The Hope of Possibilities Preached for Wollaston Congregational Church On October 26th, 2020 Scripture: Philippians 3:4b-14 This week we come to the final element of spiritual health in our fall series. This is hope. The Hebrew Seniorlife Spiritual Assessment Tool describes this element as “the need to have hope in looking ahead.” Without hope, a person is left without any motivation even to get up in the morning. The spiritual care focus for hope is to help a person grieve the loss of old hopes and identify new hopes. The goal is for them to “look to the future with a sense that each new day can hold promise and meaning.” Hope can be difficult to come by in times of trouble. And yet real hope, like real gratitude, is only found in challenging times. It is found when it is not easy to imagine the road ahead to a brighter future. Real hope takes into account the reality of the current situation and the likelihood that it can be overcome. Realistic hope opens us up to a spectrum of possibilities. Have you ever heard someone say “Our only hope is (fill in the blank)”? Or perhaps, we say “our only hope for containing COVID-19 is a vaccine by such and such a date.” or “Our only hope for our country is the election of … (name your candidate.)” And finally, when it seems that all other options have been exhausted: our only hope is in divine intervention. Over the past months I have been impressed by the human capacity to find solutions and dismayed by the lack of will to implement them. Many members of our community have been operating on the frontlines of the COVID pandemic. They’ve been providing healthcare, getting food and resources to the people who need them, providing transportation for essential workers, checking in with and providing support for those who are isolated or depressed. Frontline workers have made heroic efforts, but we must remember that kind of effort is not sustainable. They reach the point of exhaustion and frustration due to the stresses of their work, the limitation of supplies, and the increased effort needed for daily tasks. Then there have been those of us who are not serving on the frontline, but who have needed to rapidly adapt and change our ways of doing things. People in practically every line of work have had to adapt, including: educators, pastors and ministers, designers and engineers, college students, athletics directors and coaches, musicians and artists, to name a few. Meanwhile medical professionals, scientists and technologists are working night and day to discover and deliver a COVID vaccine, treatments, and strategies for containment. As human beings, created and gifted with creativity and intelligence, I firmly believe that we can overcome this challenge. God has equipped us with what we need to find solutions. If we learn to pool our resources, work collaboratively and flexibly, and come to rapid consensus on strategies, we will reach our goal. If we can draw on our God-given love and compassion, there is every reason to hope. Now let’s turn to our scripture passage for today, an excerpt from the Apostle Paul’s letter to the early church in Philippi. Writing from prison, Paul offers hope to the Philippian community. A first read of this passage may indicate Paul is referring to the hope of heaven, the hope that when the trials of life are over his readers may rest in God. Or perhaps that he is referring to eschatological hope: the hope at the end of time – God will intervene and make all things right. But a second look, lead us to believe that Paul is also talking about hope in the here and now. He’s talking about hope in the disciple community, hope in the rapid spread of the good news of Christ, and the radical inclusion expressed in Jesus’ life and Paul’s letters. This letter, and others, indicate that the hope and good news is that there is neither Jew nor Gentile, male nor female, slave nor free in God’s kingdom. It is the hope that God’s vision for community upends the tightly imposed social structure of the empire. Perhaps it is this kind of preaching and writing is why Paul is in prison in the first place. This morning we read a fragment of Paul’s letter to the early church in Philippi. Often, when we have texts like this we hone in on the immediate message, not really thinking about who Paul is and whom he is writing to. But, the passage we read today is autobiographical. Paul, named Saul at birth, talks about his background as an exemplary religious leader. He was born in the right family, received the best religious education, and obeyed all the rules. He was a zealous Pharisee, Franciscan writer Richard Rohr writes: “Saul had achieved some status in the Sanhedrin, the governmental board of Judea during the Roman occupation.” Saul zealously persecutes the early church, until one day, riding on the road to Damascus he has a vision of a light from heaven so sudden that he falls off his horse. Then he hears a voice booming “Saul, Saul why do you persecute me?” Saul is bewildered, and so the voice clarifies, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting.” Saul has met the risen Christ and so he is transformed. He learns that by persecuting the early Christians he is persecuting Christ himself. He is struck speechless and blind by this experience, and has to be led on to the city. Rohr states “After transformation, it’s not about doing it right; it’s about being in right relationship. It’s not about being correct; it’s about being connected.” [1] Saul can forget about doing things “right” and being “correct” according to the rules. He can embrace relationship and become connected with God and with others. This is Saul’s conversion. He adopts the Greek version of his name, Paul, and begins working night and day for Christ. He explains to the Philippians that he now considers his former advantages – he membership of an exclusive religious sect – as rubbish. He transitions from self-made, high achieving religious zealot, to an imparter of the gospel. He turns his life over to God’s purposes and experiences grace upon grace in God’s forgiveness. Revisiting Paul’s background gives us insight into what his message of hope for the Philippians. In the passage we read Paul uses athletic metaphors, concerning pressing on to the goal, focusing on the finish line. He says not to look back, but to strain toward the finish line. Paul does not claim his conversion as “fait accompli”. Even he, the Apostle Paul, evangelist of Asia Minor, is still growing and learning, as he presses on. If you believe that Paul’s goal is a far off heaven, listen to his instructions to that early Christian community. Hear the exhortations to love one another, treat others as equal no matter their status in the wider culture. See his passion in spreading this message throughout Asia Minor. Paul, through his passionate love for Christ, really cares about the here and now. He lives “in Christ.” That is, his care and passion for the world is aligned with Christ. The Christian community isn’t simply waiting for God to intervene. They are realizing the hope of a new world by engaging it in their faith communities. That is the goal. That is the hope. I have not had a conversion experience like Paul’s. I used to feel a little envious when I met Christians who told me the exact day and time they were converted and how their lives had changed dramatically. I thought I might have missed out on something important. And I admit, I’m puzzled when people ask me what happened to me. How did I decide to convert from Software Engineer to Pastor? What major life event changed everything? The short answer is, that not much changed. I’m still the same person I was as a Software Engineer, I have the same thought processes, the same general approach to solving problems. In some ways the journey through seminary, and experiences that prepared me for ministry, simply helped me to become more like the person I had always been. And so I find hope in this heavenly calling because it helps me grow further toward what Richard Rohr calls the “true self.” Paul calls the true self “spirit” as distinguished from “flesh”, which Rohr would call “false self.” What does this all have to do with our hope? As Richard Rohr says in his article on Paul, once you see it you can’t un-see it. This is what you see: “After transformation, it’s not about doing it right; it’s about being in right relationship. It’s not about being correct; it’s about being connected.” And so, perhaps this is my conversion experience. What I can’t un-see today, is that our hope is to be found in the in-between places. And we will need to grow into our true selves to find it. If we remain in a place of dualities, we will only ask binary choices such as: Is this person a Christian or are they not? Will we reopen the sanctuary for worship or will we stay “closed”? Will a vaccine save us or are we doomed? Will my candidate win the election and save the country, or will they not? Seeing our hopes in this way leads us to a place of disengagement. If it is a matter of either/or, we’ll just sit back and wait. Finding hope in the spectrum of possibilities, in the in-between places, leads us to engagement and participation. It is an invitation to press on, playing our part in the community, modeling our hope in the possibilities. A vaccine will not substitute for our continued care and respect for one another, observing health guidelines until we are truly safe. And whichever candidate is elected, we will still need to work together for the healing of our nation and our world. Maybe you had a “falling off your horse” moment, maybe you didn’t. No matter, the present moment is a moment for hope. The hope that God is in the here and now. God is calling us on to the prize, which is right relationship, and being connected. God is calling us to the hope of possibilities we still cannot imagine today. May all God’s people say, Amen [1] https://cac.org/apostle-paul-weekly-summary-2017-05-20/
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
If you enjoy a sermon or have a question, please leave a comment. If you would like to quote any of my material in your own sermons or writings, please use appropriate attribution. I look forward to hearing from you!Archives
April 2022
Categories |