A Sermon by Pastor Tom Lacey . . .

Power Over Sorrow

Romans 12:15, Preached at the Congregational Church of Boca Raton, January 28, 2007

A man observed a woman in the grocery store with a 3 year-old girl in her cart. As they passed the cookie section, the child asked for cookies and her mother told her “no.” The little girl immediately began to whine and fuss, and the mother said quietly, “Now Ellen, we just have half of the aisles left to go through; don’t be upset. It won’t be long.” He passed the mother again in the candy aisle. Of course, the little girl began to shout for candy. When she was told she couldn’t have any, she began to cry. The mother said, “There, there, Ellen, don’t cry. Only two more aisles to go, and then we’ll be checking out.” The man again happened to be behind the pair at the checkout, where the little girl immediately began to clamor for gum and burst into a terrible tantrum upon discovering there would be no gum purchased today. The mother patiently said, “Ellen, we’ll be through this check out stand in five minutes, and then you can go home and have a nice nap.” The man followed them out to the parking lot and stopped the woman to compliment her. “I couldn’t help noticing how patient you were with little Ellen.” The mother broke in, “Ellen? I’m Ellen. The girl’s name is Tammy.” The “patience of Job” is proverbial, it’s a proverb, and that’s because it reflects where we will find ourselves one day—in need of old Job’s magic—having to be patient in suffering.

Death and taxes, right? Two things you can count on. Things you know are going to be there. There is a third: that life doesn’t turn out as you think it should. The curve ball always comes, and many times it is not a soft, hanging one that you can step up to and whack out of the park. It’s a tricky son of a gun that you just simply can’t figure out or fix on your own, and only “time will tell.” You are powerless. You see, this is where we are today in our sermon series, Christianity 101. We first had love. Paul begins with the first thing: love, have genuine love. Then he moves to faith, a passionate, energetic, believer’s heart faith. These are actions. Love others. Believe and serve. But now, we come to hope. Love, faith, and hope, the three theological virtues, as they are called, basically because of Paul’s writings. Isn’t it amazing that we are in the middle of a middle chapter and nothing really theological or philosophical is happening here; in fact Paul seems to be telling us some really basic things in normal everyday language that anyone can understand. Yet behind it we find this deeper root, this depth and leadership that is hidden, yet active in directing us to important truths of our lives with God. In other words, these words aren’t just splattered on the page; they have a deeper coherence and a nobler trajectory than we suspect.

So we’ve come to hope, and we approach the times or issues in our lives when we are no longer in control. We aren’t the shapers of ours or other’s lives, as we were with love and faith.  What remains for us, says Scripture, is to “rejoice in hope, be patient in suffering, persevere in prayer.”

What we want to see this morning is that there is still an answer for us when what we expected for ourselves or for someone we love doesn’t happen, and what does happen is definitely not what we expected or desired.  Jesus said, “You shall be sorrowful, but your sorrow will be turned into joy.” Jn. 16:20  Another translation tells us he said, “You will have pain, but your pain will turn to joy.” This is going to happen. We will have pain. We will sorrow. But there is power over sorrow, and a path for pain, so that they are not the only choices we have. The power over sorrow is to have hope, remain patient, and keep to prayer. The Lord helps those who keep hope alive. God can work with someone who is willing to take the stop watch off and run the longer race that is set before him. Don’t be discouraged. Where there is prayer, there is power.

Let’s face it: Life isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Fact is, there are three ways in which life disappoints. The first way is we don’t get to fulfill our potential. The second way is when a turn of events occurs that throws us for a loop and we must make our way back to what we had before and who we were. The third is when something happens but there is no way to bring back what we once had, the person or possession is gone forever, or at least on this side of life. Some of us are hit with all three at once. Others are spared this great and fiery trial. Some have to dig deeper than others because their mountain is much higher to climb. But climb your hill or mountain. Take it one step after the other, and hope. For the Lord has one heck of a view waiting for you when you reach the summit. “Blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord, and who hopes in the Lord.” Jer.17:7   

I know a great guy who has gone through a lot. His own health isn’t what it used to be, with a heart condition and procedures recently. Fifteen years ago, his buddy of a dog died. Then six years ago, their adult son died, and just two years ago, his wife had a serious health crisis. When he was younger, he was in the army, you know, a tough guy. But nowadays, he is not nearly as tough. It’s a lot and sometimes it’s too much, too much to hang on to emotionally. You see, when you’re connected to yourself and the people you love and things go “wrong,” it hurts. Why does it hurt? It hurts because spiritually we find ourselves in a new and confusing place. Face these conditions and you face the limit of love. Find yourself confronted by seismic shifts in the ground you thought was solid and you stand at the cliff edge of faith. Nothing holds. We are powerless. But we are not without a helper. We have hope. Even when we ourselves are powerless, God gives us power. Even when we cannot see our way through, the Lord takes us and leads us. Through hope we have power and possibilities. Scripture tells us to “lay hold of the hope set before us, the hope which is an anchor of the soul….” Heb. 6:18b-19  So don’t be afraid to seize hope as your help. Rejoice in it. It is the hand of the Lord stretched out to raise us when we are blind, deaf, and dumb, confused and in pain, afraid and at our rope’s end. We can never go beyond the reach of the Lord’s love and care; there is always hope.

A retired man who volunteers to entertain patients in nursing homes and hospitals went to the local hospital in town and took his portable keyboard along. He told some jokes and sang some funny songs at patients' bedsides. When he finished he said, in farewell, "I hope you get better."  One elderly gentleman replied, "I hope you get better, too."

It’s probably true that when we are young we hope too much, and when old, not enough. When we are young, we pray to get things that are acquirable. A good job, a good friend or two, one good husband or wife, lots of healthy children, a home. These types of things. As we get on with life, and life starts to get over on us, these dreams come to pass or since they don’t, we no longer dream. In either case, we unfortunately come to underutilize the whole purpose and power of hope. Hope is a spiritual power, a theological virtue, whose goal is to direct our lives to God’s life. To use a really poor analogy for this weakened state of hope in our lives—it’s like buying a Lamborghini Murciélago LP640 Versace that can go almost 300 mph, but only driving it in a parking lot in first gear. Now don’t get me wrong, I know we still hope for what we haven’t got. The unmarried to be married; the married to be married-er. The poor to be rich, and the rich to be richer. But the experience of not yet having and still hoping isn’t in us as a biological phenomenon, nor for biological reason. It is a spiritual one for a singular spiritual reason. Scripture tells us what this is: “Your life is hidden with Christ in God…. (So) When Christ who is your life is revealed, then you also will be revealed with him in glory.” Col.3:3b-4 What am I saying? I am saying that what drives us to have children or get money or stay single and be happy or whatever it is, these are all substitutes for the one true hope. Our hope is to be fulfilled, that is, revealed as children of God, who belong to God, and whose lives reflect the glory of our maker. Our hope is that those who belong to us and to whom we belong, those who have gone before and our loved ones who will follow, that the depth of our love for them and them for us will be fulfilled, that is, revealed. We do not live just to have lived but we live in imitation of the one who is life. We do not love just to have loved but we love in response to the one who loved us first. Our hope then is that having followed God’s will on earth, we shall receive God’s gift of heaven. For was there ever one whose hope was greater because he had more to reveal than Christ Jesus, and yet whose hope was utterly denied and his life utterly rejected? But to the rejection of Christ’s glory on earth, we see God’s answer in his glory in heaven, where “God also highly exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend…and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” Phil.2:9-11 So never let hope die, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.” Col.1:27 Set your hearts on things that are above. Elevate your dreams to include living with and for God. Break free of bad habits. Turn your lives over to the one who is trustworthy.

A man named John told a story about how he developed a lifelong friendship with the school bully. In high school, John's locker was next to this kid’s locker, and every day the kid would slam John's locker shut and taunt him with invective. John always smiled and said, “Good Morning!” in the most cheerful voice he could muster. Finally, after several weeks of this, the bully was exasperated. “Why are you always so nice to me? Don't you know that I hate your guts?” John replied, “I treat you this way because I realized the first time I saw you that we were going to be best friends. I've just been waiting for you to find that out yourself.” Forty years later, they are still best friends. Brian Muldoon, The Heart of Conflict

Keep your hope alive. It’s a powerful tool to reshape your life, especially when life is doing a number on you. A great Christian said, “Hope is patience with the lamp lit.” Tertullian So remember: “Rejoice in hope, be patient in suffering, persevere in prayer”—Paul knows what he is talking about.

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