Random Hope Verses

These are some of the verses used in this past Sunday's sermon on Hope.

We begin the new church year

We begin the new advent season

We begin the walk toward Christmas

We begin in much the same way as we’ve begun most things

We begin in our mess, at our most desperate time

In our hour of deepest need,

In the midst of death indeed

In the minds of those who heed

Hope comes…

When all will say all hope is lost

When days are like a tempest tossed

Jesus Christ comes in as Hope

His Cross proclaims, That’s all she wrote!

There is always hope.

We can’t feel it, but we know it.

We can’t teach it, but we show it.

To strengthen those whose courage is weak

To hold up those whose vision is bleak

There is always hope.

Hope is courage in the face of fear

Hope is strength when the enemy draws near

Hope is food when hunger calls

Hope is shelter when the world falls

Hope is Jesus, the Savior of all.

Hope comes in the light

Hope comes with the light

Hope comes with the Hosanna

Hope comes with Jesus

Hope comes in Jesus!

We put on the armor of light to fight

We put on the robe of Jesus Christ

We stare in the face of darkness and sin

We know the Hope in the end will win

Words

“He trusts in God; let God deliver him now, if he desires him. For he said, ‘I am the Son of God.” The chief priests, scribes and elders at the foot of the Cross Matthew 27:43

I would have this as my prayer…

            I would have this as my last words…

                        I would have this at my funeral…

Words of scoffers

Words of mockers

Words of cynicism

Words of derision

Words of sarcasm

You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives. Genesis 50:20

You’re a joke

You’re no good

You’re shameful

You’re a sinner

You’re hopeless

Maybe, but I am a child, a son of God!

How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! 1 John 3:1

I trust in God

            I know He desires me

                        I know He will deliver me

                                    I know I am His forever.

Amen

Forgiving Father

Jeremiah 3:22a, “Return, O faithless sons; I will heal your faithlessness.”

There was some snow on the ground in November and I was helping my grampa chop wood for his stove. He sent me to fetch his hatchet to split some kindling. “It’s on top of the wood pile, behind the fence.” I ran to get it and climbed up the fence. With the hatchet in hand, I jumped down off of the fence. My glove caught and my arm slid down across the metal wire. The metal sliced the back of my wrist and I was bleeding. For some reason that I still don’t understand, I pulled my glove on over my hand and never told anyone that I had been cut.

When we get ourselves into trouble, our first inclination is to hide. When Adam and Eve sinned in the garden, they were ashamed of their sin and also their nakedness and they hid. Jeremiah is recording the conversation that the Lord is having with him regarding the nations of Israel and Judah. Both nations have followed other gods and have disgraced themselves. They have every inclination to hide. Figuratively speaking, they have run away and tried to hide from God. But God does not want them to hide, nor is he seeking revenge and destruction for them. He wants to forgive them and help them to heal. “Return…and I will heal your faithlessness.”

Healing comes from God. The call to Israel is a call to repentance and healing. That healing comes from forgiveness. That’s why we have confession and absolution as a part of each worship time. It’s a time of healing. We have been unfaithful to God. He calls us to return to Him. We know that we can’t heal our own unfaithful hearts, but that doesn’t stop us from trying or from trying to hide it. God knows what is on our hearts. He knows the unfaithfulness and sin that we try to hide. He knows it and still sent His son Jesus to die for it. Jesus died so that you and I don’t have to hide our sin anymore.

My arm still bears the scar of that snowy day. It’s what my Dad once referred to as a “distinguishing characteristic.” Jesus bears the scars for our sin, even still in His hands and feet. His resurrected body bears the marks of the cross. They are one of His distinguishing characteristics.

Father, forgive us for our unfaithfulness. In Jesus’ name, amen.

The Word is Near You

Romans 10:8 But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith that we proclaim)…

The Word is near you

            In your mouth

                        In your heart

The word is near you in your mouth

            In your mouth?

                        In YOUR mouth?

Yes, in your mouth, the mouth that spits, chews, the mouth that bites, consumes

                        In YOUR mouth?

The mouth that gossips, curses, swears, lies, THAT mouth?

            Yes, the word is near you, in your mouth

Ezekiel, Ezekiel, eat this scroll

                                    Eat this scroll and tell me what you taste.

Is it hate, spite, bitterness, intolerance?

            No, the word is in my mouth and it tastes sweeter than honey

The Word is Jesus, in your mouth and

            He

                        Must

                                    Be

                                                There.

He is there among the gossip, venom, spit and anger.

            It is the Word that is there to forgive, to love, to change

He is there because he has to be…

            He is there to be Confessed, Consumed and to Save

The Word is near you

            In your mouth

                        In your heart

The Word is near you in your heart.

            In your heart?

                        In YOUR heart?

You know the darkness in your heart

            You know the evil that lurks in the depths of your heart

                        You know what is in the deep places that no one knows

The word is in your heart?

            From out of the heart comes all manner of evil things

                        Lust, greed, hate, pride, darkness, bitterness, envy

The word is near you, in your heart

            He

                        Has

                                    To

                                                Be.

The Word is Jesus and he has to be in the midst of the filth

            In the midst of the darkness and the sin

If he’s not there, there’s no hope

                                                No hope

The Lord, The Word, Jesus is in your heart

            The heart that is the holder of faith

                        The faith that rescues

                                    The word that cleanses

The Word in your heart, Jesus

            Is life everlasting

The Word is near you

            Jesus is near you

                        He is in your mouth

                                    He is in your heart.

A Little Goes A Long Way

Luke17:5-6 The apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith!” And the Lord said, “If you had faith like a grain of mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you.”

5-hour energy drink. It’s a tiny little energy drink that packs quite a wallop. A little bit goes a long way. Computers have gotten smaller and smaller, yet are faster and more powerful than they ever were. A little bit goes a long way. A lot of cars have gotten smaller too. Fuel economy and alternative energy tends to make things a bit smaller. And when it comes to gas in those cars the goal is to make a little bit go a long way.

The disciples ask Jesus to increase their faith. What did they mean by that? Well, Jesus had just laid down a pretty tall order for forgiveness. It’s not something that we are inclined to do too readily even once, but Jesus says to them that they are to forgive someone 7 times in a single day. A little bible number code here. 7 is a number of completion and so forgiveness of seven times means forgiveness for every time. Complete forgiveness every time. “We’re gonna need more faith for that, Jesus.” And Jesus response, “A little goes a long way.”

Forgiveness is not something that we, any of us, are very good at. We are more likely to either brush off what happened with a casual, “It’s ok.” Or we may hold a grudge and not forgive someone for what happened. And to hear Jesus say that we must forgive completely each and every time someone asks for it and perhaps even if they don’t ask for it is perhaps a little ludicrous. Complete forgiveness, every time, for everything? Impossible… Luke 18:27, Jesus said, “What is impossible with men is possible with God.” Oh, yeah. Forgot about that.

See, that’s what Jesus is saying. A little faith goes a long way. That little faith that comes to us as a gift from God. That’s all we need. Because really, it’s not our faith that matters, it’s the faith of Jesus that matters. His faith is what works inside each of us. If it were left up to me, it would all fall apart and forgiveness would never happen. It’s not me. It’s not you. It’s Jesus. And that’s all we need.

A little goes a long way. How much faith do we need? Faith like a child, faith like a mustard seed. Tiny, tiny. For those who think that you need to pray harder, believe more, have more faith… no. Tiny faith. If you have faith like a mustard seed you can do amazing things. Jesus will do amazing things through you. And the most amazing thing is not raising the dead, miraculous healings, speaking in tongues or any of the flashy stuff. The most amazing thing is simple forgiveness because a little forgiveness goes a long way. Doesn’t it? Literally speaking, a little forgiveness reaches all the way to heaven. Jesus said in John 20:23, “If you forgive the sins of any they are forgiven.” That means when we forgive the sins of someone else, they actually are forgiven. How amazing is that? What more do you want?

Today, that forgiveness comes to me and you. In the Lord’s Supper today, forgiveness comes and the food we need to strengthen the little faith we have. And look, the wafer is a little bread and the cup is a little wine. A little goes a long way. Do you need to drink all of the wine or eat all of the bread? No. A little goes a long way. It’s the little energy shot that replaces the giant can of sugar water. You don’t need any more than that. Because, as my professor Dr. Nagel used to say, “God does not work in fractions.” When he says the body and blood are shed for you for the forgiveness of your sins, it’s complete, total. That little bit goes a long way.

            Ultimately, the most amazing little bit going a long way is Jesus himself. One man, one cross, three nails, one Friday afternoon, one empty tomb. One Holy Spirit. One for all mankind for all time, for all eternity. The little bit goes the longest way. Amen.

Sharing Ideas

There are a lot of ideas that run through my head on any given day or hour. Most of them get filtered out and disappear like smoke. Some of them stick around for a while and eventually find their way out the door. A few actually make it into my conversations and prayers. However, even the ideas that make the cut often get held back from being put into practice for a number of reasons.

1. They are premature. They don't get buy in from others because the "long range" of it isn't able to be described or adequately fleshed out. This isn't always a shortcoming of the idea itself. More often it's a hangup of those who hear the idea and may or may not be brave or foolish enough to make the leap.

2. They get stolen. I'm not a person who has to have credit for things, but it still frustrates me when someone grabs and idea and runs away with it. Because, ultimately when the idea fails, the person comes back to me and blames me for not following through. Not sure how that happens, but it has happened. 

3. The looming fear of failure suppresses the idea. 'nuff said.

4. The looming fear of success suppresses the idea. If the idea makes it out of the gate, the institution wants it followed, tracked, measured, analyzed, graphed and so forth. The microscope is focussed and the idea is judged successful or not. But, for me, just the fact that all of the metrics get applied to each idea is oppressive. 

So now what...

It's time for more of the ideas to be shared. It's time for the fear of success or failure, theft or misappropriation to step aside and let the ideas live. Whether they live long or short, whether they meet with overwhelming fanfare or crickets chirping is completely beside the point. Ideas need to be shared in order for any of them to do anything. Ideas won't sit still without burning a hole in your heart or head, like a hot coal on a cheap lawn chair. 

How do you share ideas?

Restoration of Respect

1 Timothy 5:1-2 Paul writes, “Do not rebuke an older man but encourage him as you would a father, younger men as brothers, older women as mothers, younger women as sisters, in all purity.”

Let me get up on a nostalgia soapbox for just a moment. Remember TV shows like Leave It To Beaver, Andy Griffith, The Brady Bunch and even The Addams Family and the Munsters? They were shows with some amount of respect for family and the children, while still being children in their mischievous ways, respected their parents. Turn on any show on the Disney channel or other stations for that matter and you will see TV shows where the kids run the world and that all grown ups are idiots. There is no respect for family and certainly no respect for parents, if they are even around. There is a visible and tangible breakdown or distortion of all things family. I know that we cannot go backward, but a reasonable renewal of respect for family is needed. I shall now climb down from my nostalgia soapbox.

Paul is writing a letter to a young pastor, Timothy. He is giving some basic instruction about how to address the people of the congregation. It is all about respect. God had placed Timothy in this congregation and he was to treat all of the people with purity and respect. Those men older than he, he was to treat as fathers. Those men younger, he was to treat as brothers. Women older than he, he was to treat as mothers and the younger women as sisters. Respect, love, honor and purity.

How do we treat our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ? Or even those outside the church? Do we treat them with respect, love, honor and purity or are we arrogant, disrespectful, antagonizing and impatient? How about in our own family? It’s difficult to hear Paul’s words and not think, “I wish it were like that.” But we long for the day when the respect for family is restored, within the church and outside the church.

Jesus was told once that his family was waiting to see him. He replied that his family consisted of those who heard his word and kept it. Family means different things to different people and in different times. But Jesus died for all people, of all times, in all situations and in all families, which includes you, me and even those who have no regard for family.

We pray that the Holy Spirit, through forgiveness and reconciliation will restore and renew the respect, honor, purity and love that are missing so often. And as those through whom the Holy Spirit works, that forgiveness and reconciliation begins with us. May it be so, Amen.