Ancient~Future Faith and Hope
Ancient~Future Faith and Hope
Romans 4:18-25
Third Sunday After Pentecost
In the early days of the Tennessee Valley Project (TVA), a dilapidated log homestead had to be abandoned to make room for a lake behind the dam. A new home on the hillside had already been erected for the cabin's poor Appalachian family, but they refused to move into their beautiful new split-level ranch ("splanch," as they called it).
The day of the flooding arrived, but still the family refused to move. As the bulldozers were brought in, the Appalachian family brought out their shotguns. No amount of legal brandishings or bulldozer menacings would budge this family from their cabin.
Then someone from the TVA decided to try one last‑ditch effort to end the stalemate. They called in a social worker to talk with the family and Find out what their problem was. "We ain't goin' anywhere," the family announced to the social worker. "Nobody can make us. We're not budging no matter how many threats you make or how rundown our li'l cabin may look to you!"
The social worker pleaded, "Help me to explain to the authorities why you won't move into your beautiful new home."
"See chat fire over there?" the man asked, pointing to a blazing fire in the primitive hearth of the log cottage. "My grandpa built that fire over a hundred years ago," the man explained. "He never let it go out, for he had no matches and it was a long way to a neighbor's. Then my pa tended the fire, and since he died, I've tended it. None of us ever let it die, and I ain't a‑goin' to move away now and let grandpa's fire go out!"
This gave the social worker an idea. She arranged for a large apple butter kettle to be delivered to the home. She explained to the family that they could scoop up the live coals from the fire and carry them to the new home where they would then be poured out and fresh kindling added. In this way grandpa's fire need never go out. Would this be acceptable?
This Appalachian family huddled, and then agreed to move from their shack in the hollow to the new home on the hillside. But they wouldn't budge‑until they could take with them the fire of their ancestors.
The past is important because it gives us comfort and hope in the present. But it should also give us direction for the future.[1]
A section from today’s epistle lesson; Romans 4:18,21, “Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed… being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised.”[2] We continue to explore Romans and the message the Holy Spirit brings to up by way of the Apostle Paul.
Hope! It is what drives us forward. When people lose hope they despair and give up. But when there is hope we carry on. And we have a message of hope – hope in God. This hope is what has been passed on to all generations and drives the church forward, or at least it should. Our hope is based in our reliance and trust in God to fulfill what He has promised. Our hope is rooted in Jesus Christ who came, as was promised, fulfilled the life we should have led and died for us so that we could be made right in God’s righteous judgment.
Our hope looks to the past and sees God’s working with His people. We have the story of Abraham as Paul illustrates for us. Even when Abraham and Sarah were beyond childbearing years God fulfilled in them His promise. Not without Abraham trying to speed things up. Abraham and Sarah decided that if they were going to have a child it would have to be through Sarah’s servant Hagar. So Abraham has a child with her, but this was not what God had promised. Did Abraham lose hope? Maybe for a moment, but God in His merciful patience, works with Abraham and brings him to an understanding that God has the power to do what He promises. That is hope – a trust that what has been promised will come to pass. It is a definition of our faith as Hebrews 11:1-2, “Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. This is what the ancients were commended for.”[3]
Hope looks forward. Hope drives us. Eugene Peterson states in his book, Living the Message, “Christian hope alerts us to the possibilities of the future as a field of action, and as a consequence fills the present with energy.”[4] Our hope doesn’t lead to inactivity and waiting, but spurs us on to activity in the present. If it doesn’t then our hope is futile. It is like the story of the Appalachian family. They were stuck in their home that would soon be swept away because they didn’t know how to move forward. They were right in wanting to preserve the fire of their past in the present, but they lost sight that this fire needed to be carried on to the future.
Our message of hope in Christ our Savior is that fire we cling to. We do well as Lutherans in preserving that message that fire but it does not good if it is not a carried to the next generation in a way that transforms their lives like it has ours. In fact it is in the passing on of our faith, our hope that we ourselves are strengthened in our faith. Paul says in our text that this message of Abraham was not only for him but also for us as well. The promise in this text that God fulfills through righteousness is the raising to live that which is dead. Sarah and Abraham’s “dead” bodies in childbearing and Christ Jesus’ death on the cross. God brings new life, transformation from death to life, for all who believe. That is the hope we have – transformation from death to life: in the story above, from the ultimate death of the fire to its resurrection in a new place. That is the image and message of the church – transforming lives through the message of Christ.
“We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure.”[5] (Hebrews 6:19) Hope plants us firm in our faith and produces patience rooted in the confident expectation that God will fulfill all that He promises no matter what we face here and now. That is the message in the calming of the storm by Jesus in Mark chapter 4. The disciples are out on the Sea of Galilee when a terrible storm comes. They think they will be destroyed so they wake Jesus and ask Him if He even cares if they drowned. Jesus then gets up and calms the storm. A mighty miracle, but then Jesus does something strange. He turns to His disciples and scolds them for lack of faith. Why? Because the greater miracle would have been the calming of their spirits in the midst of the storm. Christian hope perseveres in the midst of trouble knowing that in the end God’s good and gracious will will be done.
We look to the past to see God’s action. It builds in us a confidence that fills us with hope for the future and the present. Hope is a trust and reliance in God. Hope in God allows us to give up our own inadequate control. Hope keeps the flames of faith alive in us. Hope is the catalyst for our missional action in the world.
“O Israel, put your hope in the Lord both now and forevermore.”[6] (Psalm 131:3) Anchor your life in the life-giver, Christ Jesus. Let hope build and spur you on to action. Look hopefully to the future knowing that God will see you through. Let hope guide you now and bring about action. Don’t get stuck in the past, thinking that preserving is better than persevering. Let that fire of faith carry you to places and people who need the hope you have in Jesus Christ.
“O Israel, put your hope in the Lord both now and forevermore.”
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[1] Sweet, Leonard, Denise Marie Siino, A Cup of Coffee at the Soul Café. Broadman & Holman; Nashville Tennessee, 1998, p.82-83.
[2]The Holy Bible : New International Version. 1996, c1984 (Ro 4:21). Grand Rapids: Zondervan.
[3]The Holy Bible : New International Version. 1996, c1984 (Heb 11:1-2). Grand Rapids: Zondervan.
[4] Eugene Peterson, Living the Message, 151
[5]The Holy Bible : New International Version. 1996, c1984 (Heb 6:19). Grand Rapids: Zondervan.
[6]The Holy Bible : New International Version. 1996, c1984 (Ps 131:3). Grand Rapids: Zondervan.