Hope Reborn

By Rev. Heidi L. Barham |  June 5, 2022

Click here to listen to the service 
 
Read Romans 8:22 – 27
 
As I sat down at my computer to start working on the sermon for this week, something on the Internet caught my eye.  It was the headline about another mass shooting… not in a grocery store, church, or elementary school this time… but it was in a hospital. 
 
And I found myself thinking, “No, not again… not another Sunday when I will feel compelled to talk about gun violence…”
 
I mean, okay, I realize that I am on the board of God Before Guns, but, “Please, Lord, not again… not another headline news story that will remind us that nowhere seems to be off limits… that nowhere feels like safe space.”
 
Then the more that I thought about it, something stood out to me… I began to see an intersection between all of the places and spaces where these most recent events had occurred.
 
I was struck with the realization that there really is a connection between the grocery stores where we go for physical food and the church where we look for spiritual nurture…
 
between the schoolhouse where we expect to learn the things we need to succeed in life and the church where we come to learn what we need in order to have eternal life…
 
between the hospital where we go seeking what will bring healing to our physical bodies and the church where we come in search of what will bring healing to our souls.
 
No matter where these horrific events may have taken place or where they may conceivably take place in the future… it became clear to me that as long as we look for and find that connection to the church and to the source of our faith… we can still find hope…
 
And so, on this Pentecost Sunday, even in the wake of the pain and anguish of so much senseless death and violence that has happened, especially over these past few weeks, I want to invite us to look at our New Testament lesson as we focus on the subject HOPE REBORN.
 
Now, the passage of Scripture that calls for our attention this morning comes from the letter the Apostle Paul wrote to the church in Rome.  At the time that he wrote the letter, however, Paul had not yet been to Rome and had not met most of the believers there.
 
Although Paul was credited with starting many churches, according to biblical scholars, the church in Rome was most likely started by Jews who had come to faith during Pentecost.  I guess it seems only fitting then that we would be looking at this particular letter today. 
 
In today’s text, we find Paul using the idea of birth pangs, childbirth, and adoption to describe the state of waiting and anticipation that believers find themselves in while we are waiting for Jesus to return.
 
This season of waiting is a time that can be filled with hope and expectancy, not unlike what a parent might feel as they await the birth of their child. 
 
Although, I do not speak from my own personal experience, I do have it on good authority that while the typical pregnancy usually lasts for roughly nine months from conception to delivery, it can feel like a lifetime as the days seem to get longer and stretch on forever…
 
Not only is there the discomfort that comes from carrying around an ever-growing unborn child, or perhaps even children… there is a certain amount of worry, or at least concern, about what the future will hold.
 
And as we look at the world around us as it is right now, is it any wonder parents might be filled with some sense of fear and trepidation about bringing a child into the midst of so much chaos and confusion?
 
Is it any wonder that believers might be filled with a sense of urgency and desperation for Jesus to come back and rid the world of all this chaos and confusion… once and for all?
 
And yet, Paul’s word to the Romans, and by extension to us today, is to hold onto hope.  Paul reminded the Roman believers that it was hope that had brought the gift of salvation… just as the life of a newborn child brings the promise of hope for the future… just as faith in Jesus’ return gives us hope for eternity.
 
Now, it bears noting that Paul’s letter offered encouragement to wait patiently in hope for what was yet to come… but if you are anything like me, it can be hard to wait patiently, especially when it seems like God is not exactly in a hurry to give us what we want.
 
Maybe it’s just me, but I want an end to the gun violence that has become the leading cause of death for our young people. 
 
I want an end to elected officials putting personal and political agendas ahead of the welfare of the people they were elected to serve. 
 
I want an end to racism, sexism, ageism, homophobia, transphobia, Xenophobia and every other ism and phobia that leads to discrimination and division.
 
I want a world where we can celebrate and elevate what makes each of us unique and where we can appreciate that we are all fearfully and wonderfully made in the image of God.
 
I want a world where we realize that while no two people, like no two snowflakes, are exactly alike, when we join together, we are a force to be reckoned with.
 
I want a world where love, peace and justice are the order of the day, not simply the stuff that dreams are made of.
 
Maybe that is all just a little too much to ask… then again, I guess it all depends on just who you are asking… because if we look at Matthew 19 (26), we find these words of Jesus, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”
 
Now while we are in this season of waiting for Jesus to return, Paul’s letter also gives us the assurance that the Holy Spirit will be with us with us in our time of waiting… to intercede for us and to give us strength even in our times of weakness.
 
You may have noticed more so recently that when these senseless acts of violence have been occurring, we hear people saying that thoughts and prayers are not enough…
 
Perhaps it is because people may feel the prayers that we have been praying up until now have not been effective… or it could be that we simply don’t know exactly how we should be praying… or for whom we should be praying…
 
Do we pray only for the victims and their families? Or should we be praying for the perpetrators and their families as well?  Or maybe we should be praying for those persons in positions of power who have yet to do what needs to be done to help bring an end to all this loss and devastation…
 
I believe that is why Paul tells us in the text that:

 
So, even if we cannot find the words to pray, the horrific tragedies that we see playing out in real time, seemingly on a daily basis, should not leave us feeling lost and in despair.  They are but birth pains signaling that something greater is yet to come.
 
As we take a look around at the state of the world, none of it comes as any surprise to Jesus… in fact in Matthew 24 (6 – 8) we find these words of Jesus:  
The beginning of birth pains… the sign that deliverance is yet on the way.  We just have to remain patient in hope as we continue waiting… but even in this season of waiting there is still work to do.  God is giving us time to spread the Good News about a Living Savior who is Christ the Lord.
 
Rather than see each successive incident as a reason to give into despair, let us see it as a symbol of HOPE REBORN… as an opportunity to tell a dark and dying world about Jesus, the Light of the World.
  
If we were to move to the verse following our text, we would find Romans 8:28 which says, “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.”
 
That doesn’t mean that every circumstance will BE good, but we have the assurance that God will work it out FOR good… bringing triumph out of tragedy and purpose out of pain.   
 
And that is why we can hold onto hope… because even when we cannot see the good that awaits us on the other side of our current circumstances, God already knows and has already seen what lies ahead.
 
Now, just to be clear, the hope that we read about in our text is not found in anything that the world has to offer.  On the contrary, it is the hope that can only come from Jesus who promised us the gift of the Holy Spirit.
 
And we know that whatever Jesus promises, He will deliver. 
 
In John 14:16-17(a), we read, “And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever—the Spirit of truth.” 
 
And a little further down in verse 26 we read, “But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.”
 
It is the promised gift of the Holy Spirit that we read about in Acts 2 on the Day of Pentecost… the day that we traditionally recognize as the birth of the church. 
 
The Holy Spirit represented HOPE REBORN for those who were gathered together that day… those who had not previously understood that Jesus was indeed the Messiah… those who heard Peter’s call to repent and be baptized.
 
And according to Scripture, “Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about three thousand were added to their number that day” (Acts 2:41).
 
As we know, today is Pentecost Sunday and let me suggest it is the perfect opportunity for us to celebrate and give thanks for new life and for HOPE REBORN which the Holy Spirit offers to us… even in the midst of times such as these.
 
So, in spite of one troubling news report after another, let us give God thanks and praise for the gift of His Son and our Savior, Jesus the Christ, who has promised to be with us always, through whatever challenges may come our way…
 
And let us also give God thanks and praise for the gift of His Holy Spirit who breathes new life into us so we can do what Jesus has commanded us to do… which is to love the Lord our God with all of who we are and to love our neighbor as we love ourselves (see Matthew 22:36 – 39).
 
Love is the very foundation of the hope that we have in Jesus. 
 
Love is what took Jesus to that cross at Calvary and love is what will bring Jesus back one day to claim us, the church, as His bride. 
 
Now, after His resurrection, when Jesus first appeared to His disciples, the Gospel of John (20:19 – 23) tells us that they were hiding behind locked doors in an upper room… in fear of the Jewish leaders and what those leaders might do to them for being Jesus’ followers.  They were fearful of what might happen to them because of their faith… because of their belief in the truth that Jesus was and is the Messiah.
 
Sadly, there was a point in time when I might not have been able to imagine what it was like for those disciples to lock themselves behind a door in fear… hoping that no one would find them… that no harm would come to them.  But now I simply wonder if they knew to hide behind those locked doors because Jesus had made them run lockdown drills while He was still with them…
 
Oh wait, that’s only what we teach our children in schools, now…
 
Jesus went inside that room where His disciples were gathered together in fear and He spoke peace to them.  He showed them the wounds in His hands and in His side so they would know beyond a shadow of a doubt that it really was Him… and that they really were safe.
 
And according to John’s gospel, the disciples were overjoyed… their fear was transformed and hope was reborn… Jesus was there with Him, just as He said He would be!
 
Then after blessing them with peace once again, “Jesus said, ‘…As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.’  And with that He breathed on them and said, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit’” (John 20:21b – 22a).
 
Jesus found them in their hiding space… He met them in their place of fear… He spoke peace to them… He commissioned them… and then He breathed on them… giving them the gift of the Holy Spirit to go with them… just as He had promised.
 
And so, today on this Pentecost Sunday, some two thousand years later, let that be our prayer… that Jesus will find us in whatever spaces we find ourselves… that He will speak peace to us and calm our fears… that He will breathe on us and fill us anew with the Holy Spirit to empower us to go out and be the disciples He would have us to be.
 
And if you are willing to let that be your prayer, then I want to invite you to stand now and join in singing our Hymn of Discipleship: Breathe on Me, Breath of God #254.

Back