Wednesday, March 30, 2022
The Rev. Rob Stevens
Practice Hope
Lately, I have heard from and experienced people that are gripped with fear. This message bombards us from the evening news which begins almost without fail with a story that seeks to elicit fear from its viewers to the conversations around the water cooler about our apparently slumping economy. Fear is an ever present companion in our world. In speaking with some about the pervasiveness of fear in our world their response has been, “Rob that is just the way that it is.” Well friends, not according to Jesus.
While preparing a sermon recently I read much of the Gospel of John. And nowhere could I find Jesus preaching a message that included embracing fear as an acceptable way of life. Instead I was convicted by Jesus’ message to, “Fear not!” I encourage you to pick a Gospel: Matthew, Mark, Luke or John (Hint: Mark is the shortest) and read the story and listen to the message of Jesus. Fear was ever-present in Jesus’ time as well, but Jesus’ message was a message of Hope not Fear. Jesus was clear that fear more than any other human feeling was the barrier to a relationship with God and a joyful life.
St. John’s is a place where both Hope and Fear live side by side. I confess to having fearful moments about life in general and life at St. John’s, but the practice of hope helps to relegate that fear to recesses of my mind and heart. There are many different ways that our life together is brought to life, yet the reality is that St. John’s only has one “product to market.” And that is Hope! If a church does not preach and practice hope and succumbs to fear then it is no longer a church following Jesus. Hope is the hallmark of a church following God in Christ.
In Krista Tippett’s book Speaking of Faith , she wrote about her experience of her friends that she had made in East Germany before the fall of the Berlin wall. She talked about how although no one was starving; there was a lack of vitality in the culture. She observed that there was a general malaise. Her observations led her to a discovery. She discovered that “They lived without a deep experience of hope. And hope, like love, is one of life’s redeeming experiences. Hope, or its absence, shows on you.” That last sentence speaks a great truth. Hope or the lack of it is not something we can hide. We are people who seek to live a Gospel that has at its core hope. What do we see in ourselves hope or its absence?
I encourage you to ponder the fears that are in you concerning your life. We all have them. Examine them, but make sure to do this activity during the light of day, not at 2am. Bring your fears into the light. Then, tell them that they do not have the last word. God does. My friends, the world can be an incredibly scary place there is no denying it, but we do have a choice. We can simply occupy space on this earth in defensive posture paralyzed by fear or we can embrace the message of Jesus that life is to be lived; joyfully, hopefully in the face of fear. Fear will always lurk, always be ready to seduce us into misery. And Hope is not something that can be gained in a moment. Like all disciplines, spiritual and other, it takes practice. If one has had bad posture for a lifetime, it is impossible to simply stand up straight, but with practice, patience and time the posture improves. Each day make a stand for hope. Sam DeFlitch boldly reminded us this past Sunday in her sermon that “Hope is a discipline.” May we take that to heart and get busy. Maybe it is a little thing like planting a bulb or a tremendous thing like praying for peace. We are invited by God to a life of hope…not a life of fanatical idealism, but a life of hope grounded in the Gospel that proclaims that Jesus shared his life so that we “may have life and life abundantly.” (John 10:10)