A Sermon in the Series on Practicing our Faith: Courage, Change, Hope

REFORMATION SUNDAY 
A Sermon in the Series on Practicing our Faith: Courage, Change, Hope 
JUDITH B. BRAIN 
TEXT: PSALM 130, ROMANS 
OCTOBER 29, 2017 
SECOND CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH OF BEVERY, UCC ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ INTRODUCTION TO THE SCRIPTURE 
Because today many churches are celebrating the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation, I decided to preach on how that reformation resonates with Second Church. When Martin Luther challenged the dominant ways religion was practiced he was advocating a huge change. And in demanding that change, he had to be a man of courage. Courage and change, courage to change. Those were the practices of faith I thought I’d emphasize.

This congregation has had to make some daring choices. It is said that the greatest disloyalty one can offer to our pioneers is to refuse to move an inch from where they stood. In order to survive, we must embrace change; in order to embrace change, we must be brave. So, change it was. And I thought change and courage were the qualities we would have to draw on in the coming year. But then, I got stuck. Every time I turned my thoughts to what it meant to be courageous, or how we navigate change, there was this neon sign flashing in my brain. It said HOPE … HOPE!

Yes, I think hope needs to precede change. Hope needs to motivate courage. We don’t take a leap of faith if we do not believe there is something worth leaping into.

I’ve chosen a Psalm of hope to anchor this sermon. But it sure doesn’t start out very hopeful. In fact the whole Psalm comes from a place of deep pain. And I think that is important. Hope isn’t a rosy optimism that denies reality. Hope is often rooted in despair.

Read the Psalms. They are full of anger, misery, fear, grief, impatience, blaming. Yeah, we know those emotions. We read them in blogs and tweets, we hear them from our children, we express them ourselves. They are in the air we breathe. War and terror, killings and chaos, leaders let us down, institutions crumble. So much negativity. It was the same for the writers of the Psalms. They complain for themselves, they complain on behalf of their people, and mostly they complain to God. But it's important to realize that the Psalms don't stop with the complaint. They go on to hope. Listen to these excerpts from Psalm 130

PSALM 130 
     Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord. Lord, hear my voice! Let your ears be attentive to the               voice of my supplications! 

     If you, O Lord, should mark iniquities, Lord, who could stand? But there is forgiveness with you,       so that you may be revered. 

     I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, and in God's word I hope; my soul waits for the Lord more            than those who watch for the morning, more than those who watch for the morning. 

     O Israel, hope in the Lord! For with the Lord there is steadfast love, and with God is great power         to redeem. It is he who will redeem Israel from all its iniquities. 

SLEEPING WITH BREAD 
During the bombing raids of World War II, thousands of children were orphaned and placed in refugee camps. Even though they received food and good care many who had lost home, parents, everything … they could not sleep at night. They feared waking up to find themselves once again homeless and without food. Nothing seemed to reassure them. Finally, someone hit upon the idea of giving each child a piece of bread to hold at bedtime. Holding their bread, these children could finally sleep in peace. All though the night the bread reminded them, “Today I ate and I will eat again tomorrow.” (Sleeping with Bread: Holding What Gives You Life. Dennis, Sheila and Matthew Linn)

HALLELUJAH ANYWAY 
The Psalms function as our bread. They remind us of God's faithfulness in the midst of despair. These poems may be laments but they almost always end with bread to hold on to; inspiring statements of confidence that God will provide because that is their experience of God. God carried them through dire times in the past, God will do it again. Somewhere in a cathedral in New York City this inscription is carved on a wall. "Hallelujah anyway! God is with us." That’s kinda the lament Psalms in a nutshell.

One of the reasons we come to church is to hear testimonies of hope. These are the crusts of bread that help us sleep at night. These are the reminders that God has given us what we need in the past and will do so again. We hold this bread so that we can have courage in the midst of change.

BREAD FROM OUR WITNESSES During our stewardship campaign, people in our congregation have offered us bread – testimonies of God’s faithfulness made real through the church.

Martin Luther gave us bread in his great hymn, “A Mighty Fortress is our God.” He was often in danger. The emperor declared him an outlaw and made it a crime for anyone in Germany to give him food or shelter. He permitted anyone to kill Martin without consequence. Yet Luther sang, “Our help is he amid the flood of mortal ills prevailing.”

Mahatma Gandhi offers us bread from his tradition: He writes. When I despair, I remember that all through history, the way of truth and love has always won. There have been murderers and tyrants, and for a time they can seem invincible. But in the end they always fall. Think of it, always. 

And here is a piece of bread from the Benedictine theologian, Joan Chittester: Despair says that there is no place to go but here. Hope says that God is waiting for us someplace else. Begin again.”

In a church I served, there was a family – parents and two teen-aged daughters. Three of those four family members were diagnosed with cancer at the same time. The mother wrote:
It's overwhelming, tiring, and discouraging. There is worry and fear. But, now that everything is stripped away, I know what really matters. I know what family means, how true friends behave and how many true friends there are— even among people I don't know. And I know more about God than I ever thought I would. 
Bread of hope from a family besieged.

HOPE IS MULTIPLIED BY PUTTING IT IN PRACTICE 
We can become paralyzed by despair or cynicism, enslaved by fear to the point that we cannot act. Hope presents us with the belief that things can be different. Hope gives us courage.

The historian Howard Zinn writes:
 To be hopeful in bad times is not just foolishly romantic. It is based on the fact that human history is a history not only of cruelty, but also of compassion, sacrifice, courage, kindness.

What we choose to emphasize in this complex history will determine our lives. If we see only the worst, it destroys our capacity to do something. But we must remember those times and places —and there are so many— where people behaved magnificently. This gives the energy to act, and at least the possibility of sending this … world in a different direction. …. To live now as we think a human being should live, in defiance of all that is bad around us, is itself a marvelous victory. And this is what the church encourages; to live now as we think human beings should live, in defiance of all that is bad around us.

Stories of hope are sustaining to all of us. We feed on them. And there is something even more sustaining. This is the trustworthiness of God. The truly safe place is that quiet center within us where God resides. And that safe place remains whether our body lives or dies.

We may "hope for" certain outcomes and successes and sometime our hopes are fulfilled and sometimes we do not get what we hope for. But what never fails is "hope in." My soul hopes in the Lord. God is the mighty fortress, the bulwark never failing. Have hope in God in times of trouble. With this assurance we too can say, "Hallelujah anyway! God is with us."

BENEDICTION: 
One: Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?

All: No! For we are convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.