“Hope in God”
A sermon by Sid Burgess for Edgewood Presbyterian Church,
Birmingham, AL
Epiphany Sunday/Ordination and Installation of Church officers
January 4, 2009
Texts: Jeremiah 31:7-14, John 1:1-18
Two weeks from this coming Tuesday the attention of the nation and much of the world will be focused on Washington, D.C., for the historic inauguration of president-elect Barack Obama. For two years the Senator from Illinois campaigned across America promising change. On January 20th millions of Americans will be looking to our 44th president for something else--for something more fundamental, more urgently needed. On Inauguration day the eyes of the nation will look to Barack Obama for hope. A word of hope, Mr. President, for a nation mired in a deep economic recession. The year just ended was a disastrous one. News reports describe a financial bloodbath for U.S. consumers who have now lost more than two trillion dollars in home equity, retirement accounts, and other savings. More than two million Americans have lost their jobs. Household debt has risen to record levels. New home sales dropped 40% from a year ago, and one in ten mortgages are either delinquent, or are in foreclosure. Some of the nation’s most prominent corporations are on the ropes, and others are history.
This is strange, uncharted territory for most Americans. This is not the way its is supposed to be here in the “land of the free and home of the brave.” We’re supposed to be the richest nation on earth, the envy of the world. But now the nation is in deep peril, and we are looking to Washington for hope.
I suspect the president-elect has a stable of speech writers working overtime to come up with just the right words for his inaugural address. They will surely sift through past presidential speeches: John Kennedy’s “A torch is passed to a new generation;” Franklin Roosevelt, “We have nothing to fear but fear it self;” and, Abraham Lincoln, “With malice toward none; with charity for all.”
I would encourage our president-elect and his wordsmiths to go back even further--to go back to the ultimate book of hope--to our Holy Bible. For hope--hope in God--is one of the most persistent themes in our ancient scriptures. Case in point, today’s excerpt from Jeremiah:
8 See, I am going to bring (the exiles home) . . .from the farthest parts of the earth, among them the blind and the lame, those with child and those in labor, together; a great company, they shall return here. 9 With weeping they shall come, and with consolations I will lead them back,
Note who is specifically ticketed for rescue. It is those who have the greatest distance to travel, plus the blind and the lame; women with children; and, people who are grieving. In other words, those who need the most help will be those to whom the most relief is given. Through the prophet Jeremiah God is offering love, redemption, and renewal but no quick fix. A brutally honest Jeremiah predicts what many experts are telling us today--‘It’s going to get worse before it gets better.’
This is hard for optimistic Americans to hear. We’ve had it so good for so many for so long, surely the good times will continue to roll. We find it difficult to accept the prospects of hardship, suffering, and loss. But we Christians have a unique perspective on this reality. Through our Hebrew ancestors we know hard times. We know the burden of slavery--not of whip and chain but of compulsion and addiction. We know the hardships of the wilderness-- not of desert but of uncertainty and doubt. We know the loneliness of exile--not across distant national borders but in estrangement from loved ones. We know the burden of foreign occupation--not the Babylonians or the Romans but for many of us, the domination of consumer debt. Through Jesus Christ our Lord we know the sting of rejection for we ourselves have felt it, sometimes rejection by those we have loved most dearly. And we know the pain of death--His lonely death on the cross and the deaths of our own loved ones.
But through our faith tradition we also know the joy of freedom--freedom from slavery and exile, freedom from the power of sin, freedom to unite with and not separate from--God and God’s people. We know the happiness of coming home after a long, enforced absence--home to family, home to church. Through Jesus we know the thrill of acclamation on Palm Sunday and the astonishment of Easter morning. From all of the above, we know that no matter how hard it may become, God will not abandon God’s people.
This is, after all, the heart of the Christmas story. “In the fullness of time,” St. Paul told us last week. “In the fullness of time . . ..”(Gal. 4.4)--a time of deep darkness and despair. A time of harsh foreign domination, and cruel economic hardship . . . . Into this “fullness of time” God sent God’s own beloved Son. In the opening hymn of our Christmas Eve service we sang his story:
With the poor, oppressed, and lowly,
Lived on earth our Savior holy.
And He feels for all our sadness,
And He shares in all our gladness.1
Our new president, as president of all Americans, no matter our race, creed, or religion, might be able to cite Jeremiah, but I doubt he will be able to quote from Galatians, and, even less likely, from the Gospel according to St. John. But not to worry. Today, here at Edgewood Church we are having our own little ‘inauguration.’ Today we shall ordain and install a new slate of church officers specifically commissioned to spread, far and wide, the New Testament message of hope: 5The light shines in the darkness, (John writes) and the darkness did not overcome it.
Not then, not now, not ever--for the true light, with power to enlighten everyone, has come into the world.
14And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth (Jn.1).
These officers--elders and deacons--will join all of those previously ordained not in the exercise of power--as in Washington-- but in the exercise of compassion and service. The Presbyterian Church “Book of Order” holds All (service) in the Church is a gift from Jesus Christ (whose own ministry) is the basis of all (our) ministries: the standard for all offices is the pattern of the who came “not to be served but to serve”(Matt. 20.28).2
Speaking of patterns, our Federal government is, in fact, patterned after our Presbyterian form of representational rule. In both instances, the people elect their own leaders, as you have elected these officers who will be ordained and installed today. But the “Book of Order” makes this clear distinction from other situations in which leaders are chosen.
The existence of these (church) officers in no way diminishes the importance of the commitment of all members to the total ministry of the Church. These ordained officers differ from other members in function only.3
That means each of us and all of us together are charged with the responsibility of proclaiming in Word and in deed the new reality revealed in Jesus Christ-- the new humanity, a new creation, a new beginning for human life in the world, where sin is forgiven, reconciliation is accomplished, and the dividing walls of hostility are torn down.
Yes, it may well be that it’s going to get worse before it gets better. It could be that we Americans are in for a bumpy ride in the months, maybe even the years to come. But we have something our fellow citizens are going to need. We have something our community, our nation is going to need--something this new administration for all its brilliant promise cannot give--and that is hope in God. Hope in God’s promises for a new heaven and new earth. Through Christ, we have seen signs of this new creation breaking into the world, even in our time and place. We are realistic enough to know that we cannot make it happen--we cannot force the reign of God. God’s reign will come in God’s own good time. But hope--God’s gift of divine hope-- plunges Christians into the struggle for justice and mercy and peace in the world, in the Church, and in our individual lives. Our Presbyterian Church “Declaration of Faith” concludes with these stirring words:
Hope--hope in God through Jesus Christ our Lord. . . . Hope gives us courage and energy to contend against all opposition however invincible it may seem, for the new world and the new humanity that are surely coming.4
Jesus is Lord!
He has been Lord from the beginning.
He will be Lord at the end.
Even now he is Lord.
1“Once in Royal David’s City,” text by Cecil Frances
Alexander, 1848, PRESBYTERIAN HYMNAL, #49.
2BOOK OF ORDER, PCUSA, G-6.0100.
3Ibid.
4“Declaration of Faith,” PCUSA, 1977, 1991, X.5.