September 30, 2001
Jeremiah 32:1-3a, 6-15 RSVKJVNIVCEV
John 17:20-26 RSVKJVNIVCEV

"Betting on the Hope-filled Abnormal Future"

There is an ancient tradition that says..
“over the gates of hell are inscribed the words, Abandon HOPE, all you who enter here!”

For just a moment, reflect upon this….
imagine being without hope, or even the possibility of hope forever?  To have hope isto be filled with all the possibilities of life.

St Paul tells us in First Corinthians 13
That great chapter on love which we hear at most weddings…
“That the three greatest things in life are:
            FAITH, LOVE, and HOPE

Norman Cousins has written,
“We must recognize that we get our basic energy, not from turbines, but from hope.”

Cousins speaks with some authority from his ownexperience.  He was twice hospitalized with serious illnesses in which he was told that there was not much hope and twice heproved the “experts” wrong.  In fact, Norman Cousins was possessed by such aSPIRIT OF HOPE that he achieved more after his illnesses than he had previously eventually ending up on the faculty of the YaleUniversity Medical School and later the University of California Medical School at Berkley.

Our scripture today has been known as one of the mostprofound promises of a positive outcome in all of scripture!  Amazingly, this hope isrooted in Jesus’ direct request of the Father
–       not only for the disciples who were with HIM
–       But for you and me!

Jesus’ prayer is the foundation of every Christian’sHOPE!
“I do not pray for these only,  but also for those who believe in me throughtheir word.”

Here is the content of Jesus’ deep request for his disciples and for us who would eventually place our HOPEin Christ through those words of the Apostles.

“Father, I desire that they also, whom thou hastgiven me,
may be with me where I am,
to behold my glory,
which thou hast given me
in thy love for me before the foundation of the world.”

If there is anything we can truly count on, this hopefulpromise is it!

Years ago there was a song,
            “You Gotta Have Heart?"

And in that song there is a line,
            “You Gotta have hope, musn’t sit around and mope!”

Life, is made up of “mopers” and “hopers.” whenthe trials of life come, “Mopers,” mope and “hopers” hope!  One of my ferventprayers for our nation and the world today is that we might be know as a nation and as a world of “zealous hoppers!”  What do hopeful people look like?

What do they do differently?

Here are some important clues:

First of all, they turn to friends for advice on how toachieve their goals.  They recognize their need for help and the important role thatfriends can play in sustaining them.

Take a look at the short life of Jesus. How often do weread stories of Jesus confiding in his close disciples.  He wasn’t always teaching,He was like all of us….running ideas past his buddies.  Secondly, they feedthemselves with positive, hopeful messages that they can succeed in doing what they need to do. Even in tight spots, they tell themselves that things will get better, and it’s going to be all right.  That sounds a lot like the words in Romans…  “Allthings work together for good to those who love God…”                                                                                             Romans 8:28

Let me remind you of that story about Peter getting out of theboat and walking across the water…..  I am not exactly sure what happened in thatstory.  However the situation sure must have inspired the writer to express theteaching with an awesome positive picture of HOPE.  Third …hopeful people areflexible, and they find different ways to reach for their goals.  If hope for one goalfades, they search for another, perhaps even better goals.  On the other hand, peoplewho are low in hope are inflexible.  They often give up or just keep banging theirheads against the wall trying to do the impossible.

I had an education professor in college who’s mantra toall of us elementary education majors….was “If at first you don’t succeed, TRY ANOTHER METHOD!  Don’t give up on the kids but tweak your approach…..he would say.

Finally, hopeful people are able to break a large taskdown into small, achievable chunks, whereas people who are low in hope can see only the large goal and they’re overwhelmed.

When I think of this … I think of the overwhelming taskour country and the world, which we have before us, in response to the tragedy in the past several weeks.  Each day we hear on the news or read in the papers about our Leaders developing strategiesto move on with our lives. We have the military, theenvironmental people, the medical world and countless other groups which are meeting and using their areas of expertise tobreakdown this overwhelming task into small achievable chunks.

Each group has HOPE !!!!! All of us NEED HOPE, but there are a great many who have very little hope.  What’sworse is that hopelessness is contagious!

Have you ever been with a group of people who startdiscussing something and begin to get caught up in the complexity of the problem and before long everyone is becoming more andmore negative and pessimistic.

Well my friends, the fact is that “hopers”…..people who have HOPE are people of FAITH.

It doesn’t have to be the biggest faith or the mostfamous faith in the world.  Jesus said faith, even faith like a tiny mustard seed, ….Willdo!!!  Our scripture says that the “world” does not know God.  But Jesus knows God and those who follow Christ have a depth of divine love that isunavailable to the world.  So, …the HOPE Jesus has given to us is a rock solidfoundation for living.

The question comes to the forefront…. What is thereason for the Hope we Christians have?

If we look to scripture Paul writes….

We have HOPE “because God Himself is OF Hope”.  If you lookcarefully at the concept many people have of God, you will find that they have sometimes a god of fear, Or a God of punishment,or a God of some other negative quality.  But, from the very beginning, theBible is very clear that we have a God of Hope.  Look back at the Jeremiah scripture
            …In times of great struggle King Zedekiah, the townspeople of Jerusalem, the nation of Judah certainlyhave little going for them in their present tense life.  Jerusalem is a city undersiege. 
            Babylonian troops have surrounded its walls and rolled outtheir war machines of movable battering rams, catapults, scaling ladders, and mountains of dirt.
            What could be worse than that?
Well, Jeremiah is even in worse straits; He’s sitting in jail.
            “Hey, Jeremiah, what an excellent time to buy thatpiece of real estate that you’ve always wanted!”
            God whispers.
And so this lesson reminds that community and OURS to bet on the future that God indwells, even when our present tense experiencesare dire.  And when things looked dark God told Jeremiah to have HOPE and buy land.

We have HOPE because the hope God gives us is not afleeting or a false hope of this world, But rather a living and eternal hope.

It is a hope Jesus Christ himself rooted in a requestthat we be with him where he is forever!
Let’s be careful not to be conned by false hope Like the hope you hear about…. “Buy a lottery ticket and your troubles willbe over! “

God does not give a false hope or a temporary hope, butan eternal hope which will never let you down.

We have HOPE because we are never alone.

Usually at wedding ceremonies I refer to a passage inRomans 12
---Keep your Hope anchored on God
------Be patient in the encompassing Love of God
-----------and walk the walk together with God and persevere in prayer.

Then I go on to tell the couple……Never forget God iswith you.  Never give up…..And never forget God never gives up on you!  Paul writes that there are two amazing gifts available to every Christian…. God’s lovein us and Christ himself in us!  Christian’s hope is “Christ in you, the hope ofglory.”

Recently people have been talking about how amazedeveryone has been with the show of unity as a nation and the unity of all the people around the world.  Those who cross racial, ethnic and religious barriers, who have come together in momentsof prayer, in holy places of worship, in stores, in theaters in stadiums.

The big statement that is uttered…… This is so abnormal.  We have never done this before.  WILL THIS CONTINUE????  WILL THIS BECOME NORMAL?  CAN WE HAVE HOPE…..THATTHE ABNORMAL CAN BECOME NORMAL…..?

Max Lucado, a Christian contemporary  writer…..wrote a piece and it arrived in one of my e-mails this past week.

Is This Normal?

Four thousand gathered for mid-day prayer in a downtowncathedral.  A New York City church, filled and emptied six times last Tuesday.  The owner of a Manhattan tennis shoe store threw open his doors and gave running shoes tothose fleeing the towers.  People stood in lines to give blood, in hospitals to treatthe sick, in sanctuaries to pray for the wounded.

America was different this week.

We wept for people we did not know.  We sent money to families we’ve never seen.  Talkshow hosts read Scriptures, journalists printed prayers.  Our focus shifted fromfashion hemlines and box scores to orphans and widows and the future of the world.

We were different this week.

Republicans stood next to Democrats.  Catholics prayed with Jews.  Skin color wascovered by the ash of burning towers.  This is not normal.  And I have to ask the question, “Do we want to go back to normal?

Are we being given a glimpse of a new way of life?  Are we, as a nation, being reminded that the enemy is not each other and the power is notin ourselves and the future is not in our bank accounts?  Could this unselfishprayerfulness be the way God intended for us to live all along?  Maybe this, in God’seyes, is the way we are called to live. And perhaps the best response to this tragedy is to refuse to go back to normal.

Perhaps the best response is to follow the example of TomBurnet.  He was a passenger of flight 93.  Minutesbefore the plane crashed in the fields of Pennsylvania he reached his wife by cell phone.  “We’reall going to die,” he told her, “but there are three of us who are going to do something about it.”

We can do something about it as well.  We can resolve to care more.  We can resolveto pray more.  And we can resolve that, God being our helper, we’ll never go back tonormal again.

We can live the life of FAITH,

LOVE

and HOPE!  

We can bet on A HOPE-FILLED ABNORMAL FUTURE!