Rev. Sara Bayles. Fort Smith First United Methodist Church. November 29, Advent:Hope

Transcription

1 Rev. Sara Bayles Fort Smith First United Methodist Church November 29, 2015 Advent:Hope Romans 5:1 5 (NRSV) Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand; and we boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God. 3 And not only that, but we also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, 4 and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 5 and hope does not disappoint us, because God s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us. Today, along with Christians throughout the world, we begin the season of Advent in our church calendar. This Advent season is marked by a season of preparation and waiting, begins four weeks prior to Christmas. Each week we light a candle on our advent wreath, marking this special season of advent as we prepare our hearts and lives for the coming of the Christ Child. I believe in taking time to dwell in the Advent season because this gives us the time to cultivate Christian practices of hope, faith, joy, and love as virtues in which we cling to, in which we wait for the coming Messiah. Advent and Christmas are supposed to be seasons of hope. Yet, during these winter months and holiday celebrations depression increases, suicides peak, and the stress of the season overwhelms us all at times. In this season, our hope in the coming Messiah 1

2 seems so distance from the shopping malls, and holiday parties, and all that we have left to check of on our to do list between now and December 25th. Sure, we may have many hopes for the next four weeks, hopes that we can find the perfect gift for our spouse, sibling, or child; hopes that we can get our Christmas Tree up and decorate our homes before our holiday gatherings; we may hope that the cold weather and snow may stay out of our way until we get to our family s house to celebrate the holidays. We may hope that the Razorbacks get into a decent bowl game, but these sorts of hopes, they are not much more than wishful thinking. Advent is a time for rooting ourselves in a hope that grounds our lives and gives us our hope for living. As Paul writes to the Roman Christians in his letter By faith we have been justified, in grace we stand, God s love is poured into our hearts... therefore the the hope of the world isn t about wishful thinking. Hope, by Paul s standards, and in Christianity, is a virtue of Christian life in which we grow. It s as if hope is a muscle that can only get strong with practice. So that is this hope? What is hope? Where do we feel hope? Taste hope? Smell hope? where in our body and soul does hope reside? Hope is a practice cultivated and nurtured among Christian community. For a few minutes, let us take a quick stroll through 2000 years of Church History and learn from the faithful saints that have gone before us what this Christian hope is, and why we cultivate this hope in our world today. We read in Romans from Paul: we boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God. 3 And not only that, but we also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, 4 and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 5 and hope does not disappoint us. (Romans 5:3 5). Early church father, John Chrysostom, contemplating upon Paul s words in Romans preached that Endurance produces character, which contributes in some measure to 2

3 the things which are to come because it gives power to the hope which is within us. Nothing encourages a man to hope for blessing more than the strength of a good character. No one who has led a good life worries about the future Does our good really lie in hope? Yes, but not in human hopes, which often vanish and leave only 1 embarrassment behind. Our hope is in God and is there fore sure and immovable. " There is an old story from Saint Augustine, in which he was teaching upon this Christian virtue of hope, describing hope as this: Hope has two beautiful daughters. Their names are anger and courage; anger at the 2 way things are, and courage to see that they do not remain the way they are. Hope is something that requires both courage and at times, righteous anger, but we all must cling to hope. Church reformer Martin Luther believed that Everything that is done in the world is 3 done by hope. Alongside Luther, church reformer John Calvin argued that Faith is the foundation on 4 which Hope rests: Hope nourishes and maintains faith. If any of you have read any American Poetry, you may be familiar with Emily 5 Dickenson s poem, in which Hope is a thing with feathers. Hope is the Christian virtue that has been cultivated since the promised coming, birth, life and ministry, death and resurrection of Christ. For us to practice and be a people of hope is to participate in the Christian virtue with Christians around the globe and saints that have gone before us. Hope is the work of Christians, rooted in the promises of Scripture and our Savior. Hope is presence. Not the presents that come wrapped under a tree or on a birthday, but the physical, real, felt presence of hope. Hope is a longing for God and the Kingdom of God to come on earth as it is in heaven. Hope is presence, Hope is the lifelong work of Christians. 1 John Chrysostom 2 St. Augustine 3 Martin Luther 4 John Calvin 5 Emily Dickinson 3

4 Hope is a practice of the community of Christians since the foretelling, birth, death, and resurrection of Christ. The practice and exercising of hope is Christian practice. And Advent is a season in which we pause and look for hope, cultivate hope, and make space for hope to grow in our world. In a world that yearns for hope, Christians have the great opportunity to grow and cultivate hope among a world of despair. Christians find hope in Scripture. We believe that scriptures contains all things possible for knowing the God salvation and that thru this we have access to this hope in Christ. We find this hope in Christ our Savior. And we find this hope in community. One of the greatest gifts of Christian community, or Church is that we are a place that is fertile for cultivating hope. When we bring a casserole for a bereavement meal, when we pray for one another, when we encourage one another, when we care for one another, when we serve in mission, and when we worship together, we plant seeds of hope and make space for hope to have a home among the community of faith. Two years ago in 2013, Jan Richardson, a United Methodist pastor in Florida lost her husband, during the first days in December, falling on the first week of Advent which is the week Christians are to light the hope candle marking their hope during the Advent Season. A year ago in 2014, Rev. Jan Richardson wrote about hope on this first Sunday in Advent Hope is a hard word for me these days. Last Friday marked a year since Gary had the surgery that would begin to bear him away from us. I think of those who waited with me with such hope throughout that surgery, throughout the two emergency surgeries that would follow, and throughout all the days we kept vigil with Gary until it became clear our vigil was at an end. What is the use of hoping, when hope comes to such a pass?... In the midst of my grief, what I know is that hope, inexplicably, has not left me. That it is stubborn. That it lives in me like a muscle that keeps reaching and stretching, or a lung that keeps working even when I do not will it, persisting in the constant intake and release of breath on which my life depends. Hope is not always comforting or comfortable. Hope asks us to open ourselves to what we do not know, to pray for illumination in this life, to imagine what is beyond our imagining, to bear what seems unbearable. 4

5 It calls us to keep breathing when beloved lives have left us, to turn toward one another when we might prefer to turn away. Hope draws our eyes and hearts toward a more whole future but propels us also into the present, where Christ waits for us to work with 6 him toward a more whole world now. For Jan, and Paul, John Chrysostom, and Augustine, and Luther, and Calvin, and Emily Dickinson, and for us all Hope is presence, the presence of God s love poured into our lives by the Holy Spirit, and we cling to this hope, we hold this hope for one another, we hope in a Savior in whose birth we find hope, and in whose death and resurrection. Hope is a practice, it s something that we do together. It s a team sport, it s something that we have to do over and over and over again as if we are exercising a muscle, we till the ground and plant hope, and water, cultivate, and make space for hope. As we begin this Advent season, let us make space in our lives to see hope. to experience hope, to live into hope, and to allow hope to flourish in our lives. As you go forth in this Advent Season to shop, decorate, and celebrate may you be a people receive this blessing and bear hope. Blessing of Hope So may we know the hope that is not just (only) for someday but for this day here, now, in this moment that opens to us hope not made of wishes but of substance hope made of sinew and muscle 6 jan richardson, that you may know the hope/ 5

6 and bone hope that has breath and a beating heart hope that will not keep quiet and be polite hope that knows how to holler when it is called for hope that knows how to sing when there seems little cause hope that raises us from the dead not someday but this day, every day, again and again and 7 again. Amen. 7 Ibid. 6