My Hope Is Built On Nothing Less. Romans 15: st Advent - Hope. Dr. Greg Anderson November 29, 2015

Transcription

1 My Hope Is Built On Nothing Less Romans 15: st Advent - Hope Dr. Greg Anderson November 29, 2015 Riverdale Baptist Church Whitehorse, Yukon

2 Introduction 1 As you know a few weeks ago I was at the Banff Pastor s Conference and I had the privilege of leading the morning Bible Studies, which, I believe, went well. If nothing else, I did for the Lord and I had joy in doing it. Is this not our hope? Now because of this on our first evening Carol and I were invited to seat with the other speakers for supper and I found myself next to Dr. Tony Campolo. And is it not the hope of Jesus? I noted that he was wearing a plastic bracelet with the words; Red Letter Christians printed on it. By now you have probably picked up that I am not overly enamoured with the American Evangelical Business Empire and so my immediate reaction was to not even think about what a Red Letter Christian was but simply to dismiss it as another Yankee plot to get money out of my pocket. But later on I was thinking about this and it suddenly occurred to me: oh yes, I remember now, when I was young I had a Bible that in the Gospel section was filled with red letters. (Who else had such a Bible?) The red letters were the words of Jesus. Apparently Red Letter Christians are Christians who make a commitment to live according to the words of Jesus! Wow! Sign me up! Are there any words (think) more attractive, more wise, more in line with the yearning of our souls for what is good and holy? Imagine a world that was inspired by, revolved around, and ordered in its values and systems by the words of Jesus. And this leads me to our reading this morning because it is one of the most significant places in Scripture where there is a focus on hope and what exactly the Christian hope is. Text The letter to the Romans, of course, is widely acknowledged as the premier theological/philosophical statement contained in the New Testament. Its teaching on justification by faith in Christ alone is the cornerstone of Protestantism. However, there is more to Romans than justification by faith.

3 The latter half of Romans places justification by faith into the larger Scripture narrative of God s design for the ages. 2 Another speaker at Banff was Dr. Leonard Sweet. Dr. Sweet quite effectively led us from our tendency to analyze, deconstruct, and systematize to consider rather the larger story, the narrative of Scripture; of God s relationship with his creation. My generation was brought up to value the scientific method above all else. Our rational ability to take things apart, understand how things work, and classify them accordingly. This is a good value, but at times this method blinds us to the larger picture. I think my children s generation, having been brought up on media can sometimes appreciate better the story, the larger narrative. In any case, in the last half of Romans, Paul considers how the Jewish Messiah, who is Jesus Christ, by his saving death justifying sinners, also fulfills God s covenant with his people. It began with Abraham, the promise was for an heir and a people who would be God s people in the world. Of particular interest is how Abraham became the first hopeful person in the Bible. He hoped beyond hope (Sarah and him being too old) for a child. And as our passage demonstrates; God s covenant with the Jewish people has the ultimate design of bringing all people under the benevolent rule of the kingdom of God. The passage begins with the pastoral thrust of concluding Paul s address in Romans 14 to the weak and strong in the congregation who were at odds with each other. The weak and strong most likely representing Jews and Gentiles in the congregation. Central to the Gospel is for identifiable groups to live in unity in the congregation. Tom Wright observes: Paul is saying: This is how to obtain in practice the great central blessings I outlined at the heart of the letter. Allow justification by faith to produce fellowship by faith and you will know the peace, patience, joy and hope that the Spirit brings. Justification by faith to produce fellowship by faith. Justification by faith is what Paul is getting at when in verse 3 he says: For even Christ did not please himself but, as it is written: The insults of those who insult you have fallen on me. By quoting Psalm 69 Paul brings forth what Jesus did on the Cross where the hostility of sinners toward God was atoned for. Jesus did this for us justification by faith, how could we possibly be at odds with different groups in the congregation fellowship by faith?

4 However, going over this passage again and again the one word that surfaces more than others is not what we would expect. If all this passage is about is the strong bearing with the weak; or accepting one another just as Christ accepted me; if it is simply about harmony in the congregation then why is not the predominate word: love? Or, given the unified praise mentioned again and again in the passage; why is not the one dominate word: joy? Rather what we have is: hope! Verse 4: we might have hope. Verse 12: in him the Gentiles will hope Verse 13: May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope... Hope in what? Application Paul tells us. First, he demonstrates that the Scriptures, as it says in Hebrew 4, are living and, in fact, are given for God s people throughout the ages in order to see and be encouraged that Christ sums up the Scriptural story. Then he brings in these four quotations, 9-12, from the Law, the Psalms and the Prophets That was Paul s Bible And all the passages he selects point to the design of God wherein the Messiah will bring salvation to the people of Israel and through the fulfilling of God s covenant, salvation, as Paul points out in Romans 8, to the nations and indeed even to all creation. This is what Scripture portrays as the hope. What does the hope look like? Verse 12: and again Isaiah says, The root of Jesse shall come, the one who rises to rule the Gentiles; in him the Gentiles shall hope. This does not currently seem to the be the case. Why not? There are various complicated reason. However, of current interest... Perhaps because we have flooded the popular imagination with a story, a narrative, that is not too far removed from what the radical Jihadists are propagating and in fact is an impetus for the suicide bombers. 3

5 4 The captivating narrative is Armageddon, the Apocalypse, where in all the unbelievers and evil doers will be crushed and destroyed. The difference, in this regard, between us and the radical Jihadists is who indeed are the unbelievers and evil doers. It comes as no surprise that the Gentiles, the nations, would not be putting their hope in that kind of story. While the Apocalypse is indeed part of the Biblical narrative it is not the main point of the story. What is the main point? That Jesus Christ will bring God s rule to this world and in a wonderful manner to creation itself. Do we not witness the need for restoration, personally, socially and environmentally? The rule of Jesus will look like the red letters. If we Christians, especially in our congregations, were doing a better job of displaying the red letters of Jesus, there would be more hope in the world. Go find yourself a Bible and read the red letters. Do they not portray what people yearn for? When, in the face of tragedy, disaster and so on, in the face of environmental degradation, social collapse, refuge camps, war, and terror, we think to ourselves: This is not the way it is supposed to be. If only I could have a life and live in a world where the ultimate values and designs and relationships, both near and far, - communal, national, international, environmental, were infused by the words of Jesus. May this Advent & Christmas Season, we all overflow with hope, as the Holy Spirit works into us, individually and as a congregation, some of those red letters. Amen.