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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