Tuesday, November 19, 2013

The Wisdom of Humpty Dumpty


Isaiah 65:17-25 Luke 21:5-19

We all learned it. Although I am not so sure that kids learn it any longer.  I am sure it is not on the standardized tests, so I would not be surprised if schoolchildren today have never heard of Humpty Dumpty. They could identify Big Bird and Sponge Bob , but probably not Humpty Dumpty. But I imagine most of us here learned it in childhood. 

Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall,
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.
All the king's horses and all the king's men
Couldn't put Humpty together again.

This rhyme dates from the late eighteenth century. The earliest known written version of it is found in Samuel Arnold's book Juvenile Amusements published in 1797. This early version is a little different than the one we all memorized. It goes:

Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall,
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.
Four-score Men and Four-score more,
Could not make Humpty Dumpty where he was before.

Like most nursery rhymes its original context and meaning is lost. Many suspect it has to do with the political fall of a public figure in 17th or 18th century England, perhaps some rotund bigwig of the day. The most popular origin story is that it refers to a large short stout cannon that sat on a wall of the town of Colchester, England, in 1648. At least that is what that town says to attract tourists. At that time it was a walled town with a castle and several churches and protected by the city wall. The story is that a large cannon, which was nicknamed Humpty Dumpty, was placed on the wall to protect the town. During a battle a shot from a cannon of the attacking army succeeded in damaging the wall beneath Humpty Dumpty which caused the cannon to tumble to the ground. The Royalists, or Cavaliers, "all the King's men", attempted to raise Humpty Dumpty on to another part of the wall, but because the cannon was so heavy they were not able to do so.

Who knows if this story is true? I still like to think of Humpty as a giant egg, but it does not say that in the nursery rhyme. We owe that picture to Lewis Carroll and the illustrations in his book Through the Looking-Glass published in 1872. But the fragility of Humpty Dumpty as an egg, which when shattered cannot be put back together again, is what gives the rhyme its enduring value and wisdom.

Why am I talking about Humpty Dumpty? What does this have to do with Jesus Christ? Our gospel lesson for today teaches the same lesson as the nursery rhyme. In our passage in the Gospel of Luke Jesus is standing in the courtyard of the Jerusalem Temple as people were gathering for the Feast of unleavened Bread, known as the Passover. This was the temple built by King Herod and situated on the highest hill in Jerusalem. The temple was lifted even higher by being surrounded by a high retaining wall. Herod’s temple structure was the most beautiful temple in Israel’s history. It surpassed even the temple of Solomon. People came from all the Mediterranean to marvel at this wonder of the ancient world. As Jesus stood there in the temple with his disciples, he overheard the people remarking on the temple’s magnificence and how it would last forever.

 Our scripture lesson says: “Then, as some spoke of the temple, how it was adorned with beautiful stones and donations, He said, “These things which you see - the days will come in which not one stone shall be left upon another that shall not be thrown down.” Jesus said that that this great structure would be torn down, not one stone left on another, and all the king’s horses and all the king’s men would never put it together again. And this prophecy came true. Within the lifetimes of some of those who heard Jesus’ words, the Roman army attacked Jerusalem and completely dismantled this temple, stone by stone. To this day the only thing left of Herod’s temple is the retaining wall around the foundation. It is known as the Western Wall or the Wailing Wall, and is the holiest site to Jews today. That wall itself is impressive. The stones are huge. We can only imagine what the temple built above it was like.

I. Our gospel lesson this morning teaches us an important truth. It is the same point that Humpty Dumpty makes. It is the impermanence of earthly things. We could also describe it as the fragility of worldly things - as fragile as an a giant egg sitting precariously on a wall. Jesus develops this point by mentioning several aspects of life that are impermanent.

1. First is material things. That is the reference to the temple itself. If anything seems permanent it would seem to be a building made of huge stone blocks. But even that fell. Just like the Twin Towers fell. I recently read a book entitled The Harbinger. The Harbinger is a 2012 best-selling Christian novel by Rabbi Jonathan Cahn, a Messianic Jew. He is the Senior Pastor and Messianic Rabbi of the Jerusalem Center/ Beth Israel in Wayne, New Jersey. His book was recommended and loaned to me by someone in our congregation. Cahn sees recent events, particularly the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center in 2001, as signs from God - a warning to America. He draws a lot of parallels between ancient Israel, especially in the prophet Isaiah’s day, and 21st century America. I have some problems with his biblical hermeneutic, that is his way of interpreting scripture. For example, he compares King Solomon to George Washington, which in my opinion is going a bit far. But the basic message of the book is valid. The World Trade Center was our Tower of Babel and our financial temple. And it came down like the Jerusalem temple of Jesus’ day did. This has symbolic and spiritual significance and not just political and historical significance. The broader and more profound teaching involved here is that riches and power are impermanent.

2. Second is the changing face of religious beliefs. Jesus says, “Take heed that you not be deceived. For many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am He,’ and, ‘The time has drawn near.’ Therefore do not go after them.” Religion is continually changing. New messiahs arise and fall. Self-styled prophets predict the end of the world and are sometimes foolish enough to actually set a date. The dates come and go and the world continues as it has. You may remember that the world was supposed to end last year 2012. New Age writers cited Mayan and Aztec calendars that predicted the end of the age on December 21, 2012. It is almost a year later and we are still here. Jesus says about such prophets, “Do not go after them.” Religious fads like this come and go.

3. Jesus mentions international instability. He says “Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom.” In a parallel passage he predicts that the city of Jerusalem would be surrounded by armies and destroyed. And it was destroyed by Roman armies in 70 AD. We tend to think that our American nation and our worldwide power will last. But history teaches us that like the Roman Empire fell, so will the American superpower status one day fall. Probably not in our lifetimes or the lifetimes of our grandchildren, but it will happen.

4. Jesus even talks about weather and natural catastrophes. “11 And there will be great earthquakes in various places, and famines and pestilences; and there will be fearful sights and great signs from heaven.” We all know about climate change. Even though it has been politicized, as far as I can tell as a scientific layman, it is certainly happening.  How much it is manmade and how much it is the natural cycle of global change over the centuries is up for debate, but the change itself is certainly happening. We talk about superstorms now, and the regular flooding of coastal areas. A study published in July in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences predicts that more than 1,700 American cities and towns – including Boston, New York, and Miami – will be under water, although it wisely does not give a date. It does say that this trend will be irreversible by the year 2100. Geologic history tells us about immense changes in the earth’s surface - ice ages and continental drift. Even something as solid as the earth changes.

5. Jesus speaks about persecution. In fact he devotes more words to persecution than to any other topic in this passage. “12 But before all these things, they will lay their hands on you and persecute you, delivering you up to the synagogues and prisons. You will be brought before kings and rulers for My name’s sake. 13 But it will turn out for you as an occasion for testimony. 14 Therefore settle it in your hearts not to meditate beforehand on what you will answer; 15 for I will give you a mouth and wisdom which all your adversaries will not be able to contradict or resist. 16 You will be betrayed even by parents and brothers, relatives and friends; and they will put some of you to death. 17 And you will be hated by all for My name’s sake.”

I have mentioned previously the situation of Christian pastor Saeed Abedini. He is the American Iranian pastor presently serving an eight year sentence in Iranian prisons for preaching the gospel.  He is just one example. The persecution of Christians is heating up in the world. It even makes the Evening news shows now. Churches are being burned in Syria and Egypt. These are among the oldest Christian communities in the world. They have endured for 2000 years. But now their existence is threatened.  Then there is persecution in Pakistan and Saudi Arabia. In spite of the American wars, Christians are persecuted more in Iraq now more than before our involvement. Christians are still persecuted in Afghanistan even without the Taliban in power.  The United States is an island of religious freedom in a world that is persecuting Christianity at an accelerating rate. We are deluding ourselves if we think it could never also happen here.

All these areas – I have mentioned five of them – show the impermanence and fragility of the world as we know it. It is important to get this through our heads and let it sink into our hearts and saturate our souls. As the apostle Paul wrote, “For the present form of this world is passing away.” That is what Jesus was saying to his disciples as he stood and taught them on the temple mount.

II. Our response to the transitory nature of this world is to hold to that which is eternal. The apostle john wrote, “And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.” Jesus told a parable about a man who built his house upon sand as opposed as to one who built his house upon a rock. What do we build our lives on? In our gospel passage today, Jesus says that in spite of all the changes in the world that he was predicting, there were certain things we could count on.

He said, 8 “But not a hair of your head shall be lost.” If Jesus was referring to not going bald, then this certainly does not refer to me. I have lost quite a few hairs of my head. In the context, he was referring to the section on persecution. He did not mean that Christians would not be killed. In fact he clearly says that they will. They are now being killed. The physical hairs of their heads are being lost and a lot more than that. We read it in the newspapers and see it on the television news. Jesus is not saying that no physical harm will come to Christians. He is using a figure of speech to talk about spiritual matters.

In our lives things will happen to us. Bad things will happen. We are not immune from tragedies just because we believe in God or trust in Christ.  Some Christians do not understand this, and therefore their faith crumbles under pressure. Bad things happen to good people. Bad things happen to Christian people just like any other people. It is not whether bad things happen. It is how they affect us. Through faith in Christ bad things cannot harm us at the deepest level. If our souls are grounded in God and Christ, then the storms of life cannot shake us. They cannot move the foundation. That is what Jesus is talking about.

The last thing Jesus says in our passage is this: “By your patience possess your souls.” This little gem can easily he overlooked in the midst of talk of earthquakes, wars and persecution. “By your patience possess your souls.” Live in your soul, in that center. Possess it. Do not just visit it once in a while during prayer or meditation. Make it your home, Possess it. Live there. If we live in the world, then our lives will be tossed to and fro with the winds that shake this world - whether those be political winds, religious winds or meteorological winds. But if we possess our souls, if we dwell there in the presence of God Almighty who resides in our souls as Holy Spirit, then nothing will shake our lives. Spiritually speaking, not a hair on our heads will be harmed.


Jesus says to possess our souls in patience. ”By your patience possess your souls.” Patience means waiting. We do not need patience when everything happens how we want it when we want it. We need patience when things are not going according to our wishes. When answers to prayer seem to be delayed. When things are not going according to plan, then possess your souls by your patience. Wait on the Lord. Wait and see what great thing God will do in you and in your life. By doing this we dwell in eternal habitations. We live in eternal life. Our life is hidden with God in Christ. We experience that which is eternal in the midst of a world that is temporary. Everything passes away. Like Humpty Dumpty, things fall apart and we cannot put them back together again the way they used to be. That can be a good thing. For it forces us to find our strength and our solid rock in that which will not pass away. That is Christ, who is the same yesterday today and forever. 

Tuesday, November 12, 2013

These Are the Good Old Days


Haggai 1:15b-2:9; 2 Thessalonians 2:1-5, 13-17; Luke 20:27-38

It is natural to compare the way things are now to the way they used to be - to look back on the good old days. It is common for one generation to compare itself to the younger generation. Listen to this quote: “Our youth now love luxury. They have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for their elders and love chatter in place of exercise; they no longer rise when elders enter the room; they contradict their parents, chatter before company; gobble up their food and tyrannize their teachers.” Do you know who said this? It is attributed to Socrates quoted by Plato, two and a half thousand years ago! I guess the more things change the more they remain the same.
During this 250th anniversary celebration of the Town of Sandwich, we have heard a lot about the way things used to be. People who have lived here all their lives tell me about the way things used to be when they were young and how different they are now. Even I find myself thinking about the way Sandwich used to be when we first lived here in the early 1980’s. I especially find myself often thinking about the people! When I drive the roads of Sandwich, I identify houses by who used to live in them, rather than who lives in them now. Images of people long dead flash through my mind as I drive past certain houses. I guess that goes with knowing a place over a period of time. I can only imagine what goes through the minds of those of you who have known Sandwich much longer than I have.
I. LOOKING BACKWARDS. Our OT passage for today is from the prophet Haggai. Haggai was a prophet of Israel in what is called the post-exilic period. The Jews had been conquered by the Babylonians and taken into exile for a period of seventy years. When the Persians took power they allowed the Jews to return home to Jerusalem, but only a fraction of the people took up the offer.  This remnant of Israel tried to bring things back to the way they were in the good old days. One thing they did was rebuild the temple in Jerusalem, which had been completely destroyed by the Babylonians. The prophets Haggai and Zachariah preached at this time and encouraged that rebuilding.
The temple was built, and it was dedicated in ceremony. Our passage takes place at that time. They people gathered for the great unveiling of the new temple. People could go in and take a tour of the place before it opened for business. Most of the people thought it looked pretty good, because they had never seen the old temple. But the older people who were children when the old temple was destroyed and had seen the old temple in its glory were not impressed by the new structure. Haggai heard these comments and he says in verse 3 “Who is left among you who saw this temple in its former glory? And how do you see it now? In comparison with it, is this not in your eyes as nothing?”
I have heard people talk about Sandwich when there were numerous businesses in town and when we had our own high school, hardware store, doctor’s office, gas station and general store. People say things are not the same now. Before moving back to Sandwich I lived near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. That area was economically devastated by the collapse of the American steel industry. It still has only half the population that it did in its heyday the 1970’s. All the old boroughs and townships are shadows of their former selves. Out there people used to tell me story after story about what it was like in the good old days.
We can do the same thing with the stories of our own lives. My mom used to tell story after story about her childhood, growing up in the 1920’s and 30’s. I also think back to growing up in the 1950’s and 60’s. It seems like a simpler time. Someone came into our kitchen recently and remarked on an old vinyl kitchen step stool that we have from the 1950’s that we still use. She referred to it as “vintage.” If that stool is vintage what does that make me? Do you have a vintage pastor?
A lot of people live much of their lives in the past. They compare their lives now to the way they used to be and they prefer the past. And so they live there in their hearts and minds. They talk about it all the time. That is what these Hebrews were doing. But Haggai tells them to snap out of it. He says to them, “Yet now be strong, Zerubbabel,’ says the Lord; ‘and be strong, Joshua, son of Jehozadak, the high priest; and be strong, all you people of the land,’ says the Lord, ‘and work; for I am with you,’ says the Lord of hosts. ‘According to the word that I covenanted with you when you came out of Egypt, so My Spirit remains among you; do not fear!’”
Haggai was calling the people to come out of the past and into the present, where the Lord God is. “For I am with you” say the Lord of hosts. “My Spirit remains among you.” God is not a God of the past and of the dead. He is a God of the Present and the living. I will come back to this point later.
II. LOOKING FORWARDS. The Epistle Lesson for today is from Second Thessalonians. It has to do with the second coming of Christ. The Gospels describe the first coming – his birth in Bethlehem, his ministry in Galilee and his death and resurrection in Jerusalem. But the epistles of the apostles look ahead to a time in the future when Christ will return. The members of those early Christian churches were getting agitated and upset about when Christ was going to return or if perhaps he had already returned and they had missed it. The apostle Paul writes to them these words. “Now, brethren, concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him, we ask you, not to be soon shaken in mind or troubled, either by spirit or by word or by letter, as if from us, as though the day of Christ had come. Let no one deceive you by any means….” Then he goes on to describe the things that had to take place before Christ’s return.
These people were not living in the past; they were living in the future. They were not obsessing about the good old days of long ago; they were dreaming about the great new days that were to come. I have known Christians like this during my life and ministry, devout Christians who were obsessed with the future second coming of Christ. That was all they could think about or talk about. They lived their lives so much in the future that they were no good for anything in the present.
You don’t have to be obsessed with biblical apocalyptic scenarios to live in the future. I know people who cannot wait for retirement. That is all they think about and talk about. They are postponing living until they reach a certain age, and then they will live. What about if you don’t make it? Or if retirement does not match up to your expectations? People can do this at any age. Some people wit to live when they graduate, when they get married, when they have children, when they have grandchildren, or when they win the lottery. They live in a fantasized future.
It is great to look forward to things in life. I am always looking forward to something. I am looking forward to Thanksgiving and Advent and Christmas. I love the holiday season. They are a lot of work for me, but I love this time from Thanksgiving to New Year’s Day. But if we are living in the future, what happens when the future collapses. When the holidays do not work out the way we expect them to? When our lives do not work out the way we want them to? What happens if the doctor says we do not have a future?
The Gospel Lesson for today is about some folks like that in Jesus day. They not only had their own dogmatic religious ideas about the future, they were intent upon tearing down others ideas about the future. I have my ideas about the Second Coming of Christ, but I am not going to get into arguments with people who have different ideas. I see that as a waste of time and energy. But the Sadducees enjoyed such arguments. They loved to get into theological fights.
I was just reading a recent issue of Leadership Journal. The issue was dedicated to e-ministry, how to use social media in ministry. There was an article by Ed Stetzer, a well-known missiologist and expert on church planting, church revitalization, and church innovation. His article is entitled “Not Tweeting? Repent!” It was about how important Twitter is to modern ministry. He says that every pastor ought to be tweeting regularly. It was very interesting, but I have not yet taken up tweeting. Anyway in this article he was talking about avoiding theological arguments in social media. He wrote: “Never wrestle with a pig. You both get dirty, but the pig likes it.”
One day some Sadducees came to Jesus and wanted to wrestle – theologically wrestle. They did not believe in a resurrection, but they knew that Jesus and the Pharisees did. So they came to Jesus with a question to trip him up. “Teacher, Moses wrote to us that if a man’s brother dies, having a wife, and he dies without children, his brother should take his wife and raise up offspring for his brother. 29 Now there were seven brothers. And the first took a wife, and died without children. 30 And the second took her as wife, and he died childless. 31 Then the third took her, and in like manner the seven also; and they left no children,[b] and died. 32 Last of all the woman died also. 33 Therefore, in the resurrection, whose wife does she become? For all seven had her as wife.”
They did not really  want an answer. They just wanted to show how absurd they thought the idea of resurrection was. They were looking for a fight over theology. Jesus wisely would not fall into their trap. He said to them “God is not a God of the dead but of the living.”
III. LOOKING HERE & NOW. My third point this morning is about a third alternative. Not living in the past or living in the future, but living in the present. Fully present in the present. There are references to this alternative in our scripture lessons this morning. I think that is what Jesus meant when he said that “God is not a God of the dead but of the living.” The past is dead and gone. It is nice to think about it. I have had a good past. I know many people have had difficult, painful, and even abusive pasts. I have had a good past, but I do not live in it. Some people do. All they talk about is the past. It is clear that that is where their heart is.
The past is past. In reality it is nothing more now than thoughts in our minds in the present. Brain research shows how unreliable our memories are. Memories are very fluid and constantly changing. Our brains are not like video cameras capturing the past as an unchangeable digital and permanent record storied in a computer like brain. Research has clearly shown that our memories change. We are constantly rewriting the past in our heads to make it fit our understanding of ourselves in the present. We cannot recapture the past, and we certainly cannot live in it. That is living in fantasyland.  The same with the future. The future is completely unreal. It hasn’t happened. We have no idea what the future holds. Our images of the future are just speculation. Even when we think we know what will probably happen, it is always unfolds differently than we expect. The future is a fiction created by our minds.
We have experienced God in the past. That is what biblical history is about; it is a record of God’s dealings with his people in the past. That is real. And the prophecies of God’s promises in the future are also real. We can trust them. We will undoubtedly interpret them wrongly. But they will happen as God planned. We can trust that we will experience God in the future in history and in heaven. But we are not there yet. We are not in the past or the future.
We are here now.  Why look for God elsewhere? Why wait for God? Why not experience God now. In a certain sense the only time people ever experience God is now, because that is where we always are. We are always here now. God is always here now. The scripture says repeatedly “Today is the day of salvation.” God is the God of the living. We don’t have to dream about the good old days when God did great deeds for the people of Israel. We don’t have to imagine what it was like when Jesus walked the roads of Galilee. Christ is here now. He said that “Wherever two or three are gathered together in my name, I am there.” “I am with you always, even unto the end of the age.” We don’t have to dream about the future, whether that be some end times scenario or the glories of heaven. It is fun to look forward to heaven, but don’t live there. There is no need to. God is here. The Kingdom of God is within us. Christ is here. God is here. These are the good old days. Let us live them fully in the presence of God.



Tuesday, November 5, 2013

Hope for the Hopeless


Genesis 12:1-9; Titus 1:1-3

It seems like every few weeks there is a headline in the news about yet another school shooting perpetrated by a young man. On October 22 a twelve year-old opened fire in a Middle School in Nevada. He wounded two students, killed a teacher and then killed himself. In many of the cases it seems like bullying played a role in these tragedies. Bullying is a serious problem these days, and responsible for too many deaths. Another story in the news recently was about another twelve year old, a girl in Florida who took her own life after being bullied mercilessly, both physically and on line. The girls who bullied her showed no remorse and are being prosecuted.
I do not understand all this violence by young people. It so often seems to be fueled by a sense of hopelessness in their lives. If there is one thing that people need these days, it is hope. That is my topic this morning – hope. I am going to first talk about hopelessness and then hope.
I. I am sure there are many aspects of hopelessness, but I see three of them as most important.
1. The first is FEAR. That is probably the most primal emotion behind the desperation that fuels these young people to kill others and/or themselves. As human animals we have a built in instinct to protect ourselves from harm. When we perceive a threat, our bodies and brains respond with fear. You can’t reason yourself out of it. Bullying is threatening to people on all kinds of levels. Actually I think the bullies are also doing it out of fear on some level, but certainly those who are bullied feel threatened physically, emotionally and socially. They respond in fear. And that fear expresses itself often in anger, directed outward or inward in hatred or self-hatred. Too often that is acted out in violence against others or oneself or both.
2. The second is DESPAIR. Despair is often described as the opposite of hope. I see it as the inability to see a future that is worth living. Proverbs 29:18 says, “Where there is no vision, the people perish.” Hopelessness is looking into the future and seeing no light at the end of the tunnel. Prophets are people who can see into the future. Some people look into the future and see nothing. They have no hope.
3. Third is POWERLESSNESS. People feel helpless. They feel stuck in a situation which they feel unable to change. They do not see any help coming their way to make things any different. Part of this involves being cut off from other people. Lack of a support system of friends and family is part of this. A person can handle an awful lot if they feel like they have people going through it with them supporting them and helping them. But if they feel like they are all alone in the universe, things appear hopeless.
II. That is my brief assessment of the hopelessness that many people feel. And it is not just about young people. Older folks also experience hopelessness for many of the same reasons. Depression and despair know no age boundaries. People here have felt that way. You may be feeling that way right now. You may be coming to this service and listening to this message looking for hope. The good news is that there is hope for the hopeless. I see the solution to hopelessness coming in three forms.
1. First, hope is LOOKING FORWARD. We often use the expression that we are “looking forward” to something. That means that we are anticipating something good happening. We are feeling optimistic and hopeful about the future. It is important to have something to look forward to in life. Those who have nothing to look forward to can easily fall into depression. But I am not just talking about looking forward to the holidays or a trip or something like that. I am talking about something more fundamental than that.
Last month Jude and I went on a Pastor & Spouse Retreat at Camp Brookwoods in Alton, sponsored by the Leadership Center in Wolfeboro.  (That is a ministry started, by the way, by Dave Morgan, who was the interim pastor here at this church! He started that many years ago, and it is now led by a couple of friends of ours who live in Wolfeboro. It has a very good ministry to clergy and missionary couples who come from around the country and even the world. There was even a couple there this time, which we got to know, who just came back from being missionaries in China.) At the retreat, we studied a book entitled Invitations From God by Adele Calhoun.
 In the book she has a chapter on Waiting. She makes a very insightful distinction between Expectancy and Expectation. Expectancy is good; Expectations can be dangerous. She writes “Unmet expectations are resentments and disappointments waiting to happen.” Basically what she is saying is that expectations can take us on an emotional roller-coaster ride, depending whether or not our expectations for the future are met. Expectancy on the other hand, she says, “requires openness to something good happening beyond our expectations.” If we expect something to happen and it doesn’t, we can be crushed. It can feed depression and despair. But expectancy is open-ended; it trusts that God wills good for us in the future regardless of whether our specific expectations are met.
A few years ago my wife and I went through a very difficult time. Actually I went through a difficult time and my wife shared the burden. I was depressed. I sought medical help, which I always recommend to people suffering from depression. Medication did not work for me but it works for many people. What helped me at the time was spiritual, nor pharmaceutical. There was one verse from the Bible that we held on to. It was Jeremiah 29:11 “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.” Another translation puts it this way: “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” God engraved those words on our hearts. And I cannot hear them today without feeling very grateful to God.
God gives us a future. The future is in his hands. We do not know what the future holds, but we know that it is good. It is a hopeful future. It is a future for this earthly life. Too often religion can be simply an escape from present reality, a pie in the sky by and by. But that is too long to wait for most people. It is certainly too long for me. God give us hope for now and the immediate future.
But there is also hope for a future of heavenly life. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15:19 “If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied.” The wonderful thing about the gospel of Jesus Christ is the hope of eternal life after death. Death is a reality. Some people ignore that reality. They go through their lives without thinking about it, living as if they were never going to die. But at some point everyone gets a wakeup call, and we are hit with the fact that we are mortal. Our bodies start breaking down. They start ringing an alarm that says that they will not last forever. Our expiration date is approaching. Every funeral we attend of a family member, friend or neighbor reminds us that one day it will be our funeral.
What happens after our bodies stop? Do we survive in some way or is this all there is? End of story, just our bodies returning to the elements? The Gospel of Christ says that there is a future and a hope beyond the grave. Once you start going into details about what that future is like we are in the realm of mystery, metaphor and symbol. But that is alright for me. I don’t care about the details. I leave that to God. All I care about is the hope.
The apostle Peter wrote, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.” (1 Peter 1:3)  The apostle Paul wrote, “So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal. (2 Corinthians 4:16-18)  I do not have specific expectations about heaven, but I live in the expectancy that eternal life is more than I can imagine.
2. Second, hope is LOOKING UPWARD. Actually I didn’t know whether to put this first or second on the list. In looking forward you are looking into the future for something to hope for. In looking upward you are looking to someone above. Hope is based on trust and faith in God. Hope is different than optimism. Optimism is an attitude. Some people seem to be naturally optimistic. Their lot may not be any better than anyone else’s when it comes to the circumstances of their lives. And they are not necessarily more religious or more spiritual. I know people who are agnostic or even atheist that are quite happy and optimistic. As far as I can tell even death does not faze them. They just figure it is like going to sleep. We do not dread going to sleep each night, so why be obsessed about death? I think Christians can learn something from atheists. In fact I am even toying with doing a series of sermons entitled “Thank God for Atheists.” To get back to my point, some people are naturally optimistic. But optimism is not based on anything solid. It is just the way some people’s personalities are or sometimes a choice that some people make.
Hope, on the other hand, is choice based on God. We trust God for the future. Romans 8:28 is one of my favorite verses. And the verses (23-27) that come right before it are just as good. The apostle says, “Not only that, but we also who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body. For we are saved by hope, but hope that is seen is not hope; for why does one still hope for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we eagerly wait for it with perseverance. Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. Now He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God. And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.” That is hope. We are saved by hope.
That hope is not in a religion or religious teachings about afterlife. It is hope in God. It is looking upward to the one who holds the future and eternity in his hands.
3. Lastly, and briefly, hope is LOOKING INWARD. That passage in Romans 8 speaks about the Spirit, the Holy Spirit. It says we have the firstfruits of the Spirit. Another passage says that the Holy Spirit is the guarantee of our inheritance, a down payment of heaven. Those are financial terms and so this is a good spot to tie this into stewardship. Hope frees us up to give of our monetary resources to God because we are no longer afraid that we might not have enough. A lot of people cannot give as generously as they might like because they are anxious about the future. And money is a way to soothe that anxiety for many people. Godly hope frees us from fear and anxiety. As the scripture says, “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”
Hope is not wishful thinking. It is a present reality. It is experiencing eternal security and eternal life now. It is having the joy and peace of heaven now. That is the firstfruits of the Spirit within us. To find hope we need to look inward to the One who indwells us. God has placed his Spirit in us. And to experience hope we need go no further than our own heart, in which God dwells. 
I am talking practical application now. When we are depressed and despairing, worried and anxious, fearful and angry, let us look within. Deeper than the despair, deeper than the worry and the fear. At the very core of our being, in our heart of hearts, the holy of holies of our soul, resides God as Holy Spirit. The God of love and peace. Rest in that center of your existence. Live there and live out of there and you will have an endless supply of hope, which nothing that happens around us can change or diminish. Look forward. Look upward. Look inward. And we will experience the hope of God.