Hope In Darkness

Hi - my name’s Matt and I’m one of the leaders here at Hope City. Whether you’re new with us, just dipping in, or one of our regulars, thanks for making the time.

Well, 2020’s over at last - and good riddance! Good riddance to what was, for almost everyone, a truly, truly rubbish year. I don’t think 2020 will be missed.

And here comes 2021. Woot. Although we might have thought a few weeks ago that there was at least some light at the end of the tunnel, and that things might be thinking about just possibly considering starting to actually get a little bit better, instead we’ve got this. A new variant. Tier 4 joy for everyone. Furlough and debt and redundancies.

And don’t anyone dare even think “well, at least it can’t get any worse”, I’m afraid there’s plenty of ways in which 2021 could indeed still get even worse.

No question, this is a pretty rotten way to start a new year, a pretty bleak opening sequence.

What do you say to someone facing a dark time ahead? How do you encourage people who are in the pits?

Today we’re going to listen to Jesus speaking to his closest followers - we’re going to hear his words to them when they are just about to find themselves in the bleakest, darkest possible moment. They don’t understand what’s ahead - but they’re confused and scared; Jesus has been saying weird, worrying things. They have that awful sense that something dreadful is coming. If we were to read on, we’d discover it is the cross, his death, and that silent Saturday before Easter Sunday.

Now it’s not the same. Bleak though 2021 may look, it’s not that. But I guess they are perhaps feeling a bit like we do as we look ahead into 2021, worrying and wondering. There’s darkness ahead, not light.

What does Jesus have to say? Let’s listen together to Jesus’ words from John’s gospel, that is, John’s telling of the story of Jesus, recorded for us in the bible. We’re in John chapter 13 - that’s the big 13 if you’re navigating a paper bible and we’re starting at verse 33 - the small 33. We’re going to read from the New International Version so if you have a different translation, you might see slightly different words. We’ll put the words up on screen for you but you still might want your own bible open so you can track along or look again at bits.

John 13:33–14:6 NIV

“My children, I will be with you only a little longer. You will look for me, and just as I told the Jews, so I tell you now: Where I am going, you cannot come. “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” Simon Peter asked him, “Lord, where are you going?” Jesus replied, “Where I am going, you cannot follow now, but you will follow later.” Peter asked, “Lord, why can’t I follow you now? I will lay down my life for you.” Then Jesus answered, “Will you really lay down your life for me? Very truly I tell you, before the rooster crows, you will disown me three times! “Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me. My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. You know the way to the place where I am going.” Thomas said to him, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?” Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

Jesus is going away. Going somewhere these disciples, his closest followers, can’t follow. The three amazing years they have spent with him are suddenly at an end.

The one who they thought was going to change everything? Instead he’s leaving. Leaving them behind.

Imagine that; put yourself in their shoes for a moment: you walked away from your business, from your home, from your family - from your whole life. You followed him through the country and city, through miracle and scandal, through awe and anger. Things are obviously going to come to a head imminently, there in Jerusalem. And then: “where I am going, you cannot come.” “where I am going, you cannot follow.” It’s the end of the road.

Imagine you gave up everything to follow this man, Jesus - and now he’s leaving you behind. What are you going to do? What are you going to tell your parents?

Things will never be the same again; the light of the world is leaving. And though they don’t know it yet, their darkest moment is just hours away.

What do you say to people facing darkness? What does Jesus have to say to people facing darkness? Because I think there are things for us to hear, too, in what Jesus says.

I want to briefly touch on three things from what Jesus has to say, three messages for dark times:

Love one another - v34 “as I have loved you, so you must love one another”

You will fail - v38 “before the rooster crows you will disown me three times”

There’s a place for us - 14v2 “I am going there to prepare a place for you”

So Jesus is leaving. What would you expect him to come out with first? What would you expect right after his statement that he’s leaving? We should notice the order here - notice and be surprised. Because there, right at the top of his list is what he calls a new command: “love one another”

Isn’t that a slightly odd place to start? As his followers stare into the abyss, as Jesus prepares to leaves them in darkness... But that’s where Jesus starts. Love one another.

Facing 2021, I think we would be wise to listen to Jesus, and to hear him loud and clear. This, more than ever, is a moment to love one another.

Now the fact that he has to command this at all tells us something: it tells is this isn’t going to be automatic, this isn’t going to be easy. There’d be no need for the command if it was as easy as just turning on the “love” autopilot. But I think most of you know this is a hard command. Love takes energy, it takes time. Love takes decision, it means action. Love calls for more from us when we don’t feel like we have any more to give. Love calls us to put others ahead of ourselves - precisely at that moment we don’t want to.

Now Jesus is no armchair general, here; he will lead from the front as he always has done - when he says “as I have loved you, so you must love one another,” he’s got form, he’s walked the talk. And as we read these words, we know the extent of Jesus’ love even more fully than those first followers did, hearing them; we can see, at the cross, how he was willing to give up even his life for love’s sake.

Love one another - a tall order, a difficult command. But it is the first part of Jesus’ recipe for walking into the darkness. So as we start this new year with trepidation - as many of us are tired and feel we barely have enough energy for ourselves, let alone enough to share with others - these words are still for us. We must love one another. This is part of how we will get through: together.

Notice here that Jesus is speaking specifically to the disciples about loving one another, not the whole world. While we certainly are commanded to love our neighbour, whoever they might be, there is a special place for love and care within the church, between followers of Jesus.

If you’re hearing that and feeling offended or worried you’re excluded, I just want to say to you that the door to Jesus’ church is wide open, that the only one deciding whether you are included or excluded from it is you. Come in - join the community; the only requirement is truly seeking to follow Jesus.

And to make it really practical, if you want to feel like you are - if you want to be more of a part of things here at Hope City, we’d love that. We’re going to run a special session called “New Here” next Sunday which is for people who are.. well, new here. Just forty five minutes on zoom so we can tell you more of what you’re getting into and answer any questions you might have - please sign up at events.hopecityedinburgh.org

And if you’re not new here, but you still don’t feel like you’re a part of things in the way you’d like to be, just sign up too and we can chat there about how to change that, about what’s on and how to get connected. It’s a new year - it’s the perfect time to make a new start, to make things different.

Now - What does it mean to love one another, particularly in these dark times? I think the biggest thing to clarify here is this is not about having a warm, fuzzy feeling when you think about one another, watching everything drift into soft focus and pink-ness with a slow romantic song starting up. This isn’t asking us all to have a teen crush on one another. Love shows itself in action. So when you think about what it really means to love one another in the church, it means action. Now what kind of action? That’s a little more complicated.

See - and this is particularly for the men here - to act out love well, we have understand how others feel loved, what looks like love to them. And it is different. If, say, I was going to love me, I’d be thinking about a nice glass of red wine, and a chance to curl up, just me and my console for a few hours with an ace game. But if I was to think setting up a gaming evening for my wife would be showing her love… well. Let’s just say it wouldn’t quite connect.

This makes loving others doubly hard. Because first, I have to choose to put time and energy into it in the first place, putting them ahead of myself. And then, then, I have to actually figure out what love looks like for them - rather than for me. Which really is the most common error. What is going to show them love?

So let’s be specific. Here’s a new year challenge for you all: can you pick someone this week, ideally someone you know well enough to put yourself in their shoes, but someone in any event, and put the effort in to imagine what might actually show them love? And then summon the energy to actually go do it? Hope City, let’s be a church that loves one another this year.

So, first element in Jesus’ recipe for those facing darkness: love one another. As we head into another year, let’s challenge ourselves again to follow in Jesus’ footsteps, and love one another deeply. Brighten these dark times a bit.

Second thing - and I don’t think it’s an accident that this follows hot on the heels of “love one another” - second thing: you will fail. We are going to fail.

Now Peter, Jesus’ #1 fanboy, really has the gift of putting his foot in it, of shooting from the hip. And he’s at it again here. Peter’s not going to be left behind by Jesus no matter where Jesus goes. Peter is ready to go anywhere with him. Peter will go all the way - to death, even, if that’s what it takes... So he thinks. “I will lay down my life for you.” Maybe Peter’s motor-mouth was just getting ahead of him again and he was blurting out whatever first tickled his neurons but maybe Peter really thought he was ready to go all the way, to die if it came to it.

Sometimes I think about how I’d stack up if things got really serious, whether I’d really have the guts to get a fine, to go prison … even to die. Now and then, I feel like I’ve really got it, that I’d do it, no matter what. But most of the time I’m more modest, more realistic. I know just how weak I am, just how much of a struggle it is for me to do the tiny things like speak about Jesus to people in ordinary conversation - and I worry I wouldn’t cut the mustard. I know some people do - brothers and sisters around the world face worse than we can imagine for following Jesus - and they still follow. But would I? I guess we’ll only find out if we actually end up on the spot.

Jesus knew that Peter was going to be on the spot in just hours. And, whether it was just bluster from Peter, or he really thought he was ready to die, Jesus knew how it would turn out: he just wasn’t that man. Instead, he’d lie and curse and disown Jesus again and again.

Are you going to walk the talk in this year of pandemic? Are you going to own up to being a follower of Jesus, even when it’s awkward? Are you going to love your brothers and sisters even when it’s hard? Are you going to trust that God is good even when things are bad? Are you going to hold on hope when all you can see is darkness?

I think Jesus is telling us here the answer is “no”. We are going to fail. Not all the time, not every time, perhaps not even that often if you’re extraordinary. But we are going to fail.

How do you respond to that? What do we do with this truth that we’re all going to fail sometimes, fall sometimes? Do we just shrug and try again? Brush it off and get back up? Or does it hit us a bit harder? Really, deep inside, does it make us feel we’re a fraud, a fake? Do we fear the day when people find out that we don’t really measure up? Does failure - even the fear of failure - crush your hope and make you feel like you can’t really belong here?

Well it shouldn’t - if your hope is built on you nailing it, you’ve misunderstood Christianity. Christianity is for people who FAIL it not nail it.

When you read this passage in the bible, there’s a giant number 14 between the end of Jesus’ foretelling of Peter’s failure and what he says next. But these chapter numbers weren’t there in the beginning - they’re just to help us navigate. They certainly weren’t there in Jesus’ mouth. As John records it, the very next thing Jesus says after foretelling Peter will abandon him - the very next thing he says is: “do not let your hearts be troubled.” That’s the next word out of his mouth.

Wow. Can you imagine being inside Peter’s head. One moment he’s devastated: Jesus doesn’t believe I am really with him. Jesus thinks I’m going to fold when the pressure’s on. Maybe I am really just going to fail once the pressure’s on. And then the next moment Jesus tells him - and the others - “do not let your hearts be troubled”.

How? How can you not be troubled when you’ve just been told that when the chips are down and your back’s against the wall, at that key moment, you’re going to fail?

Here’s the answer: because it’s not about you. That is our answer, the one we have to own in the depths of this pandemic when we fail and fail and fail again; when we disappoint ourselves - let alone Jesus. It’s not about us. It doesn’t depend on us. My performance is not what determines my future, my identify. My performance is not the foundation for my hope. It is Jesus’ performance.

So we are going to fail - but, when we fail, right there in the moment, Jesus also says to us “do not let your hearts be troubled.” Don’t wallow in it. Don’t just roll over and see how far failed you can go. Don’t be defined by it. Don’t lose heart. Why?

Jesus explains: v2-3 he has gone on ahead of us, he has prepared a place for us, he will return, he will bring us to be with him. Now I don’t know what you think about heaven, or how much you think about heaven, but Jesus’ preparation of his followers who face darkness, Jesus’ response to our failure, is not to tell them “try harder” or “do better”, it’s not to tell them “it doesn’t hurt” or “it’s not that bad.” Jesus’ response is to tell them, to insist to them, that their future, their destination, their hope is assured. Jesus has prepared a place for us - a place for you, a place for me. We will make it. He will come and take us there, one day. This end, it is unshakeable, unbreakable.

Yes, there might be darkness to walk through - but a hope like this can help us carry on through dark times. Yes, we might fail and fall along the way - but a hope like this can pick us up when we’ve fallen. Yes, it is so hard to have the care and energy to love one another, but a hope like this can give us strength to look outside of ourselves and to love.

So do not let your hearts be troubled - because we will make it. We will make to our promised destination. There is a place prepared for us - like a setting, ready at a table, a seat just waiting for us to fill it.

Here’s where we close this morning: how can we have this assurance of reaching that destination? What is the unshakeable hope built upon? Why is there hope even in darkness, hope even when we fail? Because Jesus - Jesus alone - is the way there.

So often we’re like Thomas - here, when Jesus gives this confident assurance of their future as they face darkness, Thomas’ comeback is “we don’t even know where you are going! So how could we possibly know the way there?!” We don’t find it easy to grasp these big ideas, these wonderful things. We don’t find it easy to believe God himself has a place prepared - a place especially made and set just for us. A place that can be ours even though we fail and fall. Thomas can’t get his head around that. He can get his head around things just carrying on - he’d much prefer that Jesus never left. Thomas can’t imagine the further, better, higher things Jesus is speaking about.

But Jesus has to leave because Jesus alone is the only way that we could ever have that assurance, that hope. Like Jesus says, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” Jesus has to go - to prepare our place, to open the way. The only way we, people who fail and fall, could ever be with God, could ever be worthy of life in his presence, is through Jesus. Jesus takes our failing and our darkness on himself, and opens the way for us to be with the Father in his place - in him.

Maybe you know these things in your head but you’ve struggled to really believe them. Maybe you’ve never heard these things before and they are strange and new. Today, as we face a dark year, maybe you’re wondering how you’re going to make it through. Can I encourage you to explore faith with us this year. To explore being a part of this family where, though we often fail, our goal is to love one another. To explore sharing in this hope, that through Jesus, there really is a place prepared for us. Beyond all the darkness of this world and out into God’s perfect and glorious light.

Let me give you just thirty seconds to reflect on what we’ve talked about this morning, and then we’ll pray.

[30 sec]

Let’s pray

...

Now we’re going to respond together in song - Our God is For Us - if you don’t know the song, listen to the wonderful words of assurance and truth - of real hope through Jesus, the way. If you know the song, and you know it’s true, sing it loud this morning and try and drive these things from your head into your heart. Our God is For Us.