Hope Ain't A Hustle

Intro

Hebrews 1:1–4 ESV

1 Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, 2 but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. 3 He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, 4 having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs.

I want to spend a few minutes this morning with what I pray will be some encouragement. It’s connected to what I shared last night about my prayer for our church that we will more fully live out the implications of what we say we believe. I’m particularly talking about living out our confessional commitments in a way that has us leaning into the kingdom mission opportunities our culture is presenting us.

I came into the PCA 20 years ago through a church plant outside of DC that was being pastored by Rev. Kevin Smith. Kev became a good friend and mentor. After 7 years of planting and pastoring Mount Zion Covenant Church, he took a call to Pinelands Presbyterian Church in the Miami area. To this day I think that Kev still refers to himself as a recovering church planter. It took a lot out of him. It took a lot out of his wife Sandi. I wish Parakaleo had been around for her when they were planting.

There’s so much in ministry that is frankly impossible to do or sustain apart from the Holy Spirit’s work. And it’s easy to fade into discouragement.

Last year I published a book titled The Beautiful Community: Unity, Diversity, and the Church at Its Best. I tried to make the case that God, as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit eternally exists in mutually loving, mutually supporting, mutually honoring, mutually glorifying diverse community. He is the perfection of unity in diversity and diversity in unity as beautiful community. And this has profound implications for who we are created to be as his image. We were created to image him as beautiful community.

And one of the questions I regularly get about the book is, how do we hold on to hope for that vision in the here and now? It is too hard. The hope can seem like a hustle. Y’all know what a hustle is, right?

In 2003 my oldest son and I took Amtrak from the BWI Airport Station to NYC Penn Station. He was almost 11 at the time, and certainly used to going to NYC. Brooklyn was my hometown and the borough of his birth. We moved to Maryland when he was two, so he only knew the city as a visitor. The purpose of this particular trip was to move the piano from my parent’s house in Brooklyn, to our home in Maryland. My cousin in Brooklyn did a little moving as his side gig on weekends. He and I were going to move the van, while his son and my son (who were similar ages) would get to spend some time together.

This story, however, is not about the piano or the van. When my son and I arrived a Penn Station we made our way from the Amtrak exit to the MTA entrance. As we stood at the machine to purchase MetroCards, I heard a voice behind me, a short distance away. “Yo big man! Yo big man!” I’m not the largest human being, but I’m not small either. I had little doubt that this gentleman was trying to get my attention. I’d ridden the train in NYC for over 30 years by that point and had developed the necessary skill of ignoring people you did not want to be bothered with. My son had not developed that skill. So, he taps me on the side and says, “Dad, I think that guy over there is trying to talk to you.” Exhaling, I turn to see what this dude wants, expecting that he’ll be asking for something.

“Yo, I got MetroCards man. Whatever amount you need! Look, you either gonna give the money to me or to Bloomberg! And I need it more!” It wasn’t exactly the scene of a man with a long black trench coat opening it to display all kinds of items for sale. But that was the vibe! And you have to respect his pitch. I laughed on the inside when he said I was either going to give my money to him or to Mayor Michael Bloomberg. He’d charge me less for a MetroCard than I’d pay if I went with the legal way of obtaining a card, through the machine. This, my friends, is called a hustle. He was trying to make some money outside of the system. I had no idea how he obtained those MetroCards of varying values. I also had no way of validating whether those cards had any money on them prior to giving him my money in exchange for two cards. My reply to him was a question, “Do you take debit cards? Cause that’s all I’ve got.” With that, he went on his way to the next potential customer (or victim).

Growing up and living in a city like NY, you get used to the hustle. You might even end up doing a little hustling yourself. The hustler offers someone something of value, or something they desire. If you were to obtain this thing of value through the prescribed means it would cost you much more that what the hustler is selling it for. You might not even be able to afford it if you went the legitimate route. Typically, the first question you ask is not about the morality of the transaction. Should I purchase this even though I don’t know how it was obtained? No. Our first concern is likely around the issue of trust. Can I trust the hustler? Am I going to be the victim of a hustle?

When, in the past few years, you’ve seen articles about the quiet exodus of Black people out of majority White evangelical spaces, it’s because they feel like they’ve been hustled by evangelicalism. When Pass the Mic did their Leave Loud series earlier this year they were implying we’ve been sold a bill of goods by evangelicalism.

A primary problem is that woven into the fabric of the Christian faith is hope. Not hope as an idea or a wish but hope as a confident trust in God and his promises. This hope drives us to a disposition towards others that begins with respect. Our current culture of contempt, with its deep divides within the American church makes it difficult to hold on to hope. In January 2020 our Institute for Cross-Cultural Mission held a Clergy Story Table event in Washington, DC. I facilitated our Story Table conversation on the issue of racial justice and the Church. We brought together a local diverse group of ten pastors for this purpose. There was ethnic diversity (African American, Korean American, Venezuelan, and Anglo American). They were theologically diverse (Baptist, Mennonite, Methodist, and Presbyterian). Our conversation was honest and sometimes raw. One sentiment shared, particularly by two of the African American pastors was that they believed the visions of Revelation 5:9-10 and 7:9-12 will come to pass one day, but they do not expect to experience the reality of it in their local churches today. “I don’t trust that white people are serious about reconciliation and justice issues. They’re not willing to pursue it unless they are in control.” The temptation in this current moment, particularly for ethnic minorities, is to stay in and focus on their ethnic ecclesial spaces. In response to this tension a pastor friend recently told me, “I just feel like going back into all-Black everything.” I understand and know this frustration personally. The focus on race, justice, and even reconciliation in Christian circles brings with it accusations of bowing to Critical Race Theory and Marxist ideology. The polarization is deep.

What does a robust embrace of Christian hope look like in practice? In her book, Unfettered Hope, Marva Dawn writes,

“We use the English noun and verb hope in many ways—to signify what we anticipate or expect, what we would recommend if we could control things, what we most earnestly desire or wish for if we could have our own way, or what we truly believe in or in what or whom we have confidence.” (xii)

The pastors who told me that they do not expect to experience or see the kind of reunion of humanity across these lines deep difference were expressing a lack of hope. Holding on to this kind of hope can feel like an exercise in futility. It can feel like a hustle. And who wants to be on the wrong end of a hustle? God, however, is not a hustler. And the hope he calls us into cannot be built on naïve expectations that more and more people will see things the way that we see them. Our hope cannot be built on arrogant assumptions that we are completely right in the positions we take. Our hope cannot even be built on an expectation of steady improvement. If the arc of the moral universe does indeed bend towards justice, that arc will never be smooth and straight from a human perspective. It will have twists and turns, ups and downs, starts and stops. Our hope, if it is to be enduring, must be rooted in the glory of Jesus Christ.

Do you hear how the Pastor begins his word of exhortation to the Hebrews? The Son is heir over everything. The Son is the one through whom God created the world. In the very first sentences of this letter we have almost everything we need to live with an indescribable depth of hopefulness! Try and try as we might, there doesn’t seem to be any unassailable reason to be hopeful about justice, about joy, about shalom.

Yet, the first thing that the Pastor says to his struggling, suffering congregation is that God has spoken to us in his Son. The Son is reigning over the whole creation. He is, in fact, the source sustainer of that creation. In other words, apart from Jesus, this is no viable reason to have hope in or for this world.

What’s going to keep you going?

Hebrews 6:17–20 ESV

17 So when God desired to show more convincingly to the heirs of the promise the unchangeable character of his purpose, he guaranteed it with an oath, 18 so that by two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us. 19 We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain, 20 where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf, having become a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.

Hebrews 10:35–36 ESV

35 Therefore do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. 36 For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what is promised.

He wants them to endure, not to give up. But he doesn’t start out his letter, his sermon, to them by saying, “hold on,” “don’t be discouraged,” “keep the faith.” These are all things that he will say and imply later in the letter. But his starting point, in these beginning verses, is with the unrivaled glory, majesty and authority of the Son of God.

If they’re going to endure through the chaos of life, particularly as a Christian, what has to be in view is how glorious Jesus is.