Sermon by The Very Rev Chris Yaw, 1/26/2025
Centering Prayer
Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, Awaken me to myself and others
We begin today in our Gospel with what is a pinnacle day for Jesus!
His preaching debut - his great announcement of who he is and where he's headed - his mic-dropping declaration at his hometown Nazareth congregation - that leaves the crowd awed, silent, and stunned.
There is a new sheriff in town - with a new direction - a new Gospel.
It is a message of promise and possibility - which he will spend the next 3 years articulating and spreading. It is as comprehensive as it is life-changing - indeed it is destined to both found and topple governments - it will change the course of history as billions of people attempt to follow him - partaking of his definition of power and supremacy - which is found in servanthood and forgiveness - in his Gospel of hope.
We also begin this week with a pinnacle day for our nation! The swearing in of a new president - with new declarations of who he is and where he is headed - for he also promotes a message of promise and possibility.
We are told of a new economic era of lower consumer prices, housing costs, and taxes. There have been executive orders that tighten border security, hasten executions, punish political opponents, and give freedom to those convicted of assault and sedition, re-branding them as righteous revolutionaries and patriots.
There is a new sheriff in town - with a new direction - This will, no doubt, change the lives of millions and millions people as well. But this is not a gospel of hope - this is a gospel of optimism.
I want to contrast these two words this morning - hope and optimism -
The first, for my purposes, is better understood as 'Christian Hope' - or the promise and attitude of the Christian to our journey and the world based on our faith.
And I would like to hold this up to the word 'optimism' - or perhaps better termed 'Worldly Optimism' - this refers to the logic and reason of this world - with all its attraction and fallibility.
And before I go any further, I want to be clear: please don't understand this sermon as primarily political - or aligning with any other political views other than those of Jesus as we have received them through Scripture, Tradition, and Reason - a lens I will return to shortly.
You've probably heard enough politics this week.
Many of you heard the words of Episcopal Bishop Mariann Budde to President Trump this week-
I have much to say about that, check your emails or social media -
And remember that it is the church's job not to applaud the government, or to demean the government, but this critique the government.
but that's not my topic this morning.
Politics is not the focus of my remarks this morning, it is merely a looming backdrop -
Because I came to this pulpit this morning to talk about hope.
In the world that you and I woke up to this morning - we live in stormy and turbulent times, where the winds of injustice howl and the shadows of despair, threaten - there is particular need for us to talk about Hope.
Ya - we come to church this morning amidst a worrying forecast for our New Year –
We see conflicts in Europe, the Middle East and Africa continuing to rage on.
Tensions are as high as ever between the U-S and China.
The global economy remains on edge.
The threat of a new pandemic hovers near.
And if we want to talk weather, experts tell us, on average, last year saw the highest recorded temperatures the world has ever seen.
We are also witnessing anti-democratic forces prevailing in elections after elections around the world, shifting the geopolitical landscape for what may be, generations - as many world governments see the communications and technologies that connect us - as also insulating us - creating silos of fear and suspicion that bring isolation and threat.
This is not to mention many of the actions taken this week by our new president that have worried and alarmed many of you. Not all of you, but many of you - you've told me so!
In the midst of our edgy and off-kilter times - you and I must reclaim and re-ground ourselves in the only proven antidote we have against the very real fears and anxieties we have brought to church this morning - that, like the western wildfires, seek to chase us, overtake us, and engulf us -
For, I am making the appeal to you to cling to that steadfast anchor, that guiding light in the darkness - that is hope. Christian hope. We all know that the year ahead will see consequential decisions, and perhaps none more than how we, the Church, will speak up, elevate, and embrace Jesus' Gospel of hope –
- the seeds of which we see planted in that little synagogue, in that tiny town, in the insignificant backwaters of the Roman Empire 2,000 years ago.
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Our text tells us that Jesus was 'filled with the Spirit' when he returned to his small town roots - and that tiny synagogue - or 'gathering place' - which is its literal meaning - in Nazareth - where he was born and raised.
Jesus is recognized as a teacher, or Rabbi, and is thus given the scroll to read as part of the town's weekly worship - It's a portion from his favorite Hebrew book - which is Isaiah - indeed, in the Gospels, Jesus would quote from this book more than any other during his ministry. Isaiah, as you know, is the 'social gospel' of the Hebrew scriptures - with its constant admonitions to care for the poor and the immigrant - to stand up to selfish powers - and to live out lives of service and care for others.
It is against this backdrop that Jesus chooses a text that is the cornerstone for his ministry - as he declares:
"The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor... proclaim release to the captives... recovery of sight to the blind... let the oppressed go free, [and] proclaim the year of the Lord's favor."
And this, of course, is exactly what Jesus would do.
Time and time again, we read stories in the Bible of Jesus doing these very things, literally and figuratively, and this is the foundation stone of my message this morning:
As Christian hope is based on Christ.
Yes, you, like those first hearers in that Nazareth synagogue, may be asking,
'What's going on here? 'Is he bringing us hope? 'What is hope? Why should I have it, and what does it mean for me today?'
So let's get to my first point - let me further parse: Hope versus optimism - Again, Christian hope vs. Worldly optimism - what's the difference?
Here's a story-
Suppose you drove to church this morning and pulled up to the front door and asked the usher to park your car in back because it's snowy and you just polished your shoes.
And you walk into church, shiny shoes and all, as the usher parks your car - then approaches you with the keys saying he parked your car in the back parking lot, the second row, 5 spaces from the left.
You would thank the kind and frozen usher and think nothing of it, putting your keys in your pocket and paying very close attention to the sermon, like you always do.
You will have this confidence for two reasons:
The point is - your first reason was arrived upon because you had faith in a Christian promise - that one of God's chosen would not let you down. The same Christ who called you by name - and to faith - warming your heart by intuition and conviction - led you to rest in this usher's word.
And your second reason was purely based on worldly wisdom - that your earthly intelligence correctly concluded that your car's going to be OK - nothing's happened before, who'd want that car anyway - as the fuel will likely be a half-gallon lower because that's what it took to get that car to the back parking lot...
Worldly Optimism, then, is rooted in the very best our world can give us - logic, polling, scientific investigation. And not only is optimism rooted in this - it is limited to this. It will not travel beyond the boundaries of what can be seen under a microscope or demonstrated in a lab.
Hope, Christian hope, while certainly not blind to this, finds its roots elsewhere.
That leads me to my second point: Christian hope is rooted in Scripture.
Christian hope is confident expectation rooted in the faith of God's promises in the Bible.
God promised Abraham ancestors that would outnumber the stars: Done.
God promised Israel a land flowing with milk and honey: Delivered.
God promised Zechariah he would see the Messiah: Check.
God promised Jesus resurrection: Yep.
God promised the Holy Spirit to guide and grow the Church: Yes.
Romans 5:5 says that because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit: 'Hope does not disappoint us.'
1 Peter 1:3 says that the commitment you and I have to Jesus has given us hope, rooted in his promises that he will never leave us or forsake us [Romans 8] and he will prepare a place for us now and in eternity [John 14:3]
And Hebrews 6:18-19 argues that because God has loved us by sending Jesus, we have hope that God's love will continue to be seen in the divine provision we regularly enjoy.
Christian hope is rooted in the scriptures.
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This leads me to my third point - which you Anglican theologians have already anticipated - for hope is rooted not just in Scripture but in tradition. You and I do well to recount how Christians through the ages who have put their trust in God - and seen, time and again, how God saved the day. We see how St. Francis left a life of worldly riches and comfort to 'rebuild God's church' and still provides an example of simplicity, selflessness, and care for creation that inspire us today.
We see how he soldiered through deep valleys of despair - faced long odds and overcame high walls of opposition, clinging to the hope that God had called him to a mighty work.
We see how Mother Teresa's selfless labor among the 'poorest of the poor' - in which she found fulfillment and joy - reminds us that our greatest happiness is found in serving others.
We marvel at her courage and conviction, pleading for an end to the dark night of the soul that haunted, but did not keep her, from fulfilling her hope of loving and caring for those in desperate need.
We remember how the hope of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. led him to ply his immense gifts of intelligence and oration to the area of Civil Rights - winning for untold numbers of people new levels of freedom and liberation.
We see how God imbued him with the spirit of the prophets, to speak unflagging hope in the midst of a dark maelstrom of oppression.
And we look back 73 years today - as we approach our annual meeting - and marvel at the hope of the founders of St. David's Parish. Let me name one in particular - Mike White - who is Kitty Kenning's father - an early Vestry member - and the unfailing hopefulness that he embodied!
Does anyone remember Mike? He carried that light of hope from drawing board to real estate - to the very pews we're sitting in and the stained glass windows we're looking through - which has given this amazing parish the foundation to do the life-changing work you all do today.
So we see, in the lives of these, and countless other saints, demonstrable hope in action - how their choice to place their hope in God - often in the face of overwhelming odds - paid off.
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And my fourth and final point, after scripture and tradition, is an appeal to reason.
Now, this is not to be confused with the worldly wisdom I spoke of earlier, which is bounded by scientific experiments and demonstrable lab work.
No, this is the reasonableness that you exercised when you dated 10 guys - and a few of them, on paper, made much more sense than the guy whose ring you chose to wear - WHY? Because it just felt right. There was a stillness in your spirit. Your intuition told you so.
It's the same reasonableness that made you chose the home you live in and the car you drive.
After all, any salesman will tell you that our choices are far more emotional in basis than we like to admit: we make our choices from our guts, then go back and find logical reasons to back our decisions. So the appeal to hope is like that.
We see hope play out in scripture, we see it on display in the lives of the saints, and we witness to the ways we have sensed God working in our lives, which we do well *not to ignore.
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Friends, the Christian faith, at its core, is a testament and clarion call, to hope.
In that hope, we believe in a God who is not indifferent to our suffering, who weeps with us in our sorrow, and who ultimately triumphs over evil.
It is this conviction that, even amidst the deepest valleys of despair, and mountains of evidence to the contrary, the work of justice, freedom, peace, and love, can be accomplished.
Today we are reminded, as Jesus did in that humble Nazareth Schul long ago, that a new age is dawning. Yes, there is the darkness of fear and the shadow of anxiety in the air, But our hope in God is not displaced:
Our work, of creating beloved community will not be weighed down by oppression and unbelief.
But we will walk in the light of hope - which is our call: To embrace the challenges that lie ahead with courage and determination.
To be beacons of hope and encouragement in a world that desperately needs to rediscover the values of love, compassion, and justice. And to strive to build a beloved community where all God's children can live in dignity and freedom.
Let us join hearts and hands together, dear saints of God, as we have for all these years as God's beloved community in Southfield -
And let us reignite those embers of hope that reside deep in our souls - and amidst the howling winds of cynicism and disillusionment, let that shining light of Christ chase away the darkness!
Amen.