Sidney UMC - Fifth Sunday In Lent - 03/17/24 - Sermon - “Hope Through Faith and Trust!” (“Resurrection Hope” Series: Part 5 of 7)

                                Sunday 03/17/24 - Sidney UMC

Sermon Title:  “Hope Through Faith and Trust!”                             (“Resurrection Hope” Series: Part 5 of 7)                                     

Old Testament Scripture: Jeremiah 31:31-34                                         

New Testament Scripture: Hebrews 5:5-10

Gospel Lesson: John 12:20-33        

          So, I remember that for a while when I was a young adult, my parents attended a Baptist Church in the Adirondacks. The church was a nice small-town church, made up of largely local folks. They had their church dinners and barbeques, adorned with salads, chicken, and Jello desserts. During my parent’s time attending this church, the pastor at one point was going through a challenging time in his own life. I don’t remember why it was a challenging time in the pastor’s life, but the pastor was apparently not sleeping at night. The pastor, I was told, was able to keep it together well enough during the day, and at the church, but the pastor was really struggling.

          I have known various pastors and people that have had struggles like this, and if you have not been sleeping at night, or if you have been struggling, then maybe this sermon is for you. Again, I do not know why this pastor was struggling, but I do remember hearing that on those stressed and anxiety filled nights, that this pastor would sometimes just walk. The pastor would walk the streets, and go here, and go there. The pastor even wrote a capital “T” on one of his hands, as a reminder that he had to trust God. This pastor was seeking “Hope Through Faith and Trust!” To know Christ is to have new life. To know Christ is have light and not darkness.

          Now why do I tell you this story? For two reasons. One, it really fits great into my sermon for this morning! Two, it shows that all people, including pastors, sometimes struggle to have “Hope Through Faith and Trust!” The pastor of the church that my parents attended at the time, eventually got through this hard time, but we all will or have gone through times that we have struggle to have “Hope Through Faith and Trust!”  

          You see, what I am learning at the “ripe old age” of age of Forty-Two, is that things can change in an instant. Our health can change. Someone’s employment situation can change, or someone that we know can suddenly pass on to heaven. Sometimes the things that we think are permanent are so fleeting. I have been guilty sometimes of not “seeing the forest through the trees” in my life, and sometimes I am so focused on where I am at, and what I am doing, that I forget things can change just like that! The “normal” that we may or may not be experiencing right now, can change.

          Again, I don’t know what happened to my parent’s former Baptist pastor, but something happened. Something happened that made that pastor struggle to have “Hope Through Faith and Trust!” So, what do we do friends when these types of things happen to us? The Apostle Paul’s letter or Epistle to the Philippians, we hear in Philippians 4:6-8:

⁶ Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. ⁷ And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus (Phil. 4:6-8, NRSV). 

          I am quite confident that my parent’s former pastor knew this scripture, and scriptures like it, but during that period of his life, he was not able to fully embody this. It’s not that many of us seek to not trust God, or to not believe in the scripture, it is that we are struggling to have “Hope Through Faith and Trust!” I could think, for example, that Melissa and I could be here for a long time, but we never really know do we? We are called to try to have “Hope Through Faith and Trust!” even if the unexpected happens. It can be so easy to have “Hope Through Faith and Trust!” when things are predictable and understandable. What would make us lose sleep and walk around town with a “T” drawn our hands though, reminding us to have “Hope Through Faith and Trust!” in God?

          Even though, two weeks from today we will celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ our Lord, and even though this is the ultimate hope of the Christian faith, we can seek hope from many places. Beyond just “Resurrection Hope,” which is the title of this sermon series, we can have other kinds of hope too. On this the fifth Sunday of this seven-week preaching series, we have talked about so far, the “Hope Through Baptism” that we feel and receive. We have talked about having “Hope In Suffering and Surrender!” as we all struggle, and as we all need to continue to surrender our lives daily to Jesus Christ. Last week we talked about “Hope Through Biblical Justice,” as Jesus flipped the tables of money changers and cleansed the temple. Last week, we talked about “Hope Through Love, Life, and Light!” Today once again, we are talking about “Hope Through Faith and Trust!”

          Even though many Christians and others believe that the resurrection of Jesus Christ was a historical event, it is also a cause for hope. Hope that righteousness, goodness, and mercy overcome evil, injustice, and cruelty. This “Resurrection Hope” can then point us to the various forms of hope we have discussed so far, and beyond. This morning as I said though, we are discussing “Hope Through Faith and Trust!” Have there been a time in our lives where we have all lost some faith and or trust in God? Yes, I am sure there have been. Further, if this happened, why did it happen?

          Sometimes in our lives we get comfortable, and we think our present reality is permanent. I have told some people lately, as I am now in my forties that my family and friends circle has changed over the years. Growing up I had grandparents and many more family members than I have now. People pass on and go to be with Jesus, people move away, and our lives change. This can even happen in the blink of an eye. Are we as ready as we can be for such things? Can we have “Hope Through Faith and Trust!” no matter what this world throws at us? For this world my friends will do just that. Do we have “Hope Through Faith and Trust!” that is so strong though, that no matter what, no matter what happens, no matter what changes, that we can have “Hope Through Faith and Trust!” in Christ?

          This is the challenge, and this is what can cause a pastor, like my parent’s former pastor, or anyone to not sleep at night, and to walk around town with a capital “T” for trust written on his hand.

          We are given hope however, in our Old Testament or Hebrew Bible reading for this morning, from the Prophet Jeremiah. Jeremiah talks of a coming savior, who will give us hope, new life, and forgiveness. In our reading from the Book of Jeremiah, it says in 31:31-34, once again:

³¹ The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. ³² It will not be like the covenant that I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt—a covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, says the Lord. ³³ But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. ³⁴ No longer shall they teach one another, or say to each other, ‘Know the Lord’, for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, says the Lord; for I will forgive their iniquity, and remember their sin no more (Jer. 31:31-34, NRSV).

          The prophet Jeremiah is telling us that hope is coming, which will come through Jesus. This “Resurrection Hope” is not just mental, but also a deep spiritual “Hope Through Faith and Trust!” God’s love and law will be written on our hearts, and we can have “Hope Through Faith and Trust!” through Jesus. Even though there are times in our lives when we lose sight of this, Jesus is in our hearts if we but invite him in.

          In looking at our reading for this morning from the Apostle Paul’s letter or epistle to the Hebrews, We have a connection of what Jeremiah was saying in 31:31-34. This connection is that God’s love and law is on our hearts through Jesus Christ.

          In looking at our Hebrews 5:5-10 reading for this morning, it says, once again, starting in Hebrews 5:5:

⁵ So also Christ did not glorify himself in becoming a high priest, but was appointed by the one who said to him, ‘You are my Son, today I have begotten you’; ⁶ as he says also in another place, ‘You are a priest for ever, according to the order of Melchizedek.’ ⁷ In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to the one who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission. ⁸ Although he was a Son, he learned obedience through what he suffered; ⁹ and having been made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him, ¹⁰ having been designated by God a high priest according to the order of Melchizedek      (Heb. 5:5-10, NRSV).

          In the flesh part of Jesus, he struggled with the human reality that he was going to be tried, tortured, whipped, and crucified. Jesus did have “Hope Through Faith and Trust!” but he felt the emotions that we feel in the human part of him. For while Jesus was fully God and fully human, he allowed himself to feel and experience what we feel and experience. While we are called to have “Hope Through Faith and Trust!” sometimes it gets away from us. Sometimes we struggle to have “Hope Through Faith and Trust!”, and sometimes this could cause us to not sleep at night, wander the streets, and write a capital “T” on our hand to remind us to trust God.

          This leads us to our gospel of John 12:20-33 reading for this morning. In this reading we have some Greek people that seek to see Jesus, and then Jesus speaks about his death. Starting in John 12:20, the gospel says, once again:

²⁰ Now among those who went up to worship at the festival were some Greeks. ²¹ They came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and said to him, ‘Sir, we wish to see Jesus.’ ²² Philip went and told Andrew; then Andrew and Philip went and told Jesus. ²³ Jesus answered them, ‘The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. ²⁴ Very truly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. ²⁵ Those who love their life lose it, and those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life. ²⁶ Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there will my servant be also. Whoever serves me, the Father will honor. ²⁷ ‘Now my soul is troubled. And what should I say—“Father, save me from this hour”? No, it is for this reason that I have come to this hour. ²⁸ Father, glorify your name.’ Then a voice came from heaven, ‘I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.’ ²⁹ The crowd standing there heard it and said that it was thunder. Others said, ‘An angel has spoken to him.’ ³⁰ Jesus answered, ‘This voice has come for your sake, not for mine. ³¹ Now is the judgement of this world; now the ruler of this world will be driven out. ³² And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.’ ³³ He said this to indicate the kind of death he was to die.                   (Jn. 12:20-33, NRSV).

          Some Greek people wanted to see Jesus, which very loosely, in part, is a foreshadowing of the Christian faith expanding beyond just Jews to the world. When Christianity started it was only a movement within Judaism, but it would then spread to the Greeks and to the world.

          Jesus then speaks of his coming betrayal, trial, torture and crucifixion. Jesus says once again in John 12:27-30:

²⁷ ‘Now my soul is troubled. And what should I say—“Father, save me from this hour”? No, it is for this reason that I have come to this hour. ²⁸ Father, glorify your name.’ Then a voice came from heaven, ‘I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.’ ²⁹ The crowd standing there heard it and said that it was thunder. Others said, ‘An angel has spoken to him.’ ³⁰ Jesus answered, ‘This voice has come for your sake, not for mine (Jn. 12:27-30, NRSV).

          Yet another example, that in the human part of Jesus, Jesus is lamenting the suffering he will soon go through. Jesus is unwavering however, and even God the Father speaks to Jesus audibly in this scene. Even though we all struggle, even if as Jesus said in our gospel of John reading for this morning, if our “soul is troubled,” can we still have “Hope Through Faith and Trust!”?

          This is not always an easy thing to do, but if we have a good church family, good spiritual practices, like prayer, meditation, reading of scripture, etc., and strong support from those we love, we can still seek to have “Hope Through Faith and Trust!”. So, if anyone here is not sleeping a night, and if you have written a capital “T” on you hand to remind you to trust God, remember that you are not alone. There good people in this church, and good people you know in other places to that will walk this journey faith and like with you. Be with these people, for you need them, and they need you!

In this season of Lent, this season that we are awaiting the “Resurrection Hope” of Jesus Christ, may we strive to “Hope Through Faith and Trust!” Amen.