“Hopes and Fears”
Psalm 25:1-10
1Thessalonians 3:9-13
Luke 21:25-36
Hopes and fears of all the years are
met in thee tonight. Part of a favorite Christmas carol.
Hope you have a nice day. I'm
afraid that I'll be late for the meeting. Hope it doesn't snow.
I fear that gas prices are going up. Hopes and fears of all the
years.
Fears. What did the disciples
fear? Their very country and culture were on the verge of extinction.
For centuries their country had been occupied by foreign powers.
The Romans were the current evil empire, desecrating the Temple, controlling
the economy, arbitrary laws, subjecting people to acts of menial service.
Their very language was all but gone: the Scripture had to be translated
from the original Hebrew to Greek because not enough of them understood
Hebrew. Vulgar moral influences were corrupting their society.
Fears. Real fears.
Do we not fear the same things today?
Is life, at its most basic level, any less fearsome? We face a
terrorist threat. Our culture is either becoming extinct or so
transformed that we no longer recognize it nor the values that it reflects.
We worry about our economy being taken over by foreign competitors.
Freedom of religion is being reinterpreted as freedom from religion.
The gap between Shakespeare's English and ours is only slightly greater
than the gap between my English and that of many high school students,
especially those from a different social economic background.
Our moral values are deteriorating. Fears. Real fears.
We haven't really changed all that much
over the centuries. We may have added new names to our fears:
Alzheimer and cancer. But the root word, phobia, is the same word
used by physician Luke. We have added new pressures: consumerism:
having enough means having more. Divorce, custody battles, varieties
of relationships. Job security and retirement. Fears.
Valid fears. Yet one does wonder what our number one phobia says
about us, for what we fear most is spiders!
We haven't changed much since the ancients,
yet our world seems to be constantly changing. But there has been
a critical change: one pregnant teenager. Advent hope.
Hopes. Can a “Hope you have
a nice day.” balance our fears, named and unnamed? Can a “Hope
it doesn't snow today.” outweigh the hurricanes and earthquakes; the
signs in the sun and moon, shaking the powers of heaven? Hope.
It takes a far greater sense of hope
than that. But what kind of hope allows us to look at death and
disease, terrorism and cultural breakdown and declare it unimportant?
A hope that is a fervent expectation of fulfillment. Prophesies
were fulfilled in Bethlehem that first Advent; Israel had been fervently
expecting a Messiah for generation upon generation. The prophesies were
fulfilled. Jesus provides the basis for our fervent expectation
of future fulfillment, hope, that God is in fact in control. Not
only in control but on our side.
Hope: to trust or to believe.
That first Advent generated both trust and belief. Mary's trust
that it really was an angel of God; trust that God would protect an
unwed mother. Joseph's trust that this really was a supernatural birth.
Belief of the shepherds. Even when the first words spoken by the
angels were “Fear Not!” they believed, had hope, enough hope to
go to the manger. The wise men who saw signs in the skies and
believed.
Hope: expectation of fulfillment.
Trust. Belief.
Jesus promised that heaven and earth
would pass away, but his words would remain. Reason for hope in
the future, to look forward. Yet, in the same passage there is
the statement about this generation not passing away until all things
have taken place. Yet that was 2000 years ago. How does
that give us hope? Looking at the grammar and idiomatic usage,
there are many ways to look at that passage. The two most accepted
are that the generation referred to is an idiom for the people of God;
the Israelites and us gentiles who have been grafted onto the vine of
Israel. The second way is to understand that Jesus is talking
about the certainty of the end rather than on setting a limiting date.
Jesus is emphasizing that the particular
kind of end prophesied by him will certainly come to pass. This is what
will happen; God's people will be there when it does happen.1
And when it does happen, “Up on your feet. Stand tall with your heads
high. Help is on the way!” (The Message translation)
Hopes and Fears. Yet, isn't this
a strange way to start Advent? To start a season of rejoicing?
Yet, it is exactly because of our fears that this season is so important;
important for those desperately looking for a Messiah to free them from
Rome, important for us who are looking for a Messiah to free us from...
well, from our desperate lives. We are reminded that in spite
of our best intentions, in spite of our technological advances, there
is still a need for God to redeem his world. This world remains
imperfect and troubled; we remain troubled and imperfect. {Perhaps
our greatest fear is that there is no reason for hope.}
Perhaps the best summary of our world
today was spoken by Paul in 1st Timothy 3:1-5. Listen
to The Message translation. “Don't be naive. There are difficult
times ahead. As the end approaches, people are going to be self-absorbed,
money-hungry, self-promoting, stuck-up, profane, contemptuous of parents,
crude, coarse, dog-eat-dog, unbending, slanderers, impulsively wild,
savage, cynical, treacherous, ruthless, bloated windbags, addicted to
lust, and allergic to God. They'll make a show of religion, but behind
the scenes they're animals. Stay clear of these people.” Echoes
of Luke's call not to be drunkards, not to be intoxicated by the pleasures
of this world. Don't be naïve. Watch. Be ready.
Hopes and fears. There is another Indian fable; this one is about fear. The fable goes like this:
A mouse was in constant distress
because of its fear of the cat. A magician took pity on it and turned
it into a cat. Immediately it became afraid of the dog. So the magician
turned it into a dog. Immediately it began to fear the tiger. So the
magician turned it into a tiger. Immediately it began to fear the hunter.
Then the magician said, “Be a mouse again, you have only the heart
of a mouse and I cannot help you.”
We must decide whether we are going
to react in fear or in hope. We must look into our hearts and
decide if we are mice. Fortunately, God transforms hearts, even
fearful hearts, into ones filled with hope. The magician could
not change the mouse's heart; we can change our own hearts only some.
God can fully transform our hearts from fear to hope.
Let us rejoice with hope this season.
Even better, let us share our hope with those who have yet to feel God's
transforming grace, who still fear. Let us show that we do have
hope, have belief and trust, that Jesus does change the world, starting
with us. I have been privileged to hear some of your stories;
stories that include both fears and hopes. Stories in which Christ
has transformed your hearts. Stories in which others demonstrated
to you Christ's love in action. What new tradition can you adopt
this year that reflects Christ's love to others? That shares hope?
How can we kindle hope, dampen fear? How do we express our fervent
expectation of fulfillment this Advent?
We express it in part at this table. We remember the first Advent, the life of baby Jesus that would lead unswervingly to this table. We look forward to the ultimate Advent when we dine with Christ in heaven. Let each Advent in between, each coming of Christ into our lives, be like an alarm clock on the calendar of time. Let each Advent celebration awaken us from our worldly concerns and fears, awaken us to renewed hope as we gather in the presence of Christ at this table.
We can be like Chicken Little - The
sky is falling! The sky is falling! - Christ is coming in judgment!
Fear; great fear. Or we can rejoice - Christ is coming full of
mercy! Full of grace! Hope. Because of this mercy
and hope, we do not have to leave our fears at home pretending that
we have none. We do not need to check them at the door as if they
are too heavy to bring inside, too heavy for Christ to lift from our
shoulders. We are to bring our fears here, to this meal, and exchange
them for hope. This table is for all of us who have fears.
Hear these words from 1st
Thessalonians 5:9 “For God has destined us not for wrath but for obtaining
salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ who died for us.” Salvation
is an interesting Greek word; the same word is translated as being cured
or as being saved. We obtain a cure for our fears, we are simultaneously
saved from our sin through Jesus. Fear and wrath are gone; replaced
by the incredible and never ending love of God. This table is
also for all of us who have hope. This table is for those who
have a fervent expectation that Christ came on that first Advent, is
present here today, and will return in glory and full of mercy at the
end of the age. Whether you have hopes or fears, or some of both,
this is where you should be.
The hopes and fears of all the years
are gathered at this table, today.
December 3, 2006
Rev. Al Hammond
First Presbyterian Church
Logan, Utah