Rev. Michael Ewart Good Shepherd Lutheran Church and School
Finding Hope When You've Lost It
Has life ever pushed you to a point where you felt like you lost all hope? Perhaps you're there now. Any number of things can push us to that point. Perhaps you struggle with a habitual sin or addiction. Perhaps someone you loved passed away. A rocky relationship can do it. Pain or chronic illness saps away hope. Job loss or budget strains can pull you down. Maybe you're having a good old fashioned midlife crisis.
These are all serious circumstances that knock you off your feet. Did any of them resonate with you? Or are there other circumstances that are sapping away hope and leaving you scared?
Would it surprise you to know that the Bible is full of examples of believers who felt just like you're feeling now? Job, after losing his family, wealth and health said, "Does not man have hard service on earth? . I have been allotted months of futility, and nights of misery have been assigned to me. When I lie down I think, 'How long before I get up?' The night drags on, and I toss till dawn . My days . come to an end without hope. Remember, O God, that my life is but a breath; my eyes will never see happiness again." And this type of talk is not unique. It's found throughout Job . and the Psalms too. (See, for example, Psalms 13:1-2; 77:4-9; 89:46-49; 6:1-7 and pretty much all of Psalm 38.)
Why do things happen in life that lead us to the edge of hopelessness? They happen to remind us that God has marked us and this world "Perishable." We easily forget the simple truth that this world is messed up. It's broken. We are messed up. We are broken. So God wants us to recognize that our help.our hope.will not come from this world, or even from within ourselves. Our intellect, resources, strength . they are too little. In his love and in his mercy, God teaches us that until we despair of the fake power source and hope center (self), we will never turn to the true power source and hope center (God.) God is gracious enough to help us identify the things we have turned in to counterfeit gods by taking them away from us. He smashes our idols so he can see the true God.
And true hope he gives us. "But now, Lord, what do I look for? My hope is in you" (Psalm 39:7). Your hope in the Lord will prove well founded. Will God choose to restore what you have lost? Will you get a job? Restore the relationship? Will the pain go away? That I can't say for sure, because God hasn't promised it. But he has promised greater, better things than these. When you struggle with your faith, flee to the cross. At the cross you see the perfect Son of God hanging, bleeding and dying. Why? Because God loves you. Your sin and guilt are on him. He smiles at you as he willingly pays the price to set you free and declare you not guilty. Hear Jesus call out to you personally, looking you straight in the eye, saying, "It is finished." The payment is complete. Your guilt is atoned for. You're sins forgiven. Life is given. And you are granted a close and intimate relationship with the Creator of all things forever and ever and ever.
Whatever you're facing that is leading you down the path of hopelessness, abandon whatever you used to turn to for hope, and cling only to Jesus. Go to the cross, then to the empty tomb. Look, and you will find what you thought you lost: hope.
Rev. Barry L. Venanrd, Senior Minister Unity of Omaha
The 10:30 a.m. Sunday service at Unity of Omaha will focus on "Loving the Possible." The deepest impulse in human beings is to evolve the capacity to create the possible. It is to transcend the limitations of one's habits and history in order to create something new and better. This creative impulse is often experienced spiritually as the loving presence of God. Informed by this divine love, it is felt to be the truest nature of one's self.
When human beings, through spiritual practices, discover their deepest and most authentic self they gain access to the creative energy of divine love. God is Love as proclaimed by Jesus Christ. In that realm one awakens to a state of oneness with God and all creation. It's in that state of awakened oneness that a new self; a new sense of "I Am" emerges. That's what Jesus Christ experienced and what He taught as the future and salvation of humankind. The Good News is that it's present and accessible today. It's what Jesus meant when He said, "the Kingdom of God is within (or among) you." There is, however, a sacrifice to be made. The sacrifice is the small, limited self. It is the small "I am" self consciousness that is made up of old habitual ways of fearful and limited thinking that must be transcended for the larger divine "I Am" self to emerge. That's what Jesus was talking about in His seemingly cryptic statement: "Whoever finds his life will lose it and, whoever loses his life for my sake will find it." Finding this brings the greatest experience of life possible. It brings peace, satisfaction and meaning at levels impossible to find in any other way.
At no time in history has it been more important for human beings to take this next step in the evolution of human consciousness. It's the step of awakening to the ultimate truth of Divine Love and expressing that truth in the stories of our lives and in the cultures we create. When we do, anything is possible. Loving the Possible brings great hope and great expectations of good for ourselves, for others and for the future generations who will inherit the world we are creating today.
Rev. Matt Nieman First Presbyterian Church, Bellevue Based on Mark 1:40-45
We see evidence of the Holy in different venues, such as the beauty of a new morning or the healing of another who has come back from the depths of despair to lead a healthy life again. But most of the time, we see evidence of God in the rallying around of someone in need by friends or strangers.
Our model is Christ, who couldn't help but come to the rescue. He had to help — he was compelled to come to the assistance of anyone who came in front of him. Sometimes he did it at his own peril — risking his own well-being for the sake of another. And yet, rarely could he stop himself from being the balm for someone's broken body or broken heart.
In Mark 1, it was a leper who came begging — begging to be given healing of his affliction. Lepers were outcasts in the society of the day. They were on the margins as much as anybody was. It was early in Jesus' teaching ministry; he no doubt was on the move to scores of others he felt compelled to reach out to with a message of redemption and grace.
But here, amidst the cries of the sick leper in front of him, he can't help himself.
"If you choose, you can make me clean," the man says. And Jesus' response is, "I do choose. Be made clean!"
Even more impressive than the healing Jesus imparts is his insistence for being present to this man. He wasn't going to walk by him and leave him. He wasn't going to turn his head the other way. He wasn't going to ignore the one who had been ignored by others repeatedly because of his status and condition.
Today, Jesus is present for all. There are people in enormous crises who feel great anxiety about what is happening to them. He can't walk by them without loving them, whether they are the outcast or the upstanding.
We see God in the words or actions of someone who can't help but stop to give compassion, assistance, or encouragement to another. There's a model for this kind of behavior. It's one we call Lord — Jesus, who chose and still chooses to make us well.
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