Rejoice in Hope

April 19, 2020 1 Peter 1:3-9 Easter: Rejoice in Hope 2nd Sunday of Easter Children’s Sermon Object: An athletic shoe Many of you may have tennis shoes or running shoes at home like these. Some of you might have some shoes that say "Nike" on them. It is not my purpose this morning to give a commercial for Nikes. It is the name that interests me. We are told that back before the time of Jesus there were terrible wars just as there are sometimes today. When an invading army approached a city, the defenders would go out to face the army. The fate of the city would be determined. If there was defeat, the men would be killed or enslaved, the women would be abused, families would be torn apart, and children would be sold as slaves. The people in the city had no way of knowing the news of the battle except by a message carried by a runner. If there was defeat, he tore his clothes, put on ashes and cried, "Woe, woe, defeat." People would try to get away but rarely could. When there was a victory, the runner would be stripped to the waist. He carried a palm branch in his hand. As he ran, perspiration would cover his body. He would be shining in the late afternoon sun. People knew the message even before he arrived. He would run through the city gates and cry, "Nike! Nike!" Nike means victory. The runner was shouting, "Victory! Victory!" This is the first Sunday after Easter. This is a time of putting on our running shoes and shouting, "victory, victory." In our lesson from Peter today, we read about "inexpressible joy." That is what Jesus' resurrection brings us--inexpressible joy. Nike. Victory. Dynamic Preaching, Collected Sermons, by King Duncan Prelude Welcome and announcements Congregational care – what does recovery look like? Attendance in the comments The following Liturgical elements for worship are reprinted by permission from The Worship Sourcebook, Second Edition, © 2013, Faith Alive Christian Resources. For all other uses, please contact the copyright holder. Invitation to Worship (p. 60) God calls us to worship, AND WE COME! Some with laughter and songs of joy. God calls us to worship, AND WE COME! Some from a sense of obligation or habit. God calls us to worship, AND WE COME! Some with hearts heavy with grief. God calls us to worship, AND WE COME! Some with distraction or exhaustion. God calls us to worship, AND WE COME! Some with eagerness or enthusiasm. God calls us to worship, AND WE COME! Some with stress, loneliness or depression. As God’s dearly loved children, We bring all our joy and pain, hurt and hope Into this place of Spirit-given grace, love, and hope Stewardship Moment This is the season of Easter – the season of new life. Our theme for today is hope. But we also cannot deny that there is a lot of hopelessness right now. There is a lot for us to be discouraged about. Have you ever noticed that when you are hopeless, you start to feel that nothing that you do makes a difference. You become convinced that there are no answers that have not been tried. We become convinced that there is nothing that God can do to make a difference. We start to shut down, close the doors and refuse to let the sunshine of God in our lives. Easter is about opening the pathways of life. Hope is that opening. Hope gives us the power to make a difference. Hope leads to a giving spirit. – When we gives to others, we give to ourselves. We are here as a church to give the world hope in spite of what the news says. Let us not forget our church, most importantly let us not forget the mission to bring hope to the world. In this easter season, reach out and give to the church. Offering plate will not be passed, but you can send in your offering, or online giving, or automatic giving. That offering makes a difference. Scripture 1 Peter 1:3-9 Common English Bible (CEB) Thanksgiving 3 May the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ be blessed! On account of his vast mercy, he has given us new birth. You have been born anew into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. 4 You have a pure and enduring inheritance that cannot perish—an inheritance that is presently kept safe in heaven for you. 5 Through his faithfulness, you are guarded by God’s power so that you can receive the salvation he is ready to reveal in the last time. 6 You now rejoice in this hope, even if it’s necessary for you to be distressed for a short time by various trials. 7 This is necessary so that your faith may be found genuine. (Your faith is more valuable than gold, which will be destroyed even though it is itself tested by fire.) Your genuine faith will result in praise, glory, and honor for you when Jesus Christ is revealed. 8 Although you’ve never seen him, you love him. Even though you don’t see him now, you trust him and so rejoice with a glorious joy that is too much for words. 9 You are receiving the goal of your faith: your salvation. Common English Bible (CEB) Copyright © 2011 by Common English Bible Sermon All of the scriptures of the lectionary fell together in a special way today. Usually I only focus on one scripture so that I can stick to one theme. But today they already have a common theme. That theme is faith. They contrast a faith that we can see and a faith that we cannot see. The Gospel lesson is about doubting Thomas, who needed to see the nails in Jesus hand in order to believe. Jesus obliges his faith, but says that blessed are those who don’t see and yet believe in Jesus for themselves. That will be the lesson that many people will hear today. But I thought I would talk about the lesson in 1 Peter. Which focuses on those who have undying faith in a Christ that they have never seen. I want to start out actually sharing the words of the Psalm 16. Once when I was going through a faith crisis, these words spoke to me and I printed them out and put them on my wall to read everyday. Protect me, God, because I take refuge in you. 2 I say to the LORD, “You are my Lord. Apart from you, I have nothing good.” The words that I needed to cling to You, LORD, are my portion, my cup; you control my destiny. 6 The property lines have fallen beautifully for me; yes, I have a lovely home. CEB The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; surely I have a delightful inheritance. NIV In the midst of all that I may have, all that I may have lost, God is my inheritance. 1 Peter is known as the letter of hope. And Peter uses the concept of inheritance to give hopes to Christians all over the world who are going through a difficult time. The Easter season last for 8 weeks, until Pentecost. And 1 Peter is the epistle lesson for all of that time. If you know me, I rarely stick with one lesson from week to week. But 1 Peter is a very short book I would encourage you to read the whole book. Peter is considered a catholic epistle, catholic with a small c means universal. Peter is talking to Christians where ever they may be in the world and whatever situation they are going through. 1 Peter is important because it sums up the Christian message of hope, using all of the concepts of faith. The 3 important concepts of 1 Peter are inheritance, being a soujourner, faith in a God that we cannot see. You know, usually when we think of inheritance, we think of money, property or land. Inheritance is what our parents leave us to continue their legacy. Inheriting Faith George and his wife were visiting his widowed sister Elaine in their hometown in Nebraska, Elaines and George’s mother had died two years ago and this was the first time George and his wife had been able to visit Elaine since the funeral. So there was a good deal of reminiscing about their mother and father and life in the farm that they grew up on. They talked about the years of the Great Depression, the dust storms, the drought, the joys of growing up in a large farm family. They always had enough to eat and often wore hand me down clothes, yet in spite of some hardships, they spoke warmly of those earlier years. As their conversation drifted back to their late parents, Elaine suddenly said with excitement in her voice, George, do you know what, when mother died I got that old trunk of hers, and I have never opened it. With a feeling of childlike excitement, the three of them hurried down the basement steps. Sure enough, in the corner of the basement was the familiar old trunk. After they removed numerous items from the top of the trunk, they gingerly opened it so see what treasures it might hold for them. As the trunk lid squeaked open, the three seekers were met with nothing but stale air. The things is empty, so much for our inheritance. After they had returned upstairs and were sipping coffee, the three of them laughed at their peek in the trunk. We all knew that there was nothing in that trunk. Elaine said, we knew good and well that the folks never did have much in terms of material goods, so there was not anything for us to inherit. Doug told her not to jump to conclusions. He said that they inherited things far more valuable then money. They inherited good values, honesty, integrity, hard work. That is far more valuable than money. They both agreed that the most important thing that they got was their faith in Jesus. The Isrealites considered themselves to be Chosen by God because God had given them a land that would be theirs and passed on from generation to generation. But as the story points out we inherit much more than material things from our parents and others who come before us. We also inherit their values, their understandings, their skills – but as the story points out the most important thing that we get from our parents is their faith. Our parents, or some other mentor teach us what it means to be a faithful person. Many of us go to church today, because of what someone taught us. And we can be grateful for the values that they instilled in us. Many of us criticized those immaterial lessons that our parents taught us, until we get much older and we understand why they taught those lessons. If you don’t think the faith lessons that you inherited are important listen to this story. In 1955, The Cambridge Humanist Society was formed at Cambridge University in England. Sir Julian Huxley explained that their purpose was to enable people to cope with their environment without resort to the idea that there is a God. He said that one hundred years hence, people would find it as hard to believe in God as they currently do to believe the world is flat. A few years later, another distinguished man of science was asked to address the faculty at Canbridge. He opened his address with these words: “Before my lecture, I want to tell you something. I am a Christian. I was brought up in a Christian home with my brother, and the two of us were closest friends. We were both at the University together. My father and mother were deeply religious. My brother and I had no time for religion. We thought that religion was all right for old people, but we were scientist and we thought we had found our way through by what we were pleased to call scientific methods. Then my brother was killed. My father and mother has resources . And with these resources they met the shattering loss. But I had no one. I had no resources at all. One night, brokenhearted and with all my proud science in ruined uselessness at my feet. I knelt down. I did not know how to pray. I had scorned prayer, but I put out my hand, and I found it was grasped. I knew that someone was coming to my help and somehow I knew it was Christ. I have been a Christian ever since and no one, nothing will take Christ from me any more. The faith that we inherited makes a difference in how we deal with difficult situations. The world tells us there is no hope, there are no answers, it is what is is. But when we have faith, we always look for something more. When things don’t happen the way we plan, we have the patience to wait for something more. We can go forward in life when we don’t have the answers. I remember the pain of a youth who once attended church until his sister died. And then he was so mad at God he could not come to church. I prayed for him because a deeper faith would have helped him to move forward in his faith in spite of his pain. The faith that we inherit from our parents makes a difference. Studies actually show that a child cannot grow emotionally or spiritually without the support of a parent. We may learn more information than our parents, we have different skills from our parents, but emotionally we will always be connected to them and what they taught us. That is why it is critical that we pass our faith in an infinite God onto the next generation. We have to make sure that we give them our faith. It makes all of the difference in the world. It makes the difference in whether they will have hope or no hope, whether they will learn to cope or not cope, whether the glass is half empty or half full. Why is faith so important? Faith gives us hope, it enables us to love what we cant see, it sings for the joy of salvation, it strengthens us, it guides us, it saves us. But it does not protect us from earthly harm. Because we live in a world filled with challenges. And just being faithful does not protect you from harm. And we were not given any real guarantees. That is why Peter wrote this letter of hope – he was writing to a people who were struggling. People who did not fit in, People who were not born with a silver spoon in their mouth. When Peter writes this letter to anyone who was listening – he calls them sojourners – those who are just traveling through a land there are not home. The Greek word for such a sojourner in a strange land is paroikos. A paroikos was a man who was in a strange land and whose thoughts ever turned home. Such a sojourning was called a paroikia; and paroikia is the direct derivation of the English word parish. The Christians in any place are a group of people whose eyes are turned to God and whose loyalty is beyond. “Here,” said the writer to the Hebrews, “we have no lasting city, but we seek the city which is to come” (Hebrews 13:14). We must repeat that this does not mean withdrawal from the world; but it does mean that the Christian sees all things in the light of eternity and life as a journey towards God. It is this which decides the importance which he attaches to anything; it is this which dictates his conduct. It is the touchstone and the dynamic of his life. There is a famous unwritten saying of Jesus: “The world is a bridge. The wise man will pass over it, but he will not build his house upon it The first sentence of the verse says it all – Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ By his given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that is imperishable, indefiled, and unfading,kept in heaven for you who are being protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to revealed in the last time. A sojourner is one who is on a journey. And life can be just like a journey, sometimes a journey in the middle of nowhere. But when we follow Christ – it is a journey to get closer to God. It is Easter – and 1 Peter shows us the path of life. So on this faith Sunday in 2020 let us face this crazy world Without losing hope; (2) Without becoming bitter; (3) While trusting in their Lord; Without having seen Christ, loving him . Let us pray…… Pastoral prayer Meditative Music Benediction Additional Illustrations They took her father captive months before young Ann was ever born. He was a prisoner of war. For Ann, her father exists only in wrinkled snapshots and in the memories of her Mom and grandparents. Ann has never seen him facetoface, but she has heard about his smile, and his agility as a highschool halfback. She has heard that he was looking forward to her birth with great eagerness. The last thing he said to her Mom as the train pulled out of the station was, "Look after our child real well." To Ann her father is a stranger and yet not a stranger at all. He is really very dear to her even though she has never laid eyes on him. Not having seen him, she still loves him. Such was the situation of that second generation of Christian believers. They were very much like young Ann. They were not among those who had walked with the Master personally. They were not privileged to be witnesses to his postresurrection appearances. They received all their information about him secondhand. They heard about him from followers such as Simon Peter whose experience of Christ was still fresh and vivid. Those who knew him personally spoke of his gentleness, his kindness and his ability to forgive, even as he hung upon the cross. They told how he prophesied his resurrection. They told of his promise that he was coming back. That's all these second generation Christians hadthe testimony of those who had known him and walked with him. That was all but that was enough. It was enough to convince many of them to leave everything they owned to follow him. In Peter's First Epistle, they are accorded this word of praise, "Without having seen Him, you love Him." I wish that every Christian could develop a spirit like Roberto DeVincenzo's. DeVincenzo, a tough Argentine golfer, won a major tournament and was given a check for his winnings. After the ceremonies, DeVincenzo walked alone to his car where he met a sadeyed young lady. Slowly, she walked up to him and said, "It's a happy day for you, but the doctors say my baby is dying of an incurable blood disease." Before she could utter another word, the champion golfer took out a pen, endorsed his winning check, and put it in the woman's hand, urging her to "make some good days for the baby." A week later DeVincenzo was told the woman had no sick baby and he had thus been tricked out of his winnings. On hearing this, this gallant gentleman merely looked up and said, "You mean there is no baby who is dying without hope? Why that's the best news I've heard all week!" (2) I believe that is the sort of thing Jesus would have said, don't you? We love him even though we have never seen him, first of all, because of the difference he has made in our world. Billy Graham tells a story about a family from South Carolina who went to New York City for a vacation. They told all their friends they would attend the Broadway play, MY FAIR LADY. Unfortunately, the play was sold out and they couldn't obtain tickets. They were disappointed. They were also embarrassed to have to go back home and tell their friends they missed the highlight of their trip. So they decided to do the next best thing. They picked up discarded tickets, purchased a program, and bought the musical tapes. In their motel room they learned all the songs and reviewed the program. Back home they sang and whistled the tunes to all of MY FAIR LADY's hits hoping no one would suspect they never saw it. There are people who have never really had Christ make a difference in their lives. These folks are active in church. They support all the right causes. But they are whistling tunes that belie what is really missing in their hearts. They admire Christ, they identify with his teachings, but they cannot be said to love him. He is still somewhat of a stranger. Inheritance in the bible One of my favorite psalms is Psalm 16 verse 5 says you alone are my inheritance, you make my lot sescure. Lamentations 3:24 says you alone are my inheritance, my hope is in you. The Greek word for such a sojourner in a strange land is paroikos. A paroikos was a man who was in a strange land and whose thoughts ever turned home. Such a sojourning was called a paroikia; and paroikia is the direct derivation of the English word parish. The Christians in any place are a group of people whose eyes are turned to God and whose loyalty is beyond. “Here,” said the writer to the Hebrews, “we have no lasting city, but we seek the city which is to come” (Hebrews 13:14). We must repeat that this does not mean withdrawal from the world; but it does mean that the Christian sees all things in the light of eternity and life as a journey towards God. It is this which decides the importance which he attaches to anything; it is this which dictates his conduct. It is the touchstone and the dynamic of his life. There is a famous unwritten saying of Jesus: “The world is a bridge. The wise man will pass over it, but he will not build his house upon it v) When a man is reborn, it is to a living hope (1 Peter 1:3). Paul describes the heathen world as being without hope