Sunday 02/25/24 - Sidney UMC
Sermon Title: “Hope
in Suffering and Surrender!”
(“Resurrection Hope” Series: Part 2 of 7)
Old Testament Scripture: Psalm 22:23-31
New Testament Scripture: Romans 4:13-25
Gospel Lesson: Mark 8:31-38
Last
week I started a new sermon or preaching series that will lead us through the
season of Lent, and through Easter Sunday. This sermon series, called the “Resurrection
Hope” series, points us, once again to the hope and the power of Jesus Christ’s
resurrection from the dead, on Easter morning. The morning where the tomb was
empty, and Christ would forever be risen and sovereign over all of creation.
Even though the first twelve disciples
and others did not know for sure if Jesus would be risen from the dead, and even
though some of them may have even lost hope that Jesus would rise from the
dead, he did on that first Easter morning. On that first Easter morning, our King
and Lord was alive and our hope in him would now be eternal!
Hope is also a powerful emotion. I
remember, for example, any of us that have seen any of the movies from the “Hunger
Games” series of movies. In these movies there is a strong capital city region that
reigns over twelve subjugated districts. The people of these districts are
pretty much slaves, they live in terrible conditions, and they exist to provide
to raw materials and wealth to the capital city region. In the movie series
however, the character Katniss Everdeen becomes a figure of resistance to the capital
city region’s rule over the twelve subjugated districts. As part of this, the
capital city, which has a superior military, kills, restricts, and tries to
keep the people from the twelve districts in line. Yet, the hope that the
people of these twelve subjugated districts have in the character Katniss
Everdeen, played by actress Jennifer Lawrence, becomes much greater than their fear.
Fear can restrict us, and it can stop us.
The leader of the capital city region in
the Hunger Games movie series that had subjugated the twelve districts is a man
named President Coriolanus Snow, played by Donald Sutherland. Yet, the hope
that these twelve subjugated districts had in the character Katniss Everdeen
quickly surpassed the fear of not fighting for freedom and democracy. In fact,
in the movie, the character, who is the head of the capital city region,
President Snow remarked that hope is greater than fear (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hunger_Games_(film_series).
On
that first Good Friday, when Jesus was crucified, that we will remember next
month in March, the vast majority of his followers scattered. They scattered
because they were afraid. What if Jesus really wasn’t the savior of the world
they might have thought? What if Jesus was just a nice guy and not God in the flesh,
they may have thought? Yet, on that first Easter Sunday, the hope that the
disciples and others had was overwhelming. It took until the day of Pentecost
for the disciples to really have the courage to go forth as the church, loving,
healing, and forgiving, but hope is more powerful than fear.
In my twelve years as a pastor, I have
had the honor of sitting bedside with people as they are about to depart from
this world. Some of these people have peace, and some seem to have fear. Some
might be worried that they did bad things in their lives, and maybe are
thinking what if God is unhappy with them. Yet some people that I have had the
honor to sit bedside of had such peace and hope in Jesus Christ. They knew,
they believed that they were going to be with Jesus. Any fear that they may
have had was consumed by the hope that they had in Jesus Christ, and his
resurrection. For hope is more powerful than fear.
For these reasons and more, I started
the sermon series last week called the “Resurrection Hope” series. If we have
hope, then hope can overcome all fear. While the ultimate hope for Christians
is Christ’s resurrection on Easter Sunday, how can week seek hope throughout
this forty-day season of Lent? Last week, I discussed the hope that we encounter
through baptism. Whether it be our own baptism, one we witnessed, and or
observed. Hopefully in that moment the hope and faith of God in Jesus Christ,
through the power of the Holy Spirit was radiating out everywhere.
This morning, is a tougher call for us
to have hope though. I don’t know about you, for example, if it has affected
you, but we have had so many drug overdose deaths recently. We have had suicides,
and seen a degree of hopelessness in some people. To lose hope, to let fear win,
is to be in a dark place. When we are suffering and when we are really
struggling, isn’t hard sometimes to have hope? I mean your car or truck just
died, you just got laid off from work, and you’re late on your rent or mortgage
payment. Those moments in life where all seems lost. Then we read in the paper,
or hear from friends, or on Facebook, of yet another drug overdose death. My
friends, we need hope, we need “Resurrection Hope!”
When we are suffering, it can be so hard
to have hope. In fact, I have had more people that I can count ask me after something
bad has happened, “why would a loving God allow this to happen?” In our flesh
we sometimes experience suffering and struggle, and we wrestle at times with
where God is in all of this. Sometimes someone is sick, we pray and maybe they
make a full recovery, and sometimes not. We can struggle in this world when
things go bad, when we catch a bad break, or when things seem hard. The reality
though is that Jesus promises to be with us in our suffering. Jesus promises to
be with us in the highs and the lows of life. For Jesus experienced what we
experience on this earth.
To put another way, even if everything
seems like it is falling apart, we still have the hope of Jesus Christ. When
the world doesn’t make sense, and we are suffering, may we surrender to Christ.
Sometimes the best thing we can do is tell God that the load that we have on
our shoulders is just too big for us bear. This is probably why country singer Carrie
Underwood wrote the song “Jesus, Take the Wheel”. In this song she is telling Jesus,
she needs him, as she can’t do it on her own. Having hope is powerful. Having
hope is realizing that God is with us no matter what.
This is why my sermon for this morning
is focused on finding “Hope in Suffering and Surrender!” When we are suffering,
and when things look terrible, do we still have “Resurrection Hope” in Jesus
Christ? As I said, I have seen the differences when I have sat bedside of
various people as they are close to passing on to glory. In those final minutes
are they clinging to the “Resurrection Hope” of Jesus Christ, or are filled
with fear.
Faith in Christ doesn’t always change
our reality, but it does change us. If we are changed, if we have “Resurrection
Hope,” than we have peace, love, joy, and mercy, come what may. This is not
always an easy thing, but it is the hope we are called to lean into, in Jesus
Christ.
Some of us remember that not too long
ago, I was asked to officiate the funeral for little Emma Conklin, who was only
five-years old. At the funeral, I gave her mother Angel a canvas print of Jesus
hugging a little girl. I told Angel that the only thing that got me through
that funeral, was the hope that little Emma was in the arms of Jesus. Hope is
powerful, and hope is stronger than fear. Do we have “Resurrection Hope” in Jesus
Christ here this morning? We know that every day is a gift, and we know that
tomorrow is not promised to anyone. Yet we are called to believe in Jesus, and in
the eternal hope and promise that we have in him. The world can take everything
from us, but it can’t take Jesus from us.
So, emphatic about this reality, in
fact, the Apostle Paul reminds in Romans 8:38-39, this:
38 For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord (Rom. 8:38-39, NRSV).
Nothing can separate us from the love of God in Jesus
Christ. If I did not believe this, I think that it would be much harder for me
to have hope in this life. This is why, once again, my sermon series for this season
of Lent and soon to be Easter is the “Resurrection Hope” series.
We hear in our reading from Psalm 22:23-31 for this morning,
once again, a little bit about who God is. For example, this morning in
22:23-24, we hear these words about who God is:
23 You who fear the Lord, praise him! All you offspring
of Jacob, glorify him; stand in awe of
him, all you offspring of Israel! 24 For he did not
despise or abhor the affliction of the afflicted;
he did not hide his face from me,
but heard when I cried
to him (Ps. 22:23-24, NRSV).
Let us all embrace the hope that the disciples of Jesus
Christ and the women that followed Jesus Christ had on that first Easter
morning, when they found the empty tomb of Jesus.
In looking at our reading from Romans 4:13-25 for this morning,
the Apostle Paul tells us, once again: about be reconciled to God and having righteousness
of faith. Not by works, or just following religious laws, but through faith in
Christ alone. If we have faith like the great Abraham in the Book of Genesis,
in the Old Testament or Hebrew Bible, then our faith in Christ is enough to
save us. The Apostle Paul tells us that our faith and the grace of God gives
life and brings things that are dead back to life. In talking more about the
great Abraham and comparing him to us, the Apostle Paul said that Abraham’s
faith made him righteous and acceptable to God. The Apostle Paul then concludes
this reading by saying that the same power that raised Jesus our Lord from the
dead, was raised for justification. Jesus’ resurrection is the proof of who he
is, and the hope we have as Christians. Or as my sermons series through Lent
and Easter Sunday is called, the “Resurrection Hope” series.
In tying all of this this into our gospel of Mark 8:31-38
reading for this morning, Jesus foretells his own suffering. As we are called
to have “Hope in Suffering and Surrender,” Our gospel of Mark 8:31-38 reading
for this morning, begins starting in 8:31, with Jesus talking saying:
31 Then he began to teach them that the Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again (Mk. 8:31, NRSV).
Imagine if you knew how you were going
to die on this earth. Imagine further if you knew you would suffer, be tortured,
most of your friends would abandon you, and that you be nailed to cross and
die. Of course, with our “Resurrection Hope,” Jesus says that after he dies on the
cross, he would rise three days later. So intense was this reality that when
Jesus was praying in the Garden of Gethsemane the night before his trial, torture,
and execution, that in one of the gospels he literally sweated blood. In fact, it says of Christ in Luke 22:44, as
Jesus was praying in the Garden of Gethsemane the night before his trial, torture,
and crucifixion this:
44 In his anguish he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down on the ground (Lk. 22:44, NRSV).
So,
in the flesh of Christ, not his divinity, he was struggling and suffering with what
he would soon suffer, soon leading to his cross on Good Friday. So much was Jesus
struggling in the human part of his being, he said two versus earlier from sweating
blood in Luke 22:42 this:
42 “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me, yet not my will but yours be done” (Lk. 22:42, NRSV).
While Jesus was fully God and fully human,
we know that he suffered. Yet we are called to have “Hope
in Suffering and Surrender”. Even though we suffer, and even though we are
called to surrender to Christ, Christ is always with us. When Jesus said what
would happen to him on Good Friday in our gospel of Mark reading for this
morning, however, the Apostle Peter did not take this news well. In fact, the gospel of Mark then says, picking
up in Mark 8:32, once again:
32 He said all this quite openly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. 33 But turning and looking at his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, ‘Get behind me, Satan! For you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things’ (Mk. 8:32, NRSV).
So, if you ever thought you had made a big mistake, or had
a bad mark on your resume, imagine that you were called Satan by Jesus Christ.
That’s a tough one!
Our gospel of Mark reading for this morning, then ends with
Mark 8:34-38 saying:
34 He called the crowd with his disciples, and said to them, ‘If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. 35 For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it. 36 For what will it profit them to gain the whole world and forfeit their life? 37 Indeed, what can they give in return for their life? 38 Those who are ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of them the Son of Man will also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels’ (Mk. 8:34-38, NRSV).
Jesus suffered, and sometimes we suffer
to. In this season of “Resurrection Hope,” may we realize that sometimes we
will suffer, as Christ suffered. Even so, we can have “Hope in Suffering and Surrender!”
As we suffer, and as we sometimes ask God why we suffer, Christ suffered, but
he is always with us. May we then have “Hope in Suffering and Surrender!” For
Christ is with us now, and forever. Amen.
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