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Sleeping with Bread

SLEEPING WITH BREAD

A Sermon in the Series on "Why Religion Matters: A Source of Hope and Assurance"

TEXT: PSALM 130, ROMANS 

INTRODUCTION TO THE SCRIPTURE

Today's sermon is the third in our Lenten series, "Why Religion Matters: A Source of Hope and Assurance." Hope. I am utterly convinced that the Christian church must be a container and proclaimer of hope. Our resident expert on hope, Harry Hutson, has written Putting Hope to Work, a terrific analysis of the affect of an attitude of hope in the workplace. Talk to him for more reflections on this topic.

By having hope, I do not mean holding to an optimism that denies reality. Acknowledging pain is the first step in dealing with it. The Psalms do that so concisely. In reading them we hear anger, misery, fear, despair, grief, impatience, blaming. Don't we know those emotion? We read them in blogs, we hear them from our children, we express them ourselves. They are in the air we breathe. War and terror, killings and chaos, leaders we trusted let us down, institutions crumble. It can be discouraging to be surrounded with so much negativity. It was the same for the writers of the Psalms. They complain for themselves, they complain on behalf or their people, and mostly they complain to God. But it's important to realize that the Psalms don't stop with the complaint. They go on to hope.

I love the fact that David picked Psalm 130 as the text for the anthem this morning. It is one of our most poignant and passionate records of both despair and hope. Listen to these excerpts.

PSALM 130

Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord. Lord, hear my voice!

Let your ears be attentive to the voice of my supplications!

If you, O Lord, should mark iniquities, Lord, who could stand?

But there is forgiveness with you, so that you may be revered.

I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, and in God's word I hope;

my soul waits for the Lord more than those who watch for the morning,

more than those who watch for the morning.

O Israel, hope in the Lord! For with the Lord there is steadfast love, and with God is great power to redeem. It is he who will redeem Israel from all its iniquities.

NAMING WHAT HOLDS US BACK

It seems to me, that in order to have hope, we must first name what holds us back. Going to church gives us an opportunity to name those assaults on our well being, lament them, and ask forgiveness when they are of our own making.

Liz McAlister writes, "Hope never consists in thinking 'things will work out.' Hope finds its substance looking reality in the eye; … Without a living hope, we can't stand reality; we lie to ourselves, cover up what is real, arm ourselves with illusions and rationalizations. Hope does not begin to exist except in the harshness of reality .... Everywhere else, we get along quite well without it. (The Other Side.)

SLEEPING WITH BREAD

But how do we sustain hope when harsh reality threatens our best intentions? During the bombing raids of World War II, thousands of children were orphaned and left to starve. The fortunate ones were rescued and placed in refugee camps where they received food and good care. But many of these children who had lost so much could not sleep at night. They feared waking up to find themselves once again homeless and without food. Nothing seemed to reassure them. Finally, someone hit upon the idea of giving each child a piece of bread to hold at bedtime. Holding their bread, these children could finally sleep in peace. All though the night the bread reminded them, “Today I ate and I will eat again tomorrow.” (Sleeping with Bread: Holding What Gives You Life. Dennis, Sheila and Matthew Linn)

The Psalms were able to witness to God's faithfulness in the midst of their despair because they had a history of God's being faithful in the worst of times. These laments end with bread to hold on to, inspiring statements of confidence that God will provide because that is their experience of God. The bread that fearful children hold onto is the belief that it will be all right tomorrow. So too, our faith gives us bread to hold to assure us that God has given us what we need in the past and will do so again.

BREAD FROM OUR WITNESSES

Listen to these pieces of bread that are being held out to us by people who have come through the whirlwind, suffered, and prevailed by placing their hope in God.

A piece of bread from Martin Luther which we sang this morning:

A mighty fortress is our God, a bullwark never failing.

A piece of bread from Ghandi"

When I despair, I remember that all through history, the way of truth and love has always won. There have been murderers & tyrants, and for a time they can seem invincible. But in the end they always fall. Think of it, always.

A piece of bread from the Benedictine theologian, Joan Chittester:

Despair says that there is no place to go but here. Hope says that God is waiting for us someplace else. Begin again.”

 

A piece of bread from Dorrie and Chuck Raymond:

On a recent visit to the Raymonds, they shared how it feels to have three members of your family be diagnosed with cancer at the same time. It's overwhelming, tiring, discouraging. There is worry and fear. But, said Dorrie, "But, now that everything is stripped away, I know what really matters. I know what family means, how true friends behave and how many true friends there are—even among people I don't know. And I know more about God than I ever thought I would."

 

HOPE IS SUSTAINED THROUGH THE STORIES WE TELL

Religion matters because in the stories we have told through the ages and continue to tell one another, we give each other hope that there is more than what we are now experiencing. Because of the witness of our brother's and sisters we know there is good on the other side. Somewhere in a cathedral in New York City this inscription is carved on a wall. "Hallelujah anyway! God is with us."

Anthony DeMello tells about a rumor of a famine that swept through a province in South America. Actually, the crops were growing well and the weather was perfect for a bumper harvest. But the farmers in that province believed the rumors. Twenty thousand of them fled to the cities, abandoning their land. Because of their neglect, the crops failed. Thousands starved. The rumor of the famine came true. (From Taking Flight: A Book of Story Meditations.)

HOPE IS MULTIPLIED BY PUTTING IT IN PRACTICE

Hope is not just a commodity to have and to store up. It is a state of mind and being that propels us to action. People can become paralyzed by despair or cynicism. We can be enslaved by fear to the point that we cannot act. Hope presents us with the reality that things can be different. A bumper crop is sprouting and we need to tend it rather than running away in fear.

The historian Howard Zinn writes:

To be hopeful in bad times is not just foolishly romantic. It is based on the fact that human history is a history not only of cruelty, but also of compassion, sacrifice, courage, kindness.

What we choose to emphasize in this complex history will determine our lives. If we see only the worst, it destroys our capacity to do something. But if we remember those times and places —and there are so many— where people behaved magnificently, this gives the energy to act, and at least the possibility of sending this … world in a different direction.

…. To live now as we think human being should live, in defiance of all that is bad around us, is itself a marvelous victory.

ULTIMATE HOPE

Hope gives us courage to make a difference. I do not believe in the big heaven/hell dichotomy at the end of our lives. So you will not hear me preach about turning to God so that we can save our own souls from hell. But I do believe that we are in God's hand no matter what and as Paul said, "We need not fear what human beings can do to us." What a powerful source of hope and courage to believe that ultimately, even death cannot prevail over that essential hope.

Having thought about this sermon for a couple of weeks, I'm beginning to realize just how powerful is the quote at the entrance to Hell in Dante's Inferno is "Abandon all hope, you who enter here."

Hope is at the core of human persistence. Hope is the vocabulary by which we narrate a dream of something better. Hope is the motivation for actually creating something new out of the rubble.

THE CHURCH'S ROLE AS PURVEYOR OF HOPE

I preached on hope the Sunday after 9/11. I believed that hope was an important message in those days and since then, it has become even more significant. Here's a quote from that sermon.

It is our job as a church to build and maintain the tower of hope. We must encourage and value the goodness of people. Remember the stories we have heard all week and tell them over and over again. The heroes that took control of the plane in Pennsylvania and drove it into the ground; the fire-fighters, police, and rescue personnel who ran toward the wreckage while others were running away; the merchants who gave away food and drinks; the shoe-store owners who handed out new sneakers to women who were trying to walk home in high heels.

Those heroic stories are sustaining to all of us. We feed on them. But there is something even more sustaining—a deep hope that goes beyond the unpredictability of human nature. This is the trustworthiness of God. The truly safe place is that quiet center within us where God resides. And that safe place remains whether our body lives or dies.

We may "hope for" certain outcomes and successes and sometime our hopes are fulfilled and sometimes we do not get what we hope for. But what never fails is "hope in." My soul hopes in the Lord. God is the mighty fortress, the bulwark never failing. Have hope in God in times of trouble. With this assurance we too can say, "Hallelujah anyway!"

BENEDICTION FROM ROMANS 15:13

"May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit." Hallelujah anyway!