 | Full Text Sermon | Alternate Sermon Ideas | Children's Message | [Note: Beginning this week, we are doing our text in black in order to facilitate the printing of these pages for those who are working with color printers.] Four Enduring Gifts of Easter Life, Love, Peace, Hope During the first four Sundays of May, we explore the abiding reality of Jesus Christ through four gifts which are His legacy to the community of faith. The strength of these gifts in our lives points to the reality of Christ within. May 24, 1998 ~ Seventh Sunday of Easter ~ John 17: 20-26 "Is There Anything I Can Truly Count On?" The Gift of Hope An ancient tradition says that over the gates of hell are inscribed the words, "Abandon hope, all you who enter here! Can you imagine being without hope, or even the possibility of hope forever? To have hope is to be filled with all the possibilities of life. St. Paul tells us in First Corinthians 13, (his great chapter on love), that the three greatest things in life are faith, love, and... HOPE! Norman Cousins has written, 'We must recognize that we get our basic energy, not from turbines, but from hope."Cousins speaks with some authority from his own experience. He was twice hospitalized with serious illnesses in which he was told there was not much hope and twice he proved the "experts" wrong. In fact, Norman Cousins was possessed by such a spirit of hope that he achieved more after his illnesses than he had previously -- eventually ending up on the faculty of the Yale University Medical School and later the University of California Medical School at Berkley. Dr. Charles Snyder of the University of Kansas has made a study of hope and what happens to people who have hope; and what happens to people who do not have hope in their lives. He has concluded from these studies that people who have a high degree of hope have an advantage in academic achievement; they have more success in doing difficult jobs, and they have power to cope with tragic illnesses. He writes, "Hope has proven to be a powerful predictor of outcome in every study!" Our scripture today is one of the most profound promises of a positive outcome in all of scripture! Amazingly this hope is rooted in Jesus' direct request of the Father -- not only for the disciples who were with him in the Garden when he prayed -- but for you and me! That's right. Jesus prayed for you and that prayer is the foundation of every Christian's hope. ("I ask not only on behalf of these, but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word.") Here is the content of Jesus' deep request for his disciples and for those of us who would eventually place our hope in Christ through that apostolic word.
Can there be a more certain foundation for a "positive outcome" for those who call Jesus Christ Lord? If there is anything we can truly count on, this hopeful promise is it! *** Wasn't It Eddie Fisher who sang the song, "You Gotta Have Heart?" And in that song there is a line, "You gotta have hope, musn't sit around and mope!" Mark it down -- life, is made up of "mopers" and "hopers." When the trials of life come, "mopers" mope -- and "hopers" hope! One of my number one prayers for our church is that we might be known as a community of "happy hopers!" Norman Cousins, in his book Head First: The Biology of Hope, quotes Dr. William Buckholtz who writes:
Twenty-two percent versus seventy four percent--- isn't that persuasive! Norman Cousins has contributed much to the realization that HOPE is a key part of any prescription for health and happiness. *** What do hopeful people look like? What do they do differently? Here are some important clues: First of all, they turn to friends for advice on how to achieve their goals. They recognize their need for help and the important role that friends can play in sustaining them. Secondly, they feed themselves with positive, hopeful messages that they can succeed in doing what they need to do. Even in tight spots, they tell themselves that things will get better, and it's going to be all right. That sounds a lot like Romans 8:28. "All things work together for good to those who love God..." In the third place, hopeful people are flexible, and they find different ways to reach for their goals. If hope for one goal fades, they search for another, perhaps even better goal. On the other hand, people who are low in hope are inflexible. They often give up or just keep banging their heads against the wall trying to do the impossible. Finally, hopeful people are able to break a large task down into small, achievable chunks, whereas people who are low in hope can see only the large goal and they're overwhelmed. *** Dwight Morrow, the father of Anne Morrow Lindberg, and his wife were visiting a small town in England some years ago. They were wandering around the small winding streets where it is easy to get lost ... and they got lost. Finally, they stopped and asked a twelve year old boy how to get to the railroad station and the little fellow said, 'Well, what you do is, you go over there to the grocery shop and you turn right. Then you go down the street two blocks and turn left. You go down there and you'll come to a place where four streets come together. And then, sir, it would be good for you to inquire again!" Mr. Morrow said this experience became a symbol for him of how to deal with big, complex problems. You break them down into small, manageable tasks and realize that small steps in the right direction is better than standing still or to go running off in the wrong direction without some help to learn where you're going. // Perhaps you've heard the story of why Moses wandered around in the wilderness for forty years. It seems that even back then, men hated to stop and ask for directions! // All of us need hope, but there are a great many who have very little hope. What’s worse is that hopelessness is contagious! I've listened - hundreds and maybe even thousands of times to people who begin discussing a problem and the whole conversation becomes more and more negative and pessimistic. One writer I know warns people against what he calls, "Negative Flu." "If you listen to enough negative talk," he says, "You will very likely catch the spirit of negativity." I have a good example of how negative talk can be contagious from years ago when I worked at IBM. Our operations manager was a good guy, but he was vulnerable to negative talk. Early one morning before work started, several of us were having coffee and we decided to play a bit of a joke on Tom - our manager. When Tom arrived for work, one of the guys said, "Good morning Tom, are you feeling okay? You look a bit pale." About half an hour later, another one of the programmers went in to see Tom and commented on how Tom didn't look so good. We continued in the same vein during the morning and during lunch break, Tom went home sick! *** Well my friends, the fact is that "hopers" - people who have hope - are people of faith. It doesn't have to be the biggest faith or the most famous faith in the world; Jesus said faith, even faith like a tiny mustard seed, will do. Our scripture says that the "world" does not know God -- but Jesus knows God and those who follow Christ have a depth of divine love that is unavailable to the world. So also, the hope Jesus has given to us is a rock solid foundation for living. WHAT IS THE REASON FOR THE HOPE WE CHRISTIANS HAVE? 1. We have HOPE because God Himself is, as Paul says, "The God of hope." If you look carefully at the concept many people have of God, you will find that they have sometimes a god of fear, or a god of punishment, or a god of some other negative quality. But, from the very beginning, the bible is very clear that we have a God of Hope. In Christian community we should early and often speak the blessing to each other, "May the God of hope fill you with joy and peace... 2. We have HOPE because we are, as a preacher from the days of the American Frontier said, "People of the Book! In the beginning of Romans 15, Paul wrote that scripture was given to us so that, "We, through the patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope." It would be Impossible to guess the number of times people throughout the ages have turned to just one scripture - the 23rd Psalm - and found hope in the words, "The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want..." 3. We have HOPE because the hope God gives us is not a fleeting or a false hope of this world, but rather a living and eternal hope. It is a hope Jesus Christ himself rooted in a request that we be with him -- where he is -- forever! Don't be conned by false hope - like the hope you hear about on radio and television. "Buy a lottery ticket and your troubles will be over!" God does not give a false hope or a temporary hope, but an eternal hope which will never let you down. To be with Christ where he is not temporary or short term. It is the "treasure laid up in heaven which does not rust and where thieves do not break in a steal!" 4. We have HOPE because we are never alone. When Jesus spent His last night on earth with His disciples, they were devastated at the prospect of His death. He told them, "I will not leave you as orphans... I will come to you." In fact He said that through their faith, He would live within them. In the hour of his deepest darkness, Jesus asked that we might be with him for time and eternity. The last verse of our scripture points us to two amazing gifts available to every Christian. God's love in us -- and Christ himself in us! St. Paul spoke of this by saying that the Christian's hope is, "Christ in you, the hope of glory." *** Some years ago, a famous minister was filled with despair about his ministry. He thought that maybe the ministry wasn't for him, that maybe he needed to learn more about other disciplines where he could spend his life. So he went to the conference of the World Psychological Association and the first great psychologist got up to speak and said, "What the world needs today is faith. People have got to have something to believe in." Then the second famous psychologist stood up and said, "What the world needs today is love. You have to have relationships where people care about one another." Then the third speaker told the gathering of psychologists from around the world, "What this world needs today is HOPE." And the minister said, "My God, that's what my ministry is all about... it's about faith, love and hope! I've got the best job in the world." And so we do. That's why I love to tell what the hymn calls, "The old, old story of Jesus and His love." It gives us hope. Hope for today, hope for our lives and hope for all eternity. What a wonderful job it is to bring hope to others. And it isn't just the job of professional clergy. It is the job of every single person who has ever come to know the joy of discovering hope through the person and the power of Jesus Christ. [ Apply It ] Hope is one of the enduring gifts of the Easter faith. Think for a moment: "Do you have a sense of a positive outcome for your life?" Are you rooted in hope? Most importantly, where have you placed your deepest hopes? What is it you are counting on to make life worthwhile? Reflect once again on these words... "Father, I desire that those also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory, which you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world." No matter what else may ever happen in your life, this promise can provide a foundation for living that you can truly count on -- forever! Bent on Justice [Using Acts 16, Psalm 97 and Revelation 22] Martin Luther King Jr. said, "The moral arc of the universe is long, but it bends toward justice!" Consider weaving a message on the theme of Justice. The texts from Acts, Psalms and Revelation all speak of the reality of God's justice. The phrase, "Justice delayed is justice denied," is not true when it comes to the judgement and justice of God. A Confrontation with Justice (Acts16:16-34) Paul and his companions end up in the hands of tyrants on trumped up charges and wind up in jail in Philippi. They expect no justice from their captors. (Thomas Paine wrote, "... who would expect discretion from a fool, candor from a tyrant, or justice from a villain?") [American Crisis] Yet... they sing hymns because they trust in God's justice -- delayed or otherwise. In this instance there is a divine intervention and an honest "rush to judgment" which results in the jailer realizing that there is a power greater than that of Rome. A Celebration of Justice (Psalm 97) God is the only true Lord of all. All idols (all that is false) will melt before the Lord. Light will dawn for those who love righteousness (justice). Rejoice! Because justice will prevail. (Paul and companions were doing this in jail. A Consummation of Justice (Revelation 22) "I am coming soon," the Lord says. And, he is bringing a just reward. That which people trusted in will be exposed to true, just and eternal values. There is one last invitation to "Come" and receive the water of life as a gift. Then once again -- for one last time -- the Lord says, "Surely I am coming soon!" It may not seem like "soon" to earthly vision ... but in the sweep of biblical drama with the one for whom "... a thousand years is like a day..." it will not be long! I Hope There's Something Good in Here! Like the term "peace" -- "hope" is a hard concept for children to grasp especially in their younger (concrete thinking stage) years. Here's a way to talk about disappointment and hope. You will need two large bags of M & M's and a bag of beans. (Leftovers from the Miracle Kit!) Open one of the bags carefully from the bottom and replace the M & M's with beans. Close inconspicuously as you can with tape or well placed staples. Talk about disappointment and hope this way: Doesn't this look good? (Shake the bag of "beans") Sometimes I really look forward to having a few of these. Let's open the bag and share them. [When you open the bag from the top and shake out the beans -- talk about being "disappointed" -- point to other times when they might have been disappointed -- let them share.] Now bring out the other bag of M & M's. Say something like, "I hope there's something good in here." Talk about hoping for good things. Time permitting, have them share their "hopes". Then open the bag of M & M's and share them. Conclude with the idea that Jesus gives us hope because he promised to live with us for as long as we live and that we would live with him forever. This is the best hope of all!
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