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SERMON for NOVEMBER 29, 2020
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RECEIVING HOPE
Text: I Corinthians 1: 3-9; Mark 13: 24-37
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This First Sunday of Advent marks the beginning of a new year in the church calendar. If we were to call out: Happy New Year! so many weeks before January 1st, it would strike people as very odd and premature – so I do not encourage it – not yet. During this season of Advent, instead, we might consider how we proclaim – in word and deed – A Hopeful New Year! – a faith-filled message that we embody and share because we have already received hope and are receiving hope daily in and through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Whenever Leslie and I stand at the kitchen counter preparing food, Izzy, our English bulldog, sits expectantly near our feet – looking up with hopeful eyes, waiting for some scrap of food to fall accidentally from the counter or for us to offer a small morsel as a treat. Izzy has learned through conditioning and experience that a treat is likely to come. She never stops hoping, and if she did, it would signal that something was wrong with her.
Our relationship with God is quite similar in terms of our hopes and expectations. As disciples of the Risen Lord, we worship and work and wait expectantly for God to bless us with gifts of faith and life, gifts freely offered to all who will receive them. In more ways that we care to acknowledge, we are actually less noble than our canine companions. Unlike dogs, we have a conscience. We know the difference between right and wrong, good and evil, and still, we often choose the path of darkness and ways of sin. Nevertheless, the good Lord never stops offering us hope and peace, love and joy – if only we wait with expectant hearts and open minds to receive what God has prepared for us from the beginning of time. Even in times of deep despair and suffering, when it feels as if we are waiting in vain for God’s light to break through the darkness, even then – or perhaps it is more accurate to say – especially then - we are called to wait with expectant hope.
Our faith is based on hope – the hope of our resurrection lives in our Lord Jesus Christ – the hope that eternal life follows mortal death – the hope that there is a spiritual reality that transcends the boundaries of ordinary existence – the hope that our lives have meaning and purpose beyond the values of this broken world that so often set us against one another and lead us to despair. Having received Christ’s hope, we embody hope for those who struggle in darkness when we shine Christ’s light upon them. God is faithful – always – ever calling us into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.
The Apostle Paul assures the Christians in the church at Corinth of this truth. This early church struggles, like all communities of faith, with issues surrounding beliefs and doctrine, the sharing of spiritual gifts, and matters of faith that divide and polarize the believers. Insofar as it is humanly possible, the Apostle Paul strives to focus the believers on the essential truths that unite them in faith, hope, and love. Paul assures them that God will strengthen them until the Lord returns to reign in glory forevermore.
A Hopeful New Year! I feel like calling out at the beginning of this new year in the Christian calendar. We have persevered and pressed through the most challenging year in our lifetime, and there are signs of hope on the horizon – the development of vaccines to protect against COVID-19. In addition, we hope, and we pray, that this pandemic, like others before it, will die a natural death sooner rather than later. We hope, and we pray, that our lives will return to a more normal, pre-COVID state.
In the meantime, as we move from Thanksgiving to this First Sunday of Advent, let us make living with hope our spiritual gift to share with others, especially with the younger generation. They are living with unprecedented uncertainty during these pandemic times, resulting in significant rates of anxiety and depression. In one study conducted by the University of Michigan of young people between the ages of 18 to 26 during the last two weeks of June of this year, approximately 75% reported symptoms of anxiety and 65% reported symptoms of depression.[1] While young adults may not be as susceptible to the serious physical side effects of the coronavirus, they are not protected from the stress and despair of the pandemic. The younger generation needs the wise counsel and care of more mature members of their families and faith communities, people who have experienced and survived setbacks and hardship, to bless them with hope in these difficult times. What the Apostle Paul assures the Corinthians is true for us: we are not lacking in any spiritual gift. It helps when hope is offered through human agency: through words of encouragement and deeds of compassion – even through disciples like you and me.
If we are on an airplane and oxygen masks drop, adults know that they need to put on their masks first before helping the children. In the same way, adults with more life experience than young adults, adults who have endured hardships with hope and pressed through them, such adults need to offer oxygen to the young – that is, we need to breathe hope into young adults who are struggling with despair about the future. Let us rise to the occasion and offer hope.
God bless you and yours with a Hopeful New Year as we enter into the season of Advent and await the Lord with expectant hope. Amen.
[1] Frank McGeorge, MD, and Derick Hutchison, “Studies Reveal Alarming Trends of Anxiety, Depression among Young Adults during COVID-19 Pandemic,” ClickOnDetroit/Good Health, November 17, 2020; URL: https://www.clickondetroit.com/health/good-health/2020/11/18/studies-reveal-alarming-trends-of-anxiety-depression-among-young-adults-during-covid-19-pandemic/
Text: I Corinthians 1: 3-9; Mark 13: 24-37
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This First Sunday of Advent marks the beginning of a new year in the church calendar. If we were to call out: Happy New Year! so many weeks before January 1st, it would strike people as very odd and premature – so I do not encourage it – not yet. During this season of Advent, instead, we might consider how we proclaim – in word and deed – A Hopeful New Year! – a faith-filled message that we embody and share because we have already received hope and are receiving hope daily in and through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Whenever Leslie and I stand at the kitchen counter preparing food, Izzy, our English bulldog, sits expectantly near our feet – looking up with hopeful eyes, waiting for some scrap of food to fall accidentally from the counter or for us to offer a small morsel as a treat. Izzy has learned through conditioning and experience that a treat is likely to come. She never stops hoping, and if she did, it would signal that something was wrong with her.
Our relationship with God is quite similar in terms of our hopes and expectations. As disciples of the Risen Lord, we worship and work and wait expectantly for God to bless us with gifts of faith and life, gifts freely offered to all who will receive them. In more ways that we care to acknowledge, we are actually less noble than our canine companions. Unlike dogs, we have a conscience. We know the difference between right and wrong, good and evil, and still, we often choose the path of darkness and ways of sin. Nevertheless, the good Lord never stops offering us hope and peace, love and joy – if only we wait with expectant hearts and open minds to receive what God has prepared for us from the beginning of time. Even in times of deep despair and suffering, when it feels as if we are waiting in vain for God’s light to break through the darkness, even then – or perhaps it is more accurate to say – especially then - we are called to wait with expectant hope.
Our faith is based on hope – the hope of our resurrection lives in our Lord Jesus Christ – the hope that eternal life follows mortal death – the hope that there is a spiritual reality that transcends the boundaries of ordinary existence – the hope that our lives have meaning and purpose beyond the values of this broken world that so often set us against one another and lead us to despair. Having received Christ’s hope, we embody hope for those who struggle in darkness when we shine Christ’s light upon them. God is faithful – always – ever calling us into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.
The Apostle Paul assures the Christians in the church at Corinth of this truth. This early church struggles, like all communities of faith, with issues surrounding beliefs and doctrine, the sharing of spiritual gifts, and matters of faith that divide and polarize the believers. Insofar as it is humanly possible, the Apostle Paul strives to focus the believers on the essential truths that unite them in faith, hope, and love. Paul assures them that God will strengthen them until the Lord returns to reign in glory forevermore.
A Hopeful New Year! I feel like calling out at the beginning of this new year in the Christian calendar. We have persevered and pressed through the most challenging year in our lifetime, and there are signs of hope on the horizon – the development of vaccines to protect against COVID-19. In addition, we hope, and we pray, that this pandemic, like others before it, will die a natural death sooner rather than later. We hope, and we pray, that our lives will return to a more normal, pre-COVID state.
In the meantime, as we move from Thanksgiving to this First Sunday of Advent, let us make living with hope our spiritual gift to share with others, especially with the younger generation. They are living with unprecedented uncertainty during these pandemic times, resulting in significant rates of anxiety and depression. In one study conducted by the University of Michigan of young people between the ages of 18 to 26 during the last two weeks of June of this year, approximately 75% reported symptoms of anxiety and 65% reported symptoms of depression.[1] While young adults may not be as susceptible to the serious physical side effects of the coronavirus, they are not protected from the stress and despair of the pandemic. The younger generation needs the wise counsel and care of more mature members of their families and faith communities, people who have experienced and survived setbacks and hardship, to bless them with hope in these difficult times. What the Apostle Paul assures the Corinthians is true for us: we are not lacking in any spiritual gift. It helps when hope is offered through human agency: through words of encouragement and deeds of compassion – even through disciples like you and me.
If we are on an airplane and oxygen masks drop, adults know that they need to put on their masks first before helping the children. In the same way, adults with more life experience than young adults, adults who have endured hardships with hope and pressed through them, such adults need to offer oxygen to the young – that is, we need to breathe hope into young adults who are struggling with despair about the future. Let us rise to the occasion and offer hope.
God bless you and yours with a Hopeful New Year as we enter into the season of Advent and await the Lord with expectant hope. Amen.
[1] Frank McGeorge, MD, and Derick Hutchison, “Studies Reveal Alarming Trends of Anxiety, Depression among Young Adults during COVID-19 Pandemic,” ClickOnDetroit/Good Health, November 17, 2020; URL: https://www.clickondetroit.com/health/good-health/2020/11/18/studies-reveal-alarming-trends-of-anxiety-depression-among-young-adults-during-covid-19-pandemic/