My husband Phil and I have an ongoing joke about how each of us, in our own ways, fears change.  Years ago I bought him a t-shirt with the comic strip character Dilbert that said, “Change is good.  You go first!”  Phil tends to have a hard time with big changes, like moving to a new town or a new job.  I tend to struggle with little changes, like how they don’t make my favorite brand of cotton socks anymore.  The scary thing is, I remember my dad having a similar dilemma, when he could no longer find his favorite brand of wool crew socks.  I clearly remember thinking, “I will never be that set in my ways!”  Ha!  Apparently I am indeed that set in my ways!

But change is inevitable, and often, change is welcome.  This summer I will celebrate two years of having 20/20 vision, because of a new kind of contact lens technology.  For over twenty years, there was nothing available that would especially help the vision issue I have.  But times have changed!  Thanks to a new kind of hard contact lens, I can now read the 20/20 line on the eye chart.  This makes life more fun.  I feel more confident driving, I see details better when we’re taking part in outside activities, I can read street signs better for navigating.  What a welcome change!

We often call these positive changes, “growth”.  Not all growth is positive, of course, it depends on what’s growing!  But changes in the direction of health, well-being, prosperity, justice, peace, maturity—these kinds of changes are often called growth.  But the thing about growth is, it often comes as a result of struggle.  I almost titled this sermon, “Growth and Comfort Will Never Coexist”, which is a phrase I picked up from Ginni Rometty, who recently retired after 40 years of working for IBM.  She rose up through the ranks and eventually was named their CEO.  In an interview to promote her new book on leadership, she talked about leading IBM’s workforce through monumental change, and admitted that she, too, fears change to a certain degree.  But she has come to realize that if we can embrace the discomfort that often comes with change, we will experience growth.  She has also come to realize that we should not expect growth toward all the good things we want in life—health, well-being, prosperity, justice, peace, maturity—we should not expect that growth to happen if we stay where we’re comfortable.

Which, normally, I would consider bad news.  I am a big fan of comfort!  But look at what we’ve all been through in the last three years!  Some tremendous discomfort!  I don’t know about you, but I want to make all that pandemic suffering turn into something good.  This is more than just naïve optimism.  It’s actually a key skill of discipleship, one of the things we need to learn how to do if we are to be Jesus’ faithful disciples through thick and thin.  Turns out, we can actually learn how to let tough situations change us for the better.  We can learn how to turn discomfort into growth.

Paul summarized this very idea when he wrote, that we rejoice in our sufferings, “because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope.  And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his live into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.”  We know that suffering is not God’s first choice for humankind.  But suffering comes.  The question is, what happens next?

Paul was a person bound and determined to turn suffering into blessing, because for him, God’s power is always at work for this kind of transformation.  Through our faith in Jesus, God’s power has turned us from people who were distant from God to people who are close to God.  Through our faith in Jesus, God’s power has turned us from people who might even have been working against God to being people who are at peace with God, and even, one with God!  Talk about the power of connection!  God has given us the Holy Spirit so that our hearts can be one with God’s!

And the heart of God is always at work, redeeming the broken and making it whole.  Turning the lost into the found, the blind into those who can see, the lame into those who run and leap.  This power, the power to redeem and restore and set free, this power puts us to rejoicing!  We love to see God at work for good.  And so even at funerals, we always sing a hymn of praise, or read scripture about praising God, because God’s power is always at work for good, taking even the dead and raising them to new life.

Since Paul had such a dramatic conversion experience, he is passionate about praising God for all the blessings God gives.  But he says, not only do we rejoice in the hope we have of God redeeming and transforming us and the world, we actually also rejoice in our sufferings because suffering can go on to generate even more hope.  What a bizarre statement, and I just want to be clear again, if you are suffering, this is not God’s first choice for you!  We were created for paradise, not purgatory!  But if suffering comes into your life, or more accurately, WHEN suffering comes, what happens next?  Paul says we can open ourselves up to the presence of God in our suffering, and allow that suffering to change us for the good.  In other words, we can learn how to turn discomfort into growth.  Suffering produces perseverance; perseverance produces character; and character produces hope.

But this is not always the case.  The same boiling water that hardens the egg softens the carrot.  Meaning, not everyone responds the same way to the same stressors.  The hot water parts of life can make us softer, or they can make us harder.  They can make us better, or they can make us bitter.  They can lead to growth—or they can lead to death.  Death of our faith, death of our vitality, death of our creativity, death of our hope.

We don’t want any of that to happen!  So we have to learn to turn discomfort into growth.  Recently I heard a different version of the boiling water maxim.  A teenage girl was going through a hard time, and she went to her grandmother for advice.  The grandmother filled three small pots with water and set them on the stove to boil.  In one she placed a carrot, in another, an egg, and then in the third pot, she placed some tea bags.  After several minutes the grandmother asked, what do you notice about the items in the boiling water?

The granddaughter said, well, the carrot is getting soft, I know the egg is eventually going to end up hard boiled, and the boiling water is no longer boiling water, now it’s hot tea!  The grandmother said, “Exactly!”  Difficult situations can change us, that’s for sure, and we don’t all change in the same way.  The same boiling water that hardens the egg softens the carrot.  But did you know that you also have the power to change the boiling water?  You have the power to change the world around you.  You can be like the tea bags, and infuse fragrance and flavor and color into the world because of what you’re going through!

You have the power to change the boiling water.  What an interesting idea.  We have the ultimate example of this, of course, in the cross.  We call it Good Friday, not because what happened to Jesus was good, but because he rose above the hatred shown to him, and instead exuded love.  His obedience transcended the circumstances of his life.  He showed us the way to turn discomfort into growth—into hope and new life.

Paul echoed this in his life and his writing.  “We rejoice in the hope of the glory of God,” he wrote.  We start with Jesus, crucified, dead and risen, and our faith in him gives us hope.  But Jesus didn’t promise his disciples easy lives!  When suffering comes, we can rejoice, because we know it’s an opportunity not only us to be changed—for our faith to become stronger, for us to persevere and develop courage and character—but it’s also an opportunity for us to change the world around us.  Our changed character, or growth, eventually produces hope for others.  We become like the tea bags that infuse the fragrance and flavor and colors of God into the world.

The last three years have provided plenty of boiling water opportunities!  From handling the anxiety and isolation of the pandemic, to the contentious political landscape in America, to the economic and social ramifications of the world in shut-down mode, I think we all feel like the egg and the carrot!  We’ve been through some stuff.  But I think it’s also true that we have taken that boiling water and been the tea bags!  One example that comes to mind immediately is our decision as a congregation to become a Reconciling Congregation.  Our denomination has been grappling with issues around human sexuality for decades.  This long drawn-out conflict has impacted so many congregations.  Some have become rigid.  Some have become weaker.

But I see you all as being the tea bags.  You became more open.  You became curious.  You asked, what can we do to make a positive difference?  Becoming a Reconciling Congregation was a small change for Lima.  But it’s had a big impact!  We have been a witness in our Eastern Pennsylvania Conference.  I know at least one church that has said, “Wow! Lima is a reconciling congregation.  Maybe we should look into that.  Maybe we should learn more.”  Lima started with a belief, maybe twenty years ago or more, that we are all on equal standing before the Lord, and we want to be a church home that is inclusive.  Whether you consciously took that step, or just kinda grew into it, you started with faith and peace.  You held onto those values, and you allowed challenging times to refine your faith.  Your perseverance turned to character, and your character has now turned to hope for other people!  Isn’t that amazing?  None of this was easy.  But we are learning how to turn our discomfort into growth.

I hope the former CEO of IBM is wrong when she said, “Growth and comfort will never coexist.”  In my experience, growth happens best when we feel loved, and usually feeling loved is one of life’s most comfortable experiences!  The research shows that we pay attention better, we focus more, we remember more, and we thereby hopefully accomplish more when we feel loved, accepted, and affirmed.  So we put a lot of emphasis on teaching people that they are loved, and teaching people to be loving.  We put a lot of emphasis on justice and mercy.  We are trying to cultivate a culture that helps nourishes people in their faith.

But we know that suffering comes.  That’s one of the reasons we invite people to read scripture for themselves, so they can learn more about God, and learn from people who had unique opportunities to encounter God.  And these opportunities often included hard times, difficult circumstances, painful situations.  They started with faith in Christ, they persevered, their character deepened, the allowed change to change them for the better—and now, look at the hope!  Their lives are still giving hope to people, two thousand years later. “We rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope.  And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.”

As I’ve said before, the Holy Spirit IS the gift.  The Holy Spirit is the conduit within us that gives us access to the power of God. This power is always at work for good, restoring sight to the blind, healing the broken, giving freedom to the oppressed.  Healed, whole, free:  this is God’s first choice for humankind.  But when suffering comes, maybe it’s time to make some tea.  Instead of hard times changing us, how can we use the hard times to change the world around us?  Amen.