Someone once told of a church vestry meeting held in a time of crisis. The Warden began the
meeting with prayer, eloquently addressing God as “Almighty and eternal God, whose grace is
sufficient for all things.” When the prayer was finished, the Warden started the meeting by saying:
“My friends, the situation in this church has become completely hopeless, and nothing can be done
to help it.”
I trust you see the irony in the warden’s words. How many of us can recite passages from scripture
extolling the hope that’s ours, then see the world through the eyes of Eeyore, the sad sack donkey
in the Winnie-the-Pooh books? There are times when I lapse into Eeyore thought patterns. Just
ask Michele.
But here we are in a church called “Hope.” And given its brief history, never has a church been so
aptly named, despite the setbacks it’s endured. Today concludes our series on stewardship, and I’d
like to conclude it on a hopeful note.
You may have noticed that the word “hope” is used no less than four times in the epistle reading
from Romans this morning. St. Paul concludes the passage by quoting Isaiah.
He writes, “The root of Jesse shall come, the one who rises to rule the Gentiles; in him the Gentiles
shall hope.” Then Paul adds his own blessing. He says, “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and
peace in believing, so that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”
Hope is absolutely intertwined with the gospel message. You probably know that the word “gospel”
is from the old Anglo-Saxon word godspell, which means “good tidings.”
And what are the good tidings? We’ll hear it expressed beautifully in a few short weeks. I have to
say, I enjoy hearing this passage best in the King James Version. The angel of the Lord descends
from heaven and tells the terrified shepherds, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great
joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is
Christ the Lord.”
Unto you is born a Savior. These are the words on which the destiny of humanity turns. My friends,
if we’re building our church on any other foundation than this, it will ultimately fall. Remember last
week the building blocks of our ministries and the foundation on which they’re built. Without our
Lord Jesus none of these will stand the test of time.
The good tidings are that we have a Savior. Jesus has come to save us. This means absolutely
everything. If it’s really true that humankind has become separated from God because of the
unclean condition of our hearts, and if it’s true that there’s nothing we can do under our own power
to bridge the chasm that separates us from God, having a Savior means everything in the world.
The gospel story quite simply is that Jesus was born into the world a little over 2000 years ago in a
feeding trough in a stable, he lived a sinless life in which He taught truth, performed miracles and
announced himself to be the Messiah, the Son of God. He went willingly to the Cross to be crucified
and to take onto His own shoulders the sins of all mankind for all time, and he offers us salvation
and eternal life for the price of faith in Him. If that doesn’t give you at least a modicum of hope this
morning, it may be that you need to be reading something different in your leisure time!
But there’s a funny thing about hope. It’s not always easy to see the evidence of all the goodness
that we’re promised. If we’re steeped in the ways of this world, and are looking at things through the
eyes of the very powerful and pervasive culture all around us, it’s easy to question all of this, isn’t
it? When more and more people turn their backs on the gospel message, and conclude that maybe
this was all just wishful thinking, and are able to express this articulately, does it sometimes happen
to you that you get a little cold, hollow feeling inside and begin questioning all of this yourself? I
hate it when that happens. Or when we fail to get the answer to prayer that we sought, or fail to
understand the whole enigma of human suffering, we may be tempted to throw our hands in the air
and let our hope fade.
But Jesus and the New Testament writers understood this dilemma. These were not naïve, starry-
eyed Don Quixotes riding around on a cloud of false optimism. Paul writes extensively of hope in his
letter to the Romans. He points out that against all odds, Abraham exercised hope in believing that
he would become the father of many nations, and it came to pass. In fact, later Paul says, “Hope
that is seen is no hope at all.” He writes, “Who hopes for what he already has? But if we hope for
what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.”
Can you see from this how closely hope and faith are related? Really, they’re twin sisters. In fact, in
Pope Benedict’s Encyclical on hope released this past week, he says that they’re practically
interchangeable. And just like faith, there’s a certain amount of blindness in hope. Of not being
able to see very far ahead in the glow of our rather dim headlights. If we can see the outcome
clearly, then we’re not exactly exercising hope. We’re just satisfied about a sure thing.
But do you sometimes find it hard to be hopeful without a little more clarity or information? Or is it
just me? The problem is, we swim in a sea of rationalism. You know, if we can’t see it, then maybe it
doesn’t really exist. So are we on our own when it comes to summoning enough hope to keep going
forward? I hope you won’t be too shocked to hear that the answer to this last question is a
resounding “no.” We’re not on our own.
There are two major ways in which our Lord encourages us with something tangible. The first is the
promises of scripture. Paul tells the Romans, “Whatever was written in former days was written for
our instruction, so that by steadfastness and by the encouragement of the scriptures we might have
hope.” God didn’t leave us without a clear trail behind us and ahead of us. His Word is peppered
with assurances that He urges us to trust. And these assurances apply directly to our own
circumstances.
Are we tempted to become anxious about our future when we give generously of what God has
allowed us to have? Jesus repeatedly addresses this. He says, “Do not worry, saying, ‘What will we
eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear?’ For your heavenly Father knows that you need
all these things. Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these other things will
be added to you as well.”
And He also says, “Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken
together, running over, will be put into your lap; for the measure you give will be the measure you
get back.”
Are we anguished by all the “what ifs” that pop into our imaginations when we ruminate on the
future? The Lord says to the faithful remnant, “I know the plans I have for you—plans to prosper you
and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”
Are we inclined to guard ourselves against trust because of past hurts? The scripture says this:
“Let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled
to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold
unswervingly to the hope we profess, for He who promised is faithful.”
Now, if you’re like me, right now you may be experiencing kind of an uneasy little tingling in the
stomach about this faith thing. It kind of pushes us. But it could be worse… There’s a story about a
famous French tightrope walker of the 1800’s who called himself Blondin. This guy would get his
jollies walking a tightrope over Niagara Falls. He did it blindfolded once. Another time he crossed
on stilts. Yet another time he stopped in the middle, cooked himself an omelet on a portable stove,
and ate it.
Perhaps his biggest claim to fame, though, was when members of Britain’s royal family were in
attendance. For their entertainment Blondin wheeled a sack of potatoes on the tightrope all the way
across the Falls. Then he asked the Prince of Wales, “Do you think I can wheel a man across in the
wheelbarrow?” The Prince replied that, yes, he thought he could. “Hop in, then,” replied Blondin.
The Prince declined the challenge. He might have believed that Blondin could do it, but he wasn’t
about to trust him with his own life.
Now, I can understand the Prince’s reluctance. After all, despite his amazing feats, Blondin was a
simple, fallible human being. But we Christians are asked to put our faith in the words and in the
person of Jesus Christ, who is the Son of God. His signs and wonders proved an identity far beyond
what Blondin could ever aspire to. Do we hesitate when He asks us to trust? Do we say, “Yes, I
think you can get us all through this, but no, don’t think I want to get in the wheelbarrow?”
In all fairness, faith and hope aren’t easy things to generate. But there’s good news about this too. It’
s news contained in St. Paul’s blessing in today’s reading from Romans. Again, listen closely: “May
the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you may abound in hope by the
power of the Holy Spirit.” Do you hear what he’s saying? We don’t have to rely on our own
resources to generate hope. It’s a gift from the Holy Spirit.
How often are we like the man whose son was tormented by the unclean spirit, and asked Jesus to
heal him if he could. Jesus’ reply, of course, was “If I can! All things can be done for the one who
believes.” Then came the man’s famous, anguished reply, “I believe, Lord help my unbelief!” So
the Lord replied, “Hey, sorry, you gotta do that yourself!”? Right?! Wrong! Jesus responded by
healing the boy. He gave the boy’s father the necessary faith right on the spot, for the asking. He’ll
do the same for us, right now.
And faith and hope are really not a matter of how we feel at the moment. We might be tempted to
say, “I’m sorry, I just don’t feel it right now.” But the true measure of our hope and our faith is not
how we feel, but what we do. It’s our actions that best reveal the disposition of our hearts.
In a few minutes we’ll be culminating the stewardship activity we’ve been involved in over the past
few weeks. As we’re led, we’ll be making written commitments that in many ways relate to our hope
and trust in the future of God’s work through this congregation. This is where we need to employ
the prayerful discernment that God makes available to us. And as we do, I’d like to encourage us to
look at this opportunity through eyes of faith and hope. Because, really this is what Scripture
exhorts us to do.
But most importantly let us remember that all of this, all of our prayers, our efforts, and our giving, all
of this is being done in the service of the Author of hope—the one through whom all human hope
comes. Jesus is at the center. We have so much to be grateful for. You and I are chosen servants
of the King. And today we wait in joyful anticipation for the coming of Jesus, the root of Jesse, the
hope of the Gentiles.
Let us be so responsive to His grace and guidance that we can’t help but rush ahead eagerly to
greet His coming. In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
meeting with prayer, eloquently addressing God as “Almighty and eternal God, whose grace is
sufficient for all things.” When the prayer was finished, the Warden started the meeting by saying:
“My friends, the situation in this church has become completely hopeless, and nothing can be done
to help it.”
I trust you see the irony in the warden’s words. How many of us can recite passages from scripture
extolling the hope that’s ours, then see the world through the eyes of Eeyore, the sad sack donkey
in the Winnie-the-Pooh books? There are times when I lapse into Eeyore thought patterns. Just
ask Michele.
But here we are in a church called “Hope.” And given its brief history, never has a church been so
aptly named, despite the setbacks it’s endured. Today concludes our series on stewardship, and I’d
like to conclude it on a hopeful note.
You may have noticed that the word “hope” is used no less than four times in the epistle reading
from Romans this morning. St. Paul concludes the passage by quoting Isaiah.
He writes, “The root of Jesse shall come, the one who rises to rule the Gentiles; in him the Gentiles
shall hope.” Then Paul adds his own blessing. He says, “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and
peace in believing, so that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”
Hope is absolutely intertwined with the gospel message. You probably know that the word “gospel”
is from the old Anglo-Saxon word godspell, which means “good tidings.”
And what are the good tidings? We’ll hear it expressed beautifully in a few short weeks. I have to
say, I enjoy hearing this passage best in the King James Version. The angel of the Lord descends
from heaven and tells the terrified shepherds, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great
joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is
Christ the Lord.”
Unto you is born a Savior. These are the words on which the destiny of humanity turns. My friends,
if we’re building our church on any other foundation than this, it will ultimately fall. Remember last
week the building blocks of our ministries and the foundation on which they’re built. Without our
Lord Jesus none of these will stand the test of time.
The good tidings are that we have a Savior. Jesus has come to save us. This means absolutely
everything. If it’s really true that humankind has become separated from God because of the
unclean condition of our hearts, and if it’s true that there’s nothing we can do under our own power
to bridge the chasm that separates us from God, having a Savior means everything in the world.
The gospel story quite simply is that Jesus was born into the world a little over 2000 years ago in a
feeding trough in a stable, he lived a sinless life in which He taught truth, performed miracles and
announced himself to be the Messiah, the Son of God. He went willingly to the Cross to be crucified
and to take onto His own shoulders the sins of all mankind for all time, and he offers us salvation
and eternal life for the price of faith in Him. If that doesn’t give you at least a modicum of hope this
morning, it may be that you need to be reading something different in your leisure time!
But there’s a funny thing about hope. It’s not always easy to see the evidence of all the goodness
that we’re promised. If we’re steeped in the ways of this world, and are looking at things through the
eyes of the very powerful and pervasive culture all around us, it’s easy to question all of this, isn’t
it? When more and more people turn their backs on the gospel message, and conclude that maybe
this was all just wishful thinking, and are able to express this articulately, does it sometimes happen
to you that you get a little cold, hollow feeling inside and begin questioning all of this yourself? I
hate it when that happens. Or when we fail to get the answer to prayer that we sought, or fail to
understand the whole enigma of human suffering, we may be tempted to throw our hands in the air
and let our hope fade.
But Jesus and the New Testament writers understood this dilemma. These were not naïve, starry-
eyed Don Quixotes riding around on a cloud of false optimism. Paul writes extensively of hope in his
letter to the Romans. He points out that against all odds, Abraham exercised hope in believing that
he would become the father of many nations, and it came to pass. In fact, later Paul says, “Hope
that is seen is no hope at all.” He writes, “Who hopes for what he already has? But if we hope for
what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.”
Can you see from this how closely hope and faith are related? Really, they’re twin sisters. In fact, in
Pope Benedict’s Encyclical on hope released this past week, he says that they’re practically
interchangeable. And just like faith, there’s a certain amount of blindness in hope. Of not being
able to see very far ahead in the glow of our rather dim headlights. If we can see the outcome
clearly, then we’re not exactly exercising hope. We’re just satisfied about a sure thing.
But do you sometimes find it hard to be hopeful without a little more clarity or information? Or is it
just me? The problem is, we swim in a sea of rationalism. You know, if we can’t see it, then maybe it
doesn’t really exist. So are we on our own when it comes to summoning enough hope to keep going
forward? I hope you won’t be too shocked to hear that the answer to this last question is a
resounding “no.” We’re not on our own.
There are two major ways in which our Lord encourages us with something tangible. The first is the
promises of scripture. Paul tells the Romans, “Whatever was written in former days was written for
our instruction, so that by steadfastness and by the encouragement of the scriptures we might have
hope.” God didn’t leave us without a clear trail behind us and ahead of us. His Word is peppered
with assurances that He urges us to trust. And these assurances apply directly to our own
circumstances.
Are we tempted to become anxious about our future when we give generously of what God has
allowed us to have? Jesus repeatedly addresses this. He says, “Do not worry, saying, ‘What will we
eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear?’ For your heavenly Father knows that you need
all these things. Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these other things will
be added to you as well.”
And He also says, “Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken
together, running over, will be put into your lap; for the measure you give will be the measure you
get back.”
Are we anguished by all the “what ifs” that pop into our imaginations when we ruminate on the
future? The Lord says to the faithful remnant, “I know the plans I have for you—plans to prosper you
and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”
Are we inclined to guard ourselves against trust because of past hurts? The scripture says this:
“Let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled
to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold
unswervingly to the hope we profess, for He who promised is faithful.”
Now, if you’re like me, right now you may be experiencing kind of an uneasy little tingling in the
stomach about this faith thing. It kind of pushes us. But it could be worse… There’s a story about a
famous French tightrope walker of the 1800’s who called himself Blondin. This guy would get his
jollies walking a tightrope over Niagara Falls. He did it blindfolded once. Another time he crossed
on stilts. Yet another time he stopped in the middle, cooked himself an omelet on a portable stove,
and ate it.
Perhaps his biggest claim to fame, though, was when members of Britain’s royal family were in
attendance. For their entertainment Blondin wheeled a sack of potatoes on the tightrope all the way
across the Falls. Then he asked the Prince of Wales, “Do you think I can wheel a man across in the
wheelbarrow?” The Prince replied that, yes, he thought he could. “Hop in, then,” replied Blondin.
The Prince declined the challenge. He might have believed that Blondin could do it, but he wasn’t
about to trust him with his own life.
Now, I can understand the Prince’s reluctance. After all, despite his amazing feats, Blondin was a
simple, fallible human being. But we Christians are asked to put our faith in the words and in the
person of Jesus Christ, who is the Son of God. His signs and wonders proved an identity far beyond
what Blondin could ever aspire to. Do we hesitate when He asks us to trust? Do we say, “Yes, I
think you can get us all through this, but no, don’t think I want to get in the wheelbarrow?”
In all fairness, faith and hope aren’t easy things to generate. But there’s good news about this too. It’
s news contained in St. Paul’s blessing in today’s reading from Romans. Again, listen closely: “May
the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you may abound in hope by the
power of the Holy Spirit.” Do you hear what he’s saying? We don’t have to rely on our own
resources to generate hope. It’s a gift from the Holy Spirit.
How often are we like the man whose son was tormented by the unclean spirit, and asked Jesus to
heal him if he could. Jesus’ reply, of course, was “If I can! All things can be done for the one who
believes.” Then came the man’s famous, anguished reply, “I believe, Lord help my unbelief!” So
the Lord replied, “Hey, sorry, you gotta do that yourself!”? Right?! Wrong! Jesus responded by
healing the boy. He gave the boy’s father the necessary faith right on the spot, for the asking. He’ll
do the same for us, right now.
And faith and hope are really not a matter of how we feel at the moment. We might be tempted to
say, “I’m sorry, I just don’t feel it right now.” But the true measure of our hope and our faith is not
how we feel, but what we do. It’s our actions that best reveal the disposition of our hearts.
In a few minutes we’ll be culminating the stewardship activity we’ve been involved in over the past
few weeks. As we’re led, we’ll be making written commitments that in many ways relate to our hope
and trust in the future of God’s work through this congregation. This is where we need to employ
the prayerful discernment that God makes available to us. And as we do, I’d like to encourage us to
look at this opportunity through eyes of faith and hope. Because, really this is what Scripture
exhorts us to do.
But most importantly let us remember that all of this, all of our prayers, our efforts, and our giving, all
of this is being done in the service of the Author of hope—the one through whom all human hope
comes. Jesus is at the center. We have so much to be grateful for. You and I are chosen servants
of the King. And today we wait in joyful anticipation for the coming of Jesus, the root of Jesse, the
hope of the Gentiles.
Let us be so responsive to His grace and guidance that we can’t help but rush ahead eagerly to
greet His coming. In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
Abounding in Hope
(Romans 15:4-13) Second Sunday of Advent
(Romans 15:4-13) Second Sunday of Advent
December 9, 2007
Fr. Dan Tuton
Fr. Dan Tuton