10/22/23 Sermon

This is a sermon about hope and peace.  I was talking to my friend Lucas who’s a pastor in Deerfield at the UU church and an amazingly gifted preacher about what I was going to preach on this morning, and I told him hope.  And he made a really interesting observation about it.  He said that hope only seems to really sell in dark times - when things seem like they’re in darkness.  That when things are going well and life seems like a sunny day, the message of hope just doesn’t seem to gain much traction. But after what we’ve seen go on in the world lately - especially between Israel, Hamas, and an even more overt wave of antisemitism in this country - quite honestly from places and people I didn’t expect it from, I think it’s quite an apropos time to talk about hope.  Lucas agreed so I feel justified. 

I’ve also just seen the power of hope alive and well in our world through my sister’s struggles these past few weeks.  I can’t thank you all enough for your prayers and concerns and outreach to check on me and our family.  I’ll be honest, I don’t think I’ve ever been on such a roller-coaster which is saying a lot because I thought we were going to lose my mother this spring, but she’s really rallied and doing great.  These past few weeks, we sometimes felt like we were hoping against all hopes that my sister would even be healthy enough to complete all the medical tests and examinations she needed in order to be approved for a new liver - let alone strong enough to survive the surgery.  There were some days where it really looked like it wouldn’t happen, and we’d have to start talking about things that seemed unthinkable just a few weeks ago.  But your prayers and concern gave me hope.

 And then last Monday, word came that she was approved for a transplant.  Then Tuesday afternoon we received a call that a liver was available. Wednesday at 1am began a 12-hour procedure put a new liver in my sister. And this past Wednesday she came home from the hospital looking and feeling better than I’d seen her in a while.  We were lucky.  It was hope that turned into a miracle.  I find myself painfully aware, though, that our joy came at the cost of the grief of another family who is mourning the person who agreed to be a donor.   I think sometimes the doctors and transplant team call the person a donor to help divorce us from the fact that someone died so my sister could live. 

 I, for one, want to remember and hold on to that - that a real person with hopes and dreams and people who loved them gave my family this incredible gift.  In many ways, what they gave us was the gift of hope.  Hope in a future that could be better for my sister - a second chance to embrace and live life in new ways.  Sometimes when we truly see that a tomorrow isn’t guaranteed, we realize we have to embrace today and there’s no reason to put some things off.  And so, we hope.  We hope that life continues, and it continues to get better for her.  And we’re grateful because we realize that this hope came at a cost for others in the life of their loved one. 

 I found it difficult to watch the news during this time watching the tragedy and attacks unfold halfway around the world in a place we call the holy land.  When hope seems like a fragile thing as it did for my family at times during the past few weeks, it can be hard to see things that can dash that hope.  Like the stories of children being slaughtered. Like the carnage we can unleash on each other.  Like the dehumanizing way we can talk about and treat each other. My training is in theology and not foreign policy.  So, I’m the first to admit that I don’t understand the nuances of the current situation.  I don’t feel qualified in speaking about who’s right or wrong or which side is justified or what the answers are if there are any.  I have my feelings about it just as you do. But what I do find myself constantly wondering about and meditating on is what is the faithful Christian response to our world.  And what role do we have to play in this. 

My first thought was that we need to be reconcilers, but I don’t know how possible that is.  This may be showing my hand, but I’m not at all convinced you can reconcile with a group like Hamas or Al-Qaeda or ISIS.  When people are almost singularly focused on the destruction of one group of people, I don’t think you can bring them to a table and trust their motivation for being there.   I don’t know if either side would think American Christians have any place or any business trying to work towards reconciliation.  But I do find myself holding on to some hope that peace will somehow win out.  That maybe somewhere, somehow, and in some way, there is a chance for reconciliation and peaceful resolution. But when I see what’s happening, I’ll be the first to admit that it does sometimes seem hopeless…

 I got to thinking about the readings for this morning and what Paul’s says here. The Apostle Paul - not Paul Smith - although the wisdom of Paul Smith sometimes surpasses that of the Apostle, but I’d never tell him that… The Apostle Paul here, in what many believe is his first letter, gives birth to a theme that he’ll develop and champion throughout his writings - especially in 1st Corinthians.  Paul praises the Thessalonians for their commitment to three things he finds absolutely essential for Christians.  Faith, Hope and Love.  He tells them he gives thanks and praises to God always remembering their work of faith, their labor of love and their steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.  Paul will ultimately put love as the single greatest trait a Christian can have. But right next to it is faith and hope.  He writes in 1 Corinthians 13, verse 13 - those words we hear at more weddings than we can count - He writes that faith, hope, and love remain, these three, and the greatest of these is love.  So, we tend to go all-in on love while underplaying the faith and hope part. 

 But what does it look like and mean for a Christian in today’s world to champion all three? How do we embrace faith, hope, and love when everything around us seems to point that perhaps all three are on the decline?  I think what’s called for out of us, as Christians, as followers of Christ, as those who take the gospel seriously is to be examples of faith, of hope, and of love in the world.  When everyone else gives up on all three, we have to be the ones who cling to it, who live for it, who are the examples of why all three matter to make life better - not just for us but for everyone.  And maybe the way we do it is by not letting the world overwhelm us, by not looking at the huge problems of the world as something we need to individually solve or conquer. 

But maybe where we work our faith, where we labor for love, where we grab onto a steadfastness of hope is by seeing what we can do here and now in the particular context that Christ has given us to work.  Because I believe, just as Paul believed of the Thessalonians, that Christ has called us here together at this particular time and in this particular place for a reason.   I believe that one of the things that all Christians share is a particular calling that requires faith, that demands hope, and that necessitates love. And that calling is for us to live for peace and work towards God’s kingdom here on earth.   And I believe that’s infectious.  That if we start living for peace here - if we show people, it’s possible, there’s a chance, there’s a hope, that they may see it as possible in their context - and there’s a hope that it will spread from there.  And if we live for peace in our own lives, in our own context, what it does is bolster and perpetuates those three essential qualities Paul feels we need as Christians - Faith, hope, and love.

Now, living for peace doesn’t require that we pack our things and head overseas to become missionaries. It doesn’t mean that we join communes or attempt to be the next mother, Theresa.  It doesn’t mean that we have to go out and do something grandiose. 

 It means having peace in our heart and to live as if God’s Kingdom is already here. It means being Christ to someone in sometimes unexpected ways.  It means loving one-another as we are loved by Christ.  And forgiving those as God forgives us.  It means living for something greater.  It is the narrow gate.  And so today, let us make the commitment to not just dream of peace, but to live for peace.

 You see, we are the children of the living God, the God whose life light triumphs even in the deepest darkness of death. We know that injustice anywhere threatens justice everywhere.  Let us start by being at peace in the north shore of Chicago.  Let’s live God’s Kingdom today.

Living for peace means being love for one-another, comforting those who suffer in our midst; living our commitment as a family in Christ and reaching out to those who don’t know our love.  Let’s show them our God of Love.  Let’s live God’s activity in the world as the Body of Christ.  Let’s live God’s Kingdom today.

 Living for peace means understanding that no act is insignificant, no gift of grace is too small, no life that isn’t precious because our God is the God of the Mustard seed who welcomes every healing and turns away no one from Christ’s compassion.

 Living for peace means knowing that our God is the God of Resurrection, our God is the God of life, our God is the God of love.  And it means not resting until that day has come where swords are beaten into plowshares and our spears into pruning hooks, and we shall learn war no more.  Let us live God’s Kingdom TODAY. 

So may you work in your own way towards Christ’s reconciliation of the world.

 May you realize that world peace begins with the peace you live in your own life.

 And may you live for that peace and build God’s kingdom so one day we’ll all be free.