Debra K. Brazzel - "A Hope That Does Not Disappoint" (June 7, 1998)
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- | One of the heresies that has existed | 0:08 |
for most of the history of the church | 0:11 | |
and which continues its prominence today | 0:13 | |
is the belief that if you believe in God | 0:16 | |
and are faithful, i.e. a good person, | 0:19 | |
God will bless you with happiness, | 0:23 | |
success, health and wealth. | 0:25 | |
You can hear this message preached | 0:30 | |
by various televangelists every week. | 0:31 | |
Just believe enough and act in a certain way | 0:34 | |
and whatever you wish for, God will grant you. | 0:37 | |
Of course, your faithfulness also requires | 0:41 | |
that you make generous and regular contributions | 0:43 | |
to the preacher. | 0:46 | |
But in spite of these abuses of power by some preachers, | 0:47 | |
the theology of prosperity has great appeal. | 0:51 | |
It offers a way to control the outcome of life. | 0:56 | |
Be good and do good and God will bless you | 1:00 | |
with the good life. | 1:04 | |
Of course, the implication is that if you aren't successful, | 1:07 | |
happy, wealthy and healthy, | 1:11 | |
then you've done something to deserve that suffering. | 1:14 | |
This belief gives rise to our tendency to blame the poor, | 1:18 | |
the sick and the victim for their circumstances. | 1:22 | |
We wonder what they've done | 1:26 | |
to bring their sorry plight upon themselves. | 1:27 | |
Do you remember the story of Job | 1:31 | |
who lost his wife, his children, his home | 1:33 | |
and his health? | 1:36 | |
His friends who came to comfort him | 1:38 | |
believed that he must have done something | 1:41 | |
to bring disaster upon himself. | 1:43 | |
They tried to help him by getting him | 1:46 | |
to admit that he deserved all that had happened to him. | 1:48 | |
He must have done something to make God really mad | 1:52 | |
because God always blesses the deserving | 1:57 | |
and punishes the sinner. | 2:01 | |
This belief is so widespread | 2:05 | |
that suffering, the experience of suffering | 2:08 | |
is a great killer of faith. | 2:13 | |
In her book "God in Pain," | 2:16 | |
Barbara Brown Taylor describes it this way. | 2:19 | |
"Long-time believers crash into the first wall | 2:24 | |
"of life-threatening illness | 2:27 | |
"and all the light goes out of their eyes. | 2:29 | |
"They pack their prayer books | 2:32 | |
"when they go to the hospital | 2:34 | |
"but they do not open them once they get there. | 2:35 | |
"They watch television instead, | 2:38 | |
"cruising channels for something | 2:40 | |
"to busy their minds. | 2:42 | |
"They cannot pray. | 2:44 | |
"When they try, their prayer seem to get no farther | 2:46 | |
"than the ceiling. | 2:48 | |
"One of them says he is afraid to pray now. | 2:50 | |
"He prayed before and look what happened. | 2:53 | |
"Now all he wants to do is lie low | 2:56 | |
"and try not to catch God's attention." | 3:00 | |
More than anything else, | 3:05 | |
suffering reveals the fragility of our faith. | 3:07 | |
When disaster strikes, | 3:12 | |
we discover how inadequate is our concept | 3:13 | |
of God, how empty our hope. | 3:16 | |
A theology of prosperity is fine | 3:20 | |
when everything is going well in our lives. | 3:22 | |
We can believe that we have found God's favor, | 3:25 | |
we can rest in the hope | 3:29 | |
that we will continue to prosper. | 3:30 | |
But what do we do when illness strikes? | 3:34 | |
What do we do when the marriage breaks up? | 3:37 | |
What do we do when the business fails? | 3:40 | |
What do we do when the loved one dies? | 3:43 | |
Does that mean God is punishing us? | 3:47 | |
Does that mean that God has withdrawn God's favor | 3:50 | |
or even worse, does it mean that God is puny and powerless | 3:54 | |
to do anything to help us? | 3:58 | |
What do we believe in when suffering comes? | 4:02 | |
We need a faith that is strong enough | 4:06 | |
to stand up to pain | 4:08 | |
and loss and failure. | 4:09 | |
Paul talks about the basis of such a faith | 4:13 | |
in the passage we read from Romans. | 4:16 | |
The starting place for a theologically sound | 4:19 | |
and strong Christian faith | 4:23 | |
is the belief that through Christ, | 4:25 | |
we are set right with God. | 4:28 | |
The theological language that Paul uses is justification. | 4:32 | |
He says we are justified by faith. | 4:36 | |
And we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ | 4:41 | |
through whom we have obtained access | 4:45 | |
to this grace in which we stand. | 4:47 | |
Simply stated, it means that through Christ, | 4:51 | |
all of us have found favor with God. | 4:54 | |
It isn't based on anything we've done, | 5:00 | |
we haven't earned it | 5:03 | |
so we can't lose it. | 5:05 | |
We don't control it, it is given to us. | 5:07 | |
And Paul says that we stand, | 5:12 | |
we build our lives on this grace. | 5:16 | |
It is the basis of our faith, | 5:20 | |
it is the ground of our confidence, | 5:21 | |
it is the source of our hope. | 5:24 | |
Not who we are and what we deserve | 5:26 | |
but who God is and what God has done and continues | 5:30 | |
to do to be in relationship with us. | 5:35 | |
As Christians, we believe that Jesus Christ powerfully | 5:39 | |
and truly reveals who God is. | 5:43 | |
In Jesus Christ, we say that God was incarnate. | 5:47 | |
Through this man who was born, | 5:51 | |
lived, suffered, died and was resurrected, | 5:53 | |
and we say that we've come as close to God | 5:56 | |
as we ever hope to come | 5:59 | |
and that in him, | 6:01 | |
we have experienced the very essence of God. | 6:02 | |
Through Christ, what we've learned about God | 6:07 | |
is that God is not some distant power sending down blessings | 6:10 | |
to reward and punishments | 6:15 | |
to punish. | 6:21 | |
But a Savior giving himself for us, all of us, | 6:23 | |
the good and the bad | 6:28 | |
but especially the bad. | 6:30 | |
In the verses immediately following | 6:34 | |
our scripture reading, Romans 5 continues, | 6:36 | |
"For while we were still weak, | 6:39 | |
"at the right time, Christ died for the ungodly. | 6:41 | |
"Indeed rarely will anyone die | 6:45 | |
"for a righteous person though perhaps for a good person, | 6:47 | |
"someone might dare to die. | 6:51 | |
"But God proves his love for us | 6:53 | |
"and that while we still were sinners, | 6:55 | |
"Christ died for us. | 6:57 | |
"Much more surely then now that we have been justified | 6:59 | |
"by his blood will we be saved through him | 7:03 | |
"from the wrath of God. | 7:07 | |
"When suffering comes as it does to all of us, | 7:11 | |
"we can be confident that the God | 7:15 | |
"who poured himself out for us | 7:18 | |
"as a savior doesn't send it upon us a punishment." | 7:20 | |
God doesn't cause our suffering. | 7:25 | |
So why do we suffer | 7:29 | |
and how are we to deal with suffering? | 7:32 | |
Frederick Buechner speaks to this | 7:35 | |
in "The Clown in the Belfry." | 7:37 | |
He talks about all of us as adolescents at some level | 7:39 | |
who are still learning what it means | 7:43 | |
to grow toward pain. | 7:46 | |
Adolescents are those who are in a painful process. | 7:49 | |
The process of discovering pain itself, | 7:52 | |
of trying somehow to come to terms with pain, | 7:55 | |
to figure out how to deal with pain, | 7:58 | |
not just how to survive pain | 8:01 | |
but how to turn it to some human | 8:04 | |
and creative use in their own encounters with it. | 8:06 | |
Adolescents are Adam and Eve in the process | 8:11 | |
of tasting the forbidden fruit | 8:13 | |
and discovering that in addition to good, | 8:15 | |
there is also evil. | 8:18 | |
That in addition to the joy of being alive, | 8:20 | |
there is also the sadness and the hurt of being alive | 8:23 | |
and being themselves. | 8:26 | |
Adolescents are Gautama the Buddha | 8:30 | |
as he recognizes the first of the Four Noble Truths | 8:33 | |
which is that life is suffering, | 8:36 | |
that at any given moment, | 8:39 | |
life can be lots of happy things too | 8:40 | |
but that suffering is universal | 8:43 | |
and inevitable and that to face that reality | 8:46 | |
and to come to terms with that reality | 8:50 | |
is the beginning of wisdom | 8:52 | |
and at the heart of what human growing is all about. | 8:54 | |
To the extent that we are still learning | 8:59 | |
to live with pain and suffering, | 9:03 | |
we are all adolescents. | 9:06 | |
Suffering is universal. | 9:10 | |
So how do we live with it | 9:12 | |
and carry it in such a way | 9:14 | |
that we are not crushed by its weight? | 9:16 | |
Boast in your sufferings. | 9:22 | |
That's what Paul says. | 9:26 | |
Suffering is good for you, | 9:29 | |
it will teach you endurance and give you character. | 9:30 | |
To the person in the midst of suffering, | 9:35 | |
Paul seems about as helpful as Job's friends were to him. | 9:37 | |
I can just imagine how comforted the person | 9:45 | |
who has just been through a bone marrow transplant | 9:47 | |
would be when I visit her in the hospital | 9:50 | |
and say, "You should boast in your operation. | 9:53 | |
"The excruciating pain that you were feeling | 9:56 | |
"is good for you. | 9:59 | |
"It will give you character." | 10:00 | |
It's about as helpful as the person | 10:03 | |
who comes to your husband's funeral and says, | 10:05 | |
"I know it was God's will. | 10:09 | |
"It's for the best." | 10:11 | |
Paul would have flunked pastoral care. | 10:14 | |
(congregation laughing) | 10:19 | |
Now, I could tell you to ignore him, | 10:21 | |
that he doesn't know what he's talking about | 10:24 | |
except for the fact of his life. | 10:27 | |
Paul was a man who knew what it meant to suffer. | 10:31 | |
II Corinthians chapter 11 | 10:37 | |
offers the catalog of his sufferings | 10:39 | |
which are so extensive | 10:42 | |
that it almost sounds like a caricature of suffering. | 10:43 | |
Listen. | 10:47 | |
Paul's sufferings included many imprisonments, | 10:48 | |
countless floggings, he was often near death. | 10:51 | |
Five times he received 40 lashes minus one. | 10:54 | |
Three times he was beaten with rods. | 10:59 | |
One time he was stoned. | 11:01 | |
Three times he was shipwrecked. | 11:03 | |
Once he was adrift at sea a night and a day. | 11:05 | |
He had frequent journeys | 11:09 | |
and was in constant danger, | 11:10 | |
danger from rivers, danger from bandits, | 11:12 | |
danger from his own people. | 11:15 | |
Danger from the Gentiles. | 11:16 | |
Danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, | 11:18 | |
danger at sea. | 11:21 | |
Danger from false brothers and sisters. | 11:22 | |
He was in toil and hardship | 11:26 | |
with many sleepless nights, | 11:28 | |
hungry and thirsty, often without food, | 11:30 | |
cold and naked with the daily pressure | 11:33 | |
of anxiety about all the churches | 11:35 | |
and just so that no category of suffering | 11:38 | |
was left out, he had been given a thorn in the flesh | 11:40 | |
to keep him from being too elated | 11:44 | |
by his spiritual experiences. | 11:47 | |
Paul knew what it meant to suffer. | 11:50 | |
And he says that we are to boast in our sufferings | 11:57 | |
knowing that suffering produces endurance | 12:01 | |
and endurance produces character | 12:04 | |
and character produces hope | 12:06 | |
and hope does not disappoint us | 12:08 | |
because God's love has been poured into our hearts | 12:10 | |
through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us. | 12:14 | |
These are not pious platitudes. | 12:20 | |
Paul spoke of what he knew. | 12:23 | |
Though he had suffered great hardship, | 12:25 | |
he was yet filled with hope. | 12:28 | |
The kind of hope that was unshakable no matter | 12:32 | |
what danger threatened, | 12:35 | |
no matter what pain he was forced to endure. | 12:36 | |
How do we lay hold of such a hope as this? | 12:43 | |
How do we come to know a hope | 12:46 | |
that does not disappoint us even in our darkest night? | 12:48 | |
Christian hope is based upon two things. | 12:55 | |
First, Paul says we boast in our hope | 12:59 | |
of sharing the glory of God | 13:03 | |
which is another way of saying | 13:06 | |
that we look ahead with confidence | 13:08 | |
because the future belongs to God | 13:10 | |
and we have been promised a share in God's future. | 13:14 | |
We trust our hope to the God who suffered, | 13:19 | |
died and was resurrected | 13:23 | |
and who offers us the power of new life. | 13:25 | |
We boast not in who we are | 13:30 | |
but in who God is and the ways that God has acted | 13:33 | |
to include us in God's life. | 13:37 | |
But we also boast in our sufferings | 13:42 | |
because our sufferings become a way | 13:44 | |
that we experience the power of God with us. | 13:47 | |
The key to hope that endures in the midst of suffering | 13:52 | |
is not that we produce hope out | 13:56 | |
of our own resources | 13:58 | |
but that hope lays hold of us. | 14:00 | |
Notice the slight shift of control | 14:04 | |
from us to God. | 14:06 | |
It isn't that we don't do anything but sit back | 14:09 | |
and wait for hope to lay hold of us. | 14:12 | |
No, we suffer, we endure, we hang on | 14:16 | |
but we don't suffer alone. | 14:20 | |
We don't endure alone | 14:22 | |
with only our own strength to fall back on. | 14:24 | |
The very love of God is poured into our hearts | 14:27 | |
through the Holy Spirit. | 14:31 | |
The Holy Spirit which is the power of God with us. | 14:33 | |
When we've got no resources of our own to draw upon, | 14:38 | |
and we yet find ourselves held | 14:41 | |
and sustained, we know that God lives in us. | 14:44 | |
We can boast in our sufferings | 14:50 | |
because our endurance with hope reveals the power | 14:53 | |
and the love of God. | 14:57 | |
Through the Holy Spirit, God's love | 15:00 | |
is poured into us, through the Holy Spirit the power | 15:02 | |
of God lives in us. | 15:06 | |
This is a mystery that many of us find difficult to grasp. | 15:09 | |
Brother Roger who founded | 15:14 | |
the Taize community explains it this way. | 15:16 | |
"Hidden within every human being, | 15:19 | |
"there is a life that rouses our hope. | 15:22 | |
It opens up ahead of us a way of transformation both | 15:26 | |
for ourselves and for everybody. | 15:30 | |
Without this hope anchored in your heart of hearts | 15:33 | |
and without this transformation | 15:36 | |
that lies beyond your own personality, | 15:38 | |
you lose all inclination to forge ahead. | 15:42 | |
This is not a shear projection of your own desires. | 15:45 | |
It is a hope that incites you to live the unhoped for | 15:49 | |
even in situations that appear to be dead ends. | 15:54 | |
We can boast in our sufferings | 16:01 | |
because through them we experience the power of God | 16:04 | |
to incite us to hope | 16:07 | |
even in the midst of the most hopeless circumstances. | 16:09 | |
When we know that God loves us | 16:14 | |
and that our life and death is ultimately held | 16:17 | |
in God's hands, | 16:20 | |
we can find courage to endure whatever suffering we face, | 16:21 | |
trusting the future to God. | 16:25 | |
We get shaped by hope from the inside out | 16:28 | |
so that hope becomes the very character of our lives. | 16:32 | |
Based not upon our own fortitude | 16:36 | |
or external circumstances, | 16:38 | |
but upon our trust in the love | 16:41 | |
and power of God. | 16:43 | |
My favorite passage of scripture | 16:47 | |
is from the book of Romans chapter 8. | 16:49 | |
This is the one scripture that I know I want read | 16:52 | |
at my funeral because it speaks so eloquently | 16:55 | |
to the hope that does not disappoint us no matter what. | 16:58 | |
"Who will separate us from the love of Christ? | 17:04 | |
"Will hardship or distress, | 17:07 | |
"or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword? | 17:09 | |
"No, in all these things, | 17:15 | |
"we are more than conquerors | 17:16 | |
"through him who loved us | 17:18 | |
"for I am convinced that neither death | 17:20 | |
"nor life or angels nor rulers | 17:22 | |
"nor things present nor things to come, | 17:25 | |
"nor powers, nor height, nor depth | 17:28 | |
"nor anything else in all creation | 17:31 | |
"will be able to separate us | 17:34 | |
"from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord." | 17:36 | |
This is a hope that can stand up to suffering. | 17:42 | |
This is a hope that can endure the trials of life. | 17:48 | |
This is a hope that can face death. | 17:53 | |
This is a hope that does not disappoint us | 17:57 | |
because it is grounded in God's love and power. | 18:01 | |
You can trust your life to it. | 18:05 | |
(dramatic organ music) | 18:18 | |
♪ Standing on the promises of Christ my King ♪ | 18:44 | |
♪ Through eternal ages let his praises ring ♪ | 18:48 | |
♪ Glory in the highest, I will shout and sing ♪ | 18:53 | |
♪ Standing on the promises of God ♪ | 18:58 | |
♪ Standing, standing ♪ | 19:03 | |
♪ Standing on the promises of God my Savior ♪ | 19:08 | |
♪ Standing, standing ♪ | 19:12 | |
♪ I'm standing on the promises of God ♪ | 19:19 | |
♪ Standing on the promises, I cannot fall ♪ | 19:25 | |
♪ When the howling storms of doubt and fear assail ♪ | 19:30 | |
♪ By the living Word of God I shall prevail ♪ | 19:35 | |
♪ Standing on the promises of God ♪ | 19:40 | |
♪ Standing, standing ♪ | 19:45 | |
♪ Standing on the promises of Christ my Savior ♪ | 19:49 | |
♪ Standing, standing ♪ | 19:54 | |
♪ I'm standing on the promises of God ♪ | 20:00 | |
♪ Standing on the promises of Christ the Lord ♪ | 20:07 | |
♪ Bound to Him eternally by love's strong cord ♪ | 20:12 | |
♪ Overcoming daily with the Spirit's sword ♪ | 20:17 | |
♪ Standing on the promises of God ♪ | 20:21 | |
♪ Standing, standing ♪ | 20:27 | |
♪ Standing on the promises of God my Savior ♪ | 20:32 | |
♪ Standing, standing ♪ | 20:36 | |
♪ I'm standing on the promises of God ♪ | 20:43 | |
♪ Standing on the promises, I cannot fail ♪ | 20:50 | |
♪ List'ning every moment to the Spirit's call ♪ | 20:54 | |
♪ Resting in my Savior as my All in all ♪ | 21:00 | |
♪ Standing on the promises of God ♪ | 21:05 | |
♪ Standing, standing ♪ | 21:10 | |
♪ Standing on the promises of God my Savior ♪ | 21:15 | |
♪ Standing, standing ♪ | 21:20 | |
♪ I'm standing on the promises of God ♪ | 21:29 | |
- | Please be seated. | 21:39 |
The Lord be with you. | 21:49 | |
- | And also with you. | 21:51 |
- | Let us pray. | 21:52 |
Almighty God, in Jesus Christ you taught us to pray. | 21:58 | |
And to offer our petitions to you in his name. | 22:03 | |
Guide us by your Holy Spirit | 22:08 | |
that our prayers for others may serve your will | 22:10 | |
and show your steadfast love. | 22:14 | |
Let us pray for the world. | 22:19 | |
God, our creator, | 22:31 | |
you made all things in your wisdom | 22:33 | |
and in your love you save us. | 22:36 | |
Overthrow evil powers. | 22:40 | |
Right what is wrong. | 22:43 | |
Feed and satisfy those who thirst for justice | 22:46 | |
so that all your children may freely enjoy the Earth | 22:50 | |
you have made and joyfully sing your praises. | 22:53 | |
Lord, in your mercy. | 22:58 | |
- | Hear our prayer. | 23:00 |
- | Let us pray for the church. | 23:04 |
Gracious God, you have called us to be the church | 23:20 | |
of Jesus Christ. | 23:24 | |
Heal differences and unite us in faith and service | 23:26 | |
that the church may truly be one body proclaiming | 23:32 | |
the good news to the world. | 23:35 | |
Lord, in your mercy. | 23:38 | |
- | Hear our prayer. | 23:40 |
- | Let us pray for reconciliation between peoples. | 23:45 |
Oh God, whom we cannot love | 24:08 | |
unless we love our neighbors, | 24:11 | |
remove hate and prejudice from us | 24:14 | |
and from all people | 24:18 | |
so that we may be reconciled with those we fear, | 24:20 | |
resent or threaten. | 24:25 | |
And live together in your peace. | 24:29 | |
Lord, in your mercy. | 24:34 | |
- | Hear our prayer. | 24:36 |
- | Let us pray for the sick. | 24:40 |
Merciful God, you bear the pain of the world. | 24:55 | |
Look with compassion on those who are sick, | 25:00 | |
especially those who suffer from cancer | 25:04 | |
and other life-threatening illnesses. | 25:06 | |
Sustain them by your word of hope | 25:11 | |
and bring healing as a sign of your grace. | 25:14 | |
Lord, in your mercy. | 25:20 | |
- | Hear our prayer. | 25:22 |
- | Let us pray for the sorrowful. | 25:26 |
God of comfort, | 25:41 | |
stand with those who sorrow this day | 25:43 | |
that they may be sure | 25:47 | |
that neither death nor life | 25:48 | |
nor things present nor things to come may separate them | 25:51 | |
from your love. | 25:54 | |
Lord, in your mercy. | 25:58 | |
- | Hear our prayer. | 26:01 |
- | Let us pray for those who face change and uncertainty. | 26:05 |