when we are reminded that with God all things are possible, all things can be made new, there is nothing that can’t be turned around.  Easter is a time for the hopeless to find their hope in God, for those who have long suffered to find comfort in God.  Easter is a time to renew our faith and hope in the Lord, to mount up with wings like eagles.  Cornel West is quoted as having said: “As a Christian I am a prisoner of hope.”  There is no easy button in life but as those who have faith may we indeed be prisoners of hope, unable to shake free of the hope we have in the resurrection of Christ.  Amen.