Rise Up: Salvation

3^rd Sunday of Easter

April 26, 2020

Psalm 116:1-4, 12-19; Luke 24:13-35

            This morning we are going to continue our Easter series on rising up by looking at its relationship with salvation. The word salvation is used in a variety of ways and is understood differently by different people, even among Christians. For some people, it’s a one-time event in their lives; for others, it’s a process throughout their lives. Some folks believe “once saved, always saved;” others, including John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, believe that you can lose your salvation. For today, I want to look at salvation in terms of safety and security. One definition of to save is to make safe and secure. And I’m going to share with you another hierarchy pyramid today, this one is Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. He published it in 1943 and it has become a staple of psychology and sociology classes. The bottom two layers are basic needs – the very bottom being physiological needs and the second from the bottom being safety needs. These are what we need the most of, and what we’re going to focus on. The next two layers are psychological needs, first love and belonging, and then esteem. The very top is self-fulfillment, or self-actualization. This is where, like the Army, you become all that you can be and you achieve your full potential. However, before you can do that, those other needs have to be met first.

We are in a season when we are focusing more on the bottom, on our basic needs. That bottom, our most basic needs are things like food, water, air, shelter, sleep, and so on. How many of us have worried about food during this pandemic? I think just about everyone! How many of us have had trouble sleeping? I had my first bout with insomnia a couple nights ago. I was up to 1 a.m., which I know isn’t late for some of you, but I had trouble staying up that late even in college! How about the run on toilet paper?? That’s because toilet paper is used in meeting our basic physical need of excreting waste from our body. These are basic biological needs we’re trying to meet, and worried about whether or not we’ll be able to meet them! That’s why it’s so stressful! Not long after this pandemic started, we read from Matthew 6 where Jesus says, “Do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear.” Do not worry about meeting this basic biological needs; God will make sure that they are met.

Now, that second layer of basic needs is about safety. We are also struggling a lot with this area. It includes things like personal security, employment, resources, health, and property. How many of you have worried about your job? We have some in our congregation who have lost their job. How many of you have worried about your health? I think all of us! Was that cough allergies or could it be COVID-19? How about resources? The stock market has been up and down, and some of the declines have been big drops. It’s another thing that makes us feel unsure about our basic need of safety and security.

So, if save means to make safe and secure, we are certainly in need of that right now. In addition, it’s a basic need that has to be met before we can move on to taking care of psychological needs, much less self-fulfillment. The psalm for today, Psalm 116, is about a time when God saved the psalmist. “I love the Lord, for he heard my voice; he heard my cry for mercy…The cords of death entangled me, the anguish of the grave came over me; I was overcome by distress and sorrow. Then I called on the name of the Lord: ‘Lord, save me!’”[1] And the Lord saved him. Therefore, “I will lift up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the Lord.”[2] If this sounds familiar, it’s because it is also the psalm for Maundy Thursday, which was just a couple weeks ago. This psalm is not about a god who might come through, maybe. No, this about God, capital G, who heard the psalmist’s cry and responded with salvation. God is not distant! God is a very present help in time of trouble.[3] God granted the psalmist healing and saved him from death. Our God saves! How is God like a diligent computer user? They both save! The psalmist was struggling with meeting his basic needs of safety, security, even life itself. And God rescued him. God pulled him out of the pit and put his feet on solid ground.[4]  God made him safe and secure.

The same thing happens in our Gospel story on the road to Emmaus. Two of the disciples are traveling from Jerusalem to Emmaus, presumably still on that same first Easter Sunday. They’re talking about all that’s going on, as you do when there are major events. Now, they left town before hearing about Jesus’s resurrection. They only know the news of his betrayal, crucifixion, and death. They know that their hopes for the Messiah, for a Savior, died with Jesus on the cross. They have lost their hope for salvation. Jesus meets them on the road, only they don’t know it’s him. They get into a conversation, which ends with Jesus explaining all the Scriptures about himself to these two disciples. Then they get to Emmaus, the two invite Jesus to stay and eat with them, still not knowing that it’s Jesus. In the breaking of the bread, their eyes are opened and they recognize that this stranger is Jesus. And they are saved. Their hope is not just restored but fulfilled. They now feel safe and secure. Salvation comes to them, too. Then, even though they’ve just arrived in Emmaus, they hurry back to Jerusalem so that they can share the news of how they met Jesus and how Jesus was recognized by them when he broke the bread. That simple act of hospitality, of sharing food, restored their hope and security. When we share food, whether we’re on the giving or the receiving end, it makes us feel safe and secure as well. It helps us meet that basic need of security.

The hymn we sang this morning, “Leaning on the Everlasting Arms,” I chose because of that line in the refrain about being “safe and secure from all alarms.”[5] Most hymns are inspired by Scripture; that one comes from Deuteronomy 33:27-28, which says, “The eternal God is your refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms. He will drive out your enemies before you,     saying, ‘Destroy them!’ So Israel will live in safety; Jacob will dwell secure in a land of grain and new wine, where the heavens drop dew.” There’s God meeting those basic needs of food and safety again J Lately, when I read scripture talking about enemies, like Psalm 18:48, “Save me from my enemies,” I’ve been substituting the word “fear.” Save me from my fears. Right now, my fears are my own worst enemy. It’s not anything outside of me, it’s what’s coming from within me, from that place of struggling to meet my and my family’s basic needs. So, let’s reword that. “The eternal God is your refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms. He will drive out your [fears] before you, saying, ‘They are no more!’ So [you] will live in safety; [you] will dwell secure in a land of [stocked grocery stores], where the heavens drop [toilet paper].” That is one part of what salvation means. It means you are safe and secure.

What’s more is that when you feel safe and secure, when you feel like you’re meeting your basic needs, then you can begin to thrive and bloom and you can rise up. You can’t rise up if you don’t feel like your roots are secure. Think about a flower, or any plant. It has to be rooted in the soil and receiving the nutrients it needs, along with sun and water, before it begins to grow and rise up. If it’s not getting those basic needs, it’s not going to grow. When we rise up, we have to trust the foundation we’re leaving behind, those basic needs. Once you’re meeting your basic needs, then you can move on to the next level in the hierarchy. Then you can begin to rise up in safety.

Leaning on the Everlasting Arms – UMH 133

What a fellowship, what a joy divine, leaning on the everlasting arms;

What a blessedness, what a peace is mine, leaning on the everlasting arms.

Leaning, leaning, safe and secure from all alarms;

Leaning, leaning, leaning on the everlasting arms.

O how sweet to walk in this pilgrim way, leaning on the everlasting arms;

O how bright the path grows from day to day, leaning on the everlasting arms.

Leaning, leaning, safe and secure from all alarms;

Leaning, leaning, leaning on the everlasting arms.

What have I to dread, what have I to fear, leaning on the everlasting arms?

I have blessed peace with my Lord so near, leaning on the everlasting arms.

Leaning, leaning, safe and secure from all alarms;

Leaning, leaning, leaning on the everlasting arms.

---

[1] Psalm 116:1, 3-4

[2] Psalm 116:13

[3] Psalm 46:1

[4] Psalm 40:2

[5] UMH 133

Wait and Hope

Wednesday, April 22, 2020

Midweek Reflection, 2nd week of Easter

Lamentations 3:19-26

• ·         Scripture basis for “Great Is Thy Faithfulness”

• ·        Most positive section of Lamentations – most of it is more depressing. You need some scripture to match your mood when you’re down, read Lamentations. However, these few verses in chapter 3 are not depressing. They are the only ones that are uplifting – they’re about hope and God’s faithfulness and loving mercy, which never end and are new every morning!

• ·         “I call all this to mind – therefore, I will wait (have hope). The steadfast love of the Lord never ends. God’s compassion isn’t through! They are renewed every morning. Great is your faithfulness! The Lord is my portion, says my soul, therefore I will wait (hope). The Lord is good to those who hope (wait), to the soul who seeks him. It is good to wait in silence for the salvation of the Lord.” (CEB translation)

• ·         The CEB sounded a little different from what I remembered of this passage, so I compared with the NIV (the translation we use at LUMC). Everywhere CEB says “wait”, NIV says “have hope.” Everywhere CEB says “hope”, NIV says “wait.”

• ·         V. 21 – every transl. except CEB says hope, and AMPC says hope and expectation

• ·         V. 24 – mix of hope and wait – VOICE says both: “Hope in God; just wait”

• ·         V. 25 – most say wait, a few say hope; one says trust

• ·         V. 26 – most say wait, some say wait and hope

• ·         Isn’t that interesting, that the Hebrew word for “wait” can also be translated as “have hope”? To wait is to have hope. We don’t wait in vain. We don’t give up. We have hope. That’s why we wait. We have hope that whatever we’re waiting for will come to pass.

• ·         Usually we talk about waiting and hope during the season of Advent, as we prepare for Christmas, both in the church and at home. And we always talk about it as an active waiting, because we are doing all those preparations to get ready. Yet is there really such a thing as a passive waiting? Maybe in a doctor’s waiting room! (Although I always bring a book to read.)

• ·         Right now we are in a season of waiting. Waiting to see who will get sick, who will recover, who will die, how the virus will spread, when restrictions will be lifted, what life will look like on the other side. We are waiting. But I don’t think I’ve talked to anyone who’s sitting around twiddling their thumbs! Everyone is actively waiting – we’re doing a wide variety of crafts, we’re taking walks, we’re taking care of our families and animals, we’re checking on our neighbors.

• ·         We are also in a season of hope. And “hope does not disappoint, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us” (Romans 5:5).

• ·         We wait with hope – hope that we will make it thru, hope for our loved ones, hope for our community, country, and world – and yet our hope is not in leaders or government, our hope is in God. In my devotional last week there were two psalms, on two consecutive days, that both said don’t trust leaders. And I’ll admit, I was offended, because I consider myself a leader. The first one, Psalm 146:3 says, “Don’t trust leaders; don’t trust any human beings – there’s no saving help with them!” The second one, Psalm 118:9 says, “It’s far better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust any human leader.” What those both get at is that salvation is not found in our leaders, including me. I cannot save you. I cannot save the church. Saving is Jesus’s job. He’s the Savior, not me or anyone else. My job as a leader is to point to Jesus. I don’t point to myself; it’s not about me. I point to Jesus. He’s the one who saves. He’s the one in whom to place your hope. He’s the one you’re waiting for.

• ·         This Sunday we’ll read from Luke 24 the story of the road to Emmaus when the two disciples tell Jesus (before they know it’s him) that they “had hoped that he (Jesus) was the one to redeem Israel.” Israel had been waiting, and waiting and waiting and waiting, for a Savior. The disciples and other followers thought that was Jesus. But then he died, and their hopes died with him. That’s what made the resurrection so spectacular: not only did it revive their hope, it fulfilled their hope. The long-awaited Messiah was here, it was Jesus!

• ·         May you be blessed in your waiting and hoping this week. Make sure your hope isn’t misplaced (as in, it’s placed in the right things – in Jesus). Actively wait and work to prepare for when this time of waiting is over. Hymn writer Charles Tindley, “Beams of Heaven” (UMH 524) refrain – “I do not know how long 'twill be, nor what the future holds for me, but this I know: if Jesus leads me, I shall get home someday.” Amen.

Rise Up: Belief

2^nd Sunday of Easter

April 19, 2020

Holy Humor Sunday

1 Peter 1:3-9; John 20:19-31

            This year we can identify in a new way with this morning’s Gospel passage. The first line says that “the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked out of fear, and Jesus came and stood among them and said, ‘Peace be with you.’” The disciples were self-isolating, just like us. They were staying put in a house with locked doors in fear of what might come in. We are self-isolating each in our own homes lest we catch or spread the Coronavirus. Jesus shows up, anyway, in the locked room with the disciples. And Jesus shows up, anyway, in our homes as well. Are these locked rooms like an escape room, where you have to solve puzzles and mysteries in order to get out? Or maybe our homes feel more like a fun house, with mazes and mirrors meant to confuse you. How many of you feel like you’re confused? Who is doing a great job keeping the days of the week straight? How many of you feel like the virus is a puzzle to be solved before we’re allowed out? Last summer at the Howard County fair, my son was almost at the end of the fun house, but he wasn’t sure what was around the last corner, so instead of risking it, he went all the way back through the familiar mazes and exited out the entrance instead. It was really funny to watch him, because he did this more than once. He never made the last turn to exit the house; he always went all the way back through it to the beginning. How are you going to respond when you’re allowed out? Are you going to believe? Are you going to live differently afterward as a result of this time? Or are you going to try to go back to the beginning, too?

It’s something to think about, because how we react is within our control even when many things are not. Thomas didn’t see Jesus; he decided he wasn’t going to believe unless he saw Jesus for himself. Jesus was gracious enough to come a second time into the locked room, and told Thomas, “Do not doubt but believe. Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.” Belief runs deepest when you believe even though you don’t see. Faith that is seen is not faith at all.

In my CPE class last week, we were shown a graphic titled “7 Key Elements of Pastoral Stress Management/Self-Care.” It was shaped like a pyramid, like the old food pyramid, where the food you should eat the most of is at the bottom, like fruits and vegetables, and the food you need the least of is at the top, like desserts. The base of this self-care pyramid, at the bottom, was faith. Your faith is the foundation of your self-care and stress management. It’s the bedrock of the pyramid. Above it come other good things, in order of priority from most to least: attitude, rest and nutrition, exercise, support, and problem-solving at the very top. These other things are good and important, but paying attention to and developing your faith is more important than any of the rest. So not if, but when you get stuck, when you feel overwhelmed, when you’d rather stay in your pajamas and do nothing but eat junk food, go back to your faith. Pick up your bible and open it. I don’t care whether you start at the beginning in Genesis, or you turn to your favorite passage, or you open it randomly. Read your bible. Pray and cry out to God. Whine even, if you must. God’s probably the one person who doesn’t mind listening to whining. God understands where you’ve coming from. “Do not doubt, but believe… Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”

            Then, let’s look at belief and this passage from 1 Peter. Verses 6 says, “…now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials.” We know about this now, don’t we? Now we are suffering various trials. Peter continues in verse 7, “These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls.” Whenever we lean more on God, our faith is strengthened. And the end result of our faith is the salvation of our souls. Remember, we are saved by faith.[1] This is the time to develop and strengthen your faith.

            An article in Christian Century came out on Friday pointing out that we’ve all become involuntary monks.[2] If we live by ourselves, then it’s like we’re in a hermitage, since we’re by ourselves. If we live with others, then it’s like we’re in a monastery. Either way, we’ve been forced into monastic living where our faith is the single most important thing. The problem, according to this article, is that we’re less equipped and more bereft than the typical monk. Some of us have lost our jobs. Some of us have lost our financial security. Some of us have lost our support community. Some of us have lost our routines. Moreover, this article claims that we don’t have a “spiritual director to guide our journey. We have no established communal rule to form us. We have no communities who have experienced this desert to instruct us.”[3] But this part I disagree with. We have no contemporary community who has experienced this desert, but I’ve read lots of articles about the Spanish Flu of 1918. This desert has been experienced before, it’s just been a while. As to a communal rule, I expect that by now, as we are entering our sixth week of physical distancing, that you have created a new rule and routine in your house. My house has, starting the very first week, because I know that children do best with routine. Adults do best, too, but we’ve learned over the years how to be more flexible and adapt outside routines. If your house has not settled into a new routine yet, then make that your goal for this week. I do recognize that Howard County schools are only rolling out distance learning last week and this week, so for those of us with school-age children, our routine is about to change again. But a communal rule is simply the guidelines by which your community, now consisting of your household, live. Last is a spiritual director. I like to think that as your pastor I play some role in that. I have not been trained formally in spiritual direction, but in each of our messages over six weeks now, at two messages a week, today is number eleven; in each of these eleven services and messages there has been the opportunity for spiritual direction if you are listening. Listen, pray, discern, talk to me separately or another trusted friend, there is spiritual direction available, even if not directly tailored to you in a one-on-one setting. We’re involuntary monks; isn’t that a crazy thought?!

Now, what else do you need to laugh at this morning? What absurdity? Church in your pajamas? Being able to mute the preacher? Laughing at these and other absurdities is how you rise up while you are sequestered in your house. Our theme for this Easter season is rising up, and while we’re physically staying home, our spirits are rising up. We’re rising up with our faith, elevating our faith. That’s the whole point in taking a retreat or entering a monastery: it’s in response to your faith and it’s to deepen your faith. Jesus says, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that [you] may have life, and have it to the full.”[4] What does abundant life look like now? It looks like laughing at Satan and telling, “Not today!” It looks like the self-care that focuses first on your faith, firming up the bedrock. It looks like participating in the activities that bring you joy, whether in your garden or with your pet or taking a walk or calling a friend. We can still have and claim abundant life during a pandemic. We can still rise up during a pandemic. Know why? Because of Jesus! Jesus defeated death, he defeated sin, he defeated Satan once and for all. So whatever doubts creep in, whatever fears, whatever despair, whatever anxiety, whatever lethargy… tell yourself now, “Not today! I am a beloved child of the holy and living God.” And pray, “God, I give these thoughts and feelings over to you. God, I want to draw closer to you.”

There’s a story of a healing Jesus does in Mark 9 of a child who seems to have epilepsy; he has seizures and has trouble speaking. The child’s father brings the boy to Jesus. Jesus asks the father, “How long has he been like this?” The father says, “His whole life. If you can do anything, take pity on us and help us.” And Jesus says, “‘If you can’? Everything is possible for one who believes.” Immediately, the boy’s father exclaims, “Lord, I believe; God, help my unbelief!” Jesus heals the boy. But I love that prayer, “Lord, I believe. God, help my unbelief!” As you go about your routine this week, let that be your prayer as well. Lord, I believe. God, help my unbelief!

---

[1] Romans 10:9; Ephesians 2:8

[2] https://www.christiancentury.org/article/first-person/pandemic-has-made-us-unintentional-monastics

[3] Ibid.

[4] John 10:10

Comfort and Hope

Wednesday night, 1^st week of Easter

April 15, 2020

2 Corinthians 1:3-11

            This evening’s theme is comfort. It’s easy to talk about comfort when considering an infant. To soothe a baby, you pick her up, hold her close, maybe rock her. She might be comforted by a familiar blanket or stuffed animal or a pacifier. Part of what children have to learn is how to self-soothe – how to reach for that favorite blankie on their own, how to calm themselves down without adult intervention. By the time we’re adults, we have to know how to self-soothe, how to calm ourselves down, and what comforts us. It’s not just a coping mechanism but a survival skill. So, as an adult, what comforts you? Is there a particular item, like a little kid has? A familiar feel or touch? A hug? Is there an activity that you do that soothes you and calms you down? Maybe you listen to music. Maybe you cook. Maybe you read the Bible or pray. Let’s see what answers you all have typed in the comments. [Before beginning this evening, I asked “What comforts you?” I’ll now read the answers out loud.] These are all different things that bring us comfort. Now, which of these things have you been doing more of during this time apart? I expect we have all needed more than the usual amount of comforting and reassuring during this pandemic. What have you been doing to calm your anxieties? Have you been self-soothing in healthy, life-giving ways?

            Psalm 94:17-19 says, “If the Lord hadn’t helped me, I would live in the silence of death. Whenever I feel my foot slipping, your faithful love steadies me, Lord. When my anxieties multiply, your comforting calms me down.” When my anxieties multiply, your comforting, O Lord, calms me down. When your anxieties multiply, do you turn to the Lord? If you’ve had panic attacks, do you remember to start taking deep breaths? How does the Lord comfort you? Through music, the voice of a friend, a word in Scripture, a hand-held cross, the small stone you picked up when you remembered your baptism in January; the possibilities are almost endless as to how the Lord might comfort you.

            Part of this passage from 2 Corinthians was in my devotional two weeks ago and I reread it and read it out loud to my husband and circled it in my journal because it feels perfect for what we’re going through. We definitely need a word of comfort. This comes at the very beginning of Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians. Just after he finishes his greeting to the church, he offers a blessing. It begins, “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort.” God is the God of all comfort. Isn’t that reassuring? This week I’ve been looking at the Christmas carol, “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen” because there’s a version of it we’ve sung for Holy Humor Sunday, which is this Sunday coming up. The Holy Humor version refrain is about “tidings of Easter peace and joy.” The original Christmas version is “tidings of comfort and joy.” I’m inclined to think we need to go back to that comfort and joy combo, although, when you think about it, when you have peace in your heart, it means you’ve accepted God’s comfort. The blessing continues, “…the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles.” Nobody knows the troubles you’ve seen, nobody knows but God. There is no trouble you’ve been through, not storm, not death, not disease, not pandemic, no trouble you’ve been through where God has not offered you comfort. Isn’t that good news!

Furthermore, God “…comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God.” This goes back to that idea from Abraham in the Genesis of blessed to be a blessing. We have freely received and so we freely share. We pass on the blessing we have been given. Sometimes, this blessing is comfort. We pass on to those in trouble the comfort that we’ve received. And, the good news is that the comfort doesn’t run out. It’s not a finite amount of comfort. There’s no limit to it. “For just as we share abundantly in the sufferings of Christ, so also our comfort abounds through Christ.” This goes back to that overflowing cup, too. God isn’t going to give you 10 units of comfort and that’s it, you gotta spread it around and keep some for yourself. No, if you use all ten units of comfort God will give you more. In fact, God while God counts your tears[1] and knows the number of hairs on your head,[2] I don’t think God keeps track of the number of times he’s comforted you. You don’t keep track of how often you comfort a friend, do you? Neither does God.

Paul writes, “If we are distressed, it is for your comfort and salvation; if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which produces in you patient endurance of the same sufferings we suffer. And our hope for you is firm, because we know that just as you share in our sufferings, so also you share in our comfort.” I think this is very much true in this pandemic. The whole world is sharing in the same sufferings and the whole world is looking to share in comfort. Do you know that 49% of all churches, in every church size, are growing right now?[3] We’re looking to share in comfort. That’s why you all are joining me here this evening. That’s why our Facebook videos are getting hundreds of views each. And the videos that I’ve “boosted,” as in paid Facebook a small amount to advertise, have each hit 1,000 views. We’re sharing in suffering and we’re looking to share in comfort from the God of all comfort, whose comforting knows no bounds.

            The next line that Paul writes is my husband’s favorite, because it’s literally true with COVID-19, “…about the troubles we experienced in the province of Asia.” Asia, of course, is the origin of this particular virus. So, yes, lots of troubles there and spread throughout the world. Paul describes the trouble, “We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt we had received the sentence of death. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead.” We felt like we had received a death sentence. If we were in person, I’d ask you to raise your hand if you have ever felt like you’ve received a death sentence, whether from the Coronavirus, cancer, or something else. I expect at least a few of you have. How do you live with what feels like a death sentence? One option, of course, is to give up. I’m reminded of the time when I was first diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis (which is not a death sentence, just to be clear). I went on medical leave and spent most of it with my mom’s best friend Pat. I learned a lot about how to live with chronic disease from Pat, who had a rare hereditary blood vessel disorder called HHT. One night we were watching some crime TV show and the killer’s sister said, “You don’t know what it’s like to live with a death sentence (due to a terminal illness.” Pat piped up next to me and said, “I do, and you don’t have to go around killing people!” When she died two years ago, she had already outlived every doctor’s best guess of her life expectancy by over ten years. How’d she do it? How’d she do it? Modern medicine and a strong, unwavering faith. She was a true prayer warrior. She knew about depending on God and not on herself. She knew she could not save herself. She knew Jesus, and she knew that she was not Jesus. We rely not on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead.

            Finally, Paul writes at the end of this blessing, “God has delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us again. On him we have set our hope that he will continue to deliver us, as you help us by your prayers.” God has delivered us from many things over the course of our lives. I’m sure each of you could name several troubles that God has brought you through: disease, accidents, injuries, divorce, abuse, there are so many kinds of troubles. Yet God has “brought us safe thus far, and God will lead us home.” That’s from “Amazing Grace,” in case your memory recall is stuck, like mine has been on occasion through this time. Or, to translate a line from a song we used to sing at the Hispanic church I pastored, “God has not brought us this far to abandon us now.” God has delivered us before and God will deliver us again. “On him we have set our hope that he will continue to deliver us, as you help us by your prayers.” Prayer is so important, as is hope. In the psych grand rounds I got to listen to at Johns Hopkins last week as part of my CPE, the speaker said that the most dangerous person in the world is the person without hope. Our “hope is built on nothing less than Jesus’s blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest frame but wholly lean on Jesus’ name.”[4] Our hope is firmly set on God who in Jesus has saved us and delivered us and will deliver us again. Isn’t that the most comforting thing you might hear! Thanks be to God. Amen.

---

[1] Psalm 56:8

[2] Matthew 10:30

[3] https://careynieuwhof.com/half-of-all-churches-are-instantly-growing-heres-why-and-heres-what-to-do/

[4] “On Christ the Solid Rock I Stand”