1. HOPE AT THE CROSS
In Law School, my professors encouraged me, early on, to re-arrange my classes out of the usual order, so that I could take all of my Criminal Law classes as early as possible. So I crammed in Criminal Law, Criminal Procedure, Constitutional Law, and Evidence all at once during my second year.
Why? You might ask was this?
They wanted me to enroll in a Public Defender Clinic, because they thought this would be formative for me to get this under my belt.
For the record, anyone who’s watched a movie with a courtroom scene has heard, “Objection! Hearsay.” That is, if you aren’t a witness to something, you may have heard about it, but that’s not good enough.
Although there are exceptions. Rules 803, and 804 of the Federal Rules of Evidence provide roughly 30 exceptions to the Rule Against Hearsay, and Rule 805 provides that even when there’s hearsay within hearsay – that is, for those of you who remember the movie Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, that immortal line:
My best friend's sister's boyfriend's brother's girlfriend heard from this guy who knows this kid who's going with the girl who saw Ferris pass out at 31 Flavors last night. I guess it's pretty serious.
could possibly be allowed in courtroom testimony “if each part of the combined statements conforms with an exception to the rule.”
Anyway, for us as Christians, our hope is in Christ, and in Him crucified. And so the first pericope provided for our reflection speaks of the two thieves on either side of Jesus at the Crucifixion; and provides a stunning comparison and contrast between hope and despair.
In the First Letter to Saint Timothy, Paul admonishes us to “put all our hope in the living God.” In the Letter to the Romans, Paul tells us that we are saved in hope, but that “hope that is seen is not hope.” And in the First Letter of Saint Peter, we hear that “we have been born anew to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.”
This is what I like to call “supernatural” hope, what Catholics call the “Theological Virtues,” with virtue meaning a strength or power.
We can hope that it might not rain tomorrow, but if we were facing imminent death, would we be able to hope? Or would we struggle with despair? The graces of God provides us with a hope that goes well beyond our own ability to hope. A powerful hope, that continues to hope, even when there is no light at the end of the tunnel.
2. CONFIDENCE IN CHRIST
N. T. Wright speaks quite a bit about what he calls the Resurrection Movement within the early Christian community. For both Jews and Gentiles, the idea that Jesus was risen from the dead was mind-blowing.
For the Sadducees, resurrection was heresy. It was some new-fangled idea that wasn’t in their Scriptures. The Pharisees, on the other hand, embraced the idea of a resurrection, but more as an end-of-time concept. The prophecy of Ezekiel in chapter 37 – the dry bones in the desert.
But the resurrection of Jesus was ridiculous. The Sadducees didn’t have time for it. And the Pharisees weren’t ready for any resurrection before the end of time. What’s a Jew to do?
For the Greeks, maybe there was a transmigration of souls – a re-incarnation of sort. But for the Romans, life one one-and-done. Live fast, die young, and leave a good-looking corpse.
For us as twenty-first century Christians, we might take the resurrection for granted. Missing the point that this should be mind blowing for us just as it was mind blowing 2,000 some years ago. The Resurrection of Christ Jesus should be for us more than an idea. It should be a paradigm shift, that takes us out of this world and into the next.
We don’t live our lives like the rest of the world. Not because of a rule-book; but rather because we know that the world as we know it is passing away. And that we will be united with Christ in a bodily resurrection.
As the Apostle’s Creed says it: “I believe in . . . the resurrection of the body, and life everlasting. Amen.”
In the season of Lent, we seek to deepen our faith in this hope. To live our lives in a better way. More prayer. Less worldliness. More charity.
These three pillars of our Lenten practice are meant to help us grow, not only in Hope, but in Faith, and in Love. Making us better sons and daughters of God, siblings of Christ Jesus, filled with the power of the Holy Spirit.
3. HOPE FOR THE FUTURE
The hope that we express in the resurrection should spur us on the emulate the generosity of God in what we say and what we do. Too often, we can get stuck – where our beliefs become something in our minds, leaving us ruminating without much action. Our Hope in Christ’s Resurrection should lead us to act on what we believe, so that our Faith becomes action – not for the sake of acting, but out of Love. Emulating the generosity of God, from Whom we have received everything that we have, as well as everything that we are.
This is what sets Christians apart in the world-at-large. Our relationship with God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And as we take our faith out into the world, our acts of charity and love provide opportunities for us to show the Love of God to a world lacking in Hope and in missing out on Faith.
I want to thank you for hosting us tonight at the Burt Methodist Church. Let’s stand and sing the hymn on the back of your programs.
