CHRISTIAN HOPE

Psalm 62: 1-8; Revelation 22: 1-7

Dr. Roy Fairchild, in his book FINDING HOPE AGAIN, lets readers know that those whom he saw in counseling, who were despairing or depressed, from teenaged through elderly, had at least one thing in common: a loss of hope. There are those who, as the late Dr. Dan Taylor once put it, had stress, which ordinary life produces, turn to distress, which results when people can’t solve their daily dilemmas. When distress happens people feel helpless, alone, and unable to solve problems that run through their mind without solution. Certainly there are other reasons in life when a person is not filled with hope about tomorrow. In a Charlie Brown comic strip many years ago, Linus asked Charlie Brown if he knew what he was going to be when he grew up. “Lonesome,” was his reply. Past experience informs future belief for so many. Whether something will really happen or not is skewed by people’s attitude that others really don’t like them or their repeated belief that they have no friends. We live in a world that is connected by blogs, cell phones, computers, and even an occasional hand written note in a mailbox, yet the world is filled with lonely and often hopeless people. Suicides in the news bring the subject of people believing there is no other way out of their despair. Today we will look at the songbook of the Bible and the last chapter of the Bible to see why hope is part of Paul’s Holy Trinity, the different one, that almost everyone has heard: Faith, Hope, and Love.

Episcopal Priest Paul Zahl once wrote that “Whitefield and Luther, Canmer and Calvin, the Puritans and Wesley all agreed that hope that ‘springs eternal from the human breast’ is not hope at all. Hope is, instead, based on the solid gift of God: hope is based on Good Friday and Easter Sunday [with real] nail prints and bloody sweat….Hope resides in what happened in the old, old story.” In other words, Christian hope is not wishful thinking: that’s too thin a concept. On the other hand, it is not proof, for certainty must be rooted in faith (assurance from past actions) if hope is to truly bloom from its soil. It consists of seeing that Kairos (God’s time) is different from our time. What could have put these words into David’s heart in Psalm 62: “For God alone my soul waits in silence, from God comes my salvation; God alone is my rock and my salvation, my fortress: I shall never be shaken.” This boy who stopped a giant with a sling, who had an affair with the wife of a man who defended him in battle, also knew--like sheep needing a shepherd—that he needed the Lord. He did not just have faith that God would forgive him; he pleaded, he hoped, and he anguished over the guilt of his sin. Read Psalm 51 if you want to know what he confessed to God about Bathsheba. David hoped in the Lord; all other ground was sinking sand to him. There have been some counselors and pastors who have profitably prescribed the reading of the Psalms for those who are troubled. I prescribe it for humans in every stage. Virtually every situation you face in life will be addressed by the Psalms: grounded in faith, blooming with hope, and overflowing with love. Mind you, the emotions of the psalmists will include dejection, fear, sorrow, and anger, as well as praise, thanksgiving, and love, and joy. But the Psalms tell us that God acted in the past, and give us hope and assurance that God will act again. We need to recall that when we face our darkest hours. “God is on his throne,” is how the Methodist pastor of Westminster Central Hall in London once put it. W. E. Sangster was his name. “Many people, most of whom live their normal lives in neglect of God, complain in times of national stress the God never seems to do anything. They enquire as to why God does not intervene [in our world]. The problem is a very old one. It puzzled the Psalmist. It perplexed the prophets. It baffled poor Peter in the Garden of Gethsemane …. But with infinite patience, God seeks to win the wayward and the wicked by all the dear inducements of love, and our hard task is this: to have patience with the patience of God.” We now know that if Peter had been able to foil the plans of God in the Garden (which, of course, did not happen), he would have saved Jesus, but the world would not have gained a Savior. Trust in the providence of God. When Winston Churchill knew that German airplanes were on their way to bomb Coventry, he too had an anguishing choice: to thwart the enemy then, tipping his hand that England had broken the Nazi war code and save Coventry, or bury his head in hands as the bombs dropped on that beloved village, and ultimately be able to defeat the evil regime with the broken code and the combined work by allied forces. There are times that the needs of the many outweigh then needs of the few. Then again, according to the actions of Jesus, sometimes the needs of the one outweigh the needs of the many. Sometimes, when we think that there is no way out of our dilemma, and some go so far as to think of taking their life. But we don’t have all the answers that God has; we don’t see all the angles that God sees; and on some days, we don’t believe in ourselves as much as God believes in us. Hope says, “My child, I have plans for your life. This problem has not come to stay, it has come to pass.” That is one of my favorite reasons to read King James, put meaning into words that was not originally intended but is nevertheless comforting: Trouble did not come to stay; it came to pass.” I hope you will not feel as if the sun will not come up again; or that you are in a room with no doors or in a world with no friends. Christian Hope is anchored in what God did in Christ: God allow the horrible events in Jerusalem, and took the nails, so that there could be a glorious scene on earth and in Heaven because of that price. John’s Revelation pulls back the curtain between Earth and Heaven and whispers in your ear: “Look! There is so much more in store tomorrow and in all of life’s tomorrows! It is lush around the River of Life! And Jesus is coming soon: do you want to miss him?”

Love that will not let you go wants to watch your life unfold, even if you are young, or old or weak or sick. To paraphrase the folk song, put your hope in “the man who stilled the waters, calmed the sea, and said ‘follow me.’” Set your anchor firmly in that solid rock, amid the tempestuous waves of despair, loneliness, or confusion. You are not alone.

Jeffrey Sumner May 4, 2008