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 sadnesses
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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