On Hope

Sunday, December 3rd, 2006
Advent 1C
Jerusalem Baptist Church, Emmerton VA
Romans 8:18-25

18I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory about to be revealed to us. 19For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the children of God; 20for the creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope 21that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and will obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. 22We know that the whole creation has been groaning in labor pains until now; 23and not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly while we wait for adoption, the redemption of our bodies. 24For in hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what is seen? 25But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.

We begin the new church year with the first Sunday of Advent – today. We’ve just lit the candle of Hope. Next Sunday we’ll light the candle of Peace, then of Joy, then Love, and finally, the Christ candle.

Today we also mark the beginning of the Lottie Moon Week of Prayer for International Missions – with its accompanying offering goal of $150 million dollars from across the Southern Baptist Convention – or World Missions, if we are to include missions programs other than those carried out by the Southern Baptist Convention, such as the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, the Samaritan’s Purse, Heifer International, or the Baptist General Association of Virginia. The fact that we choose to focus for the next few days on the missions program of one agency among many does not place it above the others, it just makes us aware, in a more specific way, of how we can be a part of … the global reach of the gospel.

Paul lived the global reach of the gospel as he traveled throughout Asia Minor and as he wrote to the church in Rome the words we read a few minutes ago.
Wednesday we handed out a list of scriptures verses that contain the word ‘Hope’ or ‘Hopes’, to read and meditate over the last few days, in anticipation of today’s lighting of the candle of Hope [1]. It is a list that spans almost the full length of the Bible, from the book of Job in the Hebrew Scriptures to the first letter of John in the New Testament.

We won’t go through the complete list, but we do choose to focus on the passage in Romans where Paul speaks of the Hope we have in Christ.

We would need to, at some point, ask ourselves what business we have in spending our resources of time and money and energy – which ARE, after all, limited – in facilitating the travel of individuals to people and countries around the world, which in many cases would just as soon not have us around. We’ve been made aware of that fact in the last few years by reports of missionaries being killed while on the field.

Lottie Moon, as we have heard in the past, spent herself – literally – in service to and on mission for the people of China. Rather than care for her own needs, her sense of calling to serve the Chinese people was so strong that she literally starved while she gave away rations to her starving neighbors in Tengchow, Shantung Province, in Northern China when a famine struck. She had advocated an offering to be collected during the week before Christmas among Baptist Churches to support mission work around the world based primarily on her own experience of hardship and struggles to remain and survive where God had called her to go. She passed away on Christmas Eve, 1912, aboard a ship that was docked in Kobe, Japan, in the process of bringing her back to the States for medical treatment.

We have to ask ourselves what it is that would motivate people to give their lives like that, to throw themselves so completely into something that it could ultimately cost them their lives.

It has to do with how one views his or her life to begin with, doesn’t it? If your understanding is that life – this terrestrial life – these seventy or eighty or more years or so that we spend here on earth are all that there IS, there is very little that would move you to the point of pouring yourself out for someone else.

If, however, your view is that this life is NOT all there is, that there is more TO life than just making yourself comfortable while you are here, then it becomes a lot easier to move away from that comfort, that ease, that looking out for number one and to come to a point of realizing that it is, in a very real way, a sense of hope in what lies … beneath, beyond, above, whatever directional word you want to use to describe it … what we can hear and see and taste and feel that truly brings meaning to life.

Don’t misunderstand. I’m not saying that life is worthless – it is TOTALLY worth it. It is precisely BECAUSE life is so precious that we go. We are promised full life; Jesus calls it ABUNDANT life – when we live for him. And that is what WE become participants in when we send – prayers, money, and people – even from within our own family, or even ourselves – to share with the world this hope that we find in living for Christ.

What we are charged with is to share the message of Christ – of Hope … Paul says,

‘24For in hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what is seen? 25But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.’

He was speaking not only to the people in the church at Rome, but he was speaking to us here today. Our hope is based on something we cannot see. And so we wait for it with patience. As we move through the Advent Season this year, let me invite you to think about what your deepest hope is, and realize that in the midst of that hope, however forlorn it may feel, know that Christ IS coming.

What does this mean for Jerusalem Baptist Church at Emmerton?

This evening we will hear from Rob Brown, a young man who served in India during the first half of this year through a program initiated by the Baptist General Association of Virginia. I would encourage you to come and hear what he has to say, not necessarily because it was through Virginia Baptists that he was able to go, that is more or less understood, in being a part of an association of over 1400 congregations that in turn make up a portion of the body of Christ on earth, but more for that last part – that ‘being a portion of the body of Christ on earth’ bit.

As a small rural congregation, and an active, involved, and motivated one, it is sometimes I think easy for us to get so caught up in the immediate needs of those in our immediate vicinity that we deeply care about, but we risk losing sight of our global impact.

Our challenge this morning is to lift our eyes ‘beyond the hills’, as it were, to get the God’s eye view of what God is doing in the WORLD, not JUST in Emmerton, Richmond County, and the Northern Neck.

And to get a feel for what’s going on beyond what we can see. I would invite us to think about those hopes that we have. I’ll share one hope with you that I have. My hope for this coming year is that we can put together a missions team, maybe four or five of us, maybe more, maybe less, and DO something – go somewhere. Maybe go to help in the continuing cleanup work down in the Gulf States, after Katrina, in Mississippi or Louisiana, maybe do something overseas. We’re going to hear about opportunities of service through the BGAV, there are programs available to us, there are partnerships we can engage in, that we can invest ourselves in, and get a clearer picture – a God’s eye view of what God is doing in the world.

When I worked for Bell Atlantic, we had these meetings, and there was a part at the beginning of the meeting that was an open forum – you would “board” ideas – it was a time where anyone could mention anything and it got written down. I’d like to do that with you all, but I’d like to board our hopes. Would anyone like to voice a hope?

(I hope that our congregation will grow in this coming year) Amen. That is my hope too.

Anyone else?

Another hope that I have is that as we begin to celebrate in January and through August if not beyond, will be an affirmation of what it means to have born witness for 175 years, and that that celebration will slingshot for us to move FORWARD – into the future.

Any others?

I know it was short notice, and that’s okay. If you come up with them, we may go back over them this evening. Be thinking…

(I hope that Mommy and Hannah get back safely) Yes, Caleb, I do too.

(That everyone stays healthy) yes, that’s a good one.

Our hopes don’t have to be high and noble, those are good, and welcomed, but they can be simpler hopes - like hopes for health, hopes for safety, hopes for mending relationships, for strengthening relationships, for continued care of each other.

(I hope my son and his wife will have a beautiful baby) Margie hopes that her son and his wife will have a beautiful baby. Remind me, are they expecting? Yes? Yay! When? 5th of July? Wow! It’s early! Let’s keep Patrick and Jaqueline in our prayers.

Any others? Our hopes are sometimes not voiced, but they are there. We are a people of hope. It is what feeds our flame. It is what separates us, it is what differentiates us, it is what moves us and makes us want to be more.

Our invitation/closing hymn is number 390, ‘We Are Called To Be God’s People’. As we sing this, as we read the lyrics, as we internalize the thoughts and the ideas that are in this hymn, be thinking about how we can BE God’s people, tonight, and tomorrow, and the next day. Let’s stand and sing.

As we move from this form of worship into the worship that is our daily living, LISTEN to this benediction:

And now, may the Lord bless you and keep you, the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious unto you. May God give you grace never to sell yourself short, grace to risk something big for something good, grace to remember that the world is now too dangerous for anything but truth, and too small for anything but love. So may God take your minds and think through them, may God take your lips and speak through them, may God take your hearts, set them on fire, and through YOU give the world HOPE.

Amen.


[1] (Job 13:5, Psalm 25:3, Psalm 33:18, Psalm 42:5, Psalm 62:5, Psalm 130:7, Psalm 146:5, Psalm 147:11, Isaiah 40:31, Jeremiah 29:11, Lamentations 3:21, Romans 5:4, Romans 8:20, Romans 8:24, Romans 8:25, Romans 12:12, Romans 15:4, Romans 15:13, 1Corinthians 13:7, 1 Corinthians 13:13, 1 Corinthians 15:13, Colossians 1:27, Titus 1:2, Hebrews 6:19, Hebrews 10:23, Hebrews 11:1, 1 John 3:3)