Hope - Essential for Life

Fifty2 Sunday’s ~ Listening for God

            The sermon was about hope and although no direct connection was made to the tragic events of last week that took place in Baton Rouge, St. Paul & Dallas, it was the pink elephant in the sanctuary.  

             The scriptural context for this sermon was Luke 10:25-37 (Parable of the Good Samaritan)  and Colossians 1:1-6 & 9-14; the key verse (5) “…the faith and love that spring from hope that is stored up for you in heaven and that you already heard about in the word of truth, the gospel…”. Hope is the anchor for faith and love. Although it is said that “hope springs eternal” (from Alexander Pope’s Poem “Essay on Man”) what about when hope is gone?  One might utter as Job once did,  “Where then is my hope? Can anyone find it? No, my hope will go down with me to the grave. We will rest together in the dust” (Job 17:15 & 16).  (Another scripture passage that bemoans the loss of hope is Lamentations 3). 

According to the online version of the Merriam-Webster dictionary, the word hope is simply defined as: “to want something to happen or be true and think that it could happen or be true”. Interestingly, it is among the top 1% of all words looked up (dictionary/hope). Considerable research has been done about hope, the following quote is taken from an article about hope by Dr. Scott Barry Kaufman: “The person who has hope has the will and determination that goals will be achieved, and a set of different strategies at their disposal to reach their goals. Put simply: hope involves the will to get there, and different ways to get there.” (hope article). Hope is essential for life; it inspires, motivates, energizes, and invigorates. Even when life beats us up, if we have hope we can usually find the will to go forward. 

This week President Obama quoted the following scripture during the memorial speech he gave in Dallas. What we need as individuals and as a nation is hope and the encouragement to persevere through suffering and difficulties. These verses remind us that hope is the byproduct of difficulties that one grows through. 

“Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope.  And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.”(Romans 5:3-5)

And now let’s all sing together-“My Hope is Built”

“My hope is built on nothing less 
than Jesus' blood and righteousness.

I dare not trust the sweetest frame,

but wholly lean on Jesus' name.

Refrain: On Christ the solid rock I stand,

all other ground is sinking sand;

all other ground is sinking sand.”

(hymn)