Sermon 21/06/20: “Keeping hope…” (Please read Psalm 73: 21-28; Job 7: 4-21; 1 Peter 3: 8-18)
In the arenas of politics and humanism – the prevailing religions of our time - the theory goes something like this - that the world will gradually become a better and better place and that the evil and suffering around us will be eliminated eventually by better education and science. Our hope for a better world is found in and achieved through human endeavour and the result will be inevitable progress. We just have to keep trying! They say the definition of madness is to do the same things over and over again and expect a different result. We might think we live in a better world or that somehow we are better people than those in previous generations, more enlightened, more progressive – but I’m not convinced we are. I’m not sure that’s what Scripture says of the last days, the days in which we live:
13 But evil people who pretend to be what they are not will become worse than ever, as they fool others and are fooled themselves.
There, I suppose, are some things that Google just cannot help us with…I have been asked some very difficult questions over the weeks of this pandemic. I have asked the same questions myself. I have wrestled with them, like you. Why do wonderful, compassionate medical professionals die from the very disease they are trying so desperately to treat? It is so unfair. Why does a seemingly healthy young man die from covid-19 when a woman of 103 gets through it? Why God? Why has this happened? Why has God allowed this suffering? Why do bad things happen to good people? Why do so many young black men die in police custody? Why doesn’t He do something? He is Almighty God, isn’t he?! Why are millions of people dying across the world from preventable diseases? You speak of faith in God. You talk about hope. But here we are in these enlightened times and nothing has changed. How long?
And other questions, too: can I get angry with God? Can I argue with Him? That’s an easier question in some ways – yes I can. The questions are endless. Sooner or later – in every era, class, gender, race or creed - everyone struggles with God over the pain and suffering he allows us and others to go through. Some struggle and overcome; others struggle and are overwhelmed. The man Job was thrust from prosperity to total disaster (Read Job 7: 4-21).
Sometimes it is right to simply sit quietly with our questions and not look for answers. What can I say to my friend who just gave birth to a baby who lived less than one day? Not so easy to find reasons.
Often people ask questions in their anger or helplessness. When there is a war or a disaster, a virus pandemic even, people are can be quick to lay the blame at God’s door and use this as grounds for rejecting the God they neither know nor believe. Sometimes we should be ready with an answer for even the most difficult of questions.
Peter asks us are you “(Always…) prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have?” (1 Peter 3: 15-16) How can you have confident trust (HOPE) in God? How can you possibly believe in this God? How can you have confident trust (HOPE) in God? How can you defend the indefensible? Be prepared. But how?
1. Remember Keep a hallowed heart: keep the Holy Spirit at the centre; rely on him – only he can persuade people of the truth of God, after all. 15 But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord…He has to be at the centre of the heart and the heart has to be prepared. Before you say a word about Jesus Christ or defend his gospel set Christ apart as Lord of your life.
Before you speak (before you do anything) you must BE: 8 finally, all of you, be like-minded, be sympathetic, love one another, be compassionate and humble.
How helpless we feel sometimes. You have a difficult meeting – pray first before you plan for that meeting, and set him apart as Lord – the one who has the controlling influence will help you negotiate the difficult interview or the doctor’s consultation. He will tell you what to say, or not…
How I explain the hope I have will not depend on my intellect or my power – it will not be in my own human effort but in that provided, ultimately, by the Lord, the Holy Spirit (Gal 3: 3);
Elsewhere Peter says, 2. Remember keep your conduct honourable (1 Peter 1: 17, ESV); defend your hope with gentleness and respect. But do this with gentleness and respect, 16 keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behaviour in Christ may be ashamed of their slander. 17 For it is better, if it is God’s will, to suffer for doing good than for doing evil.
Be wise in the way you act towards outsiders, make the most of every opportunity…conversation full of grace…so you will know how to answer (Col 4. 5-6).
Don’t have anything to do with stupid arguments…they produce quarrels…
We Christians should be the most gracious people around, having been saved by grace through faith. Think about it. Christ lives in you. We have the opportunity to share our hope – we should be appropriate. We don’t quote chapter and verse or debate theology when we meet someone who is grief-stricken. That’s the mistake that Job’s “comforters” made when they visited their troubled friend. They sat in solidarity with their friend for a week; they should have continued just “being there” for him…
How can I give an answer for the hope I have? Give them Jesus, not an argument! You may be the only Bible someone ever reads. You are an envoy (an ambassador) for Christ. Show them what it might be to live a life of faith in a suffering world. 23 When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly. (1 Peter 2:23)
I have a very good friend, my best friend. She has suffered for many years, not just physically but mentally and emotionally too, often unfairly, at the hands of others. But that suffering – her attitude to it, I suppose – really proves God for me. She reminds me of Jesus. She suffers silently and without complaint, without bitterness or unforgiveness. I have never once heard her bemoan her misfortune or ask, “Why me, Lord?” She is more likely to give the answer, “Why not me?” She is more likely to ask, “Why has the Lord been so good to me?” She loves God and I know God loves her. I see God in her. Her whole life is a sermon - an argument for the proof of a loving, sovereign God. I will never be like her, not this side of heaven! She keeps a hallowed heart; she keeps her conduct honourable and she keeps hope alive. 3. Remember, keep hope alive…
Our Motto text for 2020 is – in case you had forgotten - from Lamentations 3: 24: “The Lord is all I have and so I put MY HOPE IN HIM.” (GNB) I say to myself, “The Lord is my portion; therefore I will wait for him.” (NIV)
“I’m sticking with God, I say over and over. He’s all I’ve got left!” (Eugene Peterson, the Message)
When I chose the motto I had no idea, of course, about what was going to happen during that year. But through the months I’ve looked at the different translations, and I am convinced that our motto is more relevant and appropriate for us than ever.
In the spiritual battle that is the Christian life Remember to keep hope alive: it is the duty and the distinctive of the Christian while the world is watching and wailing. Jeremiah looked around at the desolation of a once proud city, a place and a people that he loved. It could have destroyed him. Jeremiah finds God, there, in the storm, when all seemed lost and hopeless he put his HOPE IN GOD.
Yet hope returns when I remember this one thing: The Lord's unfailing love and mercy still continue. fresh as the morning, as sure as the sunrise. The Lord is all I have, and so in him I put my hope. I say to myself, “The Lord is my portion; therefore I will wait for him.” The Lord is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him; it is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord. HOPE is the final word in Lamentations.
While we live in these in-between times there are some things worth keeping: keep a hallowed heart; keep your conduct honorable; remember to keep hope alive. This is how we answer the world’s questions.
I want to end this message (at the mid-point of 2020) with the words from the last sermon I preached in 2019: “When all is said and done -whatever happens to you this year, to your loved ones, to the world – if you can honestly say that the LORD is all I have, all I need, that he is my inheritance, my lot, my portion, my very great reward – then you have a lot indeed…”
MFR