Sermon Notes for October 29th
October 29, 2006
“Who Hopes for What He Sees?’
Romans 8:18-25
1. In ancient times, people resorted to great imaginative stories … to explain things that they didn’t understand. One of the greatest stories is the one about Pandora’s Box in Greek mythology. You may remember it …
What happened was that According to Edith Hamilton in her book on Mythology -- the source of all misfortune was Pandora's curiosity. "The gods presented her with a box or jar into which each had put something harmful, and forbade her ever to open it. However, Pandora, like all people, was possessed of a lively curiosity. She had to know what was in the box. One day she lifted the lid and out flew plagues innumerable, sorrow and mischief for mankind. In terror Pandora clapped the lid down, but too late. One good thing, however, was there¬ Hope. It was the only good the casket had held among the many evils, and it remains to this day mankind's sole comfort in misfortune."
You may notice some similarities in this story to the most famous account of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. Where, again, it was human curiosity for the knowledge of Good and Evil which gets them into trouble.
2. But, for today, I would like to focus not on the cause of evil and sin … but on how we are to live with hope in the future both for the world but more importantly – in our own lives.
Now, I kind of gave away this sermon already, in my children’s message. Correct?
Well, regarding the whole question of the glass being half empty or half full …I think it is a pretty much accepted fact that in terms of people generally … there is a continuum between those who are predominantly pessimistic and those who tend to be generally optimistic.
I think, for the most part, I am about a 75% optimist and about 25% pessimist or something like that. It’s just the way I am. Even in difficult situations, I usually try to see something hopeful or at least amusing in them. Sometimes this even gets me in trouble.
In fact, I once had a close friend who was pretty much a pessimist. Often, if I had seen him for a while, I would say cheerfully, “How are you?” And he would say, “You know better than to ask me that!”
3. Well, I am no expert, but I think that how we are disposed toward life may even be sometimes genetic or hereditary. In fact, as we know, the more severe forms of depression are quite often biochemical in nature and need to be treated with drugs. Telling someone who is seriously depressed to “cheer up” won’t quite do it. Or, as in a case one time where I heard about a doctor (who was treating someone for anxiety disorder) and in response to a complaint that the drugs weren’t working, told the patient “don’t be anxious!”
And there are also people who are diagnosed as bipolar, also known as manic-depressive illness, which is a brain disorder that causes unusual shifts in a person's mood, energy, and ability to function. Fortunately, according to the national Institute for Mental Health there is good news: bipolar disorder can be treated, and people with this illness can lead full and productive lives.
4. But, the key word here is “normal ups and downs.” For, I am speaking primarily to those of us who are somewhere in the middle. Those of us who are just trying to get through life on an everyday basis … while trying to have meaning in our lives, some hope for the future, and to be able to love and care for those we most value among our friends, families, and neighbors. How can we live hopeful lives in the midst of a world like this where things tend to be up one minute and down the next? A world where we don’t know whether things are getting better or worse. A world which sometimes seems to be kind of “manic depressive.”
Well, last week I mentioned the great Protestant theologian Reinhold Niebuhr. Niebuhr wrote and preached during the first half of the twentieth century. As we know, this was a century which began a 100 years ago with high hopes for a much improved world in which science and technology would transform our lives through better health, greater wealth, advanced education, and the elimination of much of the poverty and suffering throughout the world. In fact, many actually thought that some kind of utopia was just around the corner.
And, it is true in many ways, that much of this has come to be … for we do live longer, healthier lives, and we, at least in America are more financially better off than ever before – at least many of us.
5. And yet, the twentieth century was also one of the most terrible centuries in terms of war and devastation, where whole armies (especially in World War 1) threw themselves at each other and millions were killed and cities destroyed and all the rest.
In fact, for many in the world, following the great wars there was nothing but widespread despair and hopelessness. This was around the time I was growing up in the 1950s and I remember how the fear of nuclear war with Russia was on everyone’s minds.
In fact, I was recently reading a news account in the Bemidji Pioneer (from our archives) how Dr. Crawford Grays on his last official sermon in our church, in l952, said, with a sad smile, that as he started his career in the ministry he believed that some day advances in science would alleviate the burden of toil to mankind and free the minds of men to pursuance of thoughts of nobility and morality. Instead, he said, science has turned to new methods of destruction which are capable of wiping out every material advance made possible for the human race.”
In fact, ironically, the term Pandora’s Box has often been applied to the modern day discovery of atomic energy which has led, unfortunately, to the unintended creation of nuclear weapons. And, of course, this had just a happened a few years before Dr. Grays retired. It was the beginning of the nuclear age.
No wonder Dr. Grays was upset.
As a result, the wise Dr. Niebuhr, too, saw that what was going on in the modern world was a case of people “hoping too naively and despairing too greatly.” That is what he said. One minute we are wildly optimistic and the next we are plunged into hopeless despair.
6. Well, some moments stand out in my life. I can remember very clearly back when I was 22 years old and I was in my senior year in college. It was toward the end of the fall term … and the class was about 20th century American history. The teacher was the very distinguished Professor Clark Chambers who was at that time close to retirement. In other words he was pretty “old” … or so he seemed to be to me at age 22 …and in his lectures he held nothing back. We studied not only the great depression and world war two and the cold war but also the fateful decision by America to drop the atomic bomb on Japan.
I am not sure if it was him or the subject matter or what was going on in the world at the time or in my own life … but Dr. Chambers seemed to me to be very pessimistic. I was, short, getting pretty depressed just taking this course!
Well, the truth is it shook me up! And this was, in truth, right in the midst of the increasing violence of the Viet Nam War … and the civil rights riots across America. It was a time of great turmoil as many of you remember.
7. Well, being only 22, my personal religious beliefs were pretty naïve back then. Up to that point I had not really had them tested by all of life’s adversities. And so I was not prepared, really, to deal with all of this. But soon, I would be.
What, I wondered, can I believe, that will make sense out of the world … and my life. Should I be pessimistic and despair of life … or should I try to be optimistic even though things seem to be getting worse? And what does faith in God have to do with all this, I wondered.
Well, it was right at this point … that I discovered an assigned essay written by Dr. Niebuhr in one the text books Dr. Chambers assigned. It was called the “Children of Light and the Children of Darkness” and it talked about the recurrent tendency of people today to “continuously react to events and leap from one extreme to another.” What was the answer?
Well, Niebuhr blamed it on our basic lack of Biblical understanding and fundamental trust in God.
Well, I said amen! And after that I started reading everything he wrote and the next thing I knew I was in the seminary!
8. Now, in political terms, Niebuhr was what we would call a “realist.” Which means, in terms of the water glass, -- the glass is BOTH half empty and half full.
Or, as an old college friend used to say to me, “Eric, life is mixed bag.” That was a favorite phrase when I was younger which implies, I guess, that we starting to come to terms with the reality that not everything works out in life the way we want it to.
But, and this is my main point, Niebuhr’s realism was more than a merely rational assessment of the situation.
Instead, it was a religiously based realism which is based on the knowledge that God is also involved in the world and in our lives. For, according to Scripture and in our own experience, God’s spirit interacts continuously with our lives in this life here and now.
And that is what the church proclaims, namely that: God’s wisdom is available to us through the scriptures, and through sermons, and worship, and through prayer, and through the witness of fellow Christians. God is an ever present reality.
9. And, because God, through Jesus Christ can be a powerful spiritual reality in our lives, we can affirm that our hope, as the old hymn goes, “is built on nothing less than Jesus blood and righteousness” -- # 368
And we can sing together the words of Hymn # 178 – “Hope of the World, thou Christ of great compassion, speak to our fearful hearts by conflict rent, Save us, thy people, from consuming passion, who by our own false hopes and aims are spent.”
Or even the very popular “Hymn # 117 – Which goes “O God, our help in ages past, our hope for years to come, our shelter from the stormy blast, and our eternal home.”
And, in our scripture reading for today the Apostle Paul says, that “the sufferings of this time, the travail of our lives, is nothing compared to what God is going to do … for in the final days … everything will be changed. Therefore, do not despair, he writes, be of good courage, have hope for we have already received the spirit of God … in part …” and because of this we know that we are saved … now … today as well as in the future time.
And therefore, according to Paul, we should not be deceived by the events, troubles, difficulties, impairments, sufferings, disappointments, illnesses, misunderstandings world calamities … and all the rest … for the true hope that saves us, Paul says, is not something which we can see … for, as he says, “who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for that which we do not see … we wait in patience.”
10. What does this mean? What is this hope we cannot see? And how can we obtain this hope? Well, in a variety of ways.
For instance, this past week, I again spent some time in prayer and meditation with my other fellow Methodist clergy. This is actually a relatively new thing for me and for many of us. For, as Protestants, this was not taught in seminary back thirty years ago.
But, I am learning, and in fact, I can now sit for up to 20 or thirty minutes without thinking about anything …pretty amazing.
Now it is not the same exactly as prayer … but it does clear your mind … calm you down … and when I am finished I find I am much more receptive to experiencing the presence of God in silence. And then, things start to come to me that I would not have thought of in midst of the business of my life. And I think this is what we often refer to as the mysterious work of the Holy Spirit.
11. Well, one of the things I realized was that while, as you know, I serve another congregation over in Cass Lake … it also suddenly occurred to me that I have even another congregation here in Bemidji. And it is at the Havenwood Nursing Home! For, I have been going there once a month for over seven years now – every Sunday afternoon. And while I am not the chaplain, I have come to recognize and appreciate many of the residents who come faithfully to worship for a half hour – and I now look forward to seeing them … and vice versa.
When I first started doing the services, I wasn’t quite sure what to do … because it appeared that some residents are often ill or slightly confused or even fall asleep during the service. Imagine that! So, in the beginning, I didn’t do any preaching and mainly we just sang hymns and had a few prayers. But, I soon realized that many of these folks did understand what was going on … and so I now a share a short summary of my sermon which they seem to appreciate.
Then, as I have became more and more comfortable, I now talk about myself and ask them questions, and even tell a joke or two … and we have a really good time, together. And, because they usually have trouble walking, instead of shaking hands at the door, I walk around and shake their hands and wish them well -- every one of them -- at the beginning of the service and the end. It is, I believe, extremely important, that we touch people in hospitals and nursing homes – as long as it is appropriate – and I try to do this.
12. Well, after I started doing this meditation thing, I starting thinking about how it might be helpful for folks in the nursing home to have a little time for prayer and mediation. So, once in a while we sing a little hymn which you all know # 420 … “Breath on Me Breath of God” and I first ask them to close their eyes and to take a deep breath and then we sing it slowly and quietly. And, it’s pretty amazing, because you can actually see people start to relax and just feel the tension come out of them.
And this is something anyone can do … it’s simple and easy …
And it is all about hope … for, as we learn from Paul, “Where is our hope?” It is, of course, in God … and in Christ Jesus …and the Holy Spirit. And this spiritual hope comes to us … once we are willing to let go …for a time…of all the worries, the anxieties, the struggles, the false hopes, the crippling despair, and the wanting to be in control … which keep us from being who God wants us to be …
Even there at the Havenwood Nursing Home … where one would think that things are pretty depressing … where the glass would seem to be always half empty … even there … because God is there, too … because God is everywhere. And Hope is everywhere around us … brought to us through the power of the Holy Spirit.
13. So, then, part of hope is acceptance, and letting go…and letting God into our busy lives …
And with acceptance we gain not only hope but also serenity … which is another word for patience. As Paul says, “If we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.”
You may not have heard of Reinhold Niebuhr but you will recognize his most famous words of all: The so called serenity prayer:
God, give us grace to accept with serenity the things that cannot be changed, courage to change the things which should be changed and the wisdom to distinguish the one from the other.
14. How many of you know that … can you say it after me?
God, give us grace to accept with serenity the things that cannot be changed, courage to change the things which should be changed and the wisdom to distinguish the one from the other.
Now, in place of the pastoral prayer we are all going to take out our hymnbook to page # 420 and we will sing the first verse through twice … but first, let us close our eyes, and take a deep breath … now open them …and we will sing ..
FOLLOWED BY A TIME OF SILENCE AND WE WILL CLOSE WITH THE LORD’S PRAYER.
“Who Hopes for What He Sees?’
Romans 8:18-25
1. In ancient times, people resorted to great imaginative stories … to explain things that they didn’t understand. One of the greatest stories is the one about Pandora’s Box in Greek mythology. You may remember it …
What happened was that According to Edith Hamilton in her book on Mythology -- the source of all misfortune was Pandora's curiosity. "The gods presented her with a box or jar into which each had put something harmful, and forbade her ever to open it. However, Pandora, like all people, was possessed of a lively curiosity. She had to know what was in the box. One day she lifted the lid and out flew plagues innumerable, sorrow and mischief for mankind. In terror Pandora clapped the lid down, but too late. One good thing, however, was there¬ Hope. It was the only good the casket had held among the many evils, and it remains to this day mankind's sole comfort in misfortune."
You may notice some similarities in this story to the most famous account of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. Where, again, it was human curiosity for the knowledge of Good and Evil which gets them into trouble.
2. But, for today, I would like to focus not on the cause of evil and sin … but on how we are to live with hope in the future both for the world but more importantly – in our own lives.
Now, I kind of gave away this sermon already, in my children’s message. Correct?
Well, regarding the whole question of the glass being half empty or half full …I think it is a pretty much accepted fact that in terms of people generally … there is a continuum between those who are predominantly pessimistic and those who tend to be generally optimistic.
I think, for the most part, I am about a 75% optimist and about 25% pessimist or something like that. It’s just the way I am. Even in difficult situations, I usually try to see something hopeful or at least amusing in them. Sometimes this even gets me in trouble.
In fact, I once had a close friend who was pretty much a pessimist. Often, if I had seen him for a while, I would say cheerfully, “How are you?” And he would say, “You know better than to ask me that!”
3. Well, I am no expert, but I think that how we are disposed toward life may even be sometimes genetic or hereditary. In fact, as we know, the more severe forms of depression are quite often biochemical in nature and need to be treated with drugs. Telling someone who is seriously depressed to “cheer up” won’t quite do it. Or, as in a case one time where I heard about a doctor (who was treating someone for anxiety disorder) and in response to a complaint that the drugs weren’t working, told the patient “don’t be anxious!”
And there are also people who are diagnosed as bipolar, also known as manic-depressive illness, which is a brain disorder that causes unusual shifts in a person's mood, energy, and ability to function. Fortunately, according to the national Institute for Mental Health there is good news: bipolar disorder can be treated, and people with this illness can lead full and productive lives.
4. But, the key word here is “normal ups and downs.” For, I am speaking primarily to those of us who are somewhere in the middle. Those of us who are just trying to get through life on an everyday basis … while trying to have meaning in our lives, some hope for the future, and to be able to love and care for those we most value among our friends, families, and neighbors. How can we live hopeful lives in the midst of a world like this where things tend to be up one minute and down the next? A world where we don’t know whether things are getting better or worse. A world which sometimes seems to be kind of “manic depressive.”
Well, last week I mentioned the great Protestant theologian Reinhold Niebuhr. Niebuhr wrote and preached during the first half of the twentieth century. As we know, this was a century which began a 100 years ago with high hopes for a much improved world in which science and technology would transform our lives through better health, greater wealth, advanced education, and the elimination of much of the poverty and suffering throughout the world. In fact, many actually thought that some kind of utopia was just around the corner.
And, it is true in many ways, that much of this has come to be … for we do live longer, healthier lives, and we, at least in America are more financially better off than ever before – at least many of us.
5. And yet, the twentieth century was also one of the most terrible centuries in terms of war and devastation, where whole armies (especially in World War 1) threw themselves at each other and millions were killed and cities destroyed and all the rest.
In fact, for many in the world, following the great wars there was nothing but widespread despair and hopelessness. This was around the time I was growing up in the 1950s and I remember how the fear of nuclear war with Russia was on everyone’s minds.
In fact, I was recently reading a news account in the Bemidji Pioneer (from our archives) how Dr. Crawford Grays on his last official sermon in our church, in l952, said, with a sad smile, that as he started his career in the ministry he believed that some day advances in science would alleviate the burden of toil to mankind and free the minds of men to pursuance of thoughts of nobility and morality. Instead, he said, science has turned to new methods of destruction which are capable of wiping out every material advance made possible for the human race.”
In fact, ironically, the term Pandora’s Box has often been applied to the modern day discovery of atomic energy which has led, unfortunately, to the unintended creation of nuclear weapons. And, of course, this had just a happened a few years before Dr. Grays retired. It was the beginning of the nuclear age.
No wonder Dr. Grays was upset.
As a result, the wise Dr. Niebuhr, too, saw that what was going on in the modern world was a case of people “hoping too naively and despairing too greatly.” That is what he said. One minute we are wildly optimistic and the next we are plunged into hopeless despair.
6. Well, some moments stand out in my life. I can remember very clearly back when I was 22 years old and I was in my senior year in college. It was toward the end of the fall term … and the class was about 20th century American history. The teacher was the very distinguished Professor Clark Chambers who was at that time close to retirement. In other words he was pretty “old” … or so he seemed to be to me at age 22 …and in his lectures he held nothing back. We studied not only the great depression and world war two and the cold war but also the fateful decision by America to drop the atomic bomb on Japan.
I am not sure if it was him or the subject matter or what was going on in the world at the time or in my own life … but Dr. Chambers seemed to me to be very pessimistic. I was, short, getting pretty depressed just taking this course!
Well, the truth is it shook me up! And this was, in truth, right in the midst of the increasing violence of the Viet Nam War … and the civil rights riots across America. It was a time of great turmoil as many of you remember.
7. Well, being only 22, my personal religious beliefs were pretty naïve back then. Up to that point I had not really had them tested by all of life’s adversities. And so I was not prepared, really, to deal with all of this. But soon, I would be.
What, I wondered, can I believe, that will make sense out of the world … and my life. Should I be pessimistic and despair of life … or should I try to be optimistic even though things seem to be getting worse? And what does faith in God have to do with all this, I wondered.
Well, it was right at this point … that I discovered an assigned essay written by Dr. Niebuhr in one the text books Dr. Chambers assigned. It was called the “Children of Light and the Children of Darkness” and it talked about the recurrent tendency of people today to “continuously react to events and leap from one extreme to another.” What was the answer?
Well, Niebuhr blamed it on our basic lack of Biblical understanding and fundamental trust in God.
Well, I said amen! And after that I started reading everything he wrote and the next thing I knew I was in the seminary!
8. Now, in political terms, Niebuhr was what we would call a “realist.” Which means, in terms of the water glass, -- the glass is BOTH half empty and half full.
Or, as an old college friend used to say to me, “Eric, life is mixed bag.” That was a favorite phrase when I was younger which implies, I guess, that we starting to come to terms with the reality that not everything works out in life the way we want it to.
But, and this is my main point, Niebuhr’s realism was more than a merely rational assessment of the situation.
Instead, it was a religiously based realism which is based on the knowledge that God is also involved in the world and in our lives. For, according to Scripture and in our own experience, God’s spirit interacts continuously with our lives in this life here and now.
And that is what the church proclaims, namely that: God’s wisdom is available to us through the scriptures, and through sermons, and worship, and through prayer, and through the witness of fellow Christians. God is an ever present reality.
9. And, because God, through Jesus Christ can be a powerful spiritual reality in our lives, we can affirm that our hope, as the old hymn goes, “is built on nothing less than Jesus blood and righteousness” -- # 368
And we can sing together the words of Hymn # 178 – “Hope of the World, thou Christ of great compassion, speak to our fearful hearts by conflict rent, Save us, thy people, from consuming passion, who by our own false hopes and aims are spent.”
Or even the very popular “Hymn # 117 – Which goes “O God, our help in ages past, our hope for years to come, our shelter from the stormy blast, and our eternal home.”
And, in our scripture reading for today the Apostle Paul says, that “the sufferings of this time, the travail of our lives, is nothing compared to what God is going to do … for in the final days … everything will be changed. Therefore, do not despair, he writes, be of good courage, have hope for we have already received the spirit of God … in part …” and because of this we know that we are saved … now … today as well as in the future time.
And therefore, according to Paul, we should not be deceived by the events, troubles, difficulties, impairments, sufferings, disappointments, illnesses, misunderstandings world calamities … and all the rest … for the true hope that saves us, Paul says, is not something which we can see … for, as he says, “who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for that which we do not see … we wait in patience.”
10. What does this mean? What is this hope we cannot see? And how can we obtain this hope? Well, in a variety of ways.
For instance, this past week, I again spent some time in prayer and meditation with my other fellow Methodist clergy. This is actually a relatively new thing for me and for many of us. For, as Protestants, this was not taught in seminary back thirty years ago.
But, I am learning, and in fact, I can now sit for up to 20 or thirty minutes without thinking about anything …pretty amazing.
Now it is not the same exactly as prayer … but it does clear your mind … calm you down … and when I am finished I find I am much more receptive to experiencing the presence of God in silence. And then, things start to come to me that I would not have thought of in midst of the business of my life. And I think this is what we often refer to as the mysterious work of the Holy Spirit.
11. Well, one of the things I realized was that while, as you know, I serve another congregation over in Cass Lake … it also suddenly occurred to me that I have even another congregation here in Bemidji. And it is at the Havenwood Nursing Home! For, I have been going there once a month for over seven years now – every Sunday afternoon. And while I am not the chaplain, I have come to recognize and appreciate many of the residents who come faithfully to worship for a half hour – and I now look forward to seeing them … and vice versa.
When I first started doing the services, I wasn’t quite sure what to do … because it appeared that some residents are often ill or slightly confused or even fall asleep during the service. Imagine that! So, in the beginning, I didn’t do any preaching and mainly we just sang hymns and had a few prayers. But, I soon realized that many of these folks did understand what was going on … and so I now a share a short summary of my sermon which they seem to appreciate.
Then, as I have became more and more comfortable, I now talk about myself and ask them questions, and even tell a joke or two … and we have a really good time, together. And, because they usually have trouble walking, instead of shaking hands at the door, I walk around and shake their hands and wish them well -- every one of them -- at the beginning of the service and the end. It is, I believe, extremely important, that we touch people in hospitals and nursing homes – as long as it is appropriate – and I try to do this.
12. Well, after I started doing this meditation thing, I starting thinking about how it might be helpful for folks in the nursing home to have a little time for prayer and mediation. So, once in a while we sing a little hymn which you all know # 420 … “Breath on Me Breath of God” and I first ask them to close their eyes and to take a deep breath and then we sing it slowly and quietly. And, it’s pretty amazing, because you can actually see people start to relax and just feel the tension come out of them.
And this is something anyone can do … it’s simple and easy …
And it is all about hope … for, as we learn from Paul, “Where is our hope?” It is, of course, in God … and in Christ Jesus …and the Holy Spirit. And this spiritual hope comes to us … once we are willing to let go …for a time…of all the worries, the anxieties, the struggles, the false hopes, the crippling despair, and the wanting to be in control … which keep us from being who God wants us to be …
Even there at the Havenwood Nursing Home … where one would think that things are pretty depressing … where the glass would seem to be always half empty … even there … because God is there, too … because God is everywhere. And Hope is everywhere around us … brought to us through the power of the Holy Spirit.
13. So, then, part of hope is acceptance, and letting go…and letting God into our busy lives …
And with acceptance we gain not only hope but also serenity … which is another word for patience. As Paul says, “If we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.”
You may not have heard of Reinhold Niebuhr but you will recognize his most famous words of all: The so called serenity prayer:
God, give us grace to accept with serenity the things that cannot be changed, courage to change the things which should be changed and the wisdom to distinguish the one from the other.
14. How many of you know that … can you say it after me?
God, give us grace to accept with serenity the things that cannot be changed, courage to change the things which should be changed and the wisdom to distinguish the one from the other.
Now, in place of the pastoral prayer we are all going to take out our hymnbook to page # 420 and we will sing the first verse through twice … but first, let us close our eyes, and take a deep breath … now open them …and we will sing ..
FOLLOWED BY A TIME OF SILENCE AND WE WILL CLOSE WITH THE LORD’S PRAYER.
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