Where do you Place Your Hope?

Romans 5:1-5

Romans 5:1–5 NRSV

Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand; and we boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God. And not only that, but we also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.

Please allow me to read this in the Common English Bible translation

Common English Bible Chapter 5

5 Therefore, since we have been made righteous through his faithfulness, we have peace with our God through Jesus Christ. 2 We have access by faith into this grace in which we stand through him, and we boast in the hope of God’s glory. 3 But not only that! We even take pride in our problems, because we know that trouble produces endurance, 4 endurance produces character, and character produces hope. 5 This hope doesn’t put us to shame, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.

This is the Word of God for the people of God.

Thanks be to God.

In Psalm 119:116 David writes “Uphold me according to your promise, that I may live, and let me not be put to shame in my hope.”

In this verse David is holding firm to the promises of the Lord. It is obvious that he is going through something but he keeps his mind focused on the Lord because he knows that his hope is in the Lord.

He knows that he will not be put the shame because he knows that the Lord, Yahweh will keep his promise.

Yahweh will protect him. Yahweh is there beside him and has ordained him and nothing in this world can overcome the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

Egypt could not overcome Yahweh.

The Amalekites, the Hittites, the Jebusites, Amorites, the walls of Jericho, nor the mighty Philistines could overcome Yahweh.

Yahweh, God is greater than them all.

And David knows this so all of his hope and confidence is placed in God.

David has faith in God and that faith brings about hope.

In reading David’s words in Psalm 119 and in looking at Paul’s words to the Roman church; one question comes to mind for me as a disciple of Christ:

Where do I place my hope?

Better yet, where do we place our hope?

How do I, you, we define the word hope?

When we think about the word hope, it is my opinion that the word “hope” is one of the most loosely used words in the English language.

We overuse it!

I find myself often saying,

“I hope this or that works out.”

“I hope that I do well on this sermon”

“I hope that Alabama wins on Saturday.”

“I hope that my candidate wins the election.”

I can say with certainty that the word “hope” is possibly one of our most utilized words in the vocabulary.

We probably use it daily.

David’s utilization of this word “hope” and Paul’s use of the word here in his letter points to expectation.

They are both pointing to the looking forward to something with some reason for confidence respecting fulfillment.

When they are using the word hope, they aren’t just thinking to themselves,

“Gee weez, maybe this will work out.”

That is how we use the word today.

No, when they use the word “hope”, they are saying, I’m expecting this to work out.

Notice the difference the use of the word “hope.”

Notice how the way I used the word hope points to almost having a wish.

When it comes to our faith journey, we have to rethink how we use the word hope.

We have to stop thinking about the word hope as though we are wishing for something.

God is not a genie in the bottle. He’s not from the “Make a Wish Foundation.” No God is or Creator, our Redeemer, and our Sustainer.

There is a certain confidence we must have when thinking about this word hope because life is filled with as the Common English calls it trouble.

The trouble in the world reminds us of the trouble.

We live in a broken world.

We see bombings, strikes, drones, and disputes in the Middle East.

We see terrorist organizations hiding behind religion to extol justice.

We see our world leaders not working together for peace and justice in the world.

Here in our country, it is no longer race or socio-economic status that divides us but political thought.

It’s to the point where if someone doesn’t have the same opinion as we do politically, then they are evil.

Families are broken like never before.

The sanctity of life is no longer valued

The orphan and widow are left out in the cold to fend for themselves.

The leaders we place our trust and hope in seem to always break that trust and hope.

Our black sons and daughters are dying at young ages.

I have to coach myself up to watch the news.

And to be honest with you, if I weren’t a pastor I probably wouldn’t watch the news at all.

Look at all that we’ve seen this week.

We have a President who sits on the throne, I’m sorry, I mean who thinks he sits on the throne sicking the military on civilians because of his racists and elitist policies.

We see political violence at every turn

Bombs raining down in Gaza, Iran, and Israel.

Al Queda looks to be getting back active

Our brown brothers and sisters are being deported and their rights are being violated.

The brightest of our black minds are being told that they were given what they have because of how they look.

This stuff even causes me to ask the same questions that the psalmist asked.

“Where are you God? and How Long will we have to suffer?”

“How long will the evil prevail and righteous fail?”

We need you God.

Friends this why we have to take hope seriously.

This is why we have to place our trust, faith, and hope in God because God is the only certainty in life.

God is the same today, the same yesterday, and will remain the same.

Paul is imploring the Roman church to not “boast” in anything other God.

Now this word “boast”, shows up mostly in the New Testament, most of which were used by Paul in his writings.

If you are reading a New Testament Epistle, and you see the word, “boast”, the writer is more likely than not Paul.

This word, “boast”, is a verb and it appears 11 times in Paul’s letter to the Roman Church.

This word simply means to “take pride in”, “to show off”, to bring glory.

Paul tells the Roman church that they should boast in the Lord because of their faith.

And don’t just boast when things are going well, but especially boast when you have affliction. We should boast even when we are going through hardship.

The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. once said,

“The ultimate measure of a person is not where they stand in moments of comfort and convenience, but where they stand at times of challenge and controversy.”

That’s one of my favorite quotes.

You see, it’s easy to give God glory in times fruitfulness and plenty but our praise for God, our awe of God should be just as great or greater during times of drought and in the desert places of our lives.

We don’t give God praise during the storms of life. We forget that he’s right there with us but we can’t feel his presence because we’re throwing a pity party feeling sorry for ourselves verses giving God praise so that he may get the glory from our struggle.

We take this wo is me approach instead of wondering how can God get the glory from my struggle. How might God be using me in the midst of my trouble.

I was listening to a podcast earlier this week entitled the “Working Preacher”, and this podcast basically discusses the texts in the lectionary and helps us preachers think through the text.

One thing that stuck out to me was when one of the hosts said,

“God wants to be made known.”

God knows us and he wants us to know him.

A lot of times, it is through suffering that we come to truly know God.

Those times of suffering allow us to grow closer to God and our deepens. We suddenly begin to love God deeper and the Spirit works within us where people begin to see a new creature.

They begin to see a change in us and as a result, they come to know God a little better and it’s through our suffering.

People begin to wonder, “how is it that they are going through all of this but they still talk about how good God is to them?”

“How is it that they got this diagnosis but they’re still able to be at peace with it.”

And they will probably come and ask us.

And when they ask us, we can say that I can praise God because I have hope.

I can boast in Christ because I know that my Creator sent my Redeemer and my Redeemer sent my Sustainer, and my Sustainer is working within me.

No matter what happens, my hope is God because I know that this is not the end.

I have faith in Christ and I trust that I will have eternal life because my Redeemer Jesus Christ laid down his life for me.

But that wasn’t the end.

My Redeemer, my Rock, my strength, defeated death and resurrected.

After he resurrected, he ascended to be with the Creator and he is reconciling all things unto himself.

Not only that but he told us that he would not leave us orphaned, he left us the Advocate.

And it through the Advocate that I can do all things because Christ strengthens me.

My hope is in the Resurrected Lord.

Paul is writing these words to a divided church.

The Roman church was the most diverse of all the churches.

This church consisted of both Jews and Gentiles and there was constant tension between the two.

And the tension points to the importance of the Jewish law and their faith.

Many believed that one does not have faith if they don’t observe the law so they insisted that the Gentiles follow the law as set forth by Moses.

Paul in this letter basically challenges this thought and ask them a simple question.

Why do you boast in the law when the law does not save you?

Why do you place your hope in the law?

It is not the law that saves you. It is your faith in Christ that gives you peace.

That’s not to diminish the law. Afterall, for the most part, the law was given to them by God but the law was a hinderance.

Because the people became so wrapped up in obeying the laws that they forgot why the laws existed to begin with.

Their obedience to the law was not rooted in love for God or neighbor.

Their obedience to the law was rooted in self-righteousness.

And Paul reminds that Jesus had to die for the sins of humanity because it was impossible for us to be fully obedient to God.

God gave a simple command in the beginning.

God gave the first dietary restriction in the Bible.

God said, “Do not eat from this tree.”

We couldn’t restrain ourselves from disobeying God.

Aaron, the high priest of the Lord couldn’t keep the law as he built a golden calf.

Moses couldn’t as well.

David couldn’t

All of those considered righteous, could not obey the law, therefore we could not be rendered at peace solely through the law.

Again, we are justified, meaning we are at peace with God through faith. And God through the Spirit bestows upon us the gift of assurance and adoption and we move on towards perfection.

In plain terms, “When we put our faith in God. He begins to make us a new creature. We are adopted into his family and he calls us his own and we begin to move towards loving, living, and doing better.

This is where our hope is found. No matter what we go through, we have hope. Those who boast in and place their hope in Christ, will never be ashamed.

In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.