Thursday, January 5, 2017

“In Christ We have Hope” Romans 15:4–13, Advent 2A Dec. ‘16





1.        In the name of Jesus.  Amen.  The message from God’s Word this 2nd Sunday in Advent is taken from Romans 15:4-13 and it’s entitled, “In Christ We Have Hope,” dear brothers and sisters in Christ.
2.       A small boy says to a grocery clerk: “Do you have any Advent?” Clerk: “I don’t think so—what is it?” Boy: “I don’t know either; but Mom says we can’t have Christmas till we have Advent.” Advent is the time when we get ready for the coming of Jesus, his coming at Bethlehem, his coming to our hearts, and his coming at the end of the world. We have to wait a few more weeks to celebrate his coming at Bethlehem, and we don’t know how long we have to wait for his final coming at the end of time. All we know is that we learn to wait by his coming to our hearts every day. Today’s Epistle from Romans says that God gives us hope as we wait, for we know that in Christ we have hope. St. Paul mentions hope four times in these few verses.
3.       In the movie City Slickers three men in midlife crisis are searching to find themselves and their place in life. At one point Mitch, the character played by Billy Crystal, turns to his boss and says, “Have you ever reached a point in your life where you say to yourself, “This is the best I’m ever gonna look, this is the best I’m ever gonna feel, this is the best I’m ever gonna do, and it ain’t so great”? Later in the movie his friend made a similar assessment, “At this point in life, where you are is where you are.” But no matter where we are or where we have been in our lives, through Christ God can give us a new beginning, a new life of faith and hope.  In Christ we have hope.
4.       It’s hope that helps us wait to celebrate Christmas and hope that sustains our faith as we wait for his coming again.  But, Hope may seem elusive in our modern world. “A thing with feathers that perches in the soul,” Emily Dickinson called it. For many of us, hope may be something of a last resort. It’s what we do after all our planning and preparing is done. It’s what we do if we can’t fix whatever the problem is. Such a perspective puts us at the center of the universe, of course, and God is what is there to take up the slack.  But, for others, hope is buying a lottery ticket or going to the casino. It’s imagining that there’s some force in the universe that will come to our rescue and give us what we think we want. We may call this “luck” or “fate” or “chance.” Whatever it is, it depends on the random event that falls our way and that just maybe will change our lives for the better.  We may also use the word hope this way like, “I hope to finish this job today,” or “I hope the rain won’t spoil our picnic.” That use of hope leaves considerable room for doubt and uncertainty as to whether these desires will come to be.
5.       Neither of these meanings fits with Paul’s intention in this passage. For Paul, “hope” is more like “trust.” The ground for hope is neither the last resort nor random chance. The ground is God: the God of “steadfastness and encouragement,” the “God of hope.” Because God is the guarantor of whatever is promised, the believer may live with complete confidence. What God has said, is what will be.  There is none of that uncertainty in what Paul is saying here.  Hope is conviction for the Christian. Our hope as Christians that Paul talks about is more. It’s being sure that what we expect will happen. Joy and peace from God come “as you trust in him.” Hence Paul intends hope to mean “sure and certain confidence.” We might paraphrase the verse as follows: “May the God who gives certainty fill you with joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with sure confidence worked by the power of the Holy Spirit.”  In Christ we have hope.
6.       But, the reality is that we live our lives in a fallen, sinful world that’s often full of hopelessness and despair. A great irony of the weeks leading up to Christmas is that, while the air is filled with messages of peace and goodwill, we often struggle more profoundly with depression and despair.  For some of us, Christmas will be hard because of our grief. Someone near and dear to us has died, and there will be an empty place at the dinner table Christmas Day.  For some of us, Christmas will be difficult because of our brokenness. Images of family harmony around the Christmas tree remind us that our lives are often not like that at all. Enmity and strife often accompany family members to their Christmas celebrations.  But, still for all of us, each day is made hopeless because of our sinfulness. The storms of life don’t just come upon us from the outside; they more often are things of our own creation, as we in thought, word, and deed rebel against our God and our neighbor.  We don’t love God with our whole heart and we often fail to love our neighbor as ourselves.
7.       The Christians in Rome also knew about times of hopelessness & despair living in a sinful world.  They were a small group in the midst of an often hostile environment.  They struggled with the tension between Jewish and Gentile Christians.  They were threatened by any number of false teachers who intended to lure them away from the faith by their smooth talk and faithless deceptions.  These first-century Christians in Rome were ever in danger of slipping into hopelessness and final despair.  In the same way, the difficulties of life can lead us away from God and into hopelessness and despair.  The grief even at Christmas can cause us to doubt that God is with us at all.  Then instead of being generous, caring for others, we focus on ourselves. We turn inward.
8.       But, our Lord doesn’t wish us to fall into despair and hopelessness, instead he calls the Roman Christians and us to see that in Christ we have hope! Paul assures us that even in the midst of the difficulties of life in a sinful and fallen world, God gives us hope in Jesus, the Root of Jesse.  Yes, God gives us hope in that Root of Jesse.  Hope is possible even in the difficulties of life because our hope isn’t of our own creation; it’s not just a pious sentiment.  Any “hope” we create is always subject to conditions around us, and in dark times, it fades.  But the hope Paul describes is different.  Our hope is a gift of the Holy Spirit (v 13).  God himself is “the God of hope.”  In Christ we have hope. 
9.       It’s the Holy Spirit’s nature to give hope.  This hope is as sure as its foundation—the sure and certain Word of God (v 4).  That’s how the Holy Spirit gives it. He inspired the Scriptures, “written in former days,” to assure us of God’s care.  There’s no question that God will bring us through the difficulties of life. The question is how? And the answer is found where the Word of God points us.  That Word points us to the Root of Jesse, the ultimate sign of hope (v 12).  Jesus entered this sinful and fallen world to give his life for our sins, including our despair and hopelessness.  The risen Christ comes to us today to bring new life. The Root of Jesse springs forth in our lives. He’s our hope—for comfort in grief, for harmony in brokenness, for forgiveness of sin!
10.   This hope opens us up to welcome and love one another so that together we abound in hope (vv 5–7). As Jewish Christians in Rome learned that Christ was the hope also of Gentiles (vv 8–12), so we embrace all people as heirs of Christ’s hope.
11.   We’re having Advent, as the boy in the grocery store put it. But we know that Christmas will come, and that Christ will come again. We wait, for in Christ we have hope.  Dear friends, it’s real, and it’s for you! In the difficulties of our lives we might at times have trouble even imagining that this hope exists, but it’s ours in Christ, free for the taking, a priceless treasure from the realm of God’s redeeming love. May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope!  In Christ we have hope. Amen.





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