December 4, 2016 Text: Romans 15:4-13
Dear Friends in Christ,
“It was a dark and stormy night.” Do you remember those words? They are the words of Snoopy from the Peanuts cartoon. Among his many pastimes, such as flying his Sopwith Camel in World War I, collecting fine art, and sleeping on the roof of his doghouse, Snoopy is a “world famous author,” whose stories always gets rejected by the publisher. Perhaps he was rejected because he was neither original (he borrows his opening line from English novelist Edward Bulwer-Lytton) nor particularly creative. “It was a dark and stormy night…”; that’s how all his stories begin. Even when Linus and Lucy try to help Snoopy find another beginning, such as “Once upon a time,” Snoopy persists. “Once upon a time, it was a dark and stormy night,” he writes. Up to the very last Peanuts comic strip in February 2000, Snoopy was still writing about that dark and stormy night.
But maybe, just maybe, Snoopy sticks to that line precisely because it’s not all that original. Life is full of dark and stormy nights, times of hopelessness and despair. A great irony of the weeks leading up to Christmas is that, while the air is filled with messages of peace and goodwill, we often struggle with “dark and stormy nights” and, for that matter, dark and stormy days. Even in the midst of dark and stormy times, God gives us . . .
“HOPE IN THE ROOT OF JESSE”
There certainly are dark and stormy times even in the lives of Christians. For some of us, Christmas will be dark and stormy because of our grief. Someone near and dear to us has died, and there will be an empty place at the dinner table Christmas Day. For some of us, Christmas will be dark and stormy because our families are broken and there is no harmony. Strife will accompany family members to their Christmas celebrations. For all of us, each day is made dark and stormy because of our sin. The storms do not just come from the outside. More often they are problems we have created for ourselves. We rebel against God and His Word in thought, word, and deed.
The Christians in Rome also knew about dark and stormy times. They were a small group often in the midst of a hostile environment. They struggled with tension between Jewish and Gentile Christians. They were threatened by any number of false teachers who were trying to lure them from their faith through smooth talk and faithless deceptions. These first-century Christians in Rome were ever in danger of slipping into hopelessness and final despair.
In the same way, the dark and stormy times can lead us away from God and into hopelessness and despair. The sadness we experience even at Christmas can cause us to doubt that God is with us at all. Then instead of being generous, caring for others, we focus on ourselves. We turn inward. Our Lord does not wish us to fall into despair and hopelessness, but instead he calls the Roman Christians and us to abound in hope. Paul assures us that even in the midst of dark and stormy times, God gives us hope in the root of Jesse.
Hope is possible even in such dark and stormy times because our hope is not our own creation; it is not some sort of pious sentiment. Any “hope” we fabricate is always subject to conditions around us; in dark times, it fades. But the hope Paul describes is different.
Our hope is a gift of the Holy Spirit (v. 13). God himself is “the God of hope.” It is God the Holy Spirit’s nature to give hope. This hope is as sure as its foundation – the sure and certain Word of God (v. 4). That’s how the Holy Spirit gives it. He inspired the Scriptures, “written in former days,” to assure of God’s care. Remember how God was faithful to Noah, Abraham, Moses, Job, David, Jonah? They had a lot of dark and stormy times, but the Lord was gracious to them in the hope of a coming Savior. Therefore, there’s no question that God will bring us through the dark and stormy times. The question is how? And the answer is found where the Word of God points us.
That Word points us to the Root of Jesse, the ultimate sign of hope (v. 12). Christ entered this dark and stormy world to give his life for our sins, including our despair and hopelessness. The risen Christ comes to us today to bring new life in the midst of our dark and stormy nights. The Root of Jesse springs forth in our lives. He is our hope – for comfort in grief, for harmony within our families, for forgiveness of our sin. This hope opens us up to welcome and love one another so that together we abound in hope (vs. 5-7). As Jewish Christians in Rome learned that Christ was the hope also of Gentiles (vs. 8-12), so we embrace all people as heirs of Christ’s hope.
Abound in this hope, dear friends. It is real and it is for you. In our dark and stormy nights, we might at times have trouble even imagining that this hope exists; yet it is ours in Christ, free for the taking, a priceless treasure from the realm of God’s redeeming love. May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope! Amen.