SPECIAL DAYS: December 5, Second Sunday of Advent

Lesson Malachi 3:1-4; Luke 3:1-6

Sermon Title: Refined in Hope

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INTRODUCTION:

The Reason for the Season (1)

I read a story about a woman who was out Christmas shopping with her two children; after many hours of looking at row after row of toys and everything else imaginable, and after hours of hearing both her children asking for everything they saw on those many shelves, she finally made it to the elevator with her two kids.

She was feeling what so many of us feel during the holiday season time of the year---overwhelming pressure to go to every party, every housewarming, taste all the holiday food and treats, get that perfect gift for every single person on our shopping list, make sure we don't forget anyone on our card list, and the pressure of making sure we respond to everyone who sent us a card.

Finally the elevator doors opened and there was already a crowd in the car. She pushed her way into the car and dragged her two kids in with her and all the bags of stuff. When the doors closed she couldn't take it anymore and stated, "Whoever started this whole Christmas thing should be found, strung up and shot."

From the back of the car everyone heard a quiet, calm voice respond, "Don't worry. We already crucified him."

  1. Have you ever found yourself with similar feelings about Christmas?

    1. Maybe it is because we have bought into the commercialization of the season.

    2. It could be because we have lost sight, at least temporarily, but not permanently, of one of the most important reasons for the season.

    3. One of the most important reasons for the season is that it provides the foundation of a REFINING OF HOPE!

    4. Some people are refined negatively.

      1. Heresies of Hope

      2. Have you ever heard what could be called the Heresies of Hope:

"It's too late."
"Nothing can be done about it."
"You can't fight city hall. "
"You can't change the world."
"There's no hope."
"GET REAL!"
"GIVE UP!"
"What's the use!"

      1. Let's add one more, "If you can't fight 'em, join 'em."

    1. May we be refined in a positive and constructive way.

      1. Hope can be battered and bruised.

      2. Hope can be weakened and confounded.

      3. So, then how do we hold on to a refining hope?

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MAIN BODY:

  1. Hope is an objective, achieved through faith, that is empowered by love.

    1. Hope is a necessary component of and for the Christian's mental and spiritual well-being.

Joseph Parmigian is a character in Ronald Ribman's play "Cold Storage." He is struggling with terminal illness, which elicits all sorts of frustrating feelings of hopelessness and helplessness. In one of many discussions with a Jewish art dealer named Landau, Parmigian is pushed to "Come to the point." This is his reply:

"The point is, there is no point! And that, my Jewish friend, is the secret of the universe. I, Joseph Parmigian, have solved the problem five thousand rabbis with five thousand bears working five thousand years couldn't solve - there is no point!"

      1. There is no point.

      2. There is no hope.

    1. Henri Nouwen (2) reminds us that hope lives in the midst of terminal illnesses, all sorts of frustrating feelings of hopelessness and helplessness.

"Hope means to keep living amid desperation and to keep humming in the darkness. Hoping is knowing that there is love; it is trust in tomorrow; it is falling asleep and waking again when the sun rises. In the midst of a gale at sea, it is to discover land. In the eyes of another, it is to see that he understands you. As long as there is still hope, there will also be prayer. And God will be holding you in his hands."

    1. Or as Peter J. Gomes writes:

"Hope does not deny the circumstances of the present, and hope doesn't help us get out of our difficulties. Hope doesn't get us out, but it does get us through." (3)

    1. So you cannot get through without hope.

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  1. This Advent Season provides the means to understand that HOPE needs to be REHABILITATED, REAFFIRMED, and RENEWED!

    1. To REHABILITATE is to restore.

      1. It is to restore hope to its rightful place in the Christian's vocabulary and life.

      1. It is to restore our understanding of the source of hope.

      2. It is to restore our understanding of the ground of hope.

      3. It is to restore our understanding of the definition of hope.

      4. We can hope in the wrong way, in the wrong thing and with the wrong hope.

      5. I would like to remind you of what I tried to communicate in the October, 2004, "Good News"

        1. I wrote about security.

        2. Security is one of the facets of hope.

        3. This is what I wrote in Thoughts from here and there...Looking for Security

The candidates for both major political parties are holding out the hope for greater security for the citizens of America.

President Bush and Dick Cheney have their, An Agenda for America: A Plan for a Safer World and More Hopeful America. "On September 2, 2004, in New York City, President George W. Bush accepted the Republican nomination for President. In his address, he promised to build on the accomplishments of his first term by building a safer world and more hopeful America for our workers, families, and children." (4)

John Kerrey and John Edwards have their, Our Plan for America: Stronger at Home, Respected in the World. "John Kerry and John Edwards have released a book outlining their plan to make America stronger at home and respected in the world. Together, they will ensure America is secure, that all Americans have the opportunity to fulfill their potential, and that families are strong and have the support they need." (5)

Both a sitting President and his challenger suggest that they can create a safer American that will be less prone to attack from terrorists.

We can perhaps create a safer America, but no one can promise a more secure America. There is no guarantee of security! There is no safe that cannot be opened. There is no home security system that cannot be breached. There is no border that cannot be crossed. If a determined terrorist desires to wreck havoc, he can and will. We live in a dangerous and very unsecured world. So what do we do, live in fear? Give up our freedom for security by passing more stringent Patriot Acts?

        1. Put that beside the biblical passages that I was thinking of, but did not quote that provide the ground of hope.

          1. Ephesians 4:4 (NRSVA): 4There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope of your calling.

          2. 1 Cor. 15:19 (NASB-U): If we have hoped in Christ in this life only, we are of all men most to be pitied.

          3. Romans 8:23-24 (NRSVA): 23...we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly while we wait for adoption, the redemption of our bodies. 24For in hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what is seen?

          4. Colossians 1:5 (NRSVA): 5because of the hope laid up for you in heaven. You have heard of this hope before in the word of the truth, the gospel.

          5. Romans 15:13 (NASB-U): Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you will abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

          6. Galatians 5:5 (NASB-U): For we through the Spirit, by faith, are waiting for the hope of righteousness.

          7. Titus 1:2 (NASB-U): in the hope of eternal life, which God, who cannot lie, promised long ages ago,

          8. Titus 3:7 (NASB-U): so that being justified by His grace we would be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

        2. Is that enough to help us understand the source, the ground, of our hope?

      1. The rest of what I wrote is this:

The early Christians were terrorized by the Roman State. Jesus Christ was crucified. Our spiritual ancestors had no economic or political clout. What they did have, we also can have. They did not put their trust in human governments, but in the presence, power, and hopefulness of the realized promises of Jesus Christ.

In 1868 Fanny Crosby wrote: On April 30, 1868, Dr. W. H. Doane came into my house and said, "I have exactly forty minutes before my train leaves for Cincinnati. Here is a melody. Can you write words for it?" I replied that I would see what I could do. Then followed a space of twenty minutes during which I was wholly unconscious of all else except the work I was doing. At the end of that time I recited the words to "Safe in the Arms of Jesus." Mr. Doane copied them, and had time to catch his train.

Safe in the arms of Jesus, safe on His gentle breast,
There by His love o'ershaded, sweetly my soul shall rest.
Hark! 'tis the voice of angels, borne in a song to me.
Over the fields of glory, over the jasper sea.

Safe in the arms of Jesus, safe on His gentle breast
There by His love o'ershaded, sweetly my soul shall rest.

Safe in the arms of Jesus, safe from corroding care,
Safe from the world's temptations, sin cannot harm me there.
Free from the blight of sorrow, free from my doubts and fears;
Only a few more trials, only a few more tears!

Jesus, my heart's dear Refuge, Jesus has died for me;
Firm on the Rock of Ages, ever my trust shall be.
Here let me wait with patience, wait till the night is over;
Wait till I see the morning break on the golden shore.

Where else are you going to turn for security?

Here to our security in Christ, Pastor Shultz

      1. So we do not put our ultimate hope in any of the available human resources.

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    1. To REAFFIRM hope is to continually assert or to affirm Hope again and again.

      1. Reaffirmation needs to be done even in the most calamitous of times, in the midst of the severest of challenges, in the most difficult of conditions.

      2. At least this is what is communicated in a very famous carving in the west door of the church at Staunton Harold in Leicestershire:

In the yeare 1653
When all things sacred
were throughout ye nation
Either demolisht or profaned
Sir Robert Shirley, Barronet,
Founded this church;
Whose singular praise it is,
to haue done the best things
in ye worst time,
and
hoped them in the most calamitous.

      1. Calamitous is another word for disastrous.

      2. We reaffirm the meaning and purpose of hope amidst the darkness and light of our experience.

    1. To be RENEW is to make new every morning of every day of every year of our lives.

      1. Years ago I worked for the Middleboro Gazette, the local home town newspaper.

One of my tasks was to cast in molten lead some of the advertisements that would appear in this weekly newspaper.

There was a very simple machine to do this work.

We could not buy new lead for each week of the year, so we reused what we had.

It was melted down and recast.

The old ads had ink on them, or bits of paper, sometimes a little grease.

I had a powder that I used to bring all the junk to the surface so that it could be skimmed off and the renewed lead could be used to cast a new ad.

      1. This could be called a refining process.

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  1. The lessons for today speak of this refining of hope as well as of faith and love.

    1. Malachi 3:1-4. NRSVA proclaims the one who is to come and his purpose.

1See, I am sending my messenger to prepare the way before me, and the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple. The messenger of the covenant in whom you delight--indeed, he is coming, says the LORD of hosts. 2But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears?

For he is like a refiner's fire and like fullers' soap; 3he will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he will purify the descendants of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, until they present offerings to the LORD in righteousness. 4Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasing to the LORD as in the days of old and as in former years.

    1. Luke 3:1-6, NRSVA points us to John the Baptist as the person who comes in fulfillment of this prophecy

1In the fifteenth year of the reign of Emperor Tiberius, when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, and Herod was ruler of Galilee, and his brother Philip ruler of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias ruler of Abilene, 2during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the wilderness. 3He went into all the region around the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, 4as it is written in the book of the words of the prophet Isaiah,

"The voice of one crying out in the wilderness:
'Prepare the way of the Lord,
    make his paths straight.
5 Every valley shall be filled,
    and every mountain and hill shall be made low,
and the crooked shall be made straight,
    and the rough ways made smooth;
6 and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.'"

    1. As Cindy Lindner in "Is that necessary?" has written: (6)

Prophets "ask us to see ourselves as we are, not what we could be, but still worthy of refining. They ask us to see one another, to weep with those who weep and hope with those who hope. They ask us to live in accordance with that which we say, in harmony with the One who loves us and comes again to be with us, to live the sort of life that makes people say, 'Ah, so that's how people are going to live when righteousness takes over the world.'"

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CONCLUSION

  1. That requires a hope that is strong, powerful, and immune to the temptations towards doubt and weakness.

An old teacher was once taking a walk through a forest with a pupil by his side. (7)   The old man suddenly stopped and pointed to four plants close by his side. The first was just beginning to peep above the ground, the second had rooted itself pretty well into the earth, and the third was a small shrub, while the fourth was a full-sized tree. The tutor said to his young companion: "Pull up the first." The boy easily pulled it up with his fingers. "Now pull up the second." The youth obeyed, but found the task not so easy. "Now the third." The boy had to put forth all his strength and was obliged to use both arms to uproot it. "And now," said the master, "try your hand at the fourth." But, lo, the trunk of the tall tree, grasped in the arms of the youth, hardly shook its leaves. "This, my son, is just what happens with our bad habits. When they are young, we can cast them out more readily with the help of God; but when they are old, it is hard to uproot them, though we pray and struggle ever so sincerely."

    1. Hope may be young and easily attacked and pulled up.

    2. But when wide and strong and tall, hope is firmly established and nothing can move or shake it.

  1. This season of the year HOPE needs to be REHABILITATED, REAFFIRMED, and RENEWED!

    1. This Jesus came to do.

    2. This the Holy Spirit can accomplish.

    3. How do you desire to live?

    4. You can live in God's good and beneficial hope.

AMEN!

1. Mikey's Funnies [mikeys-funnies-owner@YouthSpecialties.com] [forwarded by Jeremy Mills]

2. Henri Nouwen, With Open Hand, 85.

3. Peter J. Gomes, The Good Book: Reading the Bible with Mind and Heart (New York: Avon Books, 1996), 205.

4. Retrieved from http://www.georgewbush.com/Agenda/

5. Retrieved from http://www.johnkerry.com/plan/

6. December 10, 2000, First Christian Church Web Site, Proaxis.com.

7. As quoted in Paul J. Wharton, Stories and Parables for Preachers and Teachers (Mahwah, N.J.: Paulis Press, 1986), 43.

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