December 5, 2010 2nd Sunday of Advent Isaiah 11:1-10 Romans

15:4-13
“A Message of Hope” Dr. Ted H. Sandberg

Paul writes, “For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, so that by
steadfastness and by the encouragement of the scriptures we might have hope.” He concludes this
section of his letter to the Romans by saying, “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in
believing, so that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.” Clearly, hope is central
to Paul’s message here, just as hope is an integral part of the Christian message itself.
“Hope may seem illusive in the modern world. ‘A thing with feathers that perches in the soul,’ Emily
Dickinson called it. For many of us, hope may be something of a . . . last resort: it’s what we do after
all our planning and preparing is done; it’s what we do if we can’t fix whatever the problem is.”1 How
many times have we heard people say something like, “Well, I’ve done all I can. Now all we can do
is hope.” It’s like we’ve done our part and now we long for God to do what we don’t have the ability
or power to do.
“For others, hope is buying a lottery ticket or going to the casino. It’s imagining that there’s some
force in the universe that will come to our rescue and give us what we think we want. We may call
this ‘luck’ or ‘fate’ or ‘chance.’ Whatever it is, it depends on the random event that falls our way and
that just maybe will change our lives for the better.”2 “I hope I win it big.” “I hope it all comes
together.”
“Neither of these meanings, however, fits with Paul’s intention in this passage. For Paul, ‘hope’ is
more like ‘trust.’ The ground for hope is neither the last resort, nor random chance.”3 The ground of
hope instead is God: the God of “steadfastness and encouragement,” the “God of hope.” Because God
is the guarantor of whatever is promised, the believer may live with complete confidence. What God
has said, is what will be.”4
Again, understand, “the hope of which Paul writes isn’t a pie-in-the-sky kind of optimism. Neither is
it a cheery denial of the painful realities of life and death, injustice and suffering. Paul has wagered
his life on a hope that’s grounded in the promises of God and looks forward to the reality to which the
gospel of Jesus Christ bears witness. Hope is the undaunted force that comes from the Holy Spirit,
getting into our human spirits and drawing us beyond the darkness of today and toward the light of the
new tomorrow. Encouraged by the marvelous things God has already done, we abide in hope for what
is not yet but will surely come to be.”5

1 1. Campbell, Cynthia M., “Romans 15:4-13; Pastoral Perspective,” Feasting on the

Word: Preaching the Revised Common Lectionary, Year A, Volume 1, David L. Bartlett
and Barbara brown Taylor, General Editors, Westminster John Knox Press, Louisville,
KY, 2010, p. 38.

2 2. Campbell, p. 38

3 3. Campbell, pp, 38, 40.

4 4. Campbell, p. 40.

5 5. Adams, Joanna M., “Romans 15:4-13; Homiletical Perspective,” Feasting on the

Word: Preaching the Revised Common Lectionary, Year A, Volume 1, David L. Bartlett
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What has God already done? This is what the Bible tells us. “In our encounters with scripture – when
it’s read in a service of worship, when it’s expounded upon in a sermon, when we study it at home in
our personal devotions – we believe we hear the voice of, we see the ways of, and we receive the
guidance of the living God.”6 God speaks to us by the Holy Spirit through the Bible.
Sometimes we believe that we’re ‘modern’ people. “We’ve been taught by our culture to believe that
we’re privileged to stand upon the very summit of human development. From our serene
contemporary perch we stand in judgment upon everyone who got here before us. We’ve progressed,
we’re making progress, we know so much more than they, we tell ourselves.
“To gather here in church, to be silent and attentive when these ancient texts are read, is to affirm that
scripture is a reliable, unsubstitutable guide for our salvation, our future with God. This goes against
modern prejudice. We look for God and listen for God with these ancient witnesses who’ve gone
before us.”7 In our daily struggles to live out the ‘good news’ of Jesus Christ, we receive
encouragement and hope from scripture, Paul says.”8
And what is it that we hope for? Paul gives us a partial answer by writing, “May the God of
steadfastness and encouragement grant you to live in harmony with one another, in accordance with
Christ Jesus, so that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ.” This whole section of Romans, and indeed the much of the entire letter, is Paul’s attempt to
mediate the problem between those Christians who believed the Jewish laws, including circumcision,
had to be kept, and those who believed the old rules no longer applied. That was the issue in Paul’s
day, but again and again, Paul told his readers that the issue dividing them wasn’t nearly as great as
their belief in Christ which was to unite them. “Live in harmony with one another,” he tells them over
and over in Romans.
Sometimes, I think that we believe there weren’t divisive issues in the early church, like there are now.
“Oh,” we say to ourselves, “if only we’d lived then, we’d be able to follow Paul’s advice and live in
harmony, follow Jesus’ advice to love our brother’s and sister’s. There weren’t Catholics and
Lutherans and Presbyterians back then. They didn’t fight over slavery and abortion and
homosexuality. There weren’t issues that divided them like there are now.” Wrong!
Besides the ethnic and cultural barriers that divided them, there were plenty of theological issues that
divided them as well, issues that went to the very heart of the Christian faith. Then, as now, there
were those who believed that if you didn’t believe “their” way, you weren’t Christian. There were
those who sought to exclude Gentiles, and those who sought to exclude other kinds of believers. The
Christian faith has always had its share of excluders.
Yet that isn’t Christ’s teaching. Jesus’ teaching goes like this, to paraphrase the saying by Edwin
Markham: “They drew a circle that shut me out – heretic, rebel, a thing to flout. But Christ and I had
the wit to win: We drew a circle that took him in.” Jesus is inclusive, not exclusive.
and Barbara brown Taylor, General Editors, Westminster John Knox Press, Louisville,
KY, 2010, p. 41.

6 6. Willimon, William H., “The Bible Speaks to Us,” Pulpit Resource, Vol. 38, No.
4; Year C & A; October, November, December 2010, p. 42.

7 7. Willimon, p. 43.

8 8. Willimon, p. 42.
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Jesus proclaims God’s love and forgiveness. There is warning, but even more there is inclusion in an
excluding world. There is the call for repentance, but repentance that comes not out of fear, but out of
love, a love that draws people in instead of shutting people out. That’s why Jesus invites all who
believe in him to join at his table. No one who believes in Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior and
has been baptized in his name is excluded from his table in this congregation. We are a fellowship of
believers, united in harmony even though we do disagree with one another from time to time. But that
which separates us is nothing like that which unites us for we are united in Jesus. “May the God of
steadfastness and encouragement grant us to live in harmony with one another, in accordance with
Christ Jesus, so that together we may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ.”