Blessed with Hope
Romans 8:22-25 (CEV), Hebrews 6:17-19 (CEV), Hebrews 11:1 (CEV) Mark 4:25-27 (CEV)
November 5, 2006
Rev. Nancy Pfaltzgraf
We are blessed with Hope! But what is hope? And more importantly why is it a blessing?
Hope is faith holding out its hand in the dark." George Iles
"Hope is the fuel that prevents an energy crisis." Herb Miller
"Hope is to our spirits what oxygen is to our lungs." Lewis Smedes
"When you say a situation or a person is hopeless, you are slamming the door in the face of
God." Charles L. Allen
In the late 1980's I participated in a study program called Understanding the Dynamics of
Conflict in Northern Ireland. There were about 25 of us, who met for the first time in Dublin.
We came from a number of different parts of the United States and we represented a number
of different religious traditions. But all of us had traveled to Ireland for a three week experience
that we hoped would help us understand The Troubles, so that we each in our own way might
be empowered to do something that would bring a little more peace to a land torn by fear and
violence. We met with government and religious officials in both the Republic of Ireland and in
Northern Ireland. We saw divided neighborhoods and stood at the so-called "Peace Walls." We
met people on both sides of the religious and political divide and we visited with those who
labored for reconciliation. It was during one of those visits that I heard a statement that
profoundly affected my understanding of the blessing of hope. One of the speakers was talking
about the number of different programs in Ireland -both North and South- that sought to bring
people together and build bridges of understanding across the religious and political divide. He
said, "Each and every peace program is like a building block, a piece of the puzzle. Each one
plays a necessary part. One day peace will happen; reconciliation will be a reality, and it might
appear that one program or action is responsible. But the truth is that peace will be built on the
foundation of all that has gone before. For now, all that we do is done to keep hope alive, to
build hope, to nurture hope. Because there must be hope that the way things are does not have
to be the way things will be. Without that hope nothing would ever change!"
Hope! I hope that all of you have experienced HOPE! In fact, I hope that you are filled with
an ever deepening sense of hope because there is so much in our world right now that seems
to fly in the face of hope, making hope seem foolish.
Hope! As I pondered the blessing of hope, I came across a sermon by Paul Tillich titled, The
Right to Hope, in which Tillich poses the question "Do we have a right to hope, even, against
hope?" As he seeks to lead his listeners to an answer that question, he says:
Where there is genuine hope, there that for which we hope already has some
presence. In some way, the hoped for is at the same time here and not here. It is
not yet fulfilled, and it may remain unfulfilled. But it is here, in the situation and in
ourselves, as a power which drives those who hope into the future. ... The hope
O:\Sermons\sermons 2006\11-05-06-assorted hope scriptures.doc Last printed 11/27/2006 12:57:00 PM- 2 -
itself, if it is rooted in the reality of something already given, becomes a driving
power and makes fulfillment not certain, but possible.
In writing to the Romans about hope, the Apostle Paul says: "We know that all creation is
still groaning and is in pain, like a woman about to give birth." Think about it, those of you who
have known the blessing of bearing a child. As the new life grows within you, it is impossible to
deny it's existence, isn't? But what the child will be like, who he will resemble, what traits she
will posses, what skills he will have, what challenges she will face, all of that is still unknown;
unknown, but yet the very life growing within you is indeed the source of your hope.
Now we hope for many things, don't we? We hope it won't rain on the day we plan an
outdoor wedding. We hope that somehow we will win the lottery -even if we don't buy a lottery
ticket. We hope that someone will find a cure for AIDS, a way to prevent cancer, a treatment
that will reverse the affects of childhood onset diabetes. We hope for world peace. We hope our
loved one won't die. We hope.
As I thought about our many and various hopes, it seemed to me, however, that sometimes
we confuse wishing and hoping. While they both arise from something we desire, wishes are
quiet often less substantial and not deeply rooted in that which gives their fulfillment real
possibility. Hope, on the other hand, springs directly from the heart of God; the seed of God's
Hope, God's Dream, God's Vision for us and for our world which the Divine Farmer plants in the
soil of our being.
In a 1993 sermon titled Keeping Hope Alive, broadcast on the radio program 30 Good
Minutes, Rev. Dr. Lewis Smedes said:
Hope is the most powerful energy source in the world. Hope gives people power
to achieve what they hope for. Some people think that poor people, hungry
people, oppressed people change things because they are poor and hungry and
oppressed. It is not true. People change things when they have hope that they do
not need to be hungry or poor or oppressed any more.
In an interview which followed this sermon, Dr. Smedes shares the following story:
I was a teacher at a college and I asked the students -- "How many of you want
to go to heaven when you die?" Everybody raised [their] hand. Heaven by a
landslide. Then I asked, "How many of you would like to go tomorrow if you
could?" All the hands went down and I was glad. I worry about young people
wanting to go to heaven too quickly, don't you?
So I rephrased the question. I said, "How many of you would like to wake up
tomorrow in a world where no child ever feared to dance on the street at night, or
nobody ever pointed a gun at another human being, or no child ever starved, or
nobody ever put you down because you were different, or no mother ever wept
over a hungry baby? How many of you would like to live in a world that finally
worked right?"
"Not only that, how many of you would like to wake up into that good world, as
good as the world? You had all the capacities and powers and freedom that you
longed to have? You went into that world a terrific, fantastic human being. How
many of you would like to wake up into that tomorrow?" [100% of their hands
went up]. I said, "Then you want to go to heaven tomorrow, because that is what
biblical hope is about. Look, God created this world. [God] is not that interested in
getting us off of it. What [God] is interested in is getting it to work right."
We know in our bones, we discern from the depths of our soul, we comprehend at the
deepest level of our being God's Vision, God's Hope for us and for our world. But what
O:\Sermons\sermons 2006\11-05-06-assorted hope scriptures.doc Last printed 11/27/2006 12:57:00 PM- 3 -
empowers us to grasp God's Vision and take hold of God's Hope is God's Promise to be with us,
even when hope seems to fail.
...[God's] promises should greatly encourage us to take hold of the hope that is
right in front of us. This hope is like a firm and steady anchor for our souls. In
fact, hope reaches behind the curtain and into the most holy place. [Hebrews
6:18b-19]
No matter what, God is with us -guiding us, moving us, holding us, transforming us,
empowering us, and silently growing us until the seed of God's Hope sprouts and we are
blessed once again with a Living Hope. Amen{Play recording of God's Promise}:
I will be with you that's my promise
I will shine when you can't see
Everywhere you travel is everywhere I'll be
Trust me for that first step
Leave the journey up to me
I will be with you
I will shine when you can't see!
Romans 8:22-25 (CEV), Hebrews 6:17-19 (CEV), Hebrews 11:1 (CEV) Mark 4:25-27 (CEV)
November 5, 2006
Rev. Nancy Pfaltzgraf
We are blessed with Hope! But what is hope? And more importantly why is it a blessing?
Hope is faith holding out its hand in the dark." George Iles
"Hope is the fuel that prevents an energy crisis." Herb Miller
"Hope is to our spirits what oxygen is to our lungs." Lewis Smedes
"When you say a situation or a person is hopeless, you are slamming the door in the face of
God." Charles L. Allen
In the late 1980's I participated in a study program called Understanding the Dynamics of
Conflict in Northern Ireland. There were about 25 of us, who met for the first time in Dublin.
We came from a number of different parts of the United States and we represented a number
of different religious traditions. But all of us had traveled to Ireland for a three week experience
that we hoped would help us understand The Troubles, so that we each in our own way might
be empowered to do something that would bring a little more peace to a land torn by fear and
violence. We met with government and religious officials in both the Republic of Ireland and in
Northern Ireland. We saw divided neighborhoods and stood at the so-called "Peace Walls." We
met people on both sides of the religious and political divide and we visited with those who
labored for reconciliation. It was during one of those visits that I heard a statement that
profoundly affected my understanding of the blessing of hope. One of the speakers was talking
about the number of different programs in Ireland -both North and South- that sought to bring
people together and build bridges of understanding across the religious and political divide. He
said, "Each and every peace program is like a building block, a piece of the puzzle. Each one
plays a necessary part. One day peace will happen; reconciliation will be a reality, and it might
appear that one program or action is responsible. But the truth is that peace will be built on the
foundation of all that has gone before. For now, all that we do is done to keep hope alive, to
build hope, to nurture hope. Because there must be hope that the way things are does not have
to be the way things will be. Without that hope nothing would ever change!"
Hope! I hope that all of you have experienced HOPE! In fact, I hope that you are filled with
an ever deepening sense of hope because there is so much in our world right now that seems
to fly in the face of hope, making hope seem foolish.
Hope! As I pondered the blessing of hope, I came across a sermon by Paul Tillich titled, The
Right to Hope, in which Tillich poses the question "Do we have a right to hope, even, against
hope?" As he seeks to lead his listeners to an answer that question, he says:
Where there is genuine hope, there that for which we hope already has some
presence. In some way, the hoped for is at the same time here and not here. It is
not yet fulfilled, and it may remain unfulfilled. But it is here, in the situation and in
ourselves, as a power which drives those who hope into the future. ... The hope
O:\Sermons\sermons 2006\11-05-06-assorted hope scriptures.doc Last printed 11/27/2006 12:57:00 PM- 2 -
itself, if it is rooted in the reality of something already given, becomes a driving
power and makes fulfillment not certain, but possible.
In writing to the Romans about hope, the Apostle Paul says: "We know that all creation is
still groaning and is in pain, like a woman about to give birth." Think about it, those of you who
have known the blessing of bearing a child. As the new life grows within you, it is impossible to
deny it's existence, isn't? But what the child will be like, who he will resemble, what traits she
will posses, what skills he will have, what challenges she will face, all of that is still unknown;
unknown, but yet the very life growing within you is indeed the source of your hope.
Now we hope for many things, don't we? We hope it won't rain on the day we plan an
outdoor wedding. We hope that somehow we will win the lottery -even if we don't buy a lottery
ticket. We hope that someone will find a cure for AIDS, a way to prevent cancer, a treatment
that will reverse the affects of childhood onset diabetes. We hope for world peace. We hope our
loved one won't die. We hope.
As I thought about our many and various hopes, it seemed to me, however, that sometimes
we confuse wishing and hoping. While they both arise from something we desire, wishes are
quiet often less substantial and not deeply rooted in that which gives their fulfillment real
possibility. Hope, on the other hand, springs directly from the heart of God; the seed of God's
Hope, God's Dream, God's Vision for us and for our world which the Divine Farmer plants in the
soil of our being.
In a 1993 sermon titled Keeping Hope Alive, broadcast on the radio program 30 Good
Minutes, Rev. Dr. Lewis Smedes said:
Hope is the most powerful energy source in the world. Hope gives people power
to achieve what they hope for. Some people think that poor people, hungry
people, oppressed people change things because they are poor and hungry and
oppressed. It is not true. People change things when they have hope that they do
not need to be hungry or poor or oppressed any more.
In an interview which followed this sermon, Dr. Smedes shares the following story:
I was a teacher at a college and I asked the students -- "How many of you want
to go to heaven when you die?" Everybody raised [their] hand. Heaven by a
landslide. Then I asked, "How many of you would like to go tomorrow if you
could?" All the hands went down and I was glad. I worry about young people
wanting to go to heaven too quickly, don't you?
So I rephrased the question. I said, "How many of you would like to wake up
tomorrow in a world where no child ever feared to dance on the street at night, or
nobody ever pointed a gun at another human being, or no child ever starved, or
nobody ever put you down because you were different, or no mother ever wept
over a hungry baby? How many of you would like to live in a world that finally
worked right?"
"Not only that, how many of you would like to wake up into that good world, as
good as the world? You had all the capacities and powers and freedom that you
longed to have? You went into that world a terrific, fantastic human being. How
many of you would like to wake up into that tomorrow?" [100% of their hands
went up]. I said, "Then you want to go to heaven tomorrow, because that is what
biblical hope is about. Look, God created this world. [God] is not that interested in
getting us off of it. What [God] is interested in is getting it to work right."
We know in our bones, we discern from the depths of our soul, we comprehend at the
deepest level of our being God's Vision, God's Hope for us and for our world. But what
O:\Sermons\sermons 2006\11-05-06-assorted hope scriptures.doc Last printed 11/27/2006 12:57:00 PM- 3 -
empowers us to grasp God's Vision and take hold of God's Hope is God's Promise to be with us,
even when hope seems to fail.
...[God's] promises should greatly encourage us to take hold of the hope that is
right in front of us. This hope is like a firm and steady anchor for our souls. In
fact, hope reaches behind the curtain and into the most holy place. [Hebrews
6:18b-19]
No matter what, God is with us -guiding us, moving us, holding us, transforming us,
empowering us, and silently growing us until the seed of God's Hope sprouts and we are
blessed once again with a Living Hope. Amen{Play recording of God's Promise}:
I will be with you that's my promise
I will shine when you can't see
Everywhere you travel is everywhere I'll be
Trust me for that first step
Leave the journey up to me
I will be with you
I will shine when you can't see!
