Sermon Easter 6c for 2016: Letting Hope Do It s Work Introduction: How Much Hope When It Seems Absent

Transcription

1 Sermon Easter 6c for 2016: Letting Hope Do It s Work Introduction: How Much Hope When It Seems Absent One of the great themes or promises running through the season of Easter; And actually all through the Bible and the Christian life Is the theme or the promise of hope. Easter and the season of Easter are all about hope; And actually about a hope against hope or a hope beyond what we could ever imagine As Jesus is raised from the dead and is alive out here in our world; Promising forgiveness and life for us now and beyond the door of death. And hope has a prominent place all through the scriptures; I used a study help this week and found out that There are 202 times in the Bible where the word hope is used; And it s one of the most common responses when life gets tough Or when we re looking to God to come into our lives. Sometimes hope in the Bible is a verb as in the act of expecting something or someone; And sometimes hope is a noun or a power that is working in our lives And working in the world to bring about change; To alter whatever circumstances we may be facing. Most dictionaries define the concept of hope as A feeling of expectation and desire for a certain thing to happen; Or a sense of trust in our minds or in our souls that All will be well and that there is good coming our way. It s been my experience that hope is such a common part of our conversation That we forget what an important force hope can be; And we forget to hope, we forget to dream, to expect and to trust. 1

2 For me, and for some of you I expect, when life is going well, my hopes are small; As in I hope we re not having canned asparagus for dinner; That was a common dish at my grandmother s house; And we end up not hoping for very much And take life as it comes because generally it s all right. But when life get tough, when we feel a need, when we can t see the way forward; Then the power and hope in hope grows stronger; As though it s a force that can work good in the world; As in I hope she recovers from her illness; Or I hope he will be able to see again after the accident. And sometimes, when our lives have been squashed or pressed down for a long time; When our lives seem like an unending struggle, day after day, week after week; Then we can actually lose hope and settle for the lesser life we re living; Expecting nothing more. Let me give you some personal examples: When Laura met Ray in college; Ray was finishing law school and she was in her second year; She left school before graduation and they had three beautiful children in 3 years; She had the normal and persistent challenges of being a young mother of three But she loved her life, her husband, and their three kids. When the oldest child was four, Ray was in a city four hours away meeting with clients; And Laura was folding laundry, again, when the phone rang; It was Ray s partner telling her that Ray had gone into diabetic shock and had died. Laura hung up the phone, weeping and wondering how she would manage; And for the next year, she walked through her life, barely able to mother their children; And felt resigned to the fact that this was her life and she would just have to cope. 2

3 Carl was on a roll in his mid-thirties, a good job, good pay, and a growing family. In 2007, he decided to leave the large, safe company That was gradually moving him up the corporate ladder To take a job with a start-up company; The pay was better, it was much more exciting, and the earning potential was huge. When the company failed and the economy staggered; Carl found himself out of a job, out of real prospects, And with just a few months of savings available to his family; For four years he was in and out of low paying jobs; And settled in thinking this was the way it was going to be. You have your stories like this as well and know people who have even harder stories; We all have these moments, large and small, And some of us may be in the midst of one of these difficult times today; These times when we ve been knocked down and are struggling to get up And hope, well that s not much help anymore. Struggles are part of the human condition; They re part of our lives, part of everyone s lives; Jesus says in Matthew s Gospel that In this life troubles come ; And what you and I do with our troubles or what our troubles do with us Has a lot to say about the kind of life we re going to lead And the kind of God we hope in. Because if you want to stay down, you can; God will allow you to stay down; He won t force His way into your life to bring about change; But if you want to get up and find your way through the troubles You can do that, too, because hope is a verb and a noun; That opens the way for God to come in. 3

4 God Looking For Us This is an important Gospel story for those of us who have little or no hope; Or who aren t really bothering with hope because life is okay This story reveals the power of God to respond to our hope, small though it may be. It s an important to me because in all of the Gospel stories about Jesus healing people; There is one common thread that links them all; People come to Jesus. He doesn t go to them uninvited. They have hope and Jesus never disappoints. The leader of the synagogue, Jairus, comes to Jesus to beg Jesus to heal his daughter; And by the time Jesus arrives at Jairus house the girl has sickened and died; But Jesus restores her to life. They had hope. The woman who has been bleeding for twelve years and is an outcast as a result Approaches Jesus to merely touch the hem of his robe to be healed And power comes forth from Jesus to heal her because she hopes. The ten lepers by the side of the road beg Jesus to save them, to heal them and Jesus does Blind Bartimaeus cries out, Jesus son of David have mercy on me; And Jesus restores his sight; because they all hope. In all of the healing stories in the Gospels, people come to Jesus to be healed, restored, Lifted into a new life; in all of them, except the Gospel story for today; This story of Jesus with the man by the pool of Beth-Zatha or Bethesda When Jesus breaks His pattern of healing And asks this man first, if he wants to be made well. And so you and I need to understand that there is a very important purpose For John to include this story that breaks the pattern of Jesus healing; There is something in this story that is important for you and me. 4

5 Something important about a hope that opens our lives to the power of God; So that we can pass through our troubles and be restored to life; And remember that to hope brings more and more life. In Jesus day, the pool of Beth-Zatha or Bethesda was known for its healing powers; The legend was that once a day, an angel would stir the waters And the first person to enter the waters would be healed As a result of this close connection to God s power through the angel. So if you had a disease or a condition that couldn t be healed by human hands or by time; You hung out by the pool in the hope that you might get lucky And be the first one in after the waters had been stirred. On this day, the pool is surrounded by hurting people the blind, the lame, the paralyzed All hoping that today they would be the person to be healed That they would be restored to the life they hoped to live. And in this crowd of trouble and difficulty and sorrow and pain There s a man lying near the pool who had been there for thirty-eight years Hoping that he would be the first in, the one to be healed. Now that s a long time to wait to be healed, a long time to be going through some trouble And I suspect that his hope was pretty thin by this time; Because when Jesus asks him if he wants to be healed (and note Jesus does ask) He doesn t yes, please, thank you very much; But gives Jesus all the reasons why he won t be the one lucky enough to be healed: He doesn t have a friend to lift him in; He s not fast enough; He s not near enough. So Jesus, seeing this poor man, this man with so very little hope; Breaks His normal pattern of waiting for someone to approach Him And commands the man to stand up, take up your mat and walk. 5

6 With all the people Jesus heals in the normal course of His ministry There is hope that God will heal them and restore them to their lives And that s why they come to Jesus; But even when there is very little hope; God can still change our circumstances and come to us. Hope Makes the Difference Laura goes home to her parents to live for a year And on the anniversary of her husband s death decides to go back to college She becomes a teacher, finds love again, and has three more children, Thankfully, since I m one of the three more children.. Carl ran through what little money he had left and is nearly desperate; When he decided that a low paying job is better than no job at all; And re-enters the work force; He s still in that job, though it has expanded; But today is a person of much greater character and goodness and good humor and hope. Hope is a powerful way of living this life; Hope opens the way for our lives to be touched by God where life is hard; Hope opens the way for a greater life when life is good; Hope points the way to the life that is really life. We have a God who is looking for us and looking out for us; A God who is ready and willing to help us face our troubles, to get well; To get on with the life we are being called to live And God will change our circumstances, as we open our lives to Him with hope; And the sense of expectation and trust in God s goodness and greater plan. And so today, on this Sunday of our annual meeting when we remember What hope has accomplished over this past year. And what hope in God may accomplish in the years to come 6

7 I invite you to keep your hope alive; I invite you to pay attention to the power of hope in your life; And in the lives of people around you. Remember that whatever troubles and challenges you are facing or will face; You are not alone; Remember that as good as life may seem at this moment, God promises more. For the presence and power of God are always at work in our live; And hope is the key. Amen. 7