Introduction: Dads like to talk a lot about things that build character. For example, I heard this one…“Yesterday I was washing the car with my son. Gee, dad, he said, can’t we just use a sponge. No, son, I said, this builds character.” In the comic strip Calvin and Hobbes, Calvin’s father was always talking about building character by doing things the hard way. Calvin complains that all they other kids’ dads have snow blowers but he has to use a shovel. His dad says it builds character. His day told him to taste a food, that he might love it. Calvin said what if I don’t love it? He father replied, it will build character. One day Calvin dresses up like his father and walks into his father’s study and says, “Calvin, go and do something you hate. Being miserable builds character.”
Dads are right to focus on the importance of character-building. Stoic philosopher and teacher Epictetus wrote in his Discourses, “Don’t you know that life is a military campaign? One must serve on watch, another in reconnaissance, another on the front line…So it is for us- each person’s life is a kind of battle, a long and varied one, too. You must keep watch like a soldier and do everything commanded…You have been stationed in a key post, not some lowly place, and not for a short time but for life.”
On this dads and grads Sunday, I want to speak to the men present today, but these words will also speak to the women present. Because women value men who see clearly that life is a battlefield and who do not run from the danger. But who instead face life with hope, a hope that is made possible by the power of the Holy Spirit through Jesus Christ living in us as men of faith. This may sound at first like a religious platitude, but we’re going to unpack that in a moment.
But let’s begin with this: One of the foundational understandings about life among nearly all the major world religions, including Christianity, is that life equals suffering. The baseline of our existence is suffering and struggle. Pain is the standard. We have drives and ambitions that for a time are fulfilled but as soon as they are fulfilled, we begin to crave again. This craving – fulfillment – craving – fulfillment cycle is a part of life. In the meantime bad things happen, even to good people. Sickness, disappointment and loss land upon all of us. Struggle is at the center of life.
The sooner we recognize this about life, the sooner we can meet life head on. When we stop expecting life to be easy but anticipate struggle as the baseline, something liberating happens. We stop condemning and judging life and, instead, begin from a point that we can affirm life. We find that, in spite of the struggle, in spite of the experience of loss and the prospect of more loss, that life, surprisingly, can be filled with moments of joy, ecstasy and a deep fulfillment. This joy, ecstasy and deep fulfillment are possible because of the Holy Spirit living in us.
So, how does this Holy Spirit work in the life of a man to transform us into a man of purpose, a man of hope? Here is the truth about us men. We are both raging chaos and a calm and constructive order. / We are instinct. We are reason. / We are power. We are love. / In the right balance of chaos and order, instinct and reason, power and love, we can produce a marriage, a family and a society that is the envy of all men. But we have to realize and understand how to harness the power of Christ and of the Holy Spirit to put to good purpose the chaos and raw power within us.
In fact, we as men are a microcosm of the universe. All of creation is this interplay of chaos and order, instinct and the reasoning principle. In Genesis, at the beginning of the world, we find the Spirit of God, the power of order, reason, creativity and purpose hovers over the void, or the chaotic potential. And then God speaks and the Spirit enters into the chaos and a new creation begins to form and is still forming today. Ever since then, this dance of order and chaos, of Spirit and potential has been taking place. We are partners in that same dance. / We are chaos. We are Spirit. / We are instinct, we are reason. /Men, we are a force to be reckoned with when the Spirit guides and directs the passion and energy within to a divine end.
Paul says in our text today that, “God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.” Our chaotic lives, in which we constantly encounter suffering and struggle, are yet infiltrated, bathed in, washed in, the Holy Spirit. And because of this, we have the ability to create a life of goodness, beauty, excellence and love out of these old carcasses of ours. Even as we struggle each day with the demands and disappointments of life, we can find glory and peace and joy. Though we feel tired, defeated by life, and worn out, , Paul says the powerful presence of the Spirit offers us hope, that we might boast in the hope of the glory of God.
God wants to build you into a man of hope, not of defeat, resentment and anger. Defeated, resentful and angry you are not position to achieve what God has for your life. But if we establish and maintain hope, we leave the door open for possibilities.
But becoming a man of hope does not happen by magic. It does not happen at the snap of the finger. It does not happen by some miracle. Our hope, our transformation into a new creation, requires a new mindset, a new approach to life. Paul describes the process in this way: “…we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; 4 perseverance, character; and character, hope.” Paul says life may seem chaotic and out of control, full of suffering and struggle. But he says do not miss this important, life-changing fact. While there is a fury of chaos and uncertainty raging in the universe, and a chaotic concoction of instinct and desire pulsing through your veins as men, which can wreak all kinds of havoc, yet there is the presence of the powerful, ordering, redeeming Holy Spirit embedded and flowing in your mind, body and soul. Respond to the Spirit’s ordering, loving work, and you will find peace and purpose.
Here’s how it works, Paul says. Suffering is forever present, but if we are not defeated by suffering and who persevere, the Spirit will take those experiences of pain and suffering and begin to build in you character. Now the word character, means a symbol branded on a body, an engraving etched into the soul. As soon as a struggle or a suffering ensues in our life – be it a sickness, a loss, a disappointment – the Holy Spirit immediately begins to meet that suffering with the peace and grace of the Divine.
The Holy Spirit looks for faith, which is the great catalyst for the Holy Spirit to work. If faith is found, the Holy Spirit begins to take the effects of your suffering and uses your suffering to strengthen you as you persevere and remain faithful. A mark is left on your soul, which is character. This character is etched in our soul, your mind and your body. So much that you become a person no longer of defeat but of hope. And hope sustains. Hope begets hope, which begets more hope. And you, in spite of and because of your faith through suffering are transformed into a man of hope. So much so that you boast in the hope of the glory of God. No matter what comes your way, you say, “Thank you, Lord. Work in me some more hope. Work in me strength, perseverance. Build my character.
This is our life’s work. This is, as Epictetus says, the key military post to which we have been stationed in the battlefield of life. To allow the Spirit of God to build in us character as Spirit wrests with chaos.
Think of the words we associate with a person of character. They are reliable and reputable, even in the difficult times, even when no one is looking. We also associate a person of character with being an eccentric person, such as when we say, “Boy, he’s a character, isn’t he?” A person of character is eccentric because he doesn’t go along with the crowd. He stands out because he doesn’t join in with the resentful, life-denying herd that’s always complaining and talking about their rights. A man of character, which is a man of faith, realizes that his responsibility is of higher value than his rights.
In native European spirituality practiced by the our European ancestors before Christianity, there was an understanding that to stand up to suffering, to fight to the end in the face of danger, was the highest mark of character. It was a multi-directional understanding of our responsibility as men and women in society. Above is our responsibility to God. Below is our responsibility to the earth. To the sides is our responsibility to our brothers and sisters (frith). But cutting diagonally through us was our responsibility to our ancestors and to our descendants. Our responsibility is not just to the here and now but transcends time. A man of hope sees his role in the long history of his family, past and to come, and of the broader community.
A man of character, a person of hope, is not sucked into the me-ism of modern life. Modern man is little more than a pitiable individual consumer. Modern man is only interested in himself, acquiring great wealth and power, no matter what the cost, with no concern for God, neighbor or the earth. In contrast, the man hope will stand in a responsible relationship to all of those around him or her. God, earth, neighbor, ancestors and descendants. Your life is more than what you can acquire and save for you and your immediate family. You are part of a community – of the living, of the dead and of those yet to come. Until just a few generations ago before the selfish me generation ideology of the 1960s was unleashed, a man of hope was a man who saw himself as part of this bigger, eternal picture. He gave of himself to his family, to his community, to his country, to his God. Life was about building an enduring, beautiful, functional, stable society for those who would come after him.
That is not the focus of so many men today. So many young men don’t want to marry or have children because it will be inconvenient for them or cut into their fun, social lives. Men work and work and work and don’t invest time in their community – in the PTA, school boards, local government, local clubs that benefit the community. They make their dollar, go home and spend hour in front of ESPN and live a heroic life vicariously through sports stars. Or they watch endless hours of Netflix, where they encounter a life-denying, egoistic, selfish worldview that further erodes our society and the value of man and woman.
Our grandparents and previous generations had a more radical and honest understanding of reality. They understood that life is tough, but that does not mean we bail out and medicate on the drug of choice or amuse ourselves to death with TV and social media, or make the acquisition of more things the centerpiece of a hedonistic, selfish life. They understood the equation Paul laid out for us. Suffering and struggle make us stronger. We should not run from it but face it. Because suffering produces perseverance. Perseverance produces character. Character produces hope. Men of hope can take this selfish, destructive, life-denying society and make it what it once was – a society of neighbors caring for neighbors. Communities with a city square where people gather to hear local musicians sing about joy and happiness even in the midst of struggle. A society where men involve themselves in service organizations and clubs to make life a better place. There are local clubs – from the Rotary Club, the Republican and Democrat party, the Optimist Club, local school groups, that are hungry for your participation. There is something for you to do in this Church to make a difference. See your pastor. He will let you know what needs to be done. Though life is tough, get out of your bubble, and get involved. Persevere. Build character. Begin to hope again.
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