You Are Entering Hope

Romans 5:1-8

Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand; and we boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God. And not only that, but we also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.

For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.Indeed, rarely will anyone die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person someone might actually dare to die. But God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us.

We find ourselves on the road this morning. In the first lesson, Abraham and Sarah are camped out at the Oaks of Mamre. In the second lesson Paul shares with us his journey from suffering to endurance, from endurance to character and from character to hope. Then, in the Gospel, Jesus and the disciples are on the road as well, going from city, to town, to village, proclaiming the Good News and healing the harassed and helpless.

Paul’s road trip is especially interesting since it begins in the town of Suffering, which from my personal experience is a terrible little town. He continues on through the little villages of Endurance and Character, which are better than Suffering but not really places anyone would want to settle down forever. Then finally… finally he ends up in the town of Hope.

Hope is the place we’d all like to end up I think.  In fact, I think we’d all rather just race past the exits for Suffering, Endurance and Character, at well over the posted speed limit, and just go straight to Hope. The trouble with that particular travel plan is that life rarely allows that to happen. Paul wrote his little travel log out of his own personal experience. Sarah laughed in the face of God at the idea that Hope was even a place they could get to, in what little bit of time they had left in their advanced ages, and the disciples, told to travel with neither case nor cash, didn’t see how getting to Hope would ever be possible either.

But I think all of these lessons are here to remind us as we journey through this life, of something Rich Simpson, one of our Canons, wrote this week. He wrote as he reflected on the lesson from Genesis that “God is in the business of doing laughable things on God’s own timetable.” I see that truth in all of our lessons today and I think all of these lessons have been gathered here together on purpose to help remind us that our role in this life is to find our part in joining with God to accomplish God’s laughable agenda and learn to accept that God’s agenda WILL HAPPEN, but in God’s own time and not ours.

God’s agenda is, as Bishop Curry would say, “to change the world from the nightmare it is for so many, into the dream that God has for it.” That agenda is laughable because it seems utterly impossible. I mean, have you looked outside lately, God? You’ll need to completely dismantle the current culture of policing in our country and raise up a new one! Nice idea, but laughable. Then, completely undo 400 years of systemic racism! Noble and needed and also totally laughable in its enormity. And, oh yeah, lots of folks have forgotten it, but there’s still a pandemic raging out there as well!  So HOW? How are we… how CAN we… even BEGIN to join with God in trying to accomplish God’s completely wonderful but also completely laughable agenda? 

The answer this week, turns out to be the same as it was last week.  We begin by taking one, first, step. We Go! We Move On! We take that first step with what feels like nothing for the journey, just like the disciples did.  We take that first step with not nearly enough time, like Abraham and Sarah did. And we start, as Paul honestly tells us, by taking our very first shaky step into the terrible little town… called Suffering.

To begin the journey we must start, with neither the things, nor the time we think we need.  From there, with nothing, we just step right into the world of our neighbor’s nightmare. We begin by stepping into our neighbor’s suffering. As we do that we know we will never fully feel what they feel, but we are still called to sit and listen and eat with those who long for the nightmare to end. It’s what those three mysterious travelers modeled for us at the Oaks of Mamre… finding Abraham and Sarah right where they were, sitting with them in their childless suffering… THAT is where we begin. We begin by sitting down and listening… listening not to respond, but to understand. That is where this journey of doing God’s laughable agenda begins. Paul reminds us however, that starting here, in that terrible little town called Suffering, is not for nothing. By staying in Suffering and hearing all the disappointments and betrayals encrusted into our neighbor’s story… by listening… really listening to their experiences… that is the way… the only way… we will get through that terrible town and move down the road... on to Endurance and Character, and then, in God’s own timeline, we eventually enter into Hope.  And as we finally enter into the town of Hope, we’ll not be alone.  We will be arm in arm with our sisters and brothers, who we’ve picked up along the way, way back in that terrible town of Suffering.

God’s agenda ain’t easy. No money, no staff, no sandals or fashionably matching bag! But even without the usual things the world leans on, Jesus tells the disciples then, and tells us disciples now, that even without the world’s usual things, we don’t step onto that road with nothing. We won’t have the “usual” resources, but to be honest, the “usual” resources haven’t done much to change the world yet, have they?  But as we step onto that road, we step out with something different.  The different thing we have is the Holy Spirit blowing at our backs and Jesus’ permission to be as wise as serpents and innocent as doves. 

Now, what does that mean? That stuff about serpents and doves. Well, the really smart people (who are not me!) can’t decide what it means!  But I think it’s Jesus way of telling us... if you do what you’ve always done, you’ll get what you always got! I think it’s Jesus way of telling us... that the definition of insanity is trying the same thing over and over and still expecting different results. I think it is Jesus’ way of telling us... that we can’t use the same thinking to solve our problems that we used to create them. 

Jesus is telling us to put the Holy Spirit’s rushing wind at our backs and try new ideas ranging from those that are wise as serpents to those as innocent as doves in order to change the world from the nightmare it is for many into the dream that God has for it. I think Jesus is telling us to leave the old thinking, the old baggage, the old concepts of time at home and step out on the road with the Holy Spirit blowing at our backs.  Jesus is telling us to step out on the road and into our neighbor’s suffering... gather them up in our hearts and minds and arms and start walking from Suffering toward Endurance and then on toward Character and then all the way into Hope.  Because it is in Hope where we will find God’s promise that ALL of creation is meant to share in God’s beautiful dream. Amen.