A Peculiar Yet Persistent Hope (6)

Hope in the Midst of Trials

Bible Passage: Romans 5:3–5

Summary: In Romans 5:3–5, Paul articulates the revolutionary idea that suffering is productive and can lead to growth. He presents a sequence where tribulations beget endurance, which in turn builds character and culminates in a confident hope. This hope is grounded not in circumstances but in the assurance of God’s love, poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit.

Application: This passage serves to remind Christians that in the face of adversity, there is profound opportunity for spiritual growth. Individuals grappling with life's challenges can take solace in knowing that their struggles are part of a divine purpose, providing them with the strength to endure and the hope necessary to persevere.

Teaching: The teaching emphasizes that our hardships are not meaningless; rather, they are instruments in the hands of God that shape our spiritual journey. Through suffering, believers are encouraged to cultivate endurance, develop strong character, and ultimately experience a profound hope that is anchored in God’s eternal love for us.

How this passage could point to Christ: This theme highlights how Christ’s work and sacrifice provide the foundation for our hope. His suffering and resurrection demonstrate that pain can lead to victory and new life, setting a precedent for all believers that God can bring good out of even the most difficult situations.

Big Idea: Suffering is a divine catalyst that transforms trials into profound hope, revealing that God uses our most difficult times to produce character and deepen our relationship with Him.

Recommended Study: As you prepare this sermon, consider using your Logos library to explore the original Greek terms for 'hope', 'character', and 'suffering' to gain deeper insights into their implications. Examining different scholarly interpretations of Romans 5:3–5 will help clarify the transformative process Paul describes. Additionally, reviewing studies on how first-century Christians perceived suffering could provide helpful context for your preaching.

1. Trials Initiate Transformation

Romans 5:3

You could begin by discussing how tribulations are often seen as purely negative experiences. However, Paul suggests that these trials are the starting point of a divine process that ultimately leads to hope. Encourage your audience to embrace their sufferings with a new perspective, understanding that they hold significant potential for spiritual growth and endurance. The trials we endure today can become the foundation of our future strength and resilience.

2. Endurance Enhances Character

Romans 5:4

Perhaps underscore how endurance is not merely about survival. Instead, emphasize the notion that endurance builds character. It refines our inner selves the way precious metals are purified by fire. Through perseverance, Christians develop a stable and steadfast character that mirrors the tenacity of Christ during His own trials on earth. Encourage your audience to see the challenging moments in their lives as opportunities for character development.

3. Hope Anchored in Love

Romans 5:5

Maybe conclude with Paul’s assurance of hope—a hope that does not disappoint. This hope is rooted in the love of God poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit. Encourage the congregation to trust in this unshakeable hope, which is not a mere wish, but a confident expectation based on the promises of Christ. His life and resurrection assure us that no matter the hardships, we are held in divine love.

4. Love Nevers Fails

BELOVEDS, WE GATHER TOGETHER IN A TIME OF FRIGHTENING PERIL.....AND YET A PERSISTENT HOPE CALLS OUT TO US

EVEN IN TIMES LIKE THESE......MUCH OF THE WORLD PAUSED AND SEEMED TO SLOW DOWN FOR A MOMENT LAST

YEAR.....JUNE 3rd 2024.....IT WAS ON THAT DAY THAT GOD, IN GOD’S OWN INFINITE MERCIES CALLED HOME SOMEONE

WHOSE THEOLOGY HAD BEEN CALLED A THEOLOGY OF HOPE.......OF HOPE BASED ON THE RESURRECTION OF JESUS

CHRIST.......IT WAS JURGEN MOLTMANN WHO REMINDED A WAR-TORN AND WEARY WORLD THAT:

HOPE IS LIVED WHEN IT COMES ALIVE, WHEN WE GO OUTSIDE OF OURSELVES AND, IN JOY AND PAIN TAKE PART IN THE

LIVES OF OTHERS.....

IN JOY AND IN PAIN....WE TAKE PART.....IN THE LIVES OF OTHERS WHERE WE CAN GLIMPSE, AND SOMETIMES STRAIN TO

SEE AND EXPERIENCE BELOVED COMMUNITY.........

I’M DEEPLY GRATEFUL TO PASTOR LEE ANN FOR HER ORIGINAL INVITATION TO BE TOGETHER TO CELEBRATE REV DR

MARTIN LUTHER KING JR BIRTHDAY WEEKEND AND SAY A GOOD WORD ON BEHALF OUR OUR UNITED CHURCH OF CHRIST

PROGRAM JOIN THE MOVEMENT........PARTLY BECAUSE IT WAS KING’S CONCEPTION OF BELOVED COMMUNITY, BORNE

FROM THE TRIALS HE EXPERIENCED IN THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT, HIS EXTENSIVE STUDIES & HIS FAITH THAT LED HIM

TO THIS POWERFUL CONCLUSION:

THE AFTERMATH OF NON-VIOLENCE IS THE CREATION OF THE BELOVED COMMUNITY....LET US NEVER FIGHT WITH

FALSEHOOD AND VIOLENCE AND HATE AND MALICE BUT ALWAYS FIGHT WITH LOVE SO THAT WHEN THE DAY COMES &

THE WALLS OF SEGREGATION HAVE COMPLETELY CRUMBLED WE WILL BE ABLE TO LIVE WITH PEOPLE AS THEIR

SIBLINGS....

KING NAMED BELOVED COMMUNITY THEN AS THE AFTERMATH OF NON-VIOLENCE

DENNIS QUIRIN, WRITING ON KING DAY, 2025 WENT ON TO WRITE THAT THIS POWERFUL IDEA, “BELOVED COMMUNITY”

ENVISIONS A SOCIETY BUILT ON JUSTICE, EQUAL OPPORTUNITY, AND LOVE FOR ONE ANOTHER ---A WORLD WHERE

EVERYONE CAN THRIVE REGARDLESS OF RACE, GENDER, INCOME OR NEIGHBORHOOD. IT CHALLENGES US TO CREATE A

WORLD WHERE POVERTY AND DISCRIMINATION ARE NOT ACCEPTED REALITIES, DISAGREEMENTS ARE RESOLVED

PEACEFULLY, AND LOVE TRIUMPHS OVER FEAR. I’M INSPIRED BY THE IDEA THAT THE BELOVED COMMUNITY IS BOTH THE

OUTCOME OF OUR STRUGGLE AND THE REASON THE STRUGGLE MATTERS.......

IT IS INSIDE BELOVED COMMUNITIES LIKE FCUCC CO. SPRINGS THAT WE SEE THESE VALUES LIVED OUT DAY BY DAY SO

THAT WHEN ACTS OF HATE ARE PERPETRATED AGAINST YOU, THE LETTER FROM YOUR SENIOR PASTOR BEARS THIS

UPLIFTING MESSAGE:

FIRST CONGREGATIONAL HAS ALWAYS BEEN A PLACE OF BOLD LOVE, DEEP JUSTICE, AND RADICAL WELCOME— AND

THAT’S NOT CHANGING. IF ANYTHING, THIS STRENGTHENS OUR RESOLVE TO KEEP SHOWING UP WITH OPEN HEARTS

AND UNWAVERING HOPE. AS YOU READ, I INVITE YOU TO PRAY NOT ONLY FOR OUR CHURCH BUT FOR OUR CITY, FOR

THOSE WHO FEEL COMPELLED TO ACT OUT IN ANGER, AND FOR THE HEALING AND JUSTICE WE ALL LONG FOR.

SO I’VE BEEN PRAYING WITH YOU SHOULDER TO SHOULDER AND HEART TO HEART IN THESE PERILOUS TIMES.....

AND REMEMBERING AND APPLYING THE WORDS OF ST. PAUL IN OUR TEXT THIS MORNING....Romans 5:3

Romans 5:3–5 ESV

Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

SO YOU CAN COUNT ON ME TO KEEP PRAYING & PRACTICING A PERSISTENT HOPE FOR THIS BELOVED COMMUNITY FOR

YOUR IMPACT TO CONTINUE DEEPENING AND DEFINING A NEW DAY FOR THIS CITY, COUNTRY AND YES, EVEN OUR

BELOVED UNITED CHURCH OF CHRIST.......

IT IS IN BELOVED COMMUNITY THAT TRANSFORMATION GETS A RUNWAY - A PLACE TO GERMINATE AND GROW.....AND KEEP

IMPACTING LIVES....ONE LIFE, ONE SOUL AT A TIME.......

THE REVEREND DR VELDA LOVE, OUR UCC TEAM LEAD FOR JOIN THE MOVEMENT IS LEADING THE EFFORT TODAY FOR

CONGREGATIONS RECOGNIZING TODAY AS RACIAL JUSTICE SUNDAY IN THE UCC - LAST YEAR THE WHOLE CHURCH DID A

BOOK STUDY LED BY JOIN THE MOVEMENT OF THE SAME VERY TEXT THAT ANIMATED AND BLESSED YOUR SPIRITUAL

JOURNEY HERE AT FCUCC DURING ADVENT.....BLACK LITURGIES BY COLE ARTHUR RILEY

REV DR LOVE INTRODUCED ME TO ONE OF HER THEOLOGICAL AND SPIRITUAL MENTORS, THE FORMER CEO OF THE

MINNESOTA COUNCIL OF CHURCHES DR. CURTISS PAUL DE YOUNG WHO GAVE HIS PERSONAL TESTIMONY IN HIS

POWERFUL BOOK, BECOMING LIKE CREOLES.......AND HIS JOURNEY OF TRANSFORMATION IS INSPIRATION AND A

PECULIAR BRAND OF HOPE FOR FAITH COMMUNITIES ALWAYS PUSHING THE EDGES OF HOPE, COMMUNITIES THAT

EXTEND THEIR WELCOMES WHEN OTHERS ARE BECOMING MORE INSULAR AND TRIBAL, COMMUNITIES THAT REMAIN

FAITHFUL TO CRUSHING BARRIERS AND MENDING FENCES.......COMMUNITIES THAT ARE NOT SATISFIED WITH LEAVING US

RIGHT WHERE WE ARE BUT RATHER PUSH TOWARDS TRANSFORMATION AND DARE I SAY EVEN TRANSCENDENCE WHEN

THIS WORLD WOULD BE CONTENT TO KEEP WEIGHING US DOWN.........

CURTIS PAUL DE YOUNG REMEMBERED THE DAYS AND TIMES BEFORE HIS PERSONAL TRANSFORMATION TO WHAT HE

CALLED, “INTERNALIZED OPENNESS” THIS WAY:

WHILE NOT AMISH, I WAS BORN IN THE VERY WHITE RURAL COMMUNITIES OF NORTHWEST INDIANA KNOWN AS “AMISH

COUNTRY.” MY ANCESTORS WERE MOSTLY DUTCH AND ENGLISH— THE NATIONS OF COLONIZERS AND SLAVE TRADERS.

MY SCHOOL YEARS WERE SPENT IN WHITE SUBURBIA. MY HIGH SCHOOL GRADUATING CLASS WAS OVER 99 PERCENT

WHITE. I ENROLLED IN A PREDOMINATELY WHITE MIDDLE-CLASS CHRISTIAN COLLEGE LOCATED IN A REGION WHERE THE

KU KLUX KLAN WAS STILL ACTIVE. AFTER COLLEGE I MOVED TO A SMALL TOWN WITH A POPULATION OF 5,000 MOSTLY

WHITE PEOPLE. MY IDENTITY WAS SHAPED BY THE WAYS THAT SOCIETY CONSTRUCTS OR DEFINES MY REALITY — WHITE,

MALE, CHRISTIAN, PROTESTANT, MIDDLE-CLASS, EDUACATED, ABLE-BODIED, HETEROSEXUAL, ENGLISH SPEAKING, AND

A CITIZEN OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA — A NICE, WHITE, ANGLO-SAXON PROTESTANT. I WAS ON TRACK TO LIVE

A COMFORTABLE, ONE-DIMENSIONAL LIFE THAT WAS IN LINE WITH MY “WASP” MIDDLE CLASS STATUS.

AND YET, DE YOUNG, LARGELY BECAUSE OF BELOVED COMMUNITIES HE ENCOUNTERED, BORE A CURIOSITY AND

COMMITMENT BEYOND HIS OWN “ONE-DIMENSIONAL LIFE” SO MUCH SO......THAT YOUR LECTURER OF LAST YEARS, REV.

DR. JIM WHITE LECTURE WEEKEND, DR RANDY WOODLEY OPINED OF DE YOUNG’S BOOK AND JOURNEY:

“BECOMING LIKE CREOLES (DE YOUNG’S BOOK) PRESENTS A UNIQUELY BIBLICAL MODEL FOR OUR

INTERRACIAL/INTERCULTURAL FUTURE THAT OFFERS NEW LIFE FOR BOTH THE OPPRESSED AND OPPRESSOR IN A RE-

HUMANIZED COMMUNITY”

BELOVEDS, I MAINTAIN A HOPE, A PECULIAR AND PERSISTENT HOPE IN WHAT WOODLEY CALLED, RE-HUMANIZED

COMMUNITY....THAT CAN EASILY BE CALLED BELOVED COMMUNITY.....BELOVED COMMUNITY WHERE DREAMS, ACTIONS

AND ACTIVITIES POINT THE WAY TOWARDS AN INTERRACIAL/INTERCULTURAL FUTURE THAT GROWS WHILE IT LEAVES NO

ONE OUT, OR BEHIND........

WOULD YOU KEEP SHARING THIS PECULIAR YET PERSISTENT HOPE WITH ME? AN INTERRACIAL/INTERCULTURAL FUTURE

WILL PUSH OUR IMAGINATIONS ESPECIALLY IN TIMES LIKE THESE WHEN IT’S EASIER TO JUST STAY WITH THE TRIBE SO WE

WON’T CAUSE TROUBLE......IT WAS OBSERVED OF DR. KING THAT HIS ABILITY TO IMAGINE AN ALTERNATIVE WORLD DEVOID

OF RACISM, MILITARISM, AND ECONOMIC DISPARITY WAS PERHAPS ROOTED IN HIS SETTLED AND AFFIRMING SENSE OF

SELF. MAYBE JUST MAYBE FOR ALL THOSE WHO ARE OPPRESSED BY THEIR GOVERNMENT, OR THE CULTURE, OR THE SO-

CALLED NORMS OR EVEN BY OTHER PEOPLE.....PERHAPS IN CLOSING HEARING THIS LOVE LETTER FROM GOD, WRITTEN BY

KIRK BYRON JONES......MAYBE THIS WILL HELP WITH THE IMAGINATION NEEDED SO DESPERATELY, SO SINCERELY FOR A

NEW WORLD TO BE BORN.......AND THIS LOVE LETTER IS MEANT FOR YOU, & FOR ALL WITH WHOM YOU’D SHARE IT:

DEAR CHILD, I LOVE YOU FOR YOU. LET GO, AND LET YOURSELF FEEL LOVED. ALL THE LOVE YOU DESERVE AND

THOUGHT YOU NEVER HAD IS YOURS RIGHT NOW. BUT YOU MUST LET ME LOVE YOU. ALL THE SUNSHINE IN THE WORLD

MEANS NOTHING, IF YOU WON’T SEE THE LIGHT OR FEEL THE WARMTH. LETTING YOURSELF FEEL MY LOVE CHANGES

EVERYTHING. LET ME LOVE YOU, AND THEN YOU LIVE MY LOVE. LOVE YOU MADLY, AND ALWAYS WILL. GOD

YOUR SUPPORT OF JOIN THE MOVEMENT WITH YOUR STORIES OF LOVE.......OVERCOMING HATE, HURT AND HEARTACHE

WITH HOPE AND ACTIONS....

YOUR SUPPORT OF A VISION OF TOMORROW FOR ALL GOD’S CHILDREN STRIVING TOGETHER, WALKING TOGETHER,

OVERCOMING TOGETHER

YOUR SUPPORT OF A WORLD WHERE RACISM AND ALL THE “ISMS” AND BIASES CEASE........THAT’S JOIN THE MOVEMENT

AND BELOVEDS TOGETHER WE ARE SURELY STRONGER THAN WE ARE ALONE......LET US PRAY....