Sermon text is below the sermon audio.

Sermon preached at Trinity Church, Newport, RI, Sunday February 25, 2018
The Reverend Alan Neale, “Hoping Against Hope”

“Doubtless the Orcs despoiled them, but feared to keep the knives, knowing them for what they are: work of Westernesse, wound about with spells for the bane of Mordor. Well, now, if they still live, our friends are weaponless. I will take these things, hoping against hope, to give them back.
– Aragorn in The Two Towers by J. R. R. Tolkien

Romans 4:18 “Hoping against hope”.

In the Greek original the Apostle plays with the double meaning of ἐλπίς, which can mean both (positive) “hope” and (neutral) “expectation”. In older English “hope” also had both meanings, but the latter is now obsolete. A modern English literal rendering might then be: “Who against expectation believed in that for which he hoped”.

This past week I have experienced, in minor (very minor) circumstances the conflict, the tension, the struggle between hope as neutral and disinterested expectation and hope as positive and affirmative. The Newport Daily News… ah! Despite two days of non-delivery accompanied by profuse promises of distribution, I have continued to open the front door with the hope… of a newspaper awaiting my collection.

“Hoping against hope.”

I have a vivid memory as a young boy (maybe 10 years old) standing with my father at a ‘bus stop in London. Our hope was that a ‘bus would arrive on time but the expectation was different… so much so that I remember my father referring to the ‘bus working on a “banana route”. Meaning… when they came, they came along in bunches not sweetly and helpful divided by advertised schedules.

“Hoping against hope.”

In our Genesis reading Abram reflects on his condition, and that of his wife Sarai. Abraham, the father of the Jews, who despite being close to 100 years old, and despite being married to Sarah who was well past childbearing years at the age of 90, chose to believe that God could do what he had promised more than two decades earlier to do; namely, to give him and Sarah a child of their own, through their own bodies. His positive and affirmative hope was not made mindless, but rather mindful of their condition and this hope was fulfilled so that Abram becomes Abraham, and Sarai becomes Sarah – truly name-changing.

What is the energy then that can transform mere and inert expectation to transforming and vibrant hope? Isn’t this one of the most basic, the most primal, the most psychic of questions for our human condition?

Expectation is exchanged for hope as we consider its sources, its context and its goal.

1. The Source of our Hope.

Our hope becomes vibrant as we consciously, intently, consistently place ourselves in the presence of God “who gives life to the dead and calls into existence things that do not exist.”
Our hope becomes vibrant as we revel in the atmosphere of the grace of God, when we confront and accept that we are loved not despite what we are but because of what we are… blessed, approved daughters and sons of God.

2. The Context of our Hope.

Our hope becomes vibrant as we remember in community the grace of God, unmerited and undeserved favor. Too much of our lives are spent, of necessity, in situations where there is barter for services and exchange of favor. We live by contract and all too rarely by covenant.

We read, “Abraham grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God” and this we do in community week by week as we sing, read and hear of God’s grace. The very act of Holy Communion, Holy Eucharist, is a precious device by which our souls are strengthened and we grow strong in faith. Dear friend, do not be surprised if you struggle with hope if you do not place yourself constantly in celebration of its divine donor.

In this context we are not surprised to hear Jesus so resolutely and immediately rebuke Peter; there can be no middle ground here and we need constantly rebuke the worldly and mundane voices that tempt us to expect little and, therefore, to be rarely disappointed. Perhaps we need dare great things for ourselves and our community in order to nurture and nourish our hope?

3. The Goal of our Hope

The goal of our hope is deceptively simple… “to follow Jesus”; to so grow in relationship with Him today that tomorrow, and all our tomorrows, consists of a profound and unshakeable connection… so very profound, so very unshakeable that even sin and death themselves cannot rob us.

This past week a giant amongst evangelists of the Gospels died, The Reverend Dr. William Franklin Graham, better known simply as Billy Graham. He preached to millions the Gospel of Jesus and in so doing offered to all hearers regardless of class, age or wealth… the gift of hope. In 1966, aged 14, I responded to his so-called “altar call” and “got up out of my seat and went forward.” As the choir sang “Just as I am” so I and countless others made a conscious, visible decision to turn to Jesus as Lord, Savior and Friend. Ever since then sometimes often, sometimes rarely, I have made that decision “O Lamb of God, I come.”

I suppose an altar call, with some regret, is somehow inappropriate for Episcopal/traditional churches and yet (as Anne Marie has commented before) every Sunday the Celebrant makes an altar call and invites all to come forward, to kneel, to ask for help and to return ready to follow. Why not today?

I finish with a poem by Mary Oliver entitled “The Summer Day.”

Who made the world?
Who made the swan, and the black bear?
Who made the grasshopper?
This grasshopper, I mean–
the one who has flung herself out of the grass,
the one who is eating sugar out of my hand,
who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down —
who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes.
Now she lifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her face.
Now she snaps her wings open, and floats away.

I don’t know exactly what a prayer is.
I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down
into the grass, how to kneel in the grass,
how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields
which is what I have been doing all day.
Tell me, what else should I have done?
Doesn’t everything die at last, and too soon?
Tell me, what is it you plan to do
With your one wild and precious life?

So, tell me asks God today, “what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?”