Lent 1 Mark 1:9-15
March 12, 2000 "A Catalog of Hope"
A sermon by Rev. Dr. John K. Luoma
The number one problem of people
today is that they feel their lives are meaningless. That is the
opinion of the respected Canadian theologian Douglas John Hall
(Why Christian?). Actually, the word he uses is "superfluous,"
which means "unnecessary." In other words, people don't
believe their lives make any difference. And what do people do
when they believe that about themselves? They become destructive.
They become destructive to themselves and they become destructive
to others.
The Evangelical Lutheran Church of America has just released a statement that speaks to this point. It is a statement on suicide prevention, urging congregations to pay attention to this problem and reminding them how important it is that people hear the message of hope that the church has to share. It says that each year 30,000 people in the United States take their own lives. Suicide is the eighth leading cause of death and the third leading cause of death among persons age15 to 24. Each year nearly 500,000 persons make a suicide attempt serious enough to receive emergency room treatment.
What does this say? I think it says that we live in a time when more than ever people need to hear about and experience the kind of love God has for them in Jesus. We live in a time when people need hope, and that is the gift we have to give. In fact, I think we could call the Bible a "catalog of hope." The Bible contains all sorts of reasons why we can have hope. So, with apologies to David Letterman, I would like to talk about the top ten reasons we have for hope which we find in our scripture readings today.
The tenth most important reason we can have hope is because we have a God of mercy. The writer of Genesis says that every time we see a rainbow in the sky we should be reminded of that. The rainbow is a sign that God is going to deal with us not on the basis of our sin but on the basis of his mercy. Last week we talked about The Five Languages of Love. To put it into love language, God has given us this symbol which says to us every time we see it: "I love you. You need not be afraid to come to me. I will always deal with you according to my mercy and not according to your sin."
The ninth most important reason we can have hope is that God has made an everlasting covenant with us. Even though we are often not faithful to God, God is always faithful to us. In fact, it is interesting to notice that there are no strings attached to the human side of this covenant. It is a one-sided covenant. God makes the promise to love and be faithful. There is no mention of any obligations on the human side. Pretty incredible don't you think? God promises to do his best to keep loving us into his family even though we keep running away from him.
The eighth most important reason we can have hope is that God's mercy embraces not just us but every living creature (Genesis 9:9-10). Certainly our love falls far short of that. We all remember the time that the Secretary of the Interior, James Watt, said that he wasn't worried about how many trees we chopped down because the end was coming soon. Well, that doesn't appear to be God's attitude. God's love extends to the whole of creation. Our love should extend that far also.
The seventh most important reason we can have hope is that the sign of the covenant he establishes is a bow. God puts down this implement of war. What does this mean? It means that God is no longer going to make war against his people because of their sin. There is no longer a direct correlation between sin and suffering. And people often think that way don't they. If someone suffers, we conclude that it is because of something that they have done. The rainbow makes it clear that God is a God of mercy and that he will no longer deal with us according to our sins but according to his mercy. (Walter Brueggman, Interpretation: Genesis).
The sixth most important reason we can have hope is that God's mercy is so tremendous that it even extends to the people beyond the grave, i.e., to persons who have never had the opportunity to hear about Christ. We read about this in Peter's letter to a persecuted church. (1 Peter 3:18-22) Apparently they were very concerned about those who died without hearing the gospel. And so Peter comforts them with words that may have been part of an early baptismal creed of the church. He tells them that Jesus proclaimed the gospel even to the spirits in prison who lived before the time of Noah. Obviously, this has also become part of the Apostles' Creed where it says that Christ descended into hell or he descended to the dead. People often puzzle over precisely what that means. It think at least this: God's mercy s so great that it extends even beyond the grave.
The fifth most important reason we can have hope is that we have a God who became one of us in Jesus in order to wipe away our sin. In his baptism he takes our sin upon him, and on the cross he pays the penalty for our sin. We may think that we are not worth this kind of love, but God does. St. Augustine puts it beautifully when he says that if we were the only person in the whole world, God would have offered up his son just for us.
The fourth most important reason we can have hope is that Jesus shares with us his power to overcome temptation. Mark doesn't say as much about this as the other Gospels, but what he does say is powerful. He says that after his baptism the Holy Spirit "threw" Jesus into the wilderness in order to begin the process of overcoming the temptation of the devil. Apparently, Jesus didn't have much choice in the matter. His mission in life was to face the forces of evil head on and overcome them. And we don't have much choice in the matter either. When we are baptized, Satan immediately begins a campaign to overcome the relationship with God that has been formed. But because we have this relationship with Jesus we have the power to overcome. I like what the writer of Hebrews has to say about this: "Because he himself was tested by what he suffered, he is able to help those who are being tested." (Hebrews 2:18).
The third most important reason we can have hope is that Jesus brings us good news. What is the good news? The good news is that God is changing things for the better. He is bringing all things together through Jesus, and we can experience this healing even now through faith in Jesus. All we need to do is take up the daily process of trusting in God's promise of healing and turning away from the things that diminish us.
The second most important reason we can have hope is that our baptism not only binds us to Christ but also to his mission. In other words, we can be the means of salvation for others. If indeed Douglas John Hall is correct that the number one problem today is that people feel superfluous, how important is it that we share the good news that we have in Jesus? It is of tremendous importance. Indeed, for many it is the difference between life and death. We may not like the places that the Spirit throws us into, but these may be the very places where we can make the biggest difference. So, what are the places that God has thrown you into? Who are the people who are the most difficult to deal with? Who do we need to be praying for, and are we poised to respond when God gives us an opening?
And the number one most important reason that we can have hope is all of the above. It is the fact that God has blessed us with an abundance of life-changing resources.
Copyright 2000 by Rev. Dr. John K. Luoma