Easter
6 Year A 2014
Father Adam Trambley
May 25, 2014 St.John’s Sharon
Always be ready to
make your defense to anyone who demands from you an accounting for the hope
that is in you.
Peter is continuing his letter this week to Christians who
were scattered and isolated across the Roman Empire. Last week we heard how we are a chosen race,
a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people. This week he addresses those undergoing
suffering and persecution, encouraging them to do good, not to be afraid and have
Jesus Christ as Lord in their hearts.
Then he says:
Always be ready to
make your defense to anyone who demands from you an accounting for the hope
that is in you.
Peter wants those facing Roman officials at their trials to
be ready, and he wants us in our trials of life, to be ready as well. He wants us to hold our hope at the forefront
of our minds, so that we can give an account to anyone who wants to know why we
are Christians. He wants us to hold our
hope at the forefront of our minds so that, with gentleness and reverence, we
might provide a convincing and winsome account of the ways that God has blessed
us so that others might accept the good news of the gospel, as well. But most of all, Peter wants us to hold our
hope at the forefront of our minds so that when we are faced with the choice to
struggle towards our Christian hope or to succumb to the temptations of safety,
security, status or convenience, we stare laser-eyed on the prize, taking up
our cross and following into the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ,
who embodies all our hope.
Always be ready to
make your defense to anyone who demands from you an accounting for the hope
that is in you.
We need to hear Peter’s instruction, because I think we have
allowed our hope to become hazy. We have
gotten a better at thinking about why we love St. John’s and how we can invite
others to join us as we worship God, care for people and grow as
Christians. Some of us have even worked
on elevator speeches for our parish or the Episcopal Church, preparing
ourselves to share what we are doing with others. All of these pieces are important, but they
have to flow out of the deep hope in Jesus Christ that grounds everything
else. And, judging from the number of
dying churches out there, most contemporary Christians are unprepared to given
an articulate accounting of our hope to those who do not have any hope. When we meet people with a hope that has
faded or been forgotten, we can bring them into our church family to rekindle
that failing flame of faith. But we are
too often tongue-tied when talking to people who were never taught anything
about God and whose hearts have a hole where hope should reside. Then again, we also need to hold clearly such
a compelling hope that we could continue as Christians should kings seek to
kill us for following our crucified Lord.
Peter wants us to give an account of a hope held at that deep a level in
our hearts.
Always be ready to
make your defense to anyone who demands from you an accounting for the hope
that is in you.
As best as I can explain it, here is an account of the hope
within me. I offer it to spark your own
hopes, as well as to remind myself of it, since sharing our hope does indeed
strengthen it.
My hope is that the Kingdom of God is at hand, and through
the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, I will abide in it forever. But just saying that sentence, as important
as it is, merely scratches the surface.
Allow me to expand.
My hope is that God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, and
my Father in heaven, created me and the rest of the universe out of love just because
he wanted to.
My hope is that when God created me, he meant it when he
said that “It is very good,” and that he loves me unconditionally for who I am,
not for what I do or don’t do, especially at those times when I can’t believe
that I am good or loveable at all.
My hope is that we were not made for sin or death, but to
worship and glorify God in a great fellowship of love with all our human
brothers and sisters, the full angelic choirs, and all creation, that we had
such a life in the Garden of Eden, and that God wants to restore us to that
life of the Kingdom of God.
My hope is that God has been actively at work in his
creation from the beginning of time and throughout human history, calling to us
whenever we have fallen so that we could grope after him and sometimes find
him.
My hope is that God never wants the death of sinners, but
that he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in great
kindness, and that there is great rejoicing in heaven anytime a sinner repents
and returns to God, even when it is me.
My hope is that God loved the world so much that he sent his
only Son, the eternal Word of God by whom all things were made, in whom we live
and move and have our being, to become flesh and hang out with us as a human
being, so that we might not die, but have eternal life.
My hope is that Jesus Christ was fully God and fully human
so that his life and teaching provide the example and instruction of how to
live a godly Kingdom life on earth and that everywhere he went, God goes also.
My hope is that Jesus suffered and died so that nowhere is
now separated from God’s love, since God in Jesus Christ had voluntarily gone
into every place where human beings had cut themselves off from God, and that
now God can be found in the midst of every human suffering, every human trial
and every human death, supporting and walking alongside of us.
My hope is that Jesus Christ rose from the dead, breaking
the chains and gates of death so that they can no longer hold anyone who wants
to leave and follow Jesus out.
My hope is that through Jesus’ resurrection, all sin, even
mine, can be forgiven, because nothing we do, no matter how horrific, is
ultimately beyond the redemption of Jesus who calls sinners to repentance,
heals the broken, and brings the dead back to life.
My hope is that when I die, or when anyone else dies, they
travel, if they want to, through the broken doors of death and walk into a
place of paradise and rest with those who have gone before and await the final
resurrection.
My hope is that at the last day the Lord Jesus Christ
returns to earth and that all the dead are raised to life in a physical,
imperishable body that is somehow akin to the ones we have now, but without the
sickness, pain and death.
My hope is that on that last day, Jesus Christ will judge
the living and the dead, as that as I encounter Jesus at the judgment in my
resurrected body, every sinful part of me that keeps me from fully loving God
and my neighbor the way I want to is healed, burned away or otherwise removed,
so that I can have eternal life as the person God made me to be and not as the
feeble blob of fears, insecurities, and selfish desires that control way too
much of my current, mortal life.
My hope is that everyone else who has ever lived will
encounter Jesus Christ in the same way so that I will spend eternity with
billions of loving, dynamic, creative, fully-alive human beings showing forth
the image and likeness of God in all we do.
My hope is that I will spend an eternity in the presence and
glory of God, experiencing the joy of being with him at a level beyond my
wildest imaginations.
My hope is that I will spend eternity with the communion of
saints so that I can come to love and be loved by each and every child of God
who has ever lived at a depth and intimacy that we can only catch fleeting
glimpses of today in our deepest relationships.
My hope is that this life occurs in a new and eternal
Jerusalem, as city of surpassing beauty with the glory and splendor of every
people and race, every tribe and tongue, every culture and civilization being a
part of it, with the Lamb as its light and center and temple.
My hope is that this life in the eternal Kingdom of God is
brought to fulfillment at the last day, but that we can get glimpses of that
life today because, as Jesus taught, the Kingdom of God is at hand.
My hope is that we can be forgiven of sins today, through
Jesus Christ who died and rose for us, and that we can begin anew every time we
fail.
My hope is that through the power of the Spirit of Jesus
that he sent to be with us, we are able to build the Body of Christ, the Church
of God, and help one another to live in ways that more and more resemble the
lives we will live in the great city of God for all eternity.
My hope is that as I struggle to love God with all my heart,
soul, strength and mind and to love my neighbor as myself, I help myself and
those around me to live more fully as citizens of the Kingdom of God and to come
to share the hope that is within me.
That’s an account of the hope that is within me. Yours is probably similar, but with be some
differences, based on your own particular experiences with God. Whatever particular emphases your own account
might have, I, like Peter, encourage you to think about it. You might want to write it down, or even
share it. I’d love to hear some this
summer, and would gladly cede sermon time to others willing to give an account
of hope in them with this rather sympathetic congregation. This church is good place to practice before
you may be called for a defense of it before kings, governors or any local lost
folks in your neighborhood. But however
you do it, hold that hope at the forefront of your minds so that you are able
to do good, not to be afraid and have Jesus Christ as Lord in your hearts.
Always be ready to
make your defense to anyone who demands from you an accounting for the hope
that is in you.
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