Sermon 20th May 2012

Today, one of our Lay Readers, Adjoa Andoh-Cunnell, preaches a sermon on Hope.

I’m about to go off to SUA to play Portia in Julius Caesar  - a play about what happens next, when an autocratic leader is toppled, what happens next without a plan for the future beyond the toppling, what will fill the vacuum, a better, a worse…There is great uncertainty.

As I back my car out tomorrow morning, leaving my family to deal with GCSE’s, with each other, with missing me even, I hope everything will be alright.

I hope, but I won’t be here and my power to affect anything will be limited.

My hope for my family lies in their taking care of each other.

Their hope for me perhaps lies in me taking care of myself….

But what power do we really have over the hope in our lives

I came across

 A small boy's prayer:

"Dear God, I hope you take care of yourself. 'Cause if anything happens to you, we would all be in a terrible mess."

I am sharing that boy’s prayer knowing if I can only let go of the reins a little, God is the Hope I’ll need to rely on…

Bishop Christopher has called on us to consider Faith Hope and Love as foundations from which to go forward in mission in the world around us.

And I was thinking about what certainties we can rely on in an uncertain world.

Because God loves us, he sent Jesus to rescue us,

Because we have faith that Jesus can rescue us

We can have certain hope that takes us through each day of uncertainty.

Paul’s letter to the Romans from which we’ve read this morning, was written to prepare the way for a visit to the church at Rome. In a way as with Paul, Bishop Christopher is writing to us to explain his understanding of the Christian faith and its practical implications for the lives of Christians

In Romans 15:13 Paul prays

GOOD NEWS

May God, the source of hope, fill you with all joy and peace by means of your faith in him, so that your hope will continue to grow by the power of the Holy Spirit.

The NIV has it as:

NIV

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Paul’s prayer to the church at Rome is that by the power of the Holy Spirit they may overflow with hope, not just have hope but overflow with a hope that keeps growing.

Like a cup that is overfull or a river that breaks it banks Paul prays that we may grow so brimful with hope that it flow from us and spread out and around, and beyond us.

Are we feeling that brim full to overflowing in hope this morning?

What does hope give us, what does it feel like, what does it do for us, for our lives?

Paul talks of the joy and peace that follow from that Hope.

His is an emphatic prayer in the face of all the obstacles he faced in his own life. In the face of the arguing and disharmony within the young church in Rome, Paul is not asking God to bless that church with the ability to just keep going, he prays for such an abundance of hope that they will be overwhelmed and swept along in the hope that we have in Christ.

His is not a sensible prayer, it does not stay within the bounds of what may be practical or feasible, but then sensible does not explain his transformation from persecutor of the followers of Christ to evangelizer for Christ.

Sensible does not explain Christ’s death and coming back to life.

The God Paul is praying to, is like the hope Paul prays for, beyond sensible, he is the source, abundant, overwhelming, in the world and yet beyond our understanding.

I want to think about beyond, beyond our present circumstances, beyond what we believe to be our limits or capacities.

To think about our Hope in Christ and his Hope in us.

Taking a leaf from Cameron’s book I googled ‘Definition of Hope in the Bible’ and was greeted with over 43 and a half million entries in 26 seconds

So many entries and yet we experience hope as a very personal thing.

Each one of us carries our own hope or our own despair (despair meaning literally outside of hope) and for most of us I’m sure, we veer between the two.

Many people understand hope as a wishful thinking, as in

"I hope something will or will not happen."

A standard dictionary definition is

“to FEEL that something desired MAY happen:”

There is perhaps a vagueness, an uncertainty,

This is not what the Bible means by hope.

The biblical definition of hope can perhaps be summed up as

 “Hope anticipates good from God”

or

 "Hope is confident expectation."

In 1 Peter1: vv3-4 we read,

GOOD NEWS

 "Let us give thanks to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! Because of his great mercy he gave us new life by raising Jesus Christ from death.

This fills us with a living hope, and so we look forward to possessing the rich blessings that God keeps for his people”.

NIV

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In His great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade – kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power.

Hope here is the radical result of God’s raising Jesus from the dead—which defines everything to follow. Because of Easter, our future is no longer vague and uncertain. We have an inheritance ..

GOOD NEWS

‘..”that cannot decay or spoil or fade away (v. 4).

NIV

that can never perish, spoil or fade

So Hope, is not simply emotion, attitude, or a feeling. It is a confidence that defines us as Christians.

So ok job done, end of sermon..

Hmmm.

If this all so clear why does Paul need to pray this prayer at v 15?

Philip Yancey says

‘The most important purpose of prayer maybe to let our true selves be loved by God’…

To be loved by God who, as Psalm 103 v10- says  

GOOD NEWS

..does not punish us as we deserve or repay us according to our sins and wrongs.                                                       As high as the sky is above the earth, so great is his love for those who honour him.                                                As far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our sins from us.                                                                  As a father is kind to his children, so the Lord is kind to those who honour him.                                                            He knows what we are made of: he remembers that we are dust.

NIV

…does not treat us as our sins deserve                            or repay us according to our iniquities                                 For as high as the heavens are above the earth              so great is his love for those who fear him;                        as far as the east is from the west,                                   so far has he removed our transgressions from us.          As a father has compassion on his children,                             so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him;        for he knows how we are formed,                                               he remembers that we are dust.

Left to our own devices we may be wobbly and uncertain, unconfident about the future, unable to expect good to be coming our way, unable to imagine how we could be in a position to contribute any good to the world.

In Lamentations there is encouragement

GOOD NEWS 3 18-24

I have not much longer to live:                                         My hope in the Lord is gone.The thought of my pain, my homelessness, is bitter poison: I think of it constantly and my spirit is depressed. Yet hope returns when I remember one thing: The Lord’s unfailing love and mercy still continue, fresh as the morning, as sure as the sunrise. The Lord is all I have, and so I put my hope in him.

NIV Lam 3 18-25

My splendour is gone and all that I had hoped from the Lord. I remember my affliction and my wandering, the bitterness and the gall. I remember them and my soul is downcast within me. Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope: Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail; They are new every morning; great id your faithfulness. I say to myself The Lord is my portion; therefore I will wait for him. The Lord is good to those whose hope is in him

So with that encouragement in mind, what about thinking beyond our present circumstances, beyond what we believe to be our limits or our capacities…

I fell into conversation with a man in Brixton on Friday night, his name is Dr John Carlos.

Those of us old enough to remember the 1968 Mexico Olympics or who have seen the particular photograph, might recall the medal ceremony for the 200 metres sprint.

Three men stand on the podium, receive their medals and then 2 of them black men, raise a black gloved fist as their national anthem plays.

The white man on the Podium was the Australian silver medalist, Peter Norman, the gold medal winner with arm aloft was Tommy Smith and the bronze medal winner arm also aloft was John Carlos the silver haired man with whom I spoke on Friday night.

Prior to the games there had a movement among elite American competitors to boycott the 1968 Olympics in protest amongst other things at the reinstatement of South Africa and Rhodesia their having been excluded for the 1964 games. The boycott was also in protest at the continued reign of the head of the US Olympic committee who had been instrumental in securing the 1936 games for Hitler’s Berlin and had ensured that American Jewish sportsmen and women were excluded from competing.

In the end after the firebombing of some of the athletes involved and much pressure from the authorities the boycott didn’t happen:

 but when they realized they were through to the semi finals Tommy Smith and John Carlos began to think that if they could only win their semis and then the final, this might be their moment to protest.

They knew they had first to win, they knew that it was potentially life threatening and they knew they had to be clear about what their message was.

In the 25 minutes between the end of the 200 metres final and the medal ceremony, along with the Australian Peter Norman who was ashamed at the treatment of Aboriginal people in Australia, the three men pinned on old boycott the games badges.

Smith and Carlos took off their shoes to express Solidarity with the worlds poor, they wore beads and a scarf around their necks in protest at lynchings and racially motivated killings and put on one glove of a pair as they raised their arms in solidarity with the civil right movement.

Don’t forget this was the year that both Dr Martin Luther King (who was also in favour of the boycott) and liberal politician Bobby Kennedy had been assassinated, so there was a real threat that the simple gestures on that podium in front of the world’s media could cost those athletes their lives.

And in a way it did.

All three were branded troublemakers and hounded on their return home having been expelled from the games. They lost their reputations, their livelihoods and their marriages.

Peter Norman died last year after battling nervous breakdowns and alcoholism.

But why am I telling you this story this morning?

One could say these men brought this trouble on themselves..it was an honour to represent their country and after all the work they had put in to be there, that should have been enough.

But as Dr John Carlos, a Christian, tells it he felt he had a particular platform, at a particular moment in his life, having achieved something with his God given gifts.

And he felt a duty to take a stand, an action that might provoke a thought, a conversation, that might make the world around question the justice and the hope so missing from the lives of many.

And it cost him dear for many years.

But in his 70’s, eyes sparkling, funny and articulate, he calls on those he talks to, sports fans and those who have no interest in sport alike, to be alert to the lives of those around them, to have courage and engage with love. He spoke at occupy wall street about poverty, he will speak at Stratford to ask how local people are benefitting from our games beyond the entertainment and corporate profits, he is sharing a platform with Doreen Lawrence to speak about racial justice.

He says he is fuelled by God, his strength and his hope; and asked for our prayers this morning as he continues his speaking tour and works with schoolchildren around the country.

Closer to this Parish, this week more prayers were asked for, in another moment where the overflowing of hope fuelled the God act that lead to the release of 16 people, 3 families, men, women and children from slavery.

It was in India at a rice mill and the action was taken by the International Justice Mission, headed up by Andy Griffiths.

One of those IJM helped rescue had been kept in enforced labour at that mill for 14 years with no hope of freedom. Now he has that.

The commitment and struggle and sacrifice of Rachel, and Phoebe and Fleur and Andy as they moved to live in India, have added up to the future hope of 16 people.               

The overflowing of their hope in the power of the Holy spirit, has brought joy and peace not only to those freed labourers, but also adds to the joy and peace of the Griffiths Family, in the face of all sensible arguments that said why are you moving - stay put, you have a good life here, a church, friends, work, raise your children, be peaceful.

But as we know ours is not a sensible God.

Cameron spoke last week of the The Message’s version of James, where he writes

God talk without God act is outrageous nonsense.

Now we are all blessed with different gifts, we are not all going to win Olympic medals or move to India, but look what we do already in Herne Hill and what more we can do and be encouraged.

Paul says in Romans Ch8vv31-32

GOOD NEWS                                                                    “If God is for us, who can be against us?                    Certainly not God who did not even keep back his own son, but offered him for us all!”

NIV                                                                                           If God is for us, who can be against us?                                 He did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all..

This is the calibre of the love God has for us.

So our hope is in Christ  and in the joy of knowing that if God is with us EVERYTHING is possible and in this knowledge we can fulfill God’s hope in us,

 we can transform God talk to God action

There is the story of a pastor who got up one Sunday and announced to his congregation:

"I have good news and bad news.

The good news is, we have enough money to pay for our new building program.

The bad news is, it's still out there in your pockets."

Hope anticipates good from God,

There is continuous joy ahead! Like a new long lasting building, but there is struggle ahead like finding ways of funding it.

 But may I add for those feeling terrible now because they do not feel continually suffused with hope and I am from time to time in amongst their number,

When we think of hope we must of course also be thinking of it's opposite, hopelessness.

We know that ours is a God of hope since by him we were gifted hope in Christ.

But as representatives of God's hope on earth working to towards the kingdom of heaven on earth as individuals and as a church body it is for us in the Parish of Herne Hill to be a place of welcome for all in our number who are feeling overwhelmed by hopelessness, however that manifests itself.

That hopelessness may be hard to be around..

Does it make us anxious, is it too close to how we're feeling?

Is it irritating, is the gloom too demanding?

Would we much rather just hang out with our sort of friends...

Or are we feeling so hopeless that we're ashamed to be with our church family?

We're not keeping our end up, what right have we to feel hopeless??

 It's like we're throwing God's grace back in his face...

Perhaps we look at all the in-fighting in our church communities, locally, nationally & internationally and we despair, are without hope,

perhaps that's when we can recall the little boys prayer and also what Philip Yancey says about prayer and allow ourselves to be seen by God in all our true colours, in despair or avoiding the desperate and we've remember Paul's words in Romans 15:

GOOD NEWS

We who are strong in faith ought to help the weak carry their burdens. We should not please ourselves. Instead we should all please our brothers and sisters for their own good, in order to build them up in the faith. For Christ did not please himself. Instead as the scripture says, “The insults which are hurled at you have fallen on me.” …And may God, the source of patience and encouragement, enable you to have the same point of view among yourselves by following the example of Christ Jesus.

NIV

WE who are strong ought to bear with the failings of the weak and not please ourselves. Each of us should please his neighbor for his good, to build him up. For even Christ did not please himself but as it is written: “The insults of those who insult you have fallen on me…May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you a spirit of unity among yourselves as you follow Christ Jesus..”

What does hope in Christ do?

as Simon shared with us a few weeks back Revelations 21 vv3-4 tells us

GOOD NEWS

He will wipe away all tears from their eyes. There will be no more death, no more grief or crying or pain. The old things have disappeared. Then the one who sits on the throne said, “And now I make all things new!”

NIV

 He will wipe away every tear from their eyes. There will be no more more death or mourning or crying or pain for the old order of thing has passed away. He who was seated on the throne said, ‘I am making everything new!

We are here as the body of Christ, God’s hope in the world, here to contribute to the work of making all things new, to bringing in His Kingdom.

As we welcomed home the whooshers, we think about the charities who will benefit from all their legwork and sweat ,

Afghan Aid and for Fine Cell Work.

AS we buy cake (and perhaps clothes) after the service morning we think of our stall and afternoon tea in support of Christian Aid yesterday.

We think of those involved in the scouts and brownies of those who visit the sick and housebound, who run playgroup and cook for those whose new baby or ill health make cooking hard, those who share worship at Brixton Prison and all the many ways unknown to us but known to God that we overflow hope into the lives of others. This is what hope in Christ can do.

Hope anticipates good from God

And so for all the hope we bring, for all the hope yearn for,

I’ll end by praying for us all

May the God of hope fill us with all joy and peace as we trust in him, so that we may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Amen