December 5, 2004
|
|
|
| In The
Light, Hope Second Sunday of Advent As you heard when the second Advent candle was lit, today is the Sunday we focus on the peace the coming Christ will bring. I received a Christmas card last week that had this to say about peace: “Peace is not simply the absence of strife. Peace is everything that makes for a person’s highest good. Peace refers to fulfillment and completeness, security and prosperity, reconciliation and harmony. Peace is what the world and its people need desperately” (“Good News of Great Joy!” by Cynthia L. Hale. DisciplesWorld, December, 2003). Peace, shalom is about well-being. Peace is like that great feeling you’ve had at the end of a really good day. Peace is about soul-deep satisfaction. I have been sharing in small groups the words God gave the prophet Jeremiah: “For surely I know the plans I have for you”, says the LORD, “plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope” (Jeremiah 29.11). The passage from Romans begins with hope and ends with hope because the Romans needed to know what we need to know – if we live without hope, we live without a vision of a brighter, better world. If there is no hope, there is little possibility of dreaming of how it can be, and if we cannot imagine a brighter world, or a better future, there will be very little peace. As long as we have hope, peace is possible and we have reason to move forward. Addressing the first century church in words that serve the church in the 21st century, Paul writes to remind the Romans that all that they have heard, how God created the world, all about the Exodus, the Exile, and the return, how the prophets demanded faithfulness to God and justice for the poor, the promise of a Savior, the story of the life, ministry, death and resurrection of Jesus, all of it is useful to keeping us strong and keeping us hopeful. Are called to hope in difficult times? Yes. Will there be times of despair? Absolutely. It all teaches us how to handle what comes at us from time to time. But, “suffering produces perseverance, perseverance produces character, character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us” (Romans 5.3b-5). Look at where hope has gotten us. God is still beckoning us, still reminding us that victory and defeat are both temporary, they are part of the peaks and valleys, we know, but God is and will be God, and God’s promise to be with us wherever we go is the source of our hope, and that is enough to move us toward the ever brightening light. Martin Luther King, Jr. said, “we must learn to accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope” (source unknown). So while we face the reality of limited financial resources and fewer people in here than there were years ago, we do not give up because this moment will pass and a better moment is on the way. Bad things happen to good congregations, and the God who called us and loved us and keeps us is still here and still calling us to exist and to thrive. Because we live in the light of Christ, we live in hope. And because we are people of hope, we do not yield to the temptation to give up. Instead your leaders have gotten busy and are working on ways to make our part of the body of Christ stronger. We have pews to fill as we pray and plan to grow his congregation and we rejoice that on the two Sundays previous to today, we celebrated three baptisms, along with three people who have declared that Broad Street Christian Church is now their church home, and one who came forward a while ago, and who is eager to be baptized. We have reason to hope that indeed God’s plan, as we move into this season’s brightening light, is about a “future filled with hope”. How shall we claim the hope that is before us? First, we hope as we claim a sense of unity of purpose. We Disciple like to say that “unity is our polar star”. We are committed to making the body of Christ as complete as we can. We want to give life to the hope “that our unity will one day be restored” (“They’ll Know We Are Christian By Our Love” #494, Chalice Hymnal, Christian Board of Publication, 1995). That is why you will find us in ecumenical organizations everywhere. Disciples are deeply involved in the World Council of Churches, the National Churches of Christ, Church Women United, the Ohio Council of Churches, and the Metropolitan Area Church Council of Columbus. But our unity is not only about the organizations we belong to our unity is about how we serve and honor God. There is a belief out in the world and even sometimes in the church that being together for worship and work is OK, but it really is not necessary. We say, “I can believe in Jesus without ever crossing the threshold of a church. I can worship God by myself, pray by myself, study all by myself, and love God and be loved by God all by myself”. And it is all true. But have you ever tried celebrating good news all by yourself? There is a certain hollowness about it. Have you grieved by yourself, with no one else to share the burden? It can make you sick with regret and sadness, and with the need to be heard by another person. I recommend that each of us spend time with God daily – in prayer, in praise, in reading and reflection on what the love of God means in your life. Have a personal devotional life, but know that the church of Jesus Christ grows stronger only as its members have a sense of unity. Unity helps us form community as our best minds and most open hearts are given to building the church together. We are called to what Paul calls a sense of harmony because when we work together, when we sacrifice together, and to take chances together, the Spirit of God moves in this place and God is glorified. When we are together, we can speak with one voice, with conviction, with vision, and with an awareness that we are moving together. The church is simply stronger when we act together. For the sake of unity in Christ Jesus, let’s stay positive and believe God and trust God not only personally, but to be with and guide our congregation. Second, we claim the hope that is in us is by practicing Christian hospitality. Every congregation believes that it is welcoming and friendly, I cannot recall ever seeing a sign on a church anywhere that says, “our church is the meanest, coldest place you can imagine, enter, if you must at your own peril”. Instead, most congregations I know invite people to share the light of Christ by welcoming them to enter into their worship and service life. Christ has welcomed us, and we welcome each other into the mission and ministry of the church. We move into the light with hope when Paul’s vision for the church becomes a vision we share. “He sees mutual welcome, allowing people from very different backgrounds literally to worship together with one voice. All who confess Jesus as Lord and believe that God raised him from the dead belong in the same worshiping family, and at the same table” (New Interpreter’s Bible, volume X. Nashville: Abingdon, 2002. p.749). When we come to the communion table, we come as brothers and sisters in Christ, who have accepted his invitation, and we make room for others to join us in the name of Jesus Christ whose “purpose is inclusion, not exclusion. No area, no people, are separated from his mercy. Whatever it is that contributes to exclusion from the Christian community, whether social pressures or racial biases or whatever else, works at cross-purposes with the redemptive intention of God as shown in Christ”. (Interpretation series. Paul Achtemeier. Romans. Atlanta, John Knox Press, 1985, p.226). The model of inclusiveness is Christ himself who became a servant first to the Jewish people who were looking for the Messiah. As the promise is fulfilled in him, Gentiles, non-Jews noticed and began to hope in him and worship him too. As we wait, the light of hope dawns. The light began to brighten when Isaiah spoke of the promise of a remnant, a shoot, a branch from King David’s father Jesse, in other words a heritage of hope and life is promised to us. Isaiah speaks of gifts of the spirit, wisdom, understanding, counsel, might, knowledge, love and respect for God that makes God smile. This promised one has vision enough and compassion enough to be about justice and righteousness so that as he comes, as he brings light into the world, he will bring the long hoped for peace. Natural enemies will live together in a peaceable kingdom. Imagine a world with peace in the Middle East, no racism, no sexism, no homophobia, no inadequate heath care, no hunger or involuntary homelessness, no poor education, or housing, and children, the most trusting and vulnerable among us will be safe from all harm. That is the hope that makes for peace. When fully realized, the hope of one to come in Isaiah becomes true for all who find hope for salvation from God’s Messiah. A passage like the one we heard from Isaiah, reinforces the vision of that peace that lies at the heart of the mission of the “shoot from the stump of Jesse,” who is, we now [believe] Jesus. With Jesus the new reality announced in Isaiah has begun. Like Israel, we yearn for an end to evil and the establishment of universal peace. Like those who heard Isaiah speak these words, we rejoice in the hope they provide as the hope announced in Isaiah becomes the joyful acknowledgement with Paul that in Christ that peace has already become reality.” (Achtemeier, p.227). That little sprig, that stump of Jesse has deep roots and will be the savior of everyone who seeks him, as we hope in him, he brings his light to us. As the light emerges, so does peace and so does hope. Paul prays that hope be in everything we do. Eugene Peterson puts it this way: “Oh! May the God of green hope fill you up with joy, fill you up with peace, so that your believing lives, filled with the life giving energy of the Holy Spirit, will brim with hope” (Eugene Peterson. The Message. Colorado Springs: NavPress, 1993, p.333). May it be so for us as we walk into the brightening light with hope. Pray with me. "Come, Spirit of God, to rest on our community, embracing the poor, bringing equity to the meek, turning away all expressions of evil. Come into this congregation to enliven our worship, to immerse us in righteousness, to prompt our faithfulness. Rain on us your hope and joy and peace, filling the whole earth with your glory.” (Taught by Love. Lavon Bayler. Cleveland: United Church Press. 1998, p.6). To God be the glory, and may Jesus, the coming Christ be praised. Dr.
LaTaunya M. Bynum |
|
Broad
Street Christian Church
|
