Dear friends in Christ,

          St. Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 13: "These three remain: Faith, hope and love."  For most of my ministry, giving people hope - in Jesus Christ - has been my personal mission.  Someone has defined hope as the anticipation of something good, something we look forward to with expectation.

          In today's Bible text, St. Peter was preaching the first Pentecost sermon and in it he recalled a verse from Psalm 16: "Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices; my body also will live in hope."  He had just told the people why Jesus died on the cross, and how it was all part of God's plan to save the world from being destroyed due to sin.  Psalm 16, he said, was written by King David who looked forward to the Savior.  He anticipated something good, and that good thing was Jesus, the Messiah.  David believed God would one day send the Messiah, and that man is Jesus of Nazareth.

          Peter's sermon, we are told, cut to the heart of all those who heard him, and 3,000 men and women gave themselves to the Lord that day.  Peter spoke to give them hope, the anticipation that something good had happened on Calvary.  On that first Good Friday, the Son of God died for the sins of the world.  On the day Christ died, God made the sacrifice the world needed.  On the day Christ arose again, God proved their hope was not in vain.  St. Paul tells us in Romans 5:5, "Hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out His love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit whom He has given us."

          People need hope.  No matter if we live today in peace and plenty, we are still plagued by doubts and lack of hope.  Even amid comparative wealth and ease, people are tempted to lose hope.  Our bodies don't live in hope, but in fear and trembling.  Troubles come, even the little ones, and we become afraid.  But God's love in Jesus casts out fear.  God will never leave nor forsake us (Hebrews 13:5).  He is with us always, even to the end of the world (Matthew 28:20).  He is the same yesterday, today and forever (Hebrews 13:8).  So why can we lose hope?  What are we afraid of?

          It's been said that the best bridge between hope and despair is a good night's sleep.  That's often the case.  When Vice President Harry Truman received word that President Roosevelt had died, he hugged the First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, and went to the Oval Office to be sworn in.  He then went back to Blair House where he lived, ate supper, went to bed, and slept soundly all night.  The next morning, refreshed and ready, President Truman went to the Oval Office and began his job as President.  So it can be true, that the best bridge between hope and despair is a good night's sleep.  About 15 years ago I got a call from my Sr. Pastor, reminding me I was to preach the sermon the next day.  He'd apparently read the bulletin that listed himself as preacher, and so he reminded me of the change in the schedule we'd agreed to earlier that week.  It was 9 PM Saturday night, but I went to bed and right to sleep.  At 4 AM I awoke and wrote a fairly good sermon despite the short notice.  When we take time to refresh ourselves, we'll find a clear head makes a clear heart, and the day's challenges become less intimidating.  And all that helps to give us hope.

          Sometimes hope is hard to come by.  Bills weigh us down, health troubles wear us out, and poor relationships threaten to smother us.  We grieve our lost loved ones and lament our poor choices.  We know better but do dumb things anyway.

          Well, actually we don't know better.  The problem with sin is that it affects us all, not just some of us.  And it affects all we do, not just part of it.  Sin is an infection in the soul that affects every part.  It's not that we can do better if we just try;  it's that we cannot do anything better without God's help.  Unless God is in the picture, everything is tainted.  Sin destroys and separates, and we're all sinners, so we're all separated.

          Besides the universal problem of sin, we also have human weakness.  I mess up.  I try but can't always succeed.  Some troubles come from things we can't control - weather, accidents, evil things and evil people.  And then there's the matter of our choices, our priorities.  We don't choose well.  Maybe it's selfishness or bad judgment.  Often it's forgetting God.  God is so often a distant 4th or 5th in life, rather than 1st.  We plan and hope, but we forget to pray.  We try to do what is right (though at times we work pretty hard at doing wrong, too), and then forget to ask God for help along the way.

          Life can look hopeless, but then, and only then, are most of us ready to hope in the Lord.  It's only when everything seems hopeless that we are ready to turn to the Lord with the kind of faith and trust we need.  God wants to be trusted, to be hoped for, with all our hearts, not just a corner here or there.  He wants our whole self, not just the leftovers.  True hope clings to Jesus Christ for all things, not just the things we can't get in any other way.

          G. K. Chesterton is the renowned British Christian writer who died in 1936.  His writings have influenced millions, including unbelievers, and have helped many to move from unbelief to faith, including C. S. Lewis.  Chesterton once wrote this about hope:  "Hope means hoping when things are hopeless, or it is no virtue.  As long as matters are really hopeful, hope is mere flattery or platitude; it is only when everything is hopeless that hope begins to be a strength."

          What a great thought!  Only when all is hopeless does hope becomes a strength.  God can't remove our hopelessness as long as we think it's all up to us.  That modern axiom, "If it's to be, it's up to me" is not a Christian thought.  God must help.  And He will help us with all manner of things, but we need to get out of His way.  We need to move the unnecessary aside and let Him to do His work.

          I went to an estate sale last Friday for just a few minutes.  A huge storage building was chocked full of old, junky stuff, some valuable, most not, and all sat in the aisles waiting to be sold.  The manager of the sale told me, "You should have seen it before we sorted.  We had to haul away 5 large dumpsters full."  I think they quit too soon.  They could have filled a few more from what I saw.

          We need to lighten our loads in life.  We need to think of God more and self less.  "He must increase, but I must decrease," said John about Jesus (John 3:30).  But we get so busy thinking only of self, that the needs of others far less fortunate go unattended while we worry about today, about tomorrow and even about yesterday.  We get turned in on ourselves, and our troubles only grow worse.  Priorities get turned upside down, and it usually takes a slap in the face to wake us up.

          A father wanted to read his magazine but was continuously interrupted by his little girl's questions.  She asked, "Daddy, what does America look like?" and he knew he'd better answer her or he'd never have peace.  There happened to be a US map in his magazine, so he tore it out and then tore it into two dozen small pieces, and gave it all to his daughter.  "See if you can put this together," he said with father's knowing smile.  "It will show you what America looks like." Now he did have a little peace, but after barely ten minutes, she came back with the map correctly fitted and taped together correctly.  "How'd you do that so fast, honey?" he asked.  She replied, "On the other side of the page is a picture of Jesus.  When I got Jesus put back where he belonged, then America came together just right, too."

          Well, from the mouths of babes!  That little girl had it more right that she could know.  When Jesus is put back where He belongs, the rest of life comes together just right also, in our own life, and in the life of a whole country.

          Our Lord Jesus gave His life that we might live with Him, a life far better than we have here.  He gave Himself that we might be forgiven, that we might also forgive and give ourselves to others.  He poured Himself out on the cross that we might have hope, and then share that hope with the hopeless.

          St. Paul once wrote, "While we live, we live to the Lord, and when we die, we die to the Lord.  So whether we live or we die, we are the Lord's." (Romans 14:8)   Not bad!  It's reason for hope, and hope is the anticipation of something good.  amen

Copyright © 2006 by Pastor Bob Tasler.  All rights reserved.