Hope

(*Note: This is my first sermon at Wellston Hope UMC)

Romans 5:1-5

It’s been quite a journey for me and my family, and I imagine you are in some ways right in the same boat as we are. Except that most of you don’t have all of your earthly possessions in boxes all over the place. But you are definitely in the “who is going to be our new pastor?” mode, and being in that mode for the last four months hasn’t been all that fun, has it?

I invite you to take the time to get to know us.

What I know definitively about Wellston Hope UMC, I can sum up in a few statements. I know that the West Ohio Conference and the Shawnee Valley District believe in this church. Word has spread about your generosity in the midst of a difficult economic landscape. You have been pegged as having the potential to be a hub of ministry, a vibrant disciple-making station for hope in a city that has been described to me as having no hope.

I have been sent here because there is hope.

I have spent time discerning what to preach when I got here – it’s difficult because I wasn’t able to do the transition work that I would have liked to, but that’s not the fault of anybody here, and know that I don’t hold it against any of you. That said, it’s time to get to the hope.

If you would turn in your Bibles to Romans 5, that’s where we’re going to spend most of our time this morning. Paul writes the following:  Therefore, - now let me stop there for a moment. I remember as a child hearing that whenever you read a “therefore” in the Bible, you have to go back and see what it’s there for. The “therefore” in this case refers back to Paul’s statement about Jesus: He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification. (Romans 4:25).

Because of Jesus’ perfect sacrifice on the cross, we are justified – we are made just as if we had never sinned. This does not just mean we have been forgiven. Yes, we are forgiven, but this means more. Just as an aside, God does not “forget” our sins, as we think of forgetting. Most of us have been damaged by the old phrase “forgive and forget” because when the pain comes flooding back, we wonder if we ever forgave in the first place. God, in His omnipotence, actually cancels the sin itself, cleansing us, making us as if we had never sinned in the first place. Talk about good news! OK, now let’s continue into Romans 5.

Therefore, since we have been justified through faith,

OK, we have to stop here. Remember that our justification is never by what we do. If our justification could come through some other means, if we could just work harder and therefore achieve it, Jesus would have gone to the cross in vain. But since he is the only way, if we have faith in him, we can have peace with God.

There is no way for sin to remain in God’s presence, so our sinful existence is apart from God’s presence. That’s a pretty depressing place to be in. But our faith in Jesus causes transformation and gives us access to God, even peace with God. It is because of Jesus Christ that we can even pray to God, because apart from Him, our efforts are futile. God, however, pours His grace on us: But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:8)

I love how Paul includes that the hope of the glory of God is worthy of rejoicing. I personally cannot wait until I get to heaven. I can’t wait to see Jesus face-to-face, to thank him personally for going to the cross for me, to worship God in person. But Paul reminds us that our lives here and now are meant to be spent in rejoicing, too!

You might be thinking, “No way can I rejoice right now. Who does this guy think he is, telling me to rejoice? He doesn’t know what I’ve been through.” Paul knows your pain, and he says, “It’s time to redefine everything.”

Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character, and character, hope.

When we suffer, we learn to persevere. Our culture’s attitude was lampooned some twenty years ago by the Simpsons. Homer had gotten Bart a guitar, but Bart quit, pleading with his dad not to be mad. Homer responded: "Of course I'm not mad, if something's hard to do, then it's not worth doing. You just stick that guitar in the closet next to your short wave radio, your karate outfit and your unicycle and we'll go inside and watch TV."
B: "What's on?"
H: "It doesn't matter."

Our culture often stresses that if something is hard, it’s not worth doing, but as we endure through suffering, we learn perseverance. In the Bible, we see perseverance carrying two different “weights” (if you will). One is the weight of “hanging in there” – a         state of continuing despite difficulty and obstacles. One of the reasons God allows us to suffer is because we aren’t the finished product yet. God allows us to suffer because he uses it to help shape us into the people he created us to be. Just as an aside, because this has no bearing on today’s scripture, but God also allows us to suffer so as we experience healing, we, too can become healers. Henri Nouwen refers to the Wounded Healer.

While suffering helps us become who God created us to be, it doesn’t help to tell someone “hang in there – things will get better” because sometimes they just don’t. Sometimes it seems like we were made to suffer, that it’s our lot in life.

But perseverance in the Bible also carries the weight of remaining faithful to gain the reward that God has for us. Paul writes to the church in Philippi that, “I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 3:14).  The prize we wait for is Christ Himself, and the perseverance that we’re called to is enduring faith that does not die off during difficult circumstances.

People tend to go one way or another when faced with difficulty; some end up completely forsaking their faith, saying, “If God could allow… then I can’t accept that God.” This is part of a concept called theodicy, which is the study of the problem of evil – how can we reconcile a good God with the existence of evil?

But that’s not the only option for those who faith difficulty. I often see people who are going through unspeakably difficult times who end up serving as an inspiration to so many others because they remain so faithful. It’s not a fake faithfulness, one that pretends that everything is OK; it is a real peace that cannot be explained except that they are so sure of their standing with God that they can truly say along with the Apostle Paul: to live is Christ and to die is gain. (Philippians 1:21)

This kind of godly perseverance develops our godly character – we continue to grow into Christ’s likeness. We are obedient to the Father. We are full of Holy Spirit love, even to enemies. We can’t help but share Him with everyone we come into contact with. And along with that character comes hope.

Being in a church named “Hope” I imagine that every new pastor comes in preaching about hope. Am I right? But I figure we’re several years out from Glen’s first Sunday here, so I’m safe. Are we characterized by hope? The reason hope comes through suffering, perseverance, and character is that it is through this avenue that we learn dependence on God alone, and not only is God the only hope we have, but he is also the only hope we need.

Paul concludes this thought by saying: 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.

There are times when I’ve followed directions that seemed counter-intuitive and wondered why on earth would I do this when it looks like that would be the clear way to go. With God, however, we are not sent out blindly. We have been given the Holy Spirit, who will guide us and lead us and teach us and speak warnings and comfort to us, who will assure us of salvation.

With the Holy Spirit in us, we have everything we need.

A couple of weeks ago, at Annual Conference, I was walking around Lakeside, and I saw this beautiful flower garden. In the middle of the flower garden was a sprinkler set up on a pole. The sprinkler was set to spray water in a circle and thus soak the entire garden. I noticed that since the garden was square, the sprinkler watered the grass in a circle around the garden as well, so that grass was a lush, green circle, in stark contrast to the brown, dying grass around it. Except for one area. There was a flagpole in the front of the garden, and the water spray couldn’t get to the grass behind that pole, so the grass in that area was all dead.

Friends, we who know Jesus Christ have life, and we have it in abundance. We have a never-wavering hope in Him, a hope that will never disappoint us – a fact we know, as God has given us the Holy Spirit, We are that green grass, watered and well-fed. But all around us there are struggling people, desperately in need of Living Water.

We have the duty as Christians to examine what those poles are, what hinders those around us from knowing Jesus Christ, and rooting them out so we can be the vessel by which God’s Spirit goes forth.