Brothers and sisters,
Grace be unto you and peace from God our Father and
our risen Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
The word “hope” is a word that, some might say, has
become over-used in the American vernacular. For example, we have all seen it
used in connection with political campaigns where politicians try to convince you
that electing them would mean great hope for the future. And of course this
time of year is no stranger to this talk of “hope”. The days of Advent leading
up to Christmas are a time when you might hear the word “hope” used very
frequently.
In fact it
has been said that “hope” is perhaps the one characteristic that has always
most strikingly distinguished the authentic Christian from their pagan
neighbors. Secular or worldly visions of hope are always fickle and subject to
daily human circumstances. The politician who promises “hope” could end up
being just another crook who’s first loyalties are always to the power-players
who got him elected.
Even this
time of year, as filled with hope as it seems, for some will be a time of great
sorrow and pain. For some someone near and dear has died and there is an empty
place at the dinner table. For some the images of family harmony around a
Christmas tree remind them that their lives are not like that at all. And being
a Christian does not make you immune to these experiences of great sorrow.
Each day has it’s share of sorrow and grief
because of sin. The struggles you experience do not just come to you from the
outside; often they are things of your own creation, resulting from your sin.
With every lie you tell. With every curse word out of your mouth; every time
you so much as get angry at someone-in all of those you rebel against God. The
great shortcoming of worldly human hope is that it relies on humans.
Worldly
hope is only one bad-decision away from becoming sorrow or disillusionment,
which sin and the devil try to use to push you away from God. Sin and the devil
try to get you to doubt that God is even with you at all. They try to get you
to turn away from God and inward to yourself. From this, John the Baptist calls
you to repent
To repent means to turn from yourself, to look
at your behavior and feel regret and contrition over how your behavior has
offended God and to seek forgiveness. And this is where real Christian hope
begins; in repentance. John the Baptist is the prophecied voice in the
wilderness chosen by God to prepare the way for Christ Jesus-the One who comes
with real Christian hope. And the preparation for the coming of Jesus begins with
a call to repentance: “Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” John says.
With this
call to repentance John is giving you a picture of the entire Christian life.
The first of Martin Luther’s famous 95 theses said “When
our Lord and Master Jesus Christ said, ‘Repent ' (Mt 4:17), he willed the
entire life of believers to be one of repentance.” Repentance is a call
for you to look beyond all the trivial and superficial elements of this world
to true preparation for the coming of the Savior. Repentance is the stripping
away of everything that keeps you from Jesus. In our narcicistic society, a
call to repentance is pretty much counter-cultural. We are constantly bombarded
with false new-age teachers telling us that we find truth, salvation and
enlightenment within ourselves. Consequently repentance is something we tend to
associate with fanatical street-preachers. Our culture would tell us repentance
is oppressive; that it inhibits us from expressing ourselves. But the reality
is, repentance is the removal of that which would prevent you from receiving
the true and eternal hope that you receive only in Christ: the One who brings
you the Kingdom of Heaven.
Your Lord
Jesus wants to protect you from the attacks of the devil. He has claimed you as
His own and loves you infinitely. To repent is to turn from the devil who only
wants death for you, and to turn to Christ who gave His life that you would
have life eternal in His kingdom. So He draws you away from that which would
become an obstacle between you and Him.
The
hope that Paul speaks of when he refers to Jesus as the root of Jesse is a hope
that transcends this world. It is not a hope that comes from you. It is not a
hope that you have to will through positive thinking; it is not a pious
sentiment. It is a promise of the righteousness of Christ, the resurrection and
eternal life in God’s Kingdom. A call to repent, is a call away from death and
to life.
You see any
hope that you fabricate for yourself is always subject to the conditions around
you. It can vanish in the blink of an eye. But the hope that Paul speaks of is
different. For one thing it’s for everyone. It is not limited to the Jewish
Christians but it is for all people thus Paul says that even the gentiles will
have hope in Christ. It is a hope that is revealed to you in the Word of God,
written for your instruction and encouragement. It’s hope that enables you to
move forward in the promise that the hope that you have in Christ Jesus has
already transcended the sin and brokenness of this world.
Your hope
is found in the root of Jesse-which is Christ. The title-Root of Jesse-is
itself an expression of this very hope that transcends the world. Long after
David’s family had been all but wiped out God brings forth from this old dead
stump of Jesse a new branch and new hope. In Christ Jesus the promises to the
Old Testament patriarchs are fulfilled. It was through the fulfilling of those
promises that the gentiles were engrafted into Israel.
The
eternal hope you have in Christ Jesus is a gift the Holy Spirit delivers to you
through the Word of Christ. For in the pages of scripture the Holy Spirit
assures you of God’s abundant love and care for you. In the Gospel, heard from
the mouth of a sinful preacher proclaiming the Word, or administering the
sacraments, the God Who created you re-affirms to you the promise made to you
over the waters of baptism, that He is the Lord your God, you shall have no
other gods; and that neither death nor
life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers,
39nor height nor depth, nor anything
else in all creation, will be able to separate you from the love of God in
Christ Jesus our Lord.
I am sure
most of you are aware that Nelson Mandela died this week. For countless people
in South Africa and all over the world, he was a symbol of great hope. But he
was also a sinner. In the early 1960s he joined the African National Congress,
when it was what can only be described as a terrorist organization. This is not
to be-smirch his good name. He is seen as a hero by the people of South Africa
for good reason, just as George Washington is seen as a hero by us. But if
Washington’s efforts had failed he would have likely been hung as a traitor and
history would likely remember him as a terrorist. What we called revolution,
the British called treason.
Human
history must be looked at with a courageous honesty that recognizes even those
we lift up as heroes have morally complicated backgrounds. Of course they do,
because like every one of you they are sinners. Everything humans do is stained
by sin. Through Nelson Mandela, much great work was done, and for that we
should rejoice and praise God. People in South Africa were freed from apartheid
largely through his efforts. But all the people in South Africa and all over
the world are still in bondage to sin. Nelson Mandela freed nobody from death.
No human hero can save you from death; thus the hope they symbolize is
ultimately only temporary.
You see, now that Mandela’s earthly journey
has finished, what matters to him is not his efforts to fight oppression, nor
his nobel peace prize. That was all left behind. What matters now is that, when
he was very young, in a Methodist Church, he was claimed by Christ Jesus
against the forces of sin and the devil in the waters of baptism. It is only in
Christ that you have eternal hope. Only Christ Jesus brings you a hope that
overcomes even the darkest of times.
There is no question. It is done. It’s an
accomplished feat. Christ Jesus entered this dark and stormy world to give His
life for your sins. The risen Lord Jesus comes to you today bringing you new
life in the midst of the sin and brokenness of this world. The root of Jesse
springs forth in your lives. He is your hope-for comfort in grief, for harmony
in brokenness, for forgiveness of sin.
This hope
opens you up to welcome and love one another so that together you abound in
hope. Christ is the hope of all people so He calls you to welcome and embrace
all people. And so abound in this hope!! It is real and it is for you. And it
points you forward to a day beyond this dark world when all will be made new
and there will be no tears or pain. The wolf will dwell with the lamb, the
leopard with the young goat, the cow and the bear and the calf and the lion
will all lie down together. It will even be safe for a nursing child to play
with a cobra. Sin, the devil and this world will try to convince you this hope
is not real, but it is real and it is your’s in Christ alone. It is free for
the taking and it is a priceless treasure drawn from God’s redeeming and
abounding love. May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in
believing, and by the power of the Holy Spirit may you abound in hope!
Amen
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