Reason for the Hope Within

Micah 6:1-8
1 Peter 3:8-17

There are two things that ought to strike home to us from these readings on this Resurrection Sunday. The first is the question posed and answered by the Prophet Micah: “He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.”

The second thing that ought to strike home to us is the instruction that the Apostle Peter gives us: “Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect…”

Whether you live under the Old Covenant or the new (and believe me; there are a lot of Old Testament Christians), you are required to act justly, to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God. That is the answer to life’s riddle – to the question that we ask from the beginning of our consciousness to the end of our lives, “What does God want me to do.”

Once we know what we are to do, the question becomes, “How am I to do it?” We are told simply to be ready – to be ready to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have.

We are to be in a state of readiness – to be awake to the opportunity to act justly, to love mercy and to walk humbly and be ready to give an answer, whenever anyone asks us, for the hope that we have.

That seems simple enough, doesn’t it? We are not commanded to go out and buttonhole every person we see and ask, “Brother, are you saved?” We are to live as people of justice and mercy. We are to walk as people who are humbly walking with God. And we are to be ready to give an answer, not to a select person or two, but to everyone who asks us to give the reason for the hope that we have.

What that tells me is that hope is not something hidden inside. Hope is something that becomes transparent to those with whom we deal on a daily basis. Hope is something that sticks out on the Christian because it affects our demeanor, even though we may at times feel like something that got thrown out with the garbage.

Hope is the missing ingredient in a world chasing after self-esteem. If you have hope, your esteem is centered in whose you are rather than who you are. Your focus in life is less on building yourself up and more on pressing forward toward the prize – moving ahead at all cost; staying the course, if you will.

If you have hope, the things of this earth become, as the chorus goes, “Strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace.” If you have hope, you are able to function above your circumstances, no matter what suffering you may be enduring at the moment.

The Apostle Paul tells us, “We rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produced perseverance, perseverance character, and character hope.” He is not saying here that we get real happy or giddy when we suffer. He is saying that the Christian has a very real sense that, even in the midst of suffering, God is working things out for our good.

You may have no idea what a unique thing that is in the world today. It is so unique, in fact, that it speaks to everyone with whom we come in contact. That’s why, every once in awhile, somebody may ask us, “What is it that you have that is different?” We are to be ready to give an answer to that question, for God is, at that moment, preparing a heart to receive Him.

I have shared with you about the first time that happened to me. I was in my first year at the University of Maine, a struggling engineering student, tired and sometimes cross and sometimes discouraged. Way into one night when I was staying overnight with a friend to go fishing in the morning, he asked me out of the blue, “You have something different. Whatever it is, I want it.”

What a surprise that was! Whatever I had, even I didn’t want it, and here was somebody asking me to share it with him. Before the night was over, he knelt down beside his bed and asked Jesus to come into his life.

All too often, we become passive about our faith. We consider it something private and personal and tucked away somewhere out of sight. But it shows because the HS within us shines through that veneer that we think is the same as everyone else’s.

It is natural to want to live out our faith in solitude. We want to be liked – even loved. We want to be good neighbors and friends. We want to live and let live. But the words that come through to us from the God of both the Old and New Testaments are action words – live; walk; be ready. If we stand in that state of living, the witness of Jesus Christ will shine through to others, not as a goody-two-shoes, but as a person who has been given something special. We may well hear the question, “What is it you have that is so different?”

This is the end of Holy Week. Last Friday evening, we had a wonderful service here at the church and were able to share Franz Joseph Haydn’s Seven Last Words of Christ with a number of folks who had never been in this church before. I began with the words, “Welcome to our little church in the woods. We are pleased that you are able to share with us this evening as we give voice to the hope that is within us.”

“What is it that you people have that is different?” That is the question that the person on the street wants answered. They will see that difference in our desire to act justly, love mercy and walk humbly with our God. What this church is about, then, is learning to be ready to give an answer for the hope that is in us by practicing justice, mercy and walking humbly with God in the presence of each other.

I don’t know whether or not that kind of living will fill these pews. What I do know, however, is that it will fill our hearts and bring peace to the world around us. If every Christian would stand in readiness, the peace that the church seeks through passing laws to make us look more holy than we are would spread through this nation like wildfire.

The problem is that we would rather live with one foot in the world and the other in the Kingdom of God, whenever it suits our fancy. We would prefer that our expressions of praise and worship be on our terms in our timing rather than to be ready on God’s terms and in God’s timing.

We are living in a day, however, when the only hope for America is the breaking in of the Kingdom of God through a community of believers who are ready and willing 24/7.

I shared with those of you who were here Friday evening the remarkable story of Len Bias, the last great hope for the Boston Celtics. What is remarkable about this story has little to do with Len Bias or the Boston Celtics and everything to do with his Mom, Lonise Bias.

When Lonise Bias walked into the hospital on June 19, 1986, she had no idea that her son, Len, was on life support. She had been told that he had taken sick. Len died of a drug-induced coma.

This Maryland family had been celebrating the incredibly good fortune of the signing of Len Bias just 2 days previously. He was touted to be the next Michael Jordan – the dream of millions of black families in America. Who would believe that at the very apex of this young man’s life, the floor would fall from underneath them.

Lonise went into deep grief – pleading with God to take her life. Gradually, she began thinking about the purpose of the life of a Christian and realized that she had settled into a comfort zone in pursuit of the Great American Dream instead of the Kingdom of God. The way she describes it is God hitting her over the head with a two-by-four to get going with her life. She turned this great personal tragedy into a mission to help others.

Last Friday morning, it was my privilege to hear Lonise Bias speak at the Christian Leadership Good Friday breakfast at the Sable Oaks in So. Portland. This woman had lost her son, and her message to audiences all over the world has been, “But for God…But for God.”

On December 4, 1990, her only other son, Jay, was murdered in a drive-by shooting at a local mall. Now, Lonise was angry. Once again, God turned the circumstances into opportunity. The invitations began pouring in, and she has devoted the last 10 years to traveling and lecturing about hope in Christ. She has learned what is expected of her – to be ready to give an answer to everyone who asks her to give the reason for the hope that she has. “But for God…But for God.” Amen?

But what is that hope?

This is Easter Sunday morning. It is Resurrection morning. We already know that Resurrection follows suffering – that weeping may come in the night, but joy comes in the morning. We asked, on Friday evening, why it is called Good Friday. If you look at it from the standpoint of those without hope, what is good about it? It is “good” because of the words of Jesus from the cross, “It is finished.” God’s redemptive plan for His people is now complete – finished.

We have learned from redemptive history that there is no Resurrection without a cross. We have learned from our personal experience that something needs to be put to death if we are to live in the hope of the Resurrection. Lonise Bias learned through her own suffering that hope comes at a cost – the cost of all that was important to her.

Gone were the hopes of a black family rising up from their circumstances. Gone was the hope of great pride in a rising career. Gone was the hope of carrying on the family name.

In its place, Lonise Bias found real hope and has shared that hope with tens of thousands of young people who are drifting aimlessly through this life on alcohol and drugs. Her message is one that every one of us should take to heart. The only possible cure to the downward drift of a hopeless youth is the Church of Jesus Christ. There alone, hope is available.

The problem, of course, is that the church is seeking hope in the American Dream rather than in the Resurrection. It stands with one foot in the world and the other timidly in the Kingdom. And like with Lonise Bias, the church will need a strike from God to get it up and moving.

The hope of the believer in Jesus Christ is the consummation of the Kingdom of God. John the Baptist came wearing camel’s skin and eating locusts and wild honey, crying, “Repent for the Kingdom is at hand.” Jesus came, preaching and teaching, “Repent for the Kingdom is at hand.” Easter Sunday morning is a celebration of the in-breaking of the Kingdom of God through the suffering and death of His only Son.

We who have taken the moderate route in our lives and in our witness have missed much of the miracles of grace that God has available to those who live in the hope. As a result of our heads being buried in the sand, the Church of Jesus Christ has taken a right turn to recreate America into God’s Kingdom.

You will find me taking an increasing interest in matters of international policy. At the end of April, I will be speaking at a conference in Chicago on the dangers of Christian Zionism, a movement among Evangelicals to influence our government to hold to the 1967 borders of Israel on the grounds that that is the land that was promised by God to Abraham. It is estimated that as many as 30M Evangelicals hold to that belief, including some in high places in our government.

As I have prepared for this conference, I began to think a lot about the hope that we as believers have. Simply put, despite the 60M Left Behind books that have been sold, our hope is not in the so-called Rapture. Our hope is in the Lord of the Rapture. Our hope is not in the so-called Millennium Reign. Our hope is in the Lord of the Millennium Reign. Our hope is not in America. Our hope is in another kingdom – the Kingdom of God that is from everlasting to everlasting.

Peter writes about a way of life that rides above the noise of this earth. It is a life that is built on acting justly, loving mercy and walking humbly with our God. Nobody should know better than this former loose cannon, Peter, what the benefits of that life might be. It is a lifestyle we have an opportunity to practice here in the church so we can export it to our families, our neighborhoods and our jobs. Here are the characteristics of that lifestyle:

1. We are to live in harmony with one another…
2. We are to be sympathetic with one another…
3. We are to love one another as brothers…
4. We are to be compassionate and humble…

He tells us in v. 9 that not only are we expected to practice this kind of lifestyle with each other, but we were called to this lifestyle so that we might inherit a blessing. The prescription is almost a no-brainer:

“Whoever would love life, and see good days must keep his tongue from evil and his lips from deceitful speech” (makes sense, doesn’t it?).

“He who would love life and see good days must turn from evil and do good; he must seek peace and pursue it” (makes sense, doesn’t it?).

“For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and his ears are attentive to their prayer, but the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.”

“Who is going to harm you if you do good?”

“Do not fear what they (the earthbound) fear; do not be frightened.” If we lived by that rule alone, we would have folks asking us to give them reason for the hope that is within us. For the Scriptures tell us that what casts out fear is perfect love. People are drawn to unconditional love, are they not?

We have a prescription for living – acting justly; loving mercy and walking humbly with God. Next, we have a mandate to be ready to answer everyone who wants to know how we hang together when the going gets tough. Finally, we are told that whenever we share our hope with anyone, we are to do it with reverence and respect – respect for the beliefs of others; respect for the unbelief of others; respect for their humanity and their searching.

Lonise Bias is a remarkable woman. She is remarkable because she was called to minister when every bone of her body screamed in rebellion against God. But Lonise Bias would be the first to tell you that she was just like you and me – bumping along in the middle of the road. And she would end that statement with, “But for God…But for God!”

Easter morning! Resurrection Day! The in-breaking of the Kingdom! The risen Lord – the reason for the hope that is within us. Live that life, and others will want to know how. Guaranteed!