One of the more tasteless jokes around is the old line, “Well apart from that, Mrs. Lincoln, how did you enjoy the play?” There was no play to enjoy that night at Ford’s Theatre, as in one shattering moment, our nation’s President, Abraham Lincoln lost his life. Mary Lincoln’s life was full of tragedy. She lost her mother when she was a girl, and three of her four sons died tragically of disease. Mary Lincoln didn’t handle her suffering very well. For the next seventeen years of her life, until she died, she always wore black. She never again set foot inside a theatre. She never really recovered from her husband’s death. 

On the other hand, there is another First Lady, Eleanor Roosevelt, who also had her share of tragedies. She lost her brother when she was young, and both of her parents died before she turned twelve. One of her other brothers drank himself to death. She lost a child, and she was estranged from her husband. But somehow, Eleanor Roosevelt was able to turn her sorrow into tremendous sympathy for others. She sponsored activities to help other widows. She wrote a newspaper column. She was one who championed the causes of the poor. As historians have compared the lives of Mary Lincoln and Eleanor Roosevelt, they have concluded that their responses had much to do with their faith, more than anything else.   

It’s probably fair to say that most of us have more Mary Lincoln in us then we care to admit. One of the reasons we as Christians react so poorly to pain and suffering is that we believe peace, happiness, and comfort are our own inalienable rights. It’s like it’s part of our Christian insurance policy. We pay the premium of faith and repentance and then God is supposed to keep us from hard times. And when God doesn’t do that, we feel ripped-off. And that leads to bitterness. 

Friends, God never promised us a rose garden. In fact, he said just the opposite. Jesus said, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.” Scripture commands us to be an Eleanor Roosevelt. We are called by God to creatively use the suffering that comes to us as a way of helping others. 

This Sunday, I am continuing my sermon series on the beatitudes of Jesus, as we will also be looking at the words of Paul from II Corinthians, “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God.” Wow! What a tongue-twister! Trying to say that fast 3 times! I mean We have a God of comfort who comforts us so that we might help others in their comfort from the comfort we have received. There seems to be a word that Paul wants to indelibly write in our minds. It is the - the word,

“comfort.”

Please join us for worship on Sunday at either 8:00 am or 10:30, as we give thanks to the God of Comfort!  

Pastor John