{"id":56,"date":"2012-05-27T02:05:42","date_gmt":"2012-05-27T02:05:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.followgreg.com\/revdonaldng\/?p=56"},"modified":"2020-11-20T16:09:23","modified_gmt":"2020-11-20T16:09:23","slug":"the-spirit-of-hope","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.followgreg.com\/revdonaldng\/the-spirit-of-hope\/","title":{"rendered":"The Spirit of Hope"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Romans 8:22-28<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

May 27, 2012<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sermon preached by Rev. Donald Ng at the First Chinese Baptist Church in San Francisco.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Most of you know that I am definitely a morning person! I have this internal time clock that tells me that the sun is coming out soon. So on most days, I\u2019m up before the crack of dawn\u2014around 5:30. I look toward the east and can begin to see the horizon glowing from the sun that is about to break through. The sun will soon provide the much-needed sunlight for my vegetables and succulent plants. I walk up to the driveway to pick up my morning Chronicle that will inform me about the news that I will need to understand the world. I grind up some Lanna Coffee beans, put together my granola cereal, and pour out some orange juice to take my daily vitamins that will all give me a healthy start for a new day. Everything that I do in the morning is anticipating and hoping that good things will come.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In our text for today, The Apostle Paul writes that the \u201cwhole creation is groaning in labor pains.\u201d It\u2019s like the whole world is waking up and for some of you who are not a morning person like me, you may be groaning to get up. But nevertheless, even in your groaning, there\u2019s something new that\u2019s about to happen. From labor pains, we hope for the birth of a new child. From the breaking of dawn, we hope for all the opportunities and promises that a brand new day offers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pentecost<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

For the past 3 weeks, we have been hearing about the power of the Holy Spirit upon our lives and its meaning in the world. On May 13th<\/sup>, we focused on how the Holy Spirit enables us to \u201cleap over boundaries,\u201d when the visions that Gentile Cornelius and Jewish Peter had led each of them to see that they are unified by the Holy Spirit rather than separated by their human identities and cultures (Acts 10:44-48<\/a>). Last Sunday, we talked about our human need to be in control and we tend to do this by the buttons that we push. The disciples cast lots to replace Judas with Matthias because they wanted to be in charge (Acts 1<\/a>). Unless the Holy Spirit is in charge and leading the way to God\u2019s mission, nothing will happen. We need to wait on the Lord.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today is the Day of Pentecost. I thought about preaching on Acts 2<\/a> to celebrate the birthday of the church with helium balloons. With Live in Harmony later this afternoon, I thought about preaching on the \u201ctongues of fire\u201d and how everyone was speaking in different languages but they were still able to understand one another. The gospel lesson for today is John 15:26-27<\/a> and 16:4b-15 so I thought about preaching on the point when Jesus was telling his disciples that unless he goes away, the Advocate\u2014the Holy Spirit will not come to them. The Holy Spirit is the power to energize us to speak the truth about Jesus Christ.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s not that we have arrived in appreciating and valuing our diversity at FCBC that we wouldn\u2019t need to hear more about how the different groups of people speaking in their different languages can still understand in their own. Surely, we can do more to relate to each other. This is one of the main goals for Live in Harmony today. It\u2019s not that we have fully understood the power of the Holy Spirit in our church that we can\u2019t learn more about the Spirit being our power source to go out into the world. Surely, we can be transformed with more power today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But today, I want to preach about hope.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Christian Hope<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In our passage for this morning, Romans 8:22-28<\/a>, we can see Paul\u2019s apocalyptic thinking. Paul understood that there is a present structure to the working out of God\u2019s purposes but there\u2019s also the future era when God\u2019s purposes are accomplished. The present time is marked by the powers of sin and death but ahead is the new era or the final stage of time marked by the establishment of God\u2019s life-giving purposes and reign over all things.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The new era is already underway in part in the present. In the death and resurrection of Jesus, this final era, the eschaton<\/em>, is already breaking in, at least in part, awaiting its full revelation still to come. I think this is the reason why I get up before the crack of dawn believing that each new day is an example of this new and final era. When we decide to have a Live in Harmony event, we are only able to do this because we have come to understand that this new and final era is upon us. Otherwise, why go through the trouble!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Like Paul\u2019s Romans hearers, we too are living in this overlapping of the ages, knowing the continuing power of sin and death yet also knowing the power and presence of the Spirit in our lives in Christ Jesus. We live in the \u201cnow,\u201d the \u201calready,\u201d and the \u201cnot yet.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So let\u2019s unpack Romans 8:22-28<\/a> theologically.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. The whole creation has been groaning in labor pains (v. 22).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first theological theme is the cosmic<\/em> scale of God\u2019s coming glory. We often think that God was fixated only on individual or personal salvation. Paul\u2019s vision of God\u2019s purposes embraces not only humans but also all of God\u2019s material creation. God is faithful to God\u2019s creation; the creator is also the redeemer. The image of creation \u201cgroaning in labor pains\u201d embraces both the hope of the new creation as well as the suffering of the present, while affirming continuity between the two. God\u2019s purposes extend not only to humans, but to all creation including other living creatures and the natural world. We have hope that the whole creation will be redeemed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2. We ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly while we wait for adoption, the redemption of our bodies. For in hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what is seen? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience (23-25).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The second theological theme is the expansiveness of Paul\u2019s vision, relating past, present, and future in the shaping of hope. Living in this \u201ctime between times,\u201d between the old era and the new, Paul urges the community to live in hope<\/em>. We hope because we already have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. In that hope we await \u201cwhat we do not see\u201d\u2014the full revealing of the new age. Christian hope is a virtue and a passion that at once looks to the past, lives in the present, and yearns for the future. We find our grounding in what God has already done in Christ on the cross and in his resurrection, hope in the present moment at one and the same time \u201cgroans\u201d and \u201cwaits with patience,\u201d looking to the future fulfillment of hope in God\u2019s final victory. When we can imagine the saving power of Jesus Christ on the cross and resurrection in the past, the redemptive power of Christ in the present and the promise of everlasting life in the future, we have Christian hope.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

3. Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words. And God, who searches the heart, knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God (26-27).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The third theological theme that Paul explores is the shape of hopeful Christian prayer<\/em>. While Paul appreciates the cosmic scope of God\u2019s victory, he stresses too how the church experiences in very intimate ways the presence of God\u2019s Spirit. For Paul, in prayer we understand fully, in the shadow of the cross, our continuing weakness, yet at the same time experience how the Spirit comes to our aid \u201cwith sighs too deep for words.\u201d Paul links the complex passion of hope with the concrete practices of prayer. Whenever we come to the Lord in prayer, we are hopeful that miracles will happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

4. We ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit (v. 23).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The fourth theological theme that Paul proclaims is that while God\u2019s purposes are not yet finished, \u201calready\u201d the Spirit is among the believers. Paul names the Spirit\u2019s presence as \u201cfirst fruits.\u201d<\/em> The metaphor of \u201cfirst fruits\u201d is offering thanksgiving to God for the life-giving work that yielded crops. The image of the \u201cfirst fruits\u201d acknowledges what already is, while it also suggests that there is more to follow. The Holy Spirit affirms God\u2019s present work among believers, and anticipates and guarantees God\u2019s future in redeeming creation. We are \u201cfirst fruits\u201d and we are positively hopeful that if we are the first fruits, there will be much more to come.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From this Romans passage, we know that while the whole cosmic world<\/em> is groaning right now, the whole world will be redeemed. We know that while we are living in this in between time, we are waiting and hopeful<\/em> that Christ will come again. Even in our weakness and we are praying to the Lord<\/em>, the Holy Spirit intercedes on our behalf with sighs too deep for words. And as \u201cfirst fruits\u201d of the Holy Spirit<\/em>, we believe that there will be more to follow. The Holy Spirit is one who gives us hope.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Loss of a Future<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the most common problems brought to a pastor for care or counseling has to do with the loss of a future that the person has counted on, the loss of a dream or a hope or a possibility. When the loss of a future story occurs, it can feel like not only a dream is lost, but the future itself holds no invitation. We know of many examples.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There was a woman who came to see a pastor after she had a miscarriage. She and her husband had gone through in vitro fertilization procedures. The pregnancy had been a miracle for them, and when she miscarried five months into the pregnancy, she was devastated. She and her husband counted on the future they would have with their child. They\u2019d had a baby shower with family and friends, had furnished their nursery, and had even met with a financial planner to begin to save for their child\u2019s future education. Now, they had lost this shared future and dream of a particular kind of family for which they had longed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Other kinds of losses can also destroy the future of people. A man had a life plan in place. He had worked hard to prepare for a career in investments, and after a couple of false starts, he\u2019d found a job that he loved. He worked in a medium-sized investment company where his skills and hard work were valued, and he found himself making an impact on investment decisions and moving up in the company structure. Then the financial world fell apart, and the company went under. Not only did he lose his dream of a place of leadership in this company he loved, but he couldn\u2019t find another job that fit his skills and experience. He finally took a job in retail but found no satisfaction or sense of future in it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There was a woman who lost the home that she\u2019d lived in for 40 years. In losing it, she lost the certainty of a future retirement and old age in the home where she\u2019d raised her children, nurtured her dying spouse, and played with her grandchildren. The move shifted her out of the continuity of her life story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In each of these cases, there was a loss that challenged a future story in which the person had invested their identity, their meaning, and their sense of purpose. That which they had anticipated and counted on was now lost, and, with it, the threads binding the past, present and future, were frayed and broken.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As pastoral counselors, we have a tendency to focus on either the present or the past in our work with those who are suffering. But the most important focus in a time of loss is on the future story. Ultimately, all of our future stories are fragile and will most likely fall apart. We reach goals we have set and not looked beyond. We lose loved one; we retire from careers; we lose our health. But our future stories have to be grounded in something more; something that is bigger than us. Someone like the Holy Spirit that gives us renewed hope. Ultimately, our hope has to rest in the future with God, a future that God carries and anticipates with us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This passage from Romans speaks to this kind of future story. Nowhere of a disrupted future story is more evident than in the New Testament. First, Jesus is supposed to be an earthly ruler, the Messiah, and instead he gets killed and his followers lose their identity, direction, and faith. Then, when the new Christian future story becomes an investment in Jesus\u2019 immediate return, that return doesn\u2019t happen and the community again loses hope and purpose.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Paul is helping the Roman Christians and us to develop a future story in which we can find meaning, identity, purpose and hope. The story that is told in this passage is that God is faithful. We have been given Jesus, and we have known the \u201cfirst fruits\u201d of God\u2019s remarkable harvest. Although Christians and including ourselves are suffering and waiting and fearful, the Holy Spirit offers prayers and deep empathy, sighing with us, as our unshakeable future with God unfolds. Unlike human plans, the future story with God stands the test of time. In it, even our broken stories that have told us that we have lost a future can still give us meaning and purpose.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

God isn\u2019t done with us yet<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

From everything that we heard about the Holy Spirit today, we believe that God isn\u2019t done with us yet. When we are in God\u2019s Spirit, we have the power as a church with a mission that is bold and risky. Because we believe there\u2019s a future for us, we must claim ministries and missions whose success is so unimaginable that the church will fail utterly unless the Holy Spirit empowers it to be that which God calls the church to be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I fear that sometimes the church has meetings, builds great buildings, and makes long lists of rules in a desperate effort to be the church without being dependent upon the Holy Spirit to be the church. The tasks undertaken by our church ought to be those tasks that, if accomplished, can only be ascribed to the Holy Spirit. What might some of these ministries be? Have we become so comfortably content with what we have that we are too conservative in our plans to be empowered by the Holy Spirit?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I believe we as God\u2019s church have hope in a future. After 130 years of history, we have a glorious past. Today, we are enthusiastic about the work that God is doing in and through us. But we also believe and have the Christian hope that we have a future story. Will you join me in writing that future story? It\u2019s a part of God\u2019s cosmic plan when the whole world is groaning. It\u2019s going to include our past, present and future. We are going to pray hopefully especially when we realize that we are still weak and only made strong in Christ. And our future story will continue to have more fruit because we have already tasted the first fruits of the Spirit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tomorrow morning, I\u2019m going to wake up around 5:30 to welcome the crack of dawn. I\u2019m going to see how the warm sun will help my vegetable plants and succulents to grow. I\u2019m going to read the Chronicle and pray for the world. And I\u2019m still going to eat a bowl of granola so that I may live long and into the future. The Holy Spirit has blessed us with a future of hope with the Lord.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let us pray.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Almighty, loving God, open out hearts. Speak to us, empower us to do your will, fill us with courage to witness to your work, send us out to change the world, make us instruments of your peace, give us the right words of Christian hope to say in speaking up for you\u2014all through the gift of your Holy Spirit. Amen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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