Abounding in Hope

 Romans 15:4-13

For whatever was written in earlier times was written for our instruction, that through perseverance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.  Now may the God who gives perseverance and encouragement grant you to be of the same mind with one another according to Christ Jesus; that with one accord you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.  

Wherefore, accept one another, just as Christ also accepted us to the glory of God.  For I say that Christ has become a servant to the circumcision on behalf of the truth of God to confirm the promises given to the fathers, and for the Gentiles to glorify God for His mercy; as it is written, "THEREFORE I WILL GIVE PRAISE TO THEE AMONG THE GENTILES, AND I WILL SING TO THY NAME."  And again he says, "REJOICE, O GENTILES, WITH HIS PEOPLE."  And again, "PRAISE THE LORD ALL YOU GENTILES, AND LET ALL THE PEOPLES PRAISE HIM."  And again Isaiah says, "THERE SHALL COME THE ROOT OF JESSE, AND HE WHO ARISES TO RULE OVER THE GENTILES, IN HIM SHALL THE GENTILES HOPE."  

Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Sermon for 2nd Sunday in Advent                                                       12/08/24

Abounding In Hope

My Brothers and Sisters in Christ:

"Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit."

What a marvelous prayer!  How many of you are filled with joy this morning?  How many of you are filled with peace?  That is the prayer of Paul in our Epistle lesson this morning.

But where are we supposed to get all this joy?  Where is that peace supposed to be coming from?  Notice, if you will, that we are not just to have joy, but all joy is to fill us, and peace!  The goal is that we abound in hope - not just have a hope, or hope a little, but that we abound in hope.

I imagine that now and again you may be less than abounding in hope.  Some of you probably wrestle with a shortage of joy now and again – and peace may be a little hard to come by here and there.  We live in threatening times.  The Christian faith is under assault from within the church and without.  Peace seems to be slipping away by the conscious choice of our leaders, and security is a difficult thing to find.

The precise combination of our conditions may be unique to our age, but thematically they are very similar to the world that the Apostle lived in and the temptations to fear and despair were the same for the early Christians, perhaps even more pointed!  Paul nonetheless addresses these words of joy and peace and hope to them, and to us.  Our theme this morning is, "Abounding In Hope."

Yes, we live in threatening times, alright.  It is actually difficult to find a time in history when the times and conditions were not threatening.  That should not surprise us.  Our Gospel lesson this morning promises us the deterioration of things around us, and the gnawing fear of what is coming on the face of the earth.  "And there will be signs in sun and moon and stars, and upon the earth dismay among nations, in perplexity at the roaring of the sea and the waves, men fainting from fear and the expectation of the things which are coming upon the world; for the powers of the heavens will be shaken."  One thing the ancients did not have to deal with was the new media - the 24 – 7 news media drumming the theme of despair and corruption at us, inviting us to fear and hopelessness.  They had no media at all, just gossip and a world gripped in poverty that did not seem to change by generations.

Still, nothing is really out of order – it is just not the way we would prefer it.  We want people to love us.  We want our enemies to stumble and fall at every turn.  We want success and prosperity to grace our lives with constant attention.  We want health and comfort and pleasure to dog our steps.  It is a dream of heaven on earth – and it is not a dream that will ever be realized in this lifetime.  Heaven is heaven.  To expect or desire that life here will be heaven on earth is to long for freedom from Christ.

But we are the body of Christ.  That is the import of the middle verses of our epistle lesson.  Listen: "Wherefore, accept one another, just as Christ also accepted us to the glory of God.  For I say that Christ has become a servant to the circumcision on behalf of the truth of God to confirm the promises given to the fathers, and for the Gentiles to glorify God for His mercy; as it is written, ‘THEREFORE I WILL GIVE PRAISE TO THEE AMONG THE GENTILES, AND I WILL SING TO THY NAME.'  And again he says, ‘REJOICE, O GENTILES, WITH HIS PEOPLE.'  And again, ‘PRAISE THE LORD ALL YOU GENTILES, AND LET ALL THE PEOPLES PRAISE HIM.'  And again Isaiah says, ‘THERE SHALL COME THE ROOT OF JESSE, AND HE WHO ARISES TO RULE OVER THE GENTILES, IN HIM SHALL THE GENTILES HOPE.'"

The problem facing the Church in those days, aside from persecution, was that the predominantly Jewish Christian Church was becoming increasingly Gentile.  Jews, on the one hand, were simply accustomed to thinking of themselves as separate from and superior to the Gentiles.  The Gentiles, on the other hand, were accustomed to distrust of and hatred for the Jews.  Suddenly they were being united in this thing called "The Way of Life", what we now call the Christian Church, and they were struggling with that new reality.  Paul writes about how this was always the plan of God - so that the Jews would realize that it was as it should be, and the Gentiles would understand that God had always had them in mind and that they were equal partners with the Jews in the body of Christ.  For this reason, Paul writes, (that's "Wherefore") accept one another, just as Christ has accepted us to the glory of God.  He then tells them that Christ fulfilled the promises of welcoming in the Gentiles in order to confirm the promises given to the Jews.  Exclude either Jewish or Gentile converts from the Church, and you have rejected Christ, and the Gospel, and salvation, and forgiveness, and everything.

Our problem today is not the Gentile incursion into the Church – or the fact that some are converted from Judaism.  Our problem is more like the dangers and troubles of life which we face contradict our hopes and expectations.  We are Americans.  We are used to success and victory and abundance.  While we should praise and thank God for all of that, we often don't.  We kind of think that we have done it ourselves and that it is just the natural way of things.  Oh, sure, we give the Almighty an occasional nod of recognition.  We say that we know it is all from His hand, but we go on to live and act as though something is out of order if our lives don't follow our own dreams and desires.  Even though Burger King invites you to "have it your way", faith in Jesus Christ requires that we have it His way.

His way is the way of humility and suffering.  He humbled Himself to become one of us, and, even more, to become obedient to the will of the Father even to the point of a shameful and ignominious death on the cross.  His innocent death worked life and salvation for us.  He paid and we are forgiven.  Our salvation is always "in connection with Christ".  But if we are connected with Him in truth, we will be required to walk the path that He walked – the path of being humbled, and enduring trouble, pain, and hardship obediently.  Obediently means that we expect it, because it has been promised, and that we find in our circumstances the fulfilling of the promise of God, rather than the strange and unchristian notion that something is wrong and God has abandoned us.

"For whatever was written in earlier times was written for our instruction, that through perseverance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope."  The prophecies of Scripture about how we will also suffer are not meant to discourage or depress us.  They are meant to help us understand and believe that when things are going badly, in our estimation, nothing unexpected is happening from the divine perspective.  God knows.  He has warned us about these things so that we might find perseverance through the Word of God and be encouraged in our faith.  The lack of perseverance and the sorrow and fear which many times threatens to rob us of the encouragement of our faith is the temptation to reject Christ and His way.  It is unbelief if we allow it to stand unchallenged in our hearts and minds.  God's Word and His promises must reign in us and we must deal in faith with the troubles that surround us, whatever they may be.

God's Word is written for our instruction, that is, to teach us how to look at the things of life.  Prophecies tells us what God wants us to know to expect, and the accounts of the Old Testament people are to show us how to respond to the troubles of life (or not to respond, sometimes) and how faithful God is in rescuing and helping us.  Scripture shows us that good times are not necessarily good for us.  Constant abundance makes us carnally secure.  We lose a sense of dependence on God.  America has that problem as a national disease.  The wealthier we got, the fewer were those who called upon the name of the Lord as a percentage of the whole.  The more secure we felt in life, the less it seemed that we prayed or listened to the meaning of the Word of God, and so the less we trusted it or thought about how it is reliable and true.  

Just look at how many church bodies have begun ‘fixing' the Bible; its authors don't understand modern sexuality, they misjudge homosexuality, they misunderstand true justice, Suddenly – or not so suddenly – the focus of the religion of so many ceases to be truth and salvation and begins to be social or economic equality.  Now, the church that has heard the Bible say, "Let every person be in subjection to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those which exist are established by God", believes that it has the divine right to judge the authorities and criticize the government, and foment rebellion and revolution.  In far too many churches that call themselves "Christian", the truth, which Jesus says will set us free, is disparaged, and unfaithful, so-called "ecumenical" activities and principles are elevated to the status of the center of our confession and being.

So worldly wealth and peace and outward security do not always serve us well.  They seduce us and put to sleep in the face of our very real enemies - i.e., false doctrine, and the hatred of the world around us.  Hard times and threatening circumstances remind us to pray, and cause us to turn again to the Word of God wherein God tells us that humility and suffering lie in the path of the faithful.  He doesn't tell us these things to frighten us or depress us, but so that when we face troubles, we can say, "Ah!  This is just what God said we could expect."  And so we are encouraged by God's Word, that nothing out of order is happening, and strengthened through the Word to persevere in faith and holy conduct.  Seeing and experiencing the faithfulness of God, and the utter truth of His Word brings us to glorify God the Father together (that is, "with one voice") for His truth and faithfulness – and for our salvation!

All of this praise and encouragement is not our responsibility to work up in ourselves.  Of course, when you feel the urge to praise God, feel joy, or be encouraged, you should never resist it, but God knows our flesh.  He intends that He Himself will fill you with the joy and peace and praise and hope.  Remember the final verse of our text which I quoted at the beginning of the sermon:  "Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit."

We know from the Word that the Holy Spirit works in us by means of the Word of God.  It is not by merely intellectual recognition of the truth of the Scripture or its prophecies that we will respond in perseverance, encouragement, hope, joy, and peace.  Those things will happen, but not as a consequence of our intellectual perception of God's truths – nor are they left to us to work up in ourselves.  The hope and joy and peace will be worked by God - through the power of the Holy Spirit.  So let go - - and let God.  Cast all your cares upon Him.  Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean upon your own understanding.  Just listen to God, and take Him at His Word - words of promise - and He will give you the joy and the peace - and He will cause you to rest secure, finding comfort in the knowledge and faith that God is aware, and guiding events in your life, that you, too, may be abounding in hope.

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.

(Let the people say Amen)