Romans 5:1-5

May 30, 2010 

“HEADED FOR HOPE”

          Pastor Felipe Martinez shared in an article he wrote for The Christian Century that he uses two forms for traveling.  If time is a factor, if he needs to get from point A to point B in a hurry, he jumps in his car and heads for the interstate.  Not much to see, to be sure, but it gets him to his destination in a relative hurry, bypassing everything that would slow his progress.  Now, if time is not a factor, if there is no deadline for reaching his destination, he’ll get out his motorcycle and head down back roads and explore small towns.  He may stop in a town on the way even if he doesn’t yet need gas or a bathroom.  What’s in this town, he wonders?  Who are the folks who live here, he ponders?

            Pastor Martinez then likened the list found in our second lesson today from Romans to how he chooses to travel.  He turned the list … Suffering, Endurance, Character, Hope, and Love into names of small towns.  The destination is the town of Hope, and he quickly sensed that he wanted to take the four-lane highway to get there.  He found himself wanting to drive by, speed past the towns of Suffering, Endurance, and Character, because he couldn’t wait to get to the destination of Hope.  Oh, there would be no sauntering through Suffering.  He didn’t wish to spend any more time than absolutely necessary in Endurance, and he wasn’t excited to reach Character because he didn’t like what he was going to have to drive through to get there.  No, in this case he would rather go around the towns of Suffering, Endurance, and Character instead of driving through them.  After all, he was on a mission to get to Hope as quickly as possible.

            What about you?  Have you ever broken down in the town of Suffering?  Ah, you could be there for awhile before you get put back together so that you can continue your journey.  It takes time in Suffering to figure out what is needed for the repair.  And then the parts will need to be ordered.  Have you noticed?... what you need is hardly ever in stock in Suffering.  Nothing is easy in the town of Suffering.  And Ima Stungbyhurt and Tiny Toodepressedtomove are semi-retired mechanics with the emphasis on retired, so you are at their mercy to get everything put back together so that you can leave Suffering.  Sometimes it feels like you are going to have to stay in Suffering forever, and Suffering is not the kind of place you would want to live out your days.  You know what I’m saying, don’t you?

            Maybe you are like me.  Most of the time I don’t realize how meaningful the towns of Endurance and Character were until I’m actually in Hope.  In the town of Hope I can look back and see some things that weren’t clear to me as I actually tried to make my way through the towns of Endurance and Character.  There were so many detours in Endurance.  It seemed like I was always starting over in Endurance, so much so that I wondered if I would ever see the sign at the end of town that reads “City Limits…Thanks For Your Patience in Endurance.”  And in Hope, I realize I am stronger, thankful for my life lessons, more aware of the journey between Suffering and Hope.  It is then that I realize the good things that came out of the journey, the blessings, if you will.  I realize that all the building that was going on in Character was actually beneficial.  In Hope, as I look back at the journey I just traveled, this is what I have learned.  We all take turns traveling those same roads.  I can pass on the personal experiences of my trip and maybe give a direction or two, but I can’t take the trip for anyone else.  My journey won’t help others bypass the towns of Suffering, Endurance and Character, but I can be supportive of their trip.  And I realize everyone is in a different town at different times.  There will be those in Suffering who won’t be ready to hear about Hope.  Hope seems too far away when you are in Suffering.  Mainly I have learned that the best thing I can do for someone traveling through Suffering is to listen and to pray.  I can’t give time-lines, I can’t provide short-cuts, and I can’t promise how or when their trip through Suffering will end.  Listening is important, though; praying is essential.

            Here is something else.  It’s always better when we have traveling companions, someone to help us know where to turn, someone who we can talk to in order to pass the time, someone who can reassure us that we are indeed on the right road out of the town of Suffering to get to the city of Hope.  Have you noticed?  When you are with another, sitting side by side for hours at a time while traveling, especially through Suffering, Endurance and Character, you learn so much about the other and the other learns so much about you.  You realize the time was beneficial, and you are thankful that the relationship is deeper.  It especially helps when the fellow-traveler is Jesus.  He becomes more a part of us, and we become more a part of him.  In fact, he tells us He is the way.

            There are a couple of other things in today’s text that are crucial to hear about these trips we have to take throughout our lives.  One thing we don’t have to spend time worrying about, especially when we are going through the town of Suffering, is if God is mad at us.  Sometimes it feels that way, doesn’t it?  But the Apostle Paul tells us that it is not anger that God feels for us; it is peace.  Paul says we have peace with God even as we have to be led through the towns of Suffering, Endurance and Character.  Peace connects God to us and that took place through Jesus.  Did you notice?  When you arrived in Hope, did you see what stood in the center of town?  Did you see that cross?  Nothing on it, right?  The cross made us right with God; the cross created peace with God.  Even though we travel through Suffering, we don’t have to wonder or worry about who is on our side.  We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.  Paul says we stand in grace, we are up to our knee caps in God’s unconditional and unending love.  So, during the journey, especially as we pass through the towns of Suffering, Endurance, and Character, Paul says we are surrounded by, filled with God.  We stand in grace, and then Paul tells us that, again through Christ, God’s love has been poured, poured, into our hearts through the Holy Spirit.  We don’t travel alone.  In fact, we could never make it on our own.  We’d get lost in a minute.  We’d be stranded in Suffering.  Virtually everything we would try on our own would only bring us to dead end roads.  Don’t you just hate the signs that say “No Outlet?”  I’ll tell you, I’d much rather take the trip with Jesus.  I’d much rather bank on the fact that in the midst of the journey I’m standing in grace and love is being poured into my heart.  Paul said it plainly: Hope does not disappoint us.  That’s because the Cross is standing at the center of town.  The whole reason for the existence of Hope is the cross that stands empty in the city square.

            In another place in Romans Paul will soon repeat what he has just said.  The list of towns is different longer. But his proclamation, the hope with which he cries is a clear statement of faith.  “Nothing in all of creation will be able to separate us from the love of God through Christ Jesus our Lord.”

            Welcome to Hope.  So glad you got here!                          Amen