1.
Grace, mercy, and peace
to you from God our Heavenly Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. The
message from God’s Word this 2nd Sunday in Advent is taken from
Romans 15:4-13 and is entitled, “Hope for the Hopeless,” dear brothers
and sisters in Christ.
2.
Above the entrance to hell in
Dante’s Divine Comedy are
found the words, “Before me things created were none, save things Eternal,
and eternal I endure. All hope abandon, ye who enter here.” Hell is the
place where hope is not. Maybe we know even more about that now than when Dante
penned the phrase long ago. We’ve moved on from a time in which we hoped that
through human achievement we could conquer most problems. Yes, we solved some. We
created steam engines and rocket ships; we cured some diseases. But problems
continue to abound, and the postmodern world in which we live is also a
hopeless world. So many of our problems defy solution, and it’s easy to slip
into the hopelessness of the world. Against this backdrop, St. Paul’s words
stand out, as he prays that the Romans and latter-day readers would, by the
Spirit’s power, abound in hope (Rom 15:13).
3.
Life is full of times 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 feelings of hopelessness and frustration at the
sinful world in which we live. 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 sad 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. For all of us, each day is made difficult because
of our sin. 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.
4.
The Christians in Rome also knew
about times of difficulty and strife. 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 hard times in 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.
5.
Our Lord doesn’t wish us to fall
into despair and hopelessness, but instead he calls the Roman Christians and us
to abound in hope! Paul assures us that, Even in the Midst of Difficult
Circumstances, God Gives Us Hope in the Root of Jesse. Yes, God gives us hope in that Root of
Jesse. Hope is possible even in such difficult
times because our hope isn’t of our own creation; it is not just a pious
sentiment. Any “hope” we
fabricate is always subject to conditions around us; 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.” It’s God 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).
6.
That’s how the Holy Spirit gives it.
He inspired the Scriptures to assure us of God’s care. “Whatever was
written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance
and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.” What
things in the Scriptures? Consider the many saints who in the midst of
suffering had endurance, which we can also think of as patience. Think of Job,
so patient in his suffering, even though he lost his children, possessions, and
health, plus he had a faithless wife. Recall how everything and more was
restored to him, in God’s own time. Think of Joseph, betrayed by his brothers,
so patient in prison, accused unjustly by his master’s wife. Recall how he was
raised up as a prince over a foreign people, in God’s own time, for the ultimate
purpose of saving not only Joseph’s family, but the line out of which the
Messiah would come. Think of David, patient in suffering as his father-in-law
Saul, the king, and later his own son Absalom, the prince, both plotted to kill
him. Recall how the Lord delivered David, in his own time, again for the
ultimate purpose of providing a Savior for all the nations of the earth.
7.
All of these men were patient in
adversity; they showed endurance even when it seemed God was against them. Why?
Because they had cultivated some sort of stoic virtue? No. Job, Joseph, and
David were much more than courageous or steadfast. They trusted in the promise
that God would rescue them in due time, in his own way.
8.
Therefore, there’s no question that
God will deliver and save us from this sinful world in which we live. 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
world to give his life for our sins, including our despair and hopelessness. Every trouble you have in life, be it with
money, family, health, or whatever—it all comes from a more fundamental malady:
our total sinfulness and depravity that mars every human relationship, that
sickens and finally destroys every human body, that warps and twists every
human mind away from our God and Father. The Lord long ago gave his promise,
the promise that a man would be born to overthrow the diabolical serpent who
spins lies against God’s Word, a man who would crush the serpent’s head and
destroy death. The Lord gave his promise, and he fulfilled his promise in the
incarnation, death, and resurrection of his Son. “Christ became a servant . . . to
confirm the promises [God gave].” Risen from the dead, he gives us reason
to hope, hope for our own resurrection, freed from suffering and sin for life
with God.
9.
The risen Christ comes to us today
to bring new life in the midst of our hopelessness. Jesus, The Root of Jesse
springs forth in our lives. He is our hope—for comfort in grief, for harmony in
brokenness, for forgiveness of sin! 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.
10.
Abound in this hope! Dear friends,
it is real, and it is for you! In our dark and stormy nights, we might at times
have trouble even imagining that this hope exists, yet it is 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! Amen. Now the peace of God that passes all
understanding guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus until life
everlasting. Amen.
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