Day 720 - The Why of Hope

A sermon given at New Hope Presbyterian Church, Chattanooga, TN, on Nov. 30, 2014, The First Sunday of Advent

OT Reading: Deuteronomy 34:1-8

NT Reading:  Luke 24: 36-49

I fairly sure you have heard sermons on the first Sunday of Advent that explain Advent is the beginning of the church year and a season of waiting from two perspectives, a historical one that recognizes the birth of Jesus and a future one that hopes and waits for the return of Jesus and our own resurrection.

I hope this sermon on “The Why of Hope” encourages us all to use this time of waiting to consider prayerfully the reality of Christian hope.

 Especially in a theological sense, hope is expecting a future event that every shred of rational experience tells us is impossible. Christian Hope acknowledges the reality of two impossible things, first that Jesus defeated death for all of us Easter people, and second, Christ is coming again to bring his people home.

Think about “home.”  All Christian hope is really is the hope for home…but hope for home is not just a Christian hope. Hope for home is built into the fabric of being of all God's people (we are all God’s people) across all of time, from the Israelites who were oppressed under Pharaoh’s hand and wandered in the desert looking for the Promised Land to our own time today where we struggle to live as Christians under the burden of the world today wondering in the words of the prophet, “How long O Lord, How long will your people struggle under this burden?”

The story of the death of Moses poignantly captures the hope for home of Moses and Israel. God called Moses to lead Israel out of Egypt with only the promise that they were going to the Promised Land. Given the tumultuous and rebellious history of the Israelites along the journey, we could say that the hope and faith in that promise gave Moses the strength to carry Israel home on his back.

Moses deepest hope had to be to see the Promised Land, dip his feet in the Jordan River and step on that hallowed ground. When they get to the Jordan River after forty years, because of their rebellion all the Israelites who left Egypt but Moses are dead and only the children will enter…even Moses who brought the people to the Promised Land will not enter. God fulfilled his hope, just not in the way Moses thought.  Atop Mt. Nebo God showed Moses the Promised Land from the desert to the south to the land of the north, from the glimmering sea to the Jordan River.

Moses died there and Israel wept for 30 days until the period of mourning was over. That really is the way with leaders. They can take us so far, but then we must wipe away the tears and take up the baton ourselves…

For us, here at Advent, 2014, the capstone of our hope for home and freedom is Christ’s final return. We can reduce the hope of Advent to the simple statement, “We hope for home. There is a home and we are sure to get there… There is a home…”

Why do we hope? What is the “why” of hope? More directly, “Why are we here in this sanctuary on Sunday morning since we know already there is a home?” Does our hope for home present us with an obligation or duty while we are waiting?

The passage in Luke gives an answer. Luke is concluding the story of the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus. His disheartened disciples with their world crumbled around them are huddled in a house petrified with fear.

Can you imagine the range of emotions that the disciples experienced in the ministry of Jesus, from joy in the early days when this mesmerizing man Jesus healed the blind, challenged the rich and religious authorities and entered Jerusalem as a King to the abject fear to see him crucified dead and buried in the most humiliating way that the Romans could devise for a rebel or slave?

After Jesus meets two of the disciples on the road to Emmaus, he appears to all the disciples in human form, instructing and explaining to them everything that happened…every thing that they had witnessed was required as God’s purpose. Then… he gave them his promise, he said wait here…”wait here for the Holy Spirit to come and empower you to witness to the world.”

Because that promise of empowerment by the Holy Spirit was fulfilled is why we are here today in this sanctuary. Luke’s words of Jesus speak to us across the two thousand years to the tumultuous times of uncertainty and doubt that we live in today. Our fears may be as real as the disciples in their destroyed world as they waited for Jesus and the promised Holy Spirit. Many of us worry about and fear the secularization of church and society. The loss of people in worship, our aging congregations and decreasing budgets make many of us feel the world has abandoned us.

The reality is, I could walk into almost any Presbyterian congregation and hear the same laments and questions, “What should we do about our decreasing numbers? Maybe we need to redo our sanctuary?” I might hear, “What should we do to grow our small youth group? Maybe we need a new sound system or a video projector?”

In any congregation that has lost its pastor, such as New Hope, I might hear worry over your sense of loss and search for hope to move forward into the future.  Others may not grieve but ask, the “what” question, “What do we do next?”

I recently attended a course at Union Presbyterian Seminary in Richmond and we talked about the “What? How? and Why?” questions as they pertain to our congregations. We viewed part of a film (“The Golden Circle andPower of Why” by Simon Sinek) that gives a perspective on how successful and less successful companies or organizations use these three questions, what, how, why.

This film maintains that these three questions face organizations when change becomes necessary (families and congregations are organizations). Usually the question people ask first is “What?” “What do we need to do to grow?” (Profit, congregation, youth group, etc.)

After the “What?” question is answered we often brainstorm answers to the next question, “How do we do it?” “How do we grow our worship attendance?” or “How do we increase our youth group?”

We may say, “Let’s redo our worship space so it looks more modern or more attractive to young people” or “install a better sound system.” Then we are liable then to ask, “How are we going to do that?” The answer might be, “We'll do a fundraiser, or a capital campaign, or maybe we can go to the Presbyterian get a loan with no interest in a long term of repayment.” We have gone from the “What” question to the “How” question but never asked “why?” or thought how “why” connects to what we do next.

The film says if we want to build and enliven a vital organization we cannot start backwards with “What are we going to do?” because we may never get to the most important question, “Why are we doing it, or why are we here?” The best sequence is to ask first, “Why do we want to do something,” then ask “How we are going to do it?” and finally “What we are going to make or what does it look like?”

He uses Apple as an example of a company that follows the why/how/what method and Microsoft as a company that follows the what/how/why path. (By the way I don’t want to get into an argument over who makes the best computer, but Apple is the largest corporation in the world and approaches computers entirely differently than Microsoft who is number two, both larger than Exxon.)

The mindset at Apple asks, “Why do we want to make a computer?” They answer basically people want an invisible machine, be it a computer or iPhone, that lets them make notes, organize their recipes, send messages to their friends, keep track of their household finances, play games and the like. Except for scientists and engineers, most people really don’t want to learn computer programming to get the thing to work, or be required to learn how the hardware and operating system of the computer work to add or remove things.

Most people want a machine that you charge up or plug in, turn on, and it starts up working with an intuitive interface that that makes the computer almost invisible to the user and works with the least amount of effort by the user.

Having answered “why?”, then Apple asks How do we build than kind of computer, and then they ask what should it look like? They follow the sequence “Why,” “How,” and then “What” and make a magnificent computer that works almost without knowing it is there. Apple has been handsomely successful for asking “Why?”

Microsoft on the other hand started by asking what the computer should do, then they created an operating system and user interface that required the user to user be knowledgeable about the hardware and software (unless they paid someone to set it up). Microsoft may have not even asked the why question until they saw the success of Apple.

How do we use this why, how, and what idea to nurture a vital, healthy congregation? I suggest we begin asking, “Why are we here in this sanctuary today?” and not the “What?”:  “What do we need to do to generate more members?”

When we ask, “Why are we here?” the response is almost unavoidable: “We are here to glorify God and enjoy his grace forever.” This is the essence of the first commandment, “Love the Lord with all your heart and all your soul and all your mind.” … Why are we here? We are here to worship, to participate in discernment of our calling through bible study, Church School, prayer and conversation. We are here because discernment comes by the Holy Spirit that empowers our own spirit. It empowers us to support every one who is called God to find a way to walk in the world is Christ did.

After the why, we might ask, “How does God call people to Him?”  The answer might be “By the Holy Spirit.”

So part of the answer to our “why” question is: “We are here in our waiting for home because we have hope to become empowered by the Holy Spirit to walk in the world the way Christ did. The other part of the answer to our “How?” is “learn to love our neighbor as we love ourselves.” When those two commandments are written in our hearts we model and remind all God’s children that they can follow us on the way home. We are not there, but we are well on our way. We will grow in faith.

Let me put this in practical terms. A few weeks ago one of the eighty or so young students at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga present at a sumptuous Tuesday lunch at Hope 808 (that New Hope might have prepared) asked the “why” question.  She asked, "Why are you doing all this for us?”

The answer is: “The least we can do for you is give you a taste of home just as Jesus does for us. Jesus gave us the why of our Hope - we are going home, so eat, enjoy our hospitality and wait with us together for the call home.

While we wait in this Advent season, let’s use our hope as strength to live a holy life in a world that does it absolute level best to make us unholy and diminish the hope that empowers us to live as a vital congregation.  

Why we are here is to let our hope shine so people see our joy, our compassion, our forgiveness, our willingness to lend a hand to a stranger, an alien, or even an enemy. When people see that kindness and compassion they are going to ask "Why are you all doing that for us?" When they ask that question they have opened their ear to hear God’s call to come on in and enjoy the feast while we wait.

At that point we understand why we are here in this sanctuary this morning and know what God is doing with us. Let’s be a beacon on a hill waiting for the final fulfillment and glory of his return. God is using our actions to invite his people home”  Amen.