Birth Pains
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Birth Pains
Isaiah 26:12-18
Psalm 131
Galatians 4:8-20
Mark 13:5-19
Pain is a dreadful thing. There are many kinds of pain such as emotional or physical and many different degrees or intensities of pain. Pain lets us know that there is something wrong or at times lets us know that something bad could be coming. Pain is both a bad thing yet also a good thing. The moment the pain is gone we often feel such a sigh of relief. Through this past week I personally have felt some of the worst pain I have ever felt in my life. So much to the point that I was sweating bullet sized drops from my head. Early Monday morning I woke up in terrible pain and I was pretty certain of the cause. I drove myself to the ER and after a few tests my prediction turned out to be correct. I have a 4mm kidney stone in my right kidney and it must have been trying to descend as it was feeling super painful. I have heard that a kidney stone is the closest thing to child birth pains that a man can experience. Well since my wife will soon good through labor in delivering our second child, I guess my body wanted to just get a small dose of experience and empathy for what she will be going through. The difference though is that after my pain is over and the stone has passed, I will not have a beautiful child to hold to help me take my memory away from my pain. You see so women got it good. They get a reward from their pain that men do not. I am sure if you ask a woman who has given birth before this question, they may not say that they got it so good but I guess it is just a matter of perspective.
There are many places in the scriptures that speak about birth pains. In our reading from Isaiah this morning for example, the prophet speaks about all the wonderful things that God has done for Israel. He speaks about the earthly rulers who have ruled over them but who have now passed away yet the Lord is still there and always will be. Isaiah speaks about the pain that Israel has gone through in the process of dealing with the distress with these rulers. These rulers of the world were used to discipline Israel so that they might be put back on track. However, Isaiah describes the pain that they felt to be like that of the labor of child birth. It is the most agonizing suffering that he can possibly describe. The discipline was so strong that they could barely whisper a prayer. On their own they could produce then nothing because they needed the help of God in order to give birth to life in the Spirit.
Paul speaks of a deep pain that he himself felt for the Galatians. He agonizes over the church losing its way after it has found its way in Christ. He reminds them of how miserable they were I their old way of life yet they for some reason seem drawn to go back to that way of living. Sin is this poison that draws people in kind of like a mosquito trap. The bright light and warmth draw the mosquito in as it seems irresistible but the if they do not turn back and turn their attention somewhere else then they get to close to that light and zap, they are dead. Sin and our former way of life is a lot like that trap and the results are very similar. Paul tells them that when he was with them preaching the gospel message, they treated him as if he were and angel of God or if he was Christ himself. He said that he believed that some of them would have even torn out their own eyes to give them to him if he needed them. While he was their they had a deep desire to know and please the Lord. However, now that he is gone the world has come back after them and is zealous for them to be just like them and Paul now seems to be the enemy for telling the truth. Paul describes his anguish for the Galatians to be like that of the pains of child birth. He feels like a mother longing for her infant to come out and painfully laboring to make it so. Paul’s pain is emotional and deep within the soul but it is so strong that it is like labor pains of child birth.
I wonder if what would happen if we would feel the same kind of pain for our loved ones as Paul felt for the Galatians. Pains of child labor until Christ is formed in the hearts and souls of the ones we love. I believe that this is the reason we can feel so frustrated sometimes with the decision that some of our loved ones make. We deeply want Christ to be formed in their lives yet they choose a different path. This is deeply painful for parents who raise their children to follow the Lord yet the child chooses the path of the world. While this pain seems and feels terrible it is also good because it tells us that there is something wrong and it tells us that we need to do something about that to relieve our pain. Prayer, faith, and then action can be one of the best solutions for that pain. We pray for the individual we care about; we have faith that God can answer that prayer, but then we take action either through our example or through our words to win our loved one over. When in labor if you do not push no child is going to come. The same goes with dealing with loved ones, if we do nothing then we will see nothing happen. Some may ask about what if we push too hard that they are pushed away. They very well might be pushed away but if we let the fear of that hold us back then we will never know if our pushing might have brought them in.
Finally, Jesus talks about another kind of birth pain and these are the pains of the end times. Jesus tells us to be careful and watch out because there will be many who will come in the name of the Lord claiming to be him or claiming to be someone special or of importance yet they are there to deceive and destroy. He says that there will be wars and rumors of other wars going on and that we should not be alarmed by this as these things must happen. Nations will rise up against each other, there will be earthquakes and famines all over the place. He says that these are the beginnings of birth pains for what is to come. He acknowledges that it is going to be difficult and painful in a lot of ways but he promises that it will not last forever. He says that we will be handed over to the local councils to be punished all on account of Christ. We will stand as witnesses before Governors and kings. If and whenever we are arrested, we are told not to worry about we are to say or do when we are brought to trial as the Holy Spirit will speak for us.
I don’t know that there has ever been a time in this country in which the Christian church has been treated so unequally and unfairly compared to the rest of the world by the governments of the world in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. In the state of California, the governor ruled that singing in worship services was not allowed as it could spread the Covid-19 virus. In Nevada, Churches are not allowed to have more than 50 people per church service regardless of the size of your church building. This means that if your church has a capacity to seat 100 people then you are only allowed to have 50 people. However, if your church building has the capacity to seat 1000 people you still can only have 50 people. Yet the casinos are allowed to house 50% of their capacity. This means that if the casino can hold 1000 people, they are allowed 500. If the casino can hold 3000 people then they can have 1500 people. So, this begs the question, is it actually safer from the virus to be in a casino verses a church. The logical answer is that it makes no difference yet the people are being treated differently. One church had a brilliant idea to get around this issue. They decided to rent some space in one of the casinos so that they could hold a worship service. By all rights the casino and the church were still abiding by the executive order as they were not breaking the seating capacity in the casino. However, the governor heard about this and was upset that the church would do this and that the casino would allow it so they fined the casino saying that the casino was breaking the rules. What the governor is really saying is that it is not ok to worship God as that can be dangerous yet it is ok to gamble as that is less dangerous than worship. These are the birth pains of what is to come.
I will say that I never want to feel the pain that I felt this past Monday morning ever again yet I give thanks for it as it helps me to put things into perspective. What if I felt that kind of pain for the people whom I care about that are unsaved? What if I felt that pain for my children to know the Lord? What if I felt that much pain for my community to know the Lord? I believe when we have the perspective of such pain the pains of persecution become like nothing. As the church I believe it is time we stop avoiding the pain and start embracing pain, a pain that Christ be formed in hearts of the people of world. Do you feel that pain this morning?