HC 150309
2 Corinthians 1:3-11
To be, or not to be--that is the question:
Whether ‘tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles
And by opposing end them. To die, to sleep--
No more--and by a sleep to say we end
The heartache, and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to. ‘Tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wished. To die, to sleep--
To sleep--perchance to dream: ay, there’s the rub,
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
Must give us pause.
Anyone know where that quote is from? Hamlet Soliloquy, the most famous bit of Shakespeare – if we know nothing else we know that quote, to be or not to be that is the question. So Starters for ten no conferring, what is it all about- it is fantastic language but what is it really all about? I love Shakespeare and I got this from my Dad who loved words and poetry – his favourite piece of a play was Polonious’ advice to Laertes later in Hamlet, “Neither a borrower or a lender be”, we had that at his funeral. The language is beautiful, but it can be a bit dense and opaque. What is it actually saying? I remember reading the Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams book Lost Icons, and I thought this is very profound and very well written, but I have not got a clue what it is saying or how it relates to my life. The Bible can be a bit like this too, especially the Old Testament and some of the closely argued parts of the letters such as Romans and Hebrews – all very interesting and spiritual, but what actually does it mean? Do you sometimes feel like that? Do you think sometimes, I know I should be understanding this, but I cannot see how it relates to where I am. Good, we all are like this and we need to do some background work to help explain it. Scripture is sometimes described as a goldmine, but we have to do some hard work of digging before we get to the real precious material, but it is worth it. Shakespeare can be a bit like this. We need to get below the surface of the unusual language, and poetic way of speaking, and when we do we find that it is actually dealing with the realities of life in a way that helps us see our own lives in a new way. Not for nothing has Shakespeare’s plays lasted the test of time.
So What is this soliloquy all about? Hamlet is in a dilemma, and he is sharing this with the audience. Should he continue living – “to be” or should he just kill himself “not to be” Should he continue to fight it out, to struggle against what he considers an impossible situation –
to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune
, or just end it all –
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles and by opposing end them. To die, to sleep-- No more--and by a sleep to say we end the heartache, and the thousand natural shocks that flesh is heir to. ‘Tis a consummation devoutly to be wished.”
I knew someone once who had taken an overdose- he was in a mental hospital, his was in great distress over a personal problem, and he had taken an overdose just to get some rest from the mental turmoil he was in.
What situation was Hamlet in? Well he has just seen his father’s ghost who has told him that his father’s brother Claudius had killed Hamlet’s father, and Claudius had then married Gertrude, his mother and taken the throne. This has sent Hamlet into such a mental state that he contemplates suicide to end it all. The rest of the play is the outworking of Hamlet’s tormented mind until we get to the tragedy of the end – bodies lying everywhere, Hamlet, Gertrude, Laertes, Claudius, Polonius, Ophelia. It ends in tragedy, because Hamlet acts out of his tormented mind, seeking revenge rather than seeking help.
I wonder if you have ever known something of mental distress over a situation – be it family work or spiritual distress – something where your world falls apart, and you are left wondering what is going on, why is this happening to me. An author I admire, Gordon MacDonald in this book, calls it a “broken world” – a worldview that has sustained you for many years, the way you understand life and the way you live it, has been shattered, and in such situations you can end up questioning your faith. I have lived a good life, I have tried my best, not been perfect but I am better than others, especially those criminals and layabouts over there. Why is this happening to me? As many of you may know, I have for 30 years suffered from depression. Which comes on in bouts from time to time. I am not going into the reasons for this, that is private, but I can identify with Hamlet in the mental distress that he was going through. The Christian faith has helped me greatly – I could not have survived without it, and especially I have been helped by the Psalms. Some are psalms of praise and thanksgiving, but some are Psalms of complaint and anguish- listen to this Psalm 88
Ps 88:1 ¶ O LORD, God of my salvation, when, at night, I cry out in your presence,
2 let my prayer come before you; incline your ear to my cry.
3 For my soul is full of troubles, and my life draws near to Sheol.
4 I am counted among those who go down to the Pit; I am like those who have no help,
5 like those forsaken among the dead, like the slain that lie in the grave, like those whom you remember no more, for they are cut off from your hand.
6 You have put me in the depths of the Pit, in the regions dark and deep.
7 Your wrath lies heavy upon me, and you overwhelm me with all your waves. Selah
And unlike a lot of the other Psalms it does not end on a note of praise and trust
Ps 88:16 Your wrath has swept over me; your dread assaults destroy me.
17 They surround me like a flood all day long; from all sides they close in on me.
18 You have caused friend and neighbour to shun me; my companions are in darkness.
That is reality for many people in distress – St John of the cross calls it ‘The dark night of the soul’ and it is the experience of many of the saints over history. I would venture to suggest it is how our Lord Jesus Christ felt on the cross when he cried out ‘My God, My God, why have you forsaken me” quoting from Psalm 22. Depression and distress and not welcome visitors, but they do come from time to time, and we must know how to deal with them – they are part of what one writer calls “The Normal Christian life.” So how do we as Christians deal with the distress?
Our bible reading gives us clues. St Paul is actually under attack- under attack from pagans who oppose his ministry and are trying to kill him, well he can cope with that well enough, but much more distressing is the attack from within – some of the Corinthian elders are saying that because Paul has gone though all these troubles, God cannot really be with him, and therefore his credentials as an apostle are to be questioned. If you are really an apostle called by God, why ahs God allowed you to go through all of that? Therefore we do not need to respect your authority. St Paul therefore has to defend his authority as a leader in no uncertain terms – that is the thrust of 2 Corinthians. Paul is actually saying- my trials and my weaknesses are the proof that God is with me, because when I am weak, I am strong in the Lord, because it is only as I recognise my weakness, that I am forced to trust in God. That is the main argument of 2 Corinthians. Trials and difficulties and attacks are part of the normal Christian life – look at the life of our Lord –but the important thing is not to just internalise your feelings and brood for revenge like Hamlet, but to seek for God’s grace in the middle of it. Paul sums up the argument of 2 Corinthians in these first verses:
3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and the God of all consolation,
4 who consoles us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to console those who are in any affliction with the consolation with which we ourselves are consoled by God.
He starts with Praise and gives a testimony, that God is a God of mercy and consolation. Seek him and you will find him. Seek him especially in your affliction- sometimes it is the only time that we actually listen to God- as CS Lewis the Christian writer once said, pain is God’s megaphone to a hurting world’ implying that sometimes pain is the only thing we end up listening to God through, otherwise we forget God. So seek him in your affliction and know his grace and love and consolation. And the great thing about it is this: later, we are able to help others who have been through a similar experience, and we can testify,
I had a similar experience and God helped me through it, be encouraged, God is with you, keep going in faith God will see you through as he saw me through.
CS Lewis again, can you see me as a fellow patient in the hospital, who having been here a bit longer, can offer you some practical advice. Or as my spiritual director keeps telling me = you can’t give away what you haven’t got! The best people to help in a situation are those who have been through a similar experience – see the self help groups like Alcoholics anonymous or the other user groups on the internet for example, fellow sufferers helping others. Paul is a sufferer for the faith, he wants to help the Corinthians, but not with pious platitudes, but with the reality of a faith tested in the fire.
5 For just as the sufferings of Christ are abundant for us, so also our consolation is abundant through Christ. 6 If we are being afflicted, it is for your consolation and salvation; if we are being consoled, it is for your consolation, which you experience when you patiently endure the same sufferings that we are also suffering. 7 Our hope for you is unshaken; for we know that as you share in our sufferings, so also you share in our consolation.
Our experience is a trial and unpleasant, but it is part of the path that God has chosen for us- and we will thank Him in it, and we will pass on that consolation to you to encourage you in your faith. As we have known God’s strength in our weakness, than you will know it too, because our God is the same faithful God with you as with us
8 We do not want you to be unaware, brothers and sisters, of the affliction we experienced in Asia; for we were so utterly, unbearably crushed that we despaired of life itself.
9 Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death so that we would rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead.
Read Acts for details of how Paul suffered in Ephesus, beaten, attacked, maligned, riots, this continued right throughout his ministry. He was in despair of life. But unlike Hamlet, he did not see it so unfair that he must take revenge and his mind was warped by tradegy and suffering, NO, he saw this as sharing in the sufferings of Christ
Our motto is this Philippians 3 : 10 I want to know Christ
but how does it go on?
I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the sharing of his sufferings by becoming like him in his death, 11 if somehow I may attain the resurrection from the dead.
Jesus said Joh 16:33 I have said this to you, so that in me you may have peace. In the world you face persecution. But take courage; I have conquered the world!”
Have faith in God in the middle of your trials – let your problems bring you to the foot of the cross, where you know you cannot cope and ask God for the strength, and he will give it, because He is the God of resurrection, life after death, death of our own pride and resources, and new life in the risen power of the Holy Spirit.
10 He who rescued us from so deadly a peril will continue to rescue us; on him we have set our hope that he will rescue us again,
11 as you also join in helping us by your prayers, so that many will give thanks on our behalf for the blessing granted us through the prayers of many.
On him we have set our hope that he will rescue us again. He has doe it before in our lives, in the lives of the saints of those we know and love, He has supremely done it in the Lord Jesus Christ who he raised from the dead, and he will do it for you and me now and always – have faith, have hope, be encouraged, and then, perhaps look outside yourselves and try to pray for others in a similar situation of difficulty, and as you pray for them, trust that they are praying for you.
My dear brothers and sisters in Christ, life is not easy. The Christian life is not easy. Sometimes we have lulls and pleasant seasons, and we should thank God for these times, but they will not always last. Storms come and go, that is part of the weay of the world, until we get to heaven The key thing to ask ourselves is, what are we going to do when the storms come – are we going to brood and despair and plot our revenge against those we hold responsible – like Hamlet with tragic results, are we going to go around feeling sorry for ourselves, are we going to be cynical about faith – well I trusted God and look where it got me. Or are we going to do some digging in scripture and take some deeper lessons, the experience of the saints of history, that resurrection and victory does come, but only after there has been death- death of our pride, our self-reliance, our complacency. We can choose our own death- like Hamlet,
taking arms against the sea of troubles
death to what is good, a spiritual death which leads to tragedy,
or run away from the problems like an ostrich hoping it will be better when our head comes out of the sand. “To die, to sleep-- No more--and by a sleep to say we end The heartache, and the thousand natural shocks That flesh is heir to. ’
That is not the Christian way. The Christian way is to face the issues head on, trusting that God is with you and will see you through, whatever the circumstances. It is my experience and the experience of many others, and the testimony of our reading today, that as we do this and admit our weakness, that is when God’s strength comes into our lives and we receive his consolation, and maybe later we are given the ministry of consoling others with the consolation that we have ourselves received. Some parts of the bible I find hard to understand. But I can understand this, and I in my life have proved it to be true.
So be encouraged - whatever is going on in your life, God is with us. He is faithful
10 He who rescued us from so deadly a peril will continue to rescue us; on him we have set our hope that he will rescue us again,
3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and the God of all consolation,
