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“Seeing Reality through the Eyes of Hope”
Jeremiah 29:11-14
Rev. Tonya M. Arnesen
Inaugural Sermon - July 9, 2006

They still tell the story at the College of William and Mary, of their daft and magnificent President, Benjamin S. Ewell.  For a century and a half, this prestigious Virginia school had been a leader among American universities.  Then came the Civil War and the hard days of Reconstruction which followed.  William and Mary went bankrupt in 1882 – and soon there stood a deserted campus, decaying buildings, and no students.  Like so many other Southern schools that met their demise as result of that tragic war, everyone assumed that William and Mary College was surely dead. 

Everyone, except President Ewell.  He had given his best years to advancing the liberal arts through that school – and he refused to give up now.  So every year, for seven years, President Ewell went to the deserted campus, climbed the tower of its main building, and rang the bells – it was an act traditionally regarded as the start of the academic term.  He behaved as if the school was still there.  People thought he was crazy, but every year President Ewell rang the bells at William and Mary College – in defiance of the despair and hopelessness that would destroy everything he held dear. 

Eventually, miraculously, his undying hope paid off.  Others caught his vision.  In 1888, the Commonwealth of Virginia passed an act to support the College.  Students, teachers and money returned.  Today, America’s second oldest university continues to thrive – because of a daft and magnificent dreamer  (from William and Mary College website)    

When the odds are overwhelmingly against you, when the grim realities of the present give you no reason to imagine there could be a bright future, what does it take to keep ringing the bells?  HOPE.

When the overwhelming needs of people and the rising costs of ministry in the city give us no reason to imagine we might have a bright future, what will it take to keep on ringing the bells?  HOPE!  HOPE!  HOPE!

And what is the ground of our hope, dear church?  The answer is found in God’s Word!  “For surely I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope.”  Isn’t it amazing that a letter written thousands of years ago can continue to be relevant and hold such promise and power for us today?!? 

God’s word, spoken through the prophet Jeremiah, is given to a people in exile.  Through their ancestor Abraham, God had made covenant with the Hebrew people – had chosen and called them to be “a light to the nations.”  It was God’s intention that their corporate life would be so conformed to God’s purposes, that their faithfulness would be a vital witness to the power, wisdom and faithfulness of the “One True God” – Yahweh.  

But God’s children were gravely disobedient to His purpose.  They were faithless and sinful – they followed after idols and forgot the Lord.  So God had to correct them, as a loving father corrects a disobedient child.  In 586 B.C., God allowed a neighboring King, Nebuchadnezzar, and his Babylonian army to swoop down on Jerusalem and take captive the Jews who were living there.  That pagan army plundered the Holy City, brought down its’ walls and laid it waste.    

Nebuchadnezzar’s army put the Hebrew people in chains and marched them back to Babylon, where they were made slaves.  It was during this 70 year exile, that Psalm 137 was written:  “By the rivers of Babylon – there we sat down and there we wept when we remembered Zion.” (Psalm 137:1) 

The Jews languished for their homeland; ached to return to their past glory; longed to know God’s gracious favor once again.  They prayed for deliverance and relief from their suffering.  And to the captives under oppression, God spoke this wonderful life-giving word, “I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for your welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.”  (vs 11)

What a promise!  There is, perhaps, nothing more therapeutic and comforting than to hear with ears of faith, “God has a plan for you.”  And nothing gives more direction and strength for our living, than believing that truth.  You see, if you believe there is purpose and direction, and trust that God is involved, you can focus your energy; you can be single-minded in seeking to discern God’s leading.  You can even relax in the fact that the burden of the future doesn’t weigh on your shoulders.

This is especially true when trouble assails you – your health fails, your marriage becomes strained or distant, your children break your heart and test the endurance of your patience, a loved one dies and leaves you alone, you have no job – and wonder how you’ll pay the bills.  We know that in every life, there will be hardship and pain.  And when it happens to us, we may, like the Hebrew exiles, wonder if it is God’s will that we suffer.  We may even question whether or not God cares about our plight. 

Dear people, more than any other time, when hardship and suffering plague us, we need to remind one another that “God has a plan.”  And while we may not be able to imagine what God’s plan is – and we cannot fathom there could be any good purpose for our present trouble – we can trust that God’s plan and purpose is ALWAYS GOOD.   When the horizon of our vision is obscured by the challenges of the here and now, it is time for us to stop and take a God’s eye view of our situation – to see reality through the eyes of HOPE.

Maxie Dunnam is one of my favorite authors – and I am privileged to count him as a personal friend as well.  Maxie suggests that when we wonder about God’s plan and purpose, we should imagine that our life is like watching a parade through a knothole.  The parade is happening on the other side of a huge fence, and you want to see it – but the only opening in the fence is a knothole.  You press your eye to the knothole and the only thing you can see is the trunk of an elephant, or the funny shoes on the clown, or maybe a tuba passes by and dominates your view. 

Through the knothole, you get only a tiny picture of what’s going on.  But if you can climb up on top of the fence and look over, the glory of the parade comes into full view –the entire U of M marching band, the majorettes twirling their batons, magnificent floats – even the clowns driving their crazy little cars.  You see it all – and what a difference it makes in your perspective! 

Someday, I trust that we’ll all be able to look at the whole parade and know that God did have a plan for us – a plan to do us good and not to do us in – to give us “a future and a hope.”           

Now, I want to remind you that what is true for you and me as individuals is just as true for the church.  God has a plan for Metropolitan!  Plans for our wellbeing and not for our demise.  Plans for us to deepen in vital faith and prosper in significant ministry.  Plans for us to make a positive impact on the renewal of this city.  Plans for us to GROW in numbers as we invite and welcome new people to become followers of Jesus Christ!  Plans to give us a future with hope.

We know that from the beginning, this church was built upon a solid foundation of faith and hope in God’s good plans.  This magnificent sanctuary was built upon the hope that Metropolitan Church would one day draw the whole city to Jesus Christ.  This diverse congregation was born out of a hope that ALL of God’s children could find a place of welcome here – young and old, black, white, Arab, Asian and Hispanic, rich and poor, male and female, Republican and Democrat – all worshiping together in the unity of Christ. 

Some would look at our present reality and say we have little reason to hope – that our prospects aren’t very bright.  After all, we are a “maturing” congregation that occupies an aging building in a dwindling city within a state that suffers from a shrinking economy.  A couple weeks ago, someone even suggested that Bishop Keaton sent me here to fail, to close this church so that the Annual Conference could sell this building and take over our trust funds.  When I spoke of my intention to help us grow and share in a dynamic, significant ministry, they accused me of being “Pollyanna” – of ignoring reality.  “Get real, Tonya,” they said, “it’s not enough to cross your fingers and naively hope things will turn out all right!”

In my mind, that attitude is a misconception of Christian hope.  The biblical concept of hope is not some “warm fuzzy feeling” that we can conjure up with the right incantation or muster up by gritting our teeth and trying harder.  No!  Christian hope is grounded in a sure and certain faith in the Living God, “. . . our help in ages past – our hope for years to come.” 

And because our hope rests in the eternal God – who is faithful to all generations, our hope is sustainable – even in the most difficult circumstances.  We refuse to give up on God, because we know that God has not given up on us!  Because our hope is in the Lord, we can trust that beyond every failure is victory; beyond every ending is a new beginning; beyond decline is vitality and growth; beyond death is resurrection.  Beyond what any human effort can achieve, God is “able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine.”  (Ephesians 3:20). 

According to Dr. George Morris in his upcoming book, Foundation Stones of the Missionary Congregation, this kind of biblical hope is necessary for the life and vitality of the church because, “Hope is energetic.  It energizes the missionary congregation; it infuses us with energy.  As a result, the people of God find themselves en route – on a pilgrimage.  Each step is energized by expectation.  Moreover, hope is magnetic.  It draws others into its circle of influence.  The lowliest and the least are attracted by its gravitational pull.  Hope is also heroic, willing to risk.  Its attitude of revolutionary expectancy propels it forward to serve the least and the lost.  Nothing looks impossible to the eyes of hope.  When God comes, the impossible becomes possible.”    

Friends, if we but look at our present reality through the eyes of hope – a promising future comes into view.  For as long as there is one person in your family, as long as there are three or four people at your workplace; as long as there are ten or twenty in your town, or two or three hundred in this New Center area . . . as long as there are five or six thousand persons in the tri-county area who need to be restored into fellowship with God, then this church has the potential to grow! 

Doesn’t that hope quicken your pulse and make your heart skip a beat?  It sure does mine!     

God has a plan for your life.  God has a plan for this church.  But let us also remember that God is ultimately concerned about the whole of creation.  In other words, God’s plan for you and for Metropolitan is but a part of God’s plan for the world that He so loves.  

And what is God’s plan for the world?  -- to repair and heal a broken creation and bring it to wholeness again – to restore the universe back to it’s original goodness. (The Hebrew word for this restoration is “Shalom.”) 

God knows it’s not enough to restore financial holdings, land or temple – God knows we need to be healed of our sin-sickness and restored to an intimate fellowship with God.  So when God promises through Jeremiah, “I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all the nations and all the places where I have driven you. . .  and I will bring you back to the place from which I sent you into exile,” we recognize that God’s intention is nothing less than a “cosmic health plan.”   

Yes, we need to be praying that God will restore some of the brothers and sisters who have left the fellowship of this congregation – and I pray that all of us will be intentional about reaching out and inviting them to come home.  But to imagine that to be God’s ultimate purpose is to underestimate the largesse of God’s gracious goodness!  God intends to restore every person, every family, every race, every religion, every political division, every nation  and all the world to wholeness and well-being.  God intends to bring all of creation back into fellowship with God and into harmony and unity with one another. 

As Christians, we affirm that God has already begun this saving work through His Son, Jesus Christ, “For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell and through him God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, by making peace through the blood of his cross.” (Colossians 1:19-20)  God’s plan is to restore creation and our purpose as a church is to participate in God’s divine intention – to offer such a winsome witness to Christ Jesus, that ultimately “at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”  (Philippians 2:10-11)   

It’s a grand purpose to be sure!  And what a privilege it is, to partner with God – and with you – in the task before us.  There are and will be many more obstacles and challenges – and we will not overcome them, except by the power of the Holy Spirit at work in us. 

But I am hopeful!  In fact, you might say I am a daft and magnificent dreamer.  I know I am not alone.  I look out on this congregation, I see other dreamers – folks who, like that college president so long ago, refuse to give up hope.  In spite of tragedy and sorrow, disappointment and discouragement, they have continued to “ring the bells!” 

Invitation to let our hope ring . . .

Rev. Tonya M. Arnesen

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