Just in time
Romans 5:1-8
Folks I need to just say that this has been some week. Now don’t get the wrong idea. I just mean busy. Really busy and full to the hilt. I know you have had weeks like it.
Of all the things God has blessed me with, I believe that time is the most precious. It is the one thing I can’t buy more of or ever replace. It is probably the thing that I regret wasting the most.
It is strange that even when a week is really busy I still spend some of my time poorly. But the advantage of a busy week, I have a lot fewer regrets that I might on a more normal schedule.
This morning our scripture was originally written by the apostle Paul to a church that he has never visited. Now, he did know many people in the congregation. Generally he is writing to establish his role and authority and to explain that membership has based on faith.
The scripture opens with the phrase about being “justified by faith.” Our faith makes us right. Our faith justifies or qualifies us for peace with God.
When I have weeks that are so full that I can’t seem to get any rest and where it seems like everyone wants my attention I really feel like I need peace. It is a comfort to know I have peach in my relationship with God.
Paul is telling us that this qualification came with our initial faith…..
Our faith has a bonus feature; Paul adds that our faith in Christ also includes the grace in which we currently live. The problems we still have and are working on to improve…are covered by God’s grace because of faith.
A quick recap….faith yields peace with God for our past and grace for the problems that we still have….and then Paul mentions a response…. “And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.”
We can be happy because we have a hope in God…It is not like a child that hopes mom and dad will take them to 6 flags.
-- When God says it, it is a done deal….which is not like any kind of a hope that is based on man’s actions and plans.
All that sounds so good, and then we get to Paul’s next phrase which I have trouble liking….
“Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope.”
Why do bad things happen to good people??? Suffering, I really don’t like suffering. I don’t like a headache…..It seems to get in the way and makes me grumpy and sometimes rude.
But if it won’t go away and I go out and get the work done then I persevered….
Personally I think I would prefer the headache to go away…..but, Paul says that when Tom works through his suffering it builds character……
The word suffering, is also translated as tribulations in the KJV and from my reading, an better interpretation might be pressures.
I have heard other people talk about when we make our kids do things they don’t want to do it builds character…..My folks worked a lot on my character … sometimes they had to use the plumb tree out front to add to my motivation…my suffering to make me a better person, to build my character.
There are days when I think I have enough character….But Paul is describing a process that we have to go through if we are to ever have hope.
On a scale of 1 to 10 how is your hope?
Hope is a critical thing.
If we live as people with little or no hope then we will be a people that are never willing to do anything.
There are plenty of people in our world that live without hope. And they definitely have a hard life…
--
There were once two identical twins. They were alike in every way but one. One was a hope-filled optimist who always saw something good in everything. The other was a dark pessimist, who always expected the worst in everything and every situation.
The parents were so worried about the extremes of optimism and pessimism in their boys they took them to physiatrist. The Dr. suggested a plan. "On their next birthday give the pessimist a shiny new bike, but give the optimist only a pile of manure."
It seemed like an extreme thing to do. After all the parents had always treated heir boys equally. But in this instance they decided that they had to try to Doctor’s advice just to get the boys to see the world a little more normally.
So when the twins birthday came round they gave the pessimist the most expensive, top of the line, mountain racing bike a child has ever owned. When he saw the bike his first words were, "I’ll probably crash and break my leg."
To the optimist they gave a carefully wrapped box of manure.
He opened it, looked puzzled for a moment, then ran outside screaming, "You can’t fool me! Where there’s this much manure, there’s just gotta be a pony around here somewhere!"
Paul basically says that no matter what we go through, every trial that we work through makes us stronger and actually builds our ability to have hope.
While I don’t necessarily like the idea I do believe that it has proven to be true.
Not only that, I have also learned that my past sufferings have helped me to be more useful and encouraging to other people.
I believe that is what Paul is describing when he says,
“And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.”
When we have hope in God we are more empowered by the Holy Spirit and that hope becomes a living element in our lives. Living in us and assisting us. Empowering us. Hope can be contagious…
I often wonder how a person with no faith can survive the sufferings of this world.
For them a box of manure is only a box of manure. Life is a burden and any joy they have they know is only going to be short lived.
But according to Paul, a Christian’s view of the world is very different.
A number of years ago my dad called me and asked me to go out to Berry and pick up a Christmas present that he had arranged for my Aunt Edith.
It was early in December and he asked me to meet a professor he knew that would arrange to load my pickup truck with a big load of cow manure.
I asked what Aunt Edith had done to warrant such a gift.
As far as I knew she was just a sweet little old lady. He assured me that she was going to love receiving about 1000 pounds of this material.
Later, I learned what was fragrant material that abused my nose and made my eyes water, had a whole different impact on Aunt Edith.
We had one thing in common; we both wanted the material off of my truck. I wanted it gone for obvious reasons, but Aunt Edith wanted it for the promise it held.
She was looking ahead at the amazing flowers that would appear from the proper application of the material.
My short term suffering looked like amazing flowers for years to come to her.
My Aunt was overjoyed because she had hopes of a future that I could not even imagine but she could already see. And in just a small way, she enjoyed the anticipation of something beautiful.
Isn’t that a good way of explaining hope in God….anticipation.
-- That is the same kind of hope that Paul hints at with the description in our reading today.
The kind that is worth all the troubles we face as we work through this life and face the challenges.
So, while I don’t really enjoy my suffering, tribulations…pressures, I do understand that as I keep my relationship, my faith alive with the help of the Holy Spirit, I am making progress to something far better.
Paul continues,
You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
My whole struggle this morning is focused on the little phrase, “at just the right time.”
I have already seen Christmas stuff, in the stores this week. Orange and Black sitting next to red and green.
I am only a man and I really don’t understand the magic of colors.
Some how having that combination of orange and black and red and green sitting right across the isle from each other seems to clash to me.
But it is not just the colors that bother me…it is the timing.
The timing seems off…It is obviously man’s timing ….man’s reasons.
It won’t be long before we start hearing and seeing ads that will state “just in time for Christmas.”
I am sure that most of you have heard people speak of an “on time” God before.
How God’s timing is always perfect. I can tell you that I personally agree that my experience bears that fact out.
Personally, maybe this is just me; I would prefer that God reveal what is going to happen early, so I can relax. But, that is not what my personal experience has shown.
Human timing or our view of timing tends to want things to come early. We want to get our paycheck before we go on vacation. We want to have all the ingredients for a cake on the table before we turn on the oven. We want to know that things will work out for the best before we agree to support something.
But that is not the way that God works.
According to Paul, the salvation of man kind was accomplished by Jesus Christ …just at the right time.
It happened when people were powerless.
It happened, when the majority of people in the world had almost no control over their circumstances.
They were ruled by people with power over life and death.
If the were poor or a slave they were very unlikely to never see a change for them or even their children.
Their situations, their sufferings, their pressures held no future.
They had no promise of peace, grace or flowers down the road.
Then Jesus Christ came declaring the release of the captives. Explaining that God…GOD knew of their suffering and that there would be something better in the future.
God came into this world looking like a human being and He came declaring a difference.
Let me try to explain the feeling that stuck with me during my busy week.
Sometimes we add to the pressures of our lives.
Sometimes we choose to endure something or to do without something for the good of others.
I told you that this week my schedule included a couple of extra things.
-- With the wrong attitude, they could have been viewed as burdens.
Both of the extra events cost several hours of time…each. Both of the events cost not just me time and money but also included many other people.
The first event happened, Monday evening. And it was a huge privilege to represent this church, I was given the honor and pleasure of visiting with Michael and Jeannine.
This church made a generous …..generous gift to them of over $1000 to help them in their time of pressure. It was a gift of encouragement that I hope we will all continue to offer.
They did not open the envelope while I was there. So I don’t know the exact amount that we gave.
They were so grateful to all of you first for your prayers and second for the gift.
Jeanine said to me, “you just don’t know the amazing the timing of this.”
-- Our small amount of suffering, responding to the leading of the Holy Spirit that God has filled us with, eased the pressure that the Holts are feeling.
Do you think it is a coincidence that it came just in time?
Do you realize that we, Silver Creek United Methodist Church, were used by God to ease the suffering of some people that we know?
Folks, that is the mission of every church.
Whenever we respond to the leading of the Holy Spirit and do something that cost us something, we are being obedient to God.
Our obedience is useful to God and it will end up receiving a blessing. Probably in ways we would never expect or even pray for.
I was blessed to be able to represent this church in delivering a blessing. I felt so good and all of you should too.
I had one more event that cost me hours of sleep and preparation time.
One more event that would not have been possible if this church were not here on this spot.
This event also require the special gifts of several people in our church, families that give freely of their time and other precious resources.
We hosted several small churches youth over in the park last night.
We held a cook out and a worship service. We had 17 teenagers running around the park playing Frisbee, eating hamburgers and hotdogs and singing praise to God.
Folks, it was a Saturday night…..Teenagers don’t normally hang out at church on Saturday night. It was a bit of a miracle if you ask me.
This was another event where people in this church had to make a decision to give of their resources to draw young people closer to God in a special way.
This was another act of obedience.
This was another act of ministry.
This was another response to an opportunity that God placed in our path and waited to see how we responded.
Church family, I believe that I speak for God and I know I speak from my heart when I thank you for being a living body of Christ.
-- You need to understand, Not every church is.
You need to understand that there are far too many churches out there that live day to day and have little hope.
They have little or no hope for the future and so they live in a hospital bed worried about how they will live day to day.
Thinking only of them selves and their comfort and their survival and allowing the world to go to hell for all they care.
But I see that we still look outside these walls. We still see and feel other people’s pressures and suffering and are willing to take on pressures of our own in order to encourage people.
There is only one way that happens….the spirit of God is alive and well within this church.
The Spirit of God will never have us waste our resources. The time, and talents and money we give are a fantastic offerings to the hope that we have alive in us.
All Glory be to God!
