New Testament
Lesson
Romans 5:1-5
Therefore,
since we are justified by faith, we[a] have peace with God through our Lord Jesus
Christ, 2 through whom we have obtained access[b] to this grace in which we stand; and we[c] boast in our hope of sharing the glory of
God. 3 And not only that, but we[d] also boast in our sufferings, knowing that
suffering produces endurance, 4 and endurance produces
character, and character produces hope, 5 and hope does not
disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the
Holy Spirit that has been given to us.
When
I was in high school, our football team was the worst in the state. Game after game, year after year, we
lost.
In my Freshman year, I would go to the football games and see
signs that read, "Destroy Anderson High." And we would lose the game.
In my Sophomore year, I would go to the football games and I
noticed the signs had softened just a bit so that I would see signs that read,
"Hurt J.L.Mann High." And we
would lose the game.
In my Junior year, I would go to the football games and I
noticed the signs had softened up a little bit, and I would see signs that
read, "Maintain Dignity Against Dixie High." And we would lose the
game.
In my Senior year, I would go to the football games and I
noticed the signs had softened up a little bit more, and I would see signs that
read, "Welcome Greenwood High."
And we would lose the game.
My high school seemed to be a school without hope. Then one day, when I was in college, I picked
up the newspaper and there was a banner headline. "Woodmont High School
The reporter interviewed the coach and he was asked to
explain how they finally won a game. All
he could say was, "It's about time."
Amazingly enough, they won the next game.
And then, incredibly enough, they won the game after that.
This time when the reporter interviewed the coach, the coach
explained their wins by saying, "All we needed was hope. Somewhere around the 20th or 30th loss, our
school started accepting the fact that we always lose. We forgot that it is possible to win. I've
been teaching tactics and strategies and working these boys out in practice,
but that is not what helped us win. I
should have been teaching about hope."
Several years ago, my son was playing on a baseball game, and
like my high school football team, they simply couldn't find a way to win. They'd lost every game that year. Finally it was the day of their last
game. The dug out was like a funeral
home. Not a single kid was cheering the
other kids as they went to bat. They
were just waiting for the game to be over so they could go home.
I stuck my head in the dug out and told these 7 year olds,
"Hey guys, you can win this game.
After all, you're only 25 runs behind."
One of the kids heard me and said, "Hey, that's
right. We are only 25 runs behind. We've never been this close to winning
before."
It was as if there was an electric jolt that went through the
dug out. When the next kid at bat hit
the ball right so that it rolled through the legs of the first baseman, the
entire dug out was celebrating and high fiving each other. The excitement and confidence of our team
must have totally confused the other team.
In the bottom of the last inning, one of our players scored
the winning run.
I remember thinking that if I had known all they needed was
hope, I would have visited the dug out long before that last game.
We need hope in our lives.
But we all know what it is like to feel that all hope is
gone.
In our Old and New Testament readings we encounter the
experience of a loss of hope.
In the Old Testament, Ezekiel stands before a great
battlefield. He sees before him a valley of dry bones. The battle is long over with. The vultures have been there and gone and all
the flesh has disappeared. Even the
armor has been stolen by the grave robbers.
All that is left is a valley of dry bones.
God asks Ezekiel, "Can these dry bones live?"
And with despair in his voice, Ezekiel admits, "God only
knows."
The loss of hope is a terrible experience.
A woman walks out of a doctor's office after hearing that she
has cancer. What hope is there?
A father hangs up the telephone after receiving a telephone
call from the police and learning that his rebellious son has been
arrested. What hope is there?
A husband or wife can't speak to each other because of the
depth of their anger toward one another.
What hope is there?
Where does one go when there is no hope?
To the grave. Or as
someone once said, “Get busy living, or get busy dieing.”
When there is no hope, all is finished.
People need hope for the future. That woman walking out of that doctor's
office after hearing her diagnosis needs hope for the facing of her cancer.
The father receiving that phone call from the police needs
hope for his son's future.
We need hope.
How many of you have seen the movie SHAWSHANK
REDEMPTION?
Greatest movie in the world – one of the best of all
time. I could watch that movie every
week – much to my wife’s dismay.
It is a great movie about hope, and it starts in total
hopelessness.
Andy is sentenced to prison, even though he is innocent of
his wife’s murder. He is sentenced to
life, and he spends 19 years in the Shawshank Prison until he finally
escapes. At one point, Andy is talking
with his best friend in prison about hope, but his friend, Red says, “Hope is a
dangerous thing, it makes a man go insane.”
Red says that because he has lost all hope.
How do we find hope, when our hope has died – or maybe our
hope isn’t dead, but it’s – well, shall we say – hibernating?
First, we need to know that God is present in our lives.
In the Old Testament, Ezekiel looks over the battle field. He
feels the hopelessness of a battle that has been lost, and a war that has
failed. But God is with him. In Ezekiel we read, (Ezek 37:1-2), "The
hand of the LORD was upon me,
and he brought me out by the Spirit of the LORD
and set me in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones. He
led me back and forth among them, and I saw a great many bones on the floor of
the valley, bones that were very dry."
Without God in our lives, we do not have a complete and
sturdy hope for the facing of our lives.
Think about why many of us have lost hope – it is because we
feel that God has left us. That God has
deserted us.
But God is still present.
In the Old Testament book of Deuteronomy, we read, “Be strong
and courageous… God will never leave you nor forsake you ." Deut 31:6
The second thing we need is to know that we can experience
the presence of God, through the Word of God.
In the Old Testament, Ezekiel looks out at the hopeless
valley of dry bones. Can they live
again? Of course not. But God commands Ezekiel to preach to the
dead – to speak to them the Word of God.
So Ezekiel does, and in this story, the dry bones come to life as the
Word of God is spoken.
Without the Word of God being spoken to the dry bones, the
dry bones would have remained lifeless.
The Psalmist wrote, (Ps 130:5), "I wait for the LORD, my
soul waits, and in his word I
put my hope."
You want hope to come alive in you again – let the Word of
God dwell in you. Listen to the Word of
God. Read the Word of God.
Thirdly, we need to trust in God above all else.
Hope as the world knows it is in thinking, "Give me what
I want, give me what I want, give me what I want."
Hope as the Christian knows it is in praying, "Not my
will, but your will be done."
In Ezekiel, the prophet is asked by God, "Son of man,
can these bones live?" I said, "O Sovereign LORD, you alone
know." And there is a trust in God.
Not a bitterness, but a leaning onto the Lord and trusting in God.
Real hope is found in God.
Lasting hope is found in trusting Him.
Thinking back to the film, the Shawshank Redemption, Andy never quite loses hope. He holds onto it. Even though he is an innocent man who spends
19 years in prison, he hangs onto hope.
And at one point he tells his prison buddy, Red, “Hope is a good
thing. Maybe the best of all
things. And no good thing ever dies.”
Or put it another way, as St. Paul
Copyright
2016.
Dr.
W. Maynard Pittendreigh
All
rights reserved
