BELIEVE: hope RUMC 10-15-2017

BELIEVE: hope

RUMC 10-15-2017

 When I think of hope, I remember the days after watching the Musserville church burn in 1992, being given a box of pew pencils that had somehow escaped the inferno. The Pencils read, “Have faith in God.”

 Hope is walking through the burned out forests at Yellowstone, the charred smell still oozing from the remnants of last year’s fire, to see this sapling beginning to take root.

 Hope is watching the terrible video of bombings and bodies being carried off, and then seeing the image of these children walking with the service man with hope on their faces.

 Hope is being stranded on your roof as many were in Huston and hearing the sound of rescue boats one block over.

 Hope is the sound of sirens in the distance when you suddenly find yourself looking out of a windshield that looks like this.

We “hope” for many things. By that, we mean we want something, but we are just a little uncertain whether we will get it. In the usual sense, hope and wishful thinking are exactly the same thing.

I want to make clear today, however, that Christian hope and wishful thinking are very different. 

•           Wishful thinking is uncertain. Hope is absolutely sure.

•           Wishful thinking is about what we want. Hope is about who God is.

•           Wishful thinking comes from our imaginations. Hope comes from depths of faith.

•           Finally, Wishful thinking is a luxury. Hope is a survival skill.

Hope is a survival skill. Nothing lives without hope. That is why depression is such a debilitating illness; its major symptom is a loss of hope.

 I think we also have to differentiate between Hope and Peace. Two weeks ago, I referred to the Kekchi Indians of Guatemala describing peace as "quiet goodness."

I said that

•           Peace is a quiet sense of goodness in our heart, no matter what is happening outside.

•           Peace is a quiet feeling of goodness in our heart, no matter what the future may bring.

•           Peace is a quiet assurance that God is good, no matter what.

Hope on the other hand, I think, is having quiet goodness when all the evidence leads us to despair.

•           Hope is a quiet sense of goodness in our heart, even when we are consumed by darkness.

•           Hope is a quiet feeling of goodness in our heart, when we are sure there is no future.

•           Hope is a quiet assurance that God is good, even when all the evidence points the other direction.

Consider our ultimate existential crisis: Death.

All living things die. Eventually we will all die.

One way to live is to see that as the end. You can feel the coldness and loss of elasticity in a body. We put the body in the coffin and burry it, confident that there is nothing of our loved one there. It is just a box of gooey organic matter. If that’s all there is, why would we make the effort to take another breath?

 On the other hand, listen to how the Apostle Paul describes this same existential crisis. “Listen, I will tell you a mystery! We will not all die, but we will all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For this perishable body must put on imperishability, and this mortal body must put on immortality.

  When this perishable body puts on imperishability, and this mortal body puts on immortality, then the saying that is written will be fulfilled: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.”

“Where, O death, is your victory?

 Where, O death, is your sting?”

Flying in the face of the obvious fact of death, Paul sings this song of Christian hope in eternal life with God.

 Think about your life. Think about our world. Think about the things that scare you the most.

•           Maybe it is death.

•           Maybe it is cancer.

•           Maybe it is pain.

•           Maybe it is losing a loved one.

•           Maybe it is losing your job, or

•           running out of money, or

•           Losing your house. Maybe the thing that scares you the most is the prospect of

•           war, or

•           climate change, or

•           economic collapse.

What is it that scars you the most? Think about it. Imagine it. Hope is being able to stand up straight and thumb your nose at the very things that scare you the most.

Let me say that again. Hope is being able to stand up straight and thumb your nose at the very things that scare you the most…but not out of denial or ignorance. The person who dies because they didn’t recognize danger is just a fool. The hero is the person who recognizes danger and rushes in to rescue the child anyway, because that is the right thing to do.

Hope is only hope when we see disaster coming, but cling to God with strong conviction of the quiet goodness of God.

 When everything in the world tells us to despair, and worry, and update our wills; Christian hope gives us a different way to think, a different way to believe, and a different way to live. 

Hope in Christ gives us a different way to think.

Our minds can be our greatest enemy or our strongest ally. When I was a kid, they said you are what you eat. Well, now I know the truth is, “you are what you think.”

You may have heard me talking about “cognitive distortions.” It is a concept that helps me to understand that just because my mind thinks something is true, does not make it true. However, if I believe it is true… if I do not recognize the distortion… I will be duped into believing it and be consumed by its negativity.

•           Seeing only darkness is a distortion.

•           Believing we are in control is a distortion.

•           Believing that only good things happen to good people is a distortion.

But hope in Christ raises us above those distortions.

I am not talking about being a glass half full or glass half-empty person. I am talking about seeing that the important things are not in the glass at all, but in God.

 The apostle Paul describes this different way to think: “Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.”   or “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God—what is good and acceptable and perfect

Hope in Christ gives us a different way to think.

            Hope in Christ also gives us a different way to believe. On a day-to-day basis, we have little choice but to believe in the physical world we live in. If I don’t believe that I need to pay my Alliant bill, Alliant Energy will clear up that distortion pretty quickly. We have bills that need to be paid, problems that are waiting to be solved, and people who demand our attention.

If, however, we believe that we are alone in that, we are mistaken. In a 1967 conference called “REVIVING THE POWER OF THEOLOGY OF HOPE,”    Several things emerged, but one key was that if human beings have to face the future alone, all hope is lost. Our hope comes from believing that we do not face the future alone- but with God. Our hope comes from believing that we do not face today alone- but with God. We hope of a future with God because God is already there. We can face tomorrow and even the grave with hope because Jesus has already consecrated the future, and conquered the grave. 

Hope calls us to set aside the self-consumed idea that we are in this by ourselves, and “look to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who for the sake of the joy that was set before him endured the cross, disregarding its shame, and has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of God.”

At the end of John 16, Jesus says, “I have conquered the world.” That being said, we don’t have to do it ourselves.

And in Matthew 28 Jesus says, “Surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."  We never have to face the future alone.

God promises, “I will never leave you and never forsake you.”

Hope in Christ gives us a different way to believe because when we believe that we are not alone, it makes all the difference.

Hope in Christ gives us a different way to think.

Hope in Christ gives us a different way to believe

 Hope in Christ gives us a different life to live.

Do you know someone who lives by the mantra, “If you thought today was bad, just wait until tomorrow”? Very few people enjoy being around someone like this. Why? Because we all desperately want to enjoy today and tomorrow! And we NEED to believe that tomorrow can be better than today. 

Paul wrote “Brothers and sisters, we do not want you to be uninformed about those who sleep in death, so that you do not grieve like the rest of mankind, who have no hope.”

I say, friends, I do not want you to live as those who have no hope.

I want you to live believing that tomorrow may be better than today, but if it isn’t that’s OK, because God is there.

I want you to live believing that healing is possible, but if it doesn’t happen, we will be OK, because God is still with us.

I want you to live believing that God will answer your prayer, but if not, praise God anyway, because God is still with you.

I want you to live knowing that

•           no matter how ugly the world becomes…

•           no matter how badly someone may treat you…

•           no matter how desperate the situation may seem…

•           no matter what today brings …

•           no matter what tomorrow brings…

 We do not live hopelessly like the rest of the world… because we have Christian hope… we have peaceful contentment in our God who is always faithful.

            The psalmist said, “Be strong & take heart, all you who hope in the Lord.” Ps.31:24

Bill and Gloria Gather wrote the ultimate song of hope… you ask why I hope… it is because he lives.

 Because he lives, and for no other reason, I can face tomorrow.

Because he lives, there is no other explanation, all fear is gone.

Let’s sing the refrain.

Because He lives, I can face tomorrow.

Because He lives all fear is gone.

 Because I know, He holds the future

and life is worth the living just because He lives.