Hope Does Not Disappoint

So, as we begin our approach to Holy Week each year, we have to again hear that yes, this is the way that things must go for Jesus, and also, for us as well.

There is the shock – that we may have difficulties, maybe persecution, because of faith in Jesus.

Like Peter, we say “That cannot be!”

Someone saw a billboard in N. Carolina that had a picture of a pastor holding a Bible and smiling.

Each week there was a different human problem listed below the photo:

Confused? Call the church [and then the church's telephone number was listed]

Lonely? [Same thing was listed]

Depressed? [Again, the same information was offered.

Should we expect that the church exists to fulfill all our wants and needs, pump us up and make us happy?

Where there is any sort of itch, are we to be there to scratch it?

That is too simple and childish an idea.

The folks had the expectation that Jesus would make the big, bad Romans go away.

Perhaps some thought it should be like the childish expectation that mother's kiss will heal the boo-boo.

And there is our expectation that since we are such good people, Jesus will make any of our problems go away.

When none of those expectations work out in the manner in which we anticipate, then all too often we are ready to turn away, to blame God for our troubles, and join those who scoff at the faith.

We can see this reaction at the general human level; let's bring it very close:

What would you or I say if the doctor were to tell us that we have only 2 months to live and that they won't be pleasant.

How many of us would have an angry response?

“Why me? Where is God? It's not fair! “And many more things along that line.

We can invent any number of similar situations.

But Jesus is really pointing to the kinds of situations in which the suffering happens because of our connection with Jesus.

Suffering and discipleship just go together, it seems.

It is not that we have to go out looking for it; it will find us when we least expect to encounter it.

Pete Velender tells this story of himself:

“It happened when I was only 5” Mr. Velender said.

“I was walking home from school and took a shortcut through the alley, and ran into a back-alley beating.

Three big kids were taking turns punching one little kid.

'You take a turn, or you're next,' they demanded.

Pete feigned a punch, and then the big kids let him go.

He ran home sick to his stomach, and never forgot it.

He wrote: “thirty five years later that event still preaches a sermon to me every time I remember it.

One can despise, decry, denounce and deplore something without being willing to suffer, or be inconvenienced, to bring about a change.

Jesus teachers us to suffer with and for others.”

Jesus walked the way of the cross.

He taught us the meaning of suffering as a servant.

Mr. Velander concludes his story: “I don't know what ever happened with that kid.

I wish I could find him.

I need to ask his forgiveness – not for the blow I delivered, because that was nothing, but for the blows I refused to stand by his side and receive.”

Well, what happens when someone at work or school or standing in line to purchase something starts in with a raunchy joke about a person of another age, hair color, stature, national origin, or faith tradition standing nearby?

Do we protest? Keep quiet? Join in laughing?

I have a suspicion that we would have some guilty memories just as does Mr. Velander.

Suffering for the faith may be more than just a little inconvenient or embarrassing.

--There were the 600 men women and children who were massacred while taking refuge in St. Peter Lutheran Church in Monrovia, Liberia 20 years ago...and how many more such terrible events have there been in the years since then.

--Sunday after Sunday, year after year, we name in the Prayer of the Church one or more persons who are suffering for the faith someplace in the world in these times, as well as naming persons from past centuries who are especially remembered for their perseverance.

--the list can go on and on.

We can remember what St. Paul has to say in Romans: “...and hope does not disappoint us, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.”

Hope does not disappoint us!

What helpful words these are, words that are precious for us to hold.

“For while we were weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.”

Surely the church leaders in Liberia must think often of these verses.

St. Peter Church in Monrovia had been the scene of such a terrible thing, but there is another chapter in the story.

A visitor from the US wrote sometime after the massacre: “Monrovia was devastated, riddled with bullet holes, burned, and looted.

There was no electricity or water service in the city.

But the church was growing.

People were looking for the community and hope that the church offers.”

Perhaps a crisis time has not hit you right now, but sooner or later it will.

These crisis times may be small, embarrassing ones, or major, deadly ones.

We pray that our confusion may not be so great as Peter's was,

and also that our faith will be as steadfast as Paul's, when he said: “...for hope does not disappoint us. For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.”

Amen

Please note: The preceding sermon is provided as a resource for the thought, prayer, and meditation of the members and friends of St. Mark's. It is the residue of a verbal event, and thus it does not have academic footnotes and other details that would be expected in a written document. The writer gladly acknowledges the prior thought and work of many Christians before him.