JanBeek

If you have followed my blog in the past, you know I used to post sermon notes every Sunday afternoon. I’ve not done that for a while. Today I decided, on a snowy May 23rd in SW Montana, that I have nothing better to do than to share with you my notes from last Sunday’s sermon… because with winter weather in late May, I need encouragement to “Keep Hope Alive”… and I thought maybe you could use a little encouragement, too. So here’s what Rev. Mary Grace Reynolds preached last Sunday (as filtered through my ears to my brain to you)…

Sunday’s sermon on hope was inspired (not by Jeremiah 29:11 which is one of my favorite scriptures) but by Romans 8:22-27.

Romans 8:22-27
New International Version

²² We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. ²³ Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies. ²⁴ For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have? ²⁵ But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.

²⁶ In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. ²⁷ And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God.

(Bold print added by me)

Paul wrote this a couple of decades
After Christ descended and ascended.
Paul addressed the anxiety of
Those who questioned Christ’s return.

We who have the First Fruits of the Spirit
Are saved by the HOPE of what we do not see.
God, who searches our hearts, knows…
God knows our every mood and emotion.

And with that scripture in mind, Mary Grace shared her sermon. Here are my notes:

KEEP HOPE ALIVE

Calvin Coolidge’s young son
Passed away because of a toe infection.
It was over 100 years ago –
Before the discovery of penicillin.

Today we have the promise of
A new vaccine to retrain cells
Of a brain tumor to attack the tumor.
The narrative of lives is being changed.

People who walked with Jesus
Had interpreted Him as saying,
“I’ll be right back…”
But Jesus was taking too long!

Paul wrote to tell the early Christians,
Who had been given the Holy Spirit,
To be patient … and keep HOPE alive.
Maybe Hope isn’t a whisper, but a shout!

Hope is more active than faith.
It is a fighter and a screamer.
The world is groaning, crying out in pain,
And people who’ve been stepped on must also.

Don’t accept the pain life throws at you.
Cry out in pain. Bark as a threatened dog.
Hope is harder to lose than faith
Because it is louder… and persistent.

We hope for things beyond our reality.
Hope gives us the strength to wait –
To be cheerleaders who, with discipline,
Keep HOPE (through the Holy Spirit) alive.

Hope feels like pain, burns like passion
When we see all the world’s injustices.
But HOPE is alive and will not give up.
Keep it alive in you. Expect its miracles!

I love this meme!

Keep hope alive!
If you have time, go to YouTube
and select one of the renditions of
“It Took a Miracle”…
and absorb those words.
So profound!
(For whatever reason,
I couldn’t imbed that song here.)
I love it…

To hang on to HOPE in a fallen world may take a miracle…
But that miracle is yours for the taking.
Take HOPE
And keep it alive!
Amen?

That’s my granddaughter, Hope, with me…
and her daughter, Sienna,
my great-granddaughter, who will be 5 next month,
and our last Boston Terrier, TazE.
HOPE is alive and well in our family.
How about yours?

Love to you,
JanBeek