The older I get, the more I like giving gifts. I love the look on Ainsley’s little face when she gets a surprise gift. She loves it when I come home with a toy or chocolate, and her little face makes my whole day. She doesn’t even say “thank you” often, but I know she loves the gift by her actions. As a famous theologian puts it, “Joy is the sincerest form of gratitude.” Her memories of the gifts fade pretty quickly though. That is the way of gifts with children. Most of the gifts they receive, they forget within weeks. If they remember how much they love a gift three months later, it is a bit of a minor miracle.
Of course, this is not just true with little children. We forget too. We even forget the spiritual gifts God has given us. If you remember them, though, they have the power to get you through times of crises and even face the uncertainty of the Coronavirus.
Paul writes about these gifts in Romans 5:1-12. The book of Romans is quite different from the rest of Paul’s writings. Typically, Paul’s letters are to congregations he started or to people he knows well. Paul had never been to see the Roman congregation and has limited knowledge of the people in the Roman church. So, Romans is more theological in nature. Paul writes about the mystery of living by faith and the results of being made right with God. In 5:1-12, Paul discusses three main benefits to being made right with God: peace, access to grace, and hope.
The peace Paul describes is not necessarily the peace we think about. When I think about peace, I tend to think about the feeling of peace. I think about being “at peace” when events seem to spiral out of control. I think of having a calm spirit in crisis so I can respond thoughtfully rather than react out of fear. While the Scriptures do talk about that kind of peace, it is not in view here. The peace that we are promised is peace with God. The Bible paints a picture of humans who are not at peace with God at all. Because of our choices to disobey we are effectively in conflict with God. Imagine a country ruled by a king who has told the citizens what was expected of them. If the citizens obey, then they are living at peace with the ruler. If the citizens choose to disobey, then they are living in conflict with the king. In our case, because of our behavior, we have chosen to live in conflict with God. God, however, made peace with us through Jesus Christ. One of the great beauties of Christianity is that our faith is not about what we can do to make God happy with us. It is about what God has done to save us.
Contrary to what we tend to think, God is not in heaven looking to smite us. Now, it is a very good thing that I am not God, because smiting would be my middle name. Someone steals something…SMITE! Someone is mean to a person with mental challenges…SMITE! Someone is cruel to the elderly…SMITE! Someone hurts a kid…SMITE! Someone cuts me off in traffic…..SMITE, SMITE, SMITE! Not God, though. God is good. He’s better than we think. He’s kinder than we deserve. He’s more loving than we imagine. He’s not looking to smite, he’s looking to save. He wants nothing more than to save.
Because God is at peace with you, you can be at peace with everyone and everything around you. The single most important thing about you is not what you do or what you earn. The single most important thing about you is that God has chosen to be at peace with you.
Paul also tells us that due to God’s love, we have access to grace in which we stand. If you are the kind of person that underlines passages in the Bible, underline that word stand. It is a powerful word. In John’s Revelation 6:17 there is a question that should haunt us a little. It pictures the world no longer under the grace of God but under His wrath. God has moved to judge the world. John says “For the Great day of His wrath has come, and who shall be able to stand?” The Psalms are a bit more hopeful about standing before God. “Who may ascend to the mountain of the Lord? Who may stand in His holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not trust in an idol or swear by a false god” (Ps 24:4). Yet, none of us have clean hands. All of us have had impurities of the heart. None, then, can stand. It is God who gives us the grace to be able to stand before Him. We can stand before God through Jesus Christ and His grace. We have access to grace through which we stand solely because of God.
Paul writes very little about the first two gifts in comparison to the last one. The last gift, hope, has his full attention. He tells us because of the grace of God we can exult in the hope of the glory of God. The last gift is one to treasure today. I look at the world around us, and it seems pretty bleak. Every day something else seems to close. First, it was the ACC tournament. Then the NCAA tournament. The NBA is suspended. MLB is suspended. Hockey is suspended. The Masters’ golf tournament has been postponed. Universities are moving to online delivery systems. North Carolina schools have been closed. Worship services have been canceled. Every day it seems there is some more news about Coronavirus, and each day’s news seems worse than the news of the previous day. Entire nations are on shut down. In a haunting, moving display, the people of Italy have resorted to leaning out their windows and singing to comfort themselves during their quarantine. With each passing day, it seems harder to figure out what is hysteria and what is real.
How should we respond? We believers are people of hope. Hope is not an assurance that we will avoid every negative event. In fact, we are promised that negative events will be part of the life of every believer. Paul himself had a serious issue. He had what was called a “thorn in the flesh.” If you have ever had a splinter in your foot, you have the idea of what Paul was getting at. It hurts. Paul repeatedly asked for healing, and healing never came. Paul’s hope was not based on avoiding negative events. His hope is the assurance that because of the work of God, no final harm could come to him or us. We are in Christ; we belong to Christ. Now and forever we will be with Christ. Should the worst that a disease can accomplish happen to us, we will find ourselves in with our God. We will be in the presence of the One who designed us for eternal joy.
Because our final life is ensured we can look at this life differently. We can revel in our suffering. Have you ever met one of those people who love to talk about what is ailing them? You know the ones who talk about their arthritis, bursitis, diverticulitis, bronchitis, cellulitis, appendicitis, and any other malady they can think of? They are really wallowing in their illnesses want someone to feel sorry for them. They are not who Paul is talking about. For most of us, we talk little about our hurts. Paul tells us that what comes out of our hurts makes the hurt itself worth celebrating. Here is the progression: Our hurts teach us to endure. Our endurance produces proven character, our character produces a hope that does not disappoint because God has poured out His love in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who is given to all who believe.
Now the difficulties themselves are not good. Disease is not good. Sorrow is not good. What God uses them to produce in us, though, is very good. God uses them to produce hope.
Hope changes everything. Hope gives us the power to act. Hope overcomes fear. Now, I’m not much of a farmer. So, my understanding of sheep is quite limited. I remember once saying that sheep were fairly dumb animals. I was corrected. Sheep are actually rather bright. They get their reputation for lack of mental ability by what happens when they get afraid. When the get afraid, they freeze. When they freeze they are easy prey. They can also fall over, rendering them helpless. No, in ordinary circumstances they are bright. It is only when they need their intelligence the most that they have it the least.
We can be an awful lot like sheep. Have you seen the hoarders over the last few weeks? There are people hoarding toilet paper. What in the world? It will do them no good during the crisis. They will not need more than they normally use. People who are hoarding cases of it are simply not behaving rationally. Worse, they are creating a shortage. The shortage could actually cause a problem. Fear creates acting on instinct. Acting on instinct creates problems where there should be none. We have no reason to act this way. We have hope.
Hope changes everything. Because we have hope we can help. There are going to be people who need us during the coming weeks. There are elderly and high-risk people who will not be able to leave their houses. They will need supplies. They will need food. They will need someone who will love them. In ancient Rome, when pandemics struck it was believers who acted. While most people hibernated, believers went to help those who were infected. They brought clean water, blankets, and their prayers. In fact, because of their actions the people they helped survived outbreaks much more frequently than others in the empire. They had no fear for their own lives because eternal life was secure. If we are put into quarantine, we can do so with hope, knowing our isolation is stopping the progress of the disease leading to safety and life for the weak.
Hope makes even uncomfortable events turn for the good. Because of the cancellation of activities, I have been at home with Molly and my girls a lot. I have to say, that I have great respect for those in the childcare industry. Staying at home for a long weekend with the babies has more than once made me say, “So this is why rats eat their young.” I have gotten stir crazy, even bored. In fact, Molly said we needed to go to Wal-Mart and I readily agreed. I know you are shocked. I agreed partially, because I was stir crazy and partially because I wanted to witness the pandemonium that would be at Wal-Mart on the edge of a crisis. I was guessing it would be a cross between an incoming snowstorm, black Friday, and Christmas Eve! To my surprise, there was no pandemonium, but it was a fun time to play with my little girls in a store.
I can choose to think negatively about the being closed in, but since I have hope I can look at the events very differently. I can choose to see it as a time to be with my girls. They are still babies, and will not be babies very long. They still light up when I come into a room, the days are coming when they will be irritated just because I exist. An extra day, extra days, or even longer with my little girls and my wife could be thought of as a gift. I can bear whatever cancellations I face because I have hope.
We have to face a difficult reality. The outbreak could be bad. There could be many cases of infection in the community. Resources could get scarce. There could be tragic losses. Even still, the power of disease—even Coronavirus—is small and pitiful in light of the Gospel. Because we have hope, we refuse to give in to the power of fear. We give fear no place in our lives or in our congregation. We fear no disease.
A famous minister calls hope a “reservoir of strength.” He says, “when I am put down upon, I look to the emotional reservoir of hope for the power to return good for evil. Without hope, I have no power to absorb the wrong and walk in love… If I experience a setback in my planning—I get sick, or things do not go the way I’d hoped in the board meeting, for example—I look to the reservoir of hope for the strength to keep going and not give up.”
The way to face Coronavirus is the way we believers face everything: with Hope. I find that when I lose hope I have lost memory. When I lose hope, it is usually because I have forgotten what God has already done in my life. It does me good to remember. I look at my life. When I was at my worst, when I thought I had lost everything, God was with me. In the times where my strength failed, God has upheld me in mystifying ways. When I was ready to quit, the voice of the Spirit gave me the power to press on.
If hope is in short supply, I want you to look at your life. Look at all of the ways God has used the pain of your life to make you better and stronger. If you happen to be quarantined or your favorite events get canceled, I want you to take the time to look at your life. Look for the work of God in it. You will find your hope soaring.
If you find your hope is shaking, remember the promises of God. The Bible is full of promises from God to you. God promises to always be with you. He promises to give you everything you need for life in the Spirit. He promises to answer prayer. He promises to guide your life. He promises that through the power of the Spirit you can overcome any temptation. He promises that nothing in life or death, no angel or demon, no principality or power, can separate you from His love. If God is with you, what can be against you? Absolutely, nothing. No worry has power over you and no disease has power over God. Ever….. Ever. He promised. The One who spun the stars is with us. The One who created the molecule is powerful over all its variations. The One with whom there is no change has forever promised to be with us and for us. Remember all His promises, and I promise you will find the hope you need for the days ahead.
If you need hope, remember one other thing, this community of faith is here. Although we are separated by distance and scheduling changes, we are still here. We are with each other and for each other. If you have any need, call me. Call a deacon. Call a staff member. Call a Sunday school teacher. We will assist an any way we can. We will be there for you. More importantly, we will pray. I’m always proud to be the pastor of this amazing community faith. I’m particularly proud to be your pastor when crises hit. You love each other in a love born of the hope of God, it is wonderful to watch. If any of you are struggling, we are here…disease or not.
May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ
And the Love of God
And the Fellowship of the Holy Spirit
Be with you now and forever.
Amen.
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