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Tropical Sands Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) |
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Spirit of Hope
In Australia, cats were introduced to control a booming rat population, which was introduced when European explorers landed on the island continent. Now, the cats are a worse problem than the rats, devastating local populations of other animals. In my native southland, kudzu is a ravenous weed that overruns forests and grasslands. It was originally imported from China, on purpose, to help control erosion. And the news is filled with examples that are more controversial, but no less proof that human activity is destructive, even when we are trying to make things better.
But there is hope, and this hope begins in the hearts of spirit-filled Christians. The apostle Paul says that the Holy Spirit brings with it the hope of salvation that all of creation is longing for. And even if our human minds don't have a clue how to get what we hope for, the Holy Spirit does know, and tries to direct our lives toward that hope. Let's hear the word of the LORD:
For we know that up to the present time all of creation groans with pain, like the pains of childbirth. But it is not just creation alone which groans; we who have the Spirit as the first of God's gifts also groan within ourselves as we wait for God to make us his sons and set our whole being free. For it was by hope that we were saved; but if we see what we hope for, then it is not really hope. For who hopes for something he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.
In the same way the Spirit also comes to help us, weak as we are. For we do not know how we ought to pray; the spirit himself pleads with God for us in groans that words cannot express. And God, who sees into our hearts, knows what the thought of the Spirit is; because the Spirit pleads with God on behalf of his people in accordance with his will.
-- Romans 8:22-27
Don't you ever wonder why you dare to hope for conditions that seem impossible to achieve? With our history of war, why would anyone dare to dream of peace? With our history of sickness, why would anyone dare to dream of perfect health? With our history of violence and inhumanity, why would anyone dare to dream of brotherly love and harmony? I say it is because the Spirit of God has entered us, and that Spirit knows that these unseen things are possible, even if we do not.
And that's just a sample of the hopes that the Spirit of God has brought into our lives.
Now I know there may be hopes you have had that did not come to fruition, and maybe you have given up on those. If so, then that is not the kind of hope I am talking about. I'm talking about the kind of hope that you cannot shake, the hope that just will not let go no matter how hard you try. If you have one of those, then my advice is to wait for it with patience, and let the Spirit of God in you do the praying.
Because that is the kind of hope that comes from God, wrapped in the Holy Spirit. It might be a view of eternity, something you dream of that will not come to be until Christ returns to rule the world. The scripture says that we wait for God to make us his children and set our whole being free -- not just our spirits, or our minds, but every part of us.
This hope of total freedom and salvation is what we are talking about when we say that our mission as Disciples of Christ is to Profess Faith, Proclaim Hope and Practice Love. The hope we proclaim is of everlasting, abundant, healthful life, the end of sickness and death, the end of war and violence.
Some of you may remember that C.S. Lewis found proof of God in the fact that we have a grand desire that nothing on earth can satisfy. I think he was feeling this longing of the Spirit for complete fellowship with God. To keep us faithful, to keep us moving forward, there is an element of this hope that will never be satisfied in this lifetime.
But there is also hope that will be satisfied, the hope of living in the Kingdom of God here and now. We may think that it is impossible to achieve forgiveness of our sins, and yet many of us have the hope of this forgiveness. Christ said our sins would be forgiven, and we believe it, so we press on in the life of forgiveness.
The book of Hebrews addresses hope as well. That book says that faith is the evidence of things hoped for, and certainty of things we cannot see. That echoes today's scripture, that hope for what is seen is no hope at all. The spirit gives us hope of forgiveness; faith is having the courage to live in that hope, and therefore to have right now the benefits of that hope.
I'll give you an example closer to home, one you have heard before. All my life, I have had this hope that some day I would serve in ministry. It was only a hope, and everything about my life said it simply would not happen. But I couldn't shake the hope, so I instead affirmed it with faith. From a simple, unshakable hope that I would be a minister, I finally started living by faith in the fact that I was already a minister, even if I didn't have a church. And with faith, I no longer just hoped to become a minister, I knew it would happen and started living my life like it would happen.
Now you might say well, you earned it. You served in prisons, visited the sick, preached when it was called for, studied scripture and prayed. That's not earning it. That's just me letting the Spirit lead from one small task to the next, until next thing you know I'm pastor of a church. The Spirit did what I could never do on my own.
Our scripture today says that God sees into our hearts and knows what the thought of the Spirit is. The Holy Spirit of God living within me has both sides of the equation -- That Spirit knows the will of God in ways that our minds can't comprehend. It also has first-hand knowledge of my life circumstances. The Holy Spirit brings into my life a desire for the will of God. I'm an imperfect person who makes mistakes and works with bad information. But that Holy Spirit sees God from the vantage point of my life, and heads in that direction.
It reminds me of a homing pigeon. They say you could take a homing pigeon anywhere and let it go, and it would fly back to its nest. I think the spirit of God is like that. You can take the Holy Spirit in someone's life, no matter how far that life is removed from God, and that Spirit will do whatever it takes to bring that life to God.
You say you don't know how to find God? You say you can't make yourself live a Christian life? You're right; you don't know how to find God, and you can't make yourself live a Christian life. But think about what Jesus said in the book of Luke. If your child asks for a fish, will you give her a snake? Or would you give your child a scorpion when he asks for an egg? So if you, being evil, know how to give good things to your children, How much more will the Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!
So I say right now, this morning, if you have a longing from God that just will not let go, and if you just don't know how to get from here to there, ask God for the Holy Spirit. Invite that Spirit into your life. Accept the gift of forgiveness that God gave us through his Son, Jesus Christ, and ask God to give you that Holy Spirit. After that, you can just stop praying for yourself, or for signs and messages, because that Holy Spirit will do the praying for you, and that Holy Spirit will direct your path. Your hope of salvation, forgiveness, and eternal life will be as good as yours, no matter how far away it seems.
Faith is the evidence of things hoped for, the substance of things unseen. Give your hopes and dreams to Jesus, and just be patient; you'll see God working things out for you in ways you never dared to imagine.
Joel Tucker
Tropical Sands Christian Church
June 4, 2006