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On my first Sunday here back in June, the children, youth, and families committee gifted me with a jar of encouraging quotes and Bible verses for when I needed a pick me up during a difficult day. It is this jar filled with words of encouragement from Scripture and famous theologians and philosophers that remind me that hopefulness can be found especially during the difficultness of any day.
Jesus did not have a jar of sayings to give the disciples but he did want to leave them with words they would remember—words that would inspire, impress, uphold, and matter when things got tough for them. He wanted to leave the disciples with words that would encourage them even when things got difficult, when the world would not believe them, or even attempt to crucify them. Jesus knew the hardships of being a follower of Christ and what that would mean for his disciples in the future—isolation, imprisonment, persecution. He knew that one day when things got dicey they might not remember his teachings from his Sermon on the Mount, but they would remember words of encouragement that fostered hope. Hope in something to look forward to; hope in a Messiah that would return to them; and hope in the kingdom of God that would bring boundless love and peace to a broken world. It is hope that would be one of the greatest gifts that Jesus could give his disciples and us.
When we hope we have confidence that what we are expecting and anticipating will work out for the good. I’d like to think we don't hope for things to be dysfunctional or disappointing. When we hope in something we want to trust that what we are working for, praying for, and living for will be for positive outcomes; and most importantly that all that we do will glorify Jesus Christ. What do we have hope in? What brings us hope? We find hope in a new beginning, in a leader, in education, in therapy, in rehabilitation, in our faith, in our children… we even have hope in the ministries of this church that they will spiritually feed us and as a church we make an impact on the Baltimore community. We have hope in things that will make us, and those around us healthy, happy and safe. We must stay hopeful and faithful in the love of Christ that assures us that the hope that we have in God really is the only hope that will never fail us.
But Jesus knew that the disciples would be confronted by a world that would impart fear and doubt to distort the teachings of Jesus, and making them lose their trust in Jesus’ promises—and their hope in the Kingdom. That is why Jesus tells them to not be afraid—to not let fear instill doubt in the hope that Christ gives us. When fear creeps into our lives it makes us put value in other things to comfort and compensate for the dysfunction that we feel. For example, Jesus did not want the disciples to put more value in material possessions that would provide temporary comfort and support, rather than focusing on their own spiritual and emotional wellbeing. The same goes for us, when we become anxious and doubtful we tend to avoid the issue at hand or place blame. A minor example, is when I am so nervous about something I tend to buy organizers and organize my desk about ten times. We distract ourselves from what we fear and unfortunately that also make us lose focus on what we should hope for in our lives and in our relationship with God.
And it hard to combat fear and doubt when we are living in a world where fear is commonplace—Fear of hunger, violence, homelessness, loneliness, and separation, and even fear of the other or of the unknown. There has been a lot of language of fear in the media lately around specific groups’ of people based on their ethnicity and religious affiliation, and it inhibits us from seeing them as human beings and children of God but instead as the other. That is NOT what Christ is calling us to in this gospel today. Hate, fear, doubt—they separate us from God because these things do not allow us to fully love and trust God.
That is why Christ does not want us to fear those around us or become distracted my material things that we will not see the treasure in our lives. Jesus says, "For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." The treasure is every single one of us—it is the faithful Muslim, the refugee, the cop, the teacher, the children at Camp Imagination, it is families of those who recently lost loved ones in our congregation, it is our children and youth here, it you and me—we are treasured and loved by God. When we value and respect ourselves, and those around us our hearts our transformed and we begin to prepare ourselves for the kingdom of God—we become the hope in the world.
That is what Christ wants for us to remember when we are surrounded by a world that wants us to distract us from the good and joy of God that WE can be the hopeful light in the world. And we have been gifted with examples of Christ’s call to be afraid and treasure one another.
We have an Olympic team for the first time made up of refugees from around the world. It is inspiring that a team of young men and women escaped violence and persecution to compete and live out their dreams of being Olympians. My favorite part of the Olympics is the opening ceremony where all the athletes walk together representing their countries. This Friday it was powerful image of these 10 athletes displaced from their homeland and not able to represent their country but represented something even greater—they represented hope for all refugees and symbolized the magnitude of the refugee crisis throughout the world. They showed that violence and war would not win.
We have Camp Imagination at St. Luke’s Carey Street that provides a nurturing, educational and creative environment for the young children in the neighborhood. They had an art reception this year to display all the artwork and crafts the kids did throughout the week long camp. I found myself sitting next to a 5th grader who seemed quite down and I came to find out that his mom wasn’t able to come because she had to take his siblings to the doctors. One of the counselors asked him to show me all the exhibits and at the last exhibit which was called “Neighborhood Imagine” the kids had created their dream houses and what they envisioned their neighborhood to look like.
My tour guide pointed to his house, I said “that looks like a castle” it had the ramparts and he had used white paper for the stone look. He said it is a castle…I want to live in a castle someday. In a neighborhood where many houses are boarded up, it is amazing to have a camp and partnership with a church that is providing opportunities for kids to dream and imagine a life where they can live in a castle and that they deserve that—what hope and love is nurtured in a neighborhood suffering with its own fears.
Jesus does not want us to be afraid in the world (cautious maybe but not fearful), because when get past what we are scared of and value what God has created we are able to prepare ourselves through our earthly ministries for the Kingdom of God. We can bring hope to the world not by grand gestures but by simple kindness, by not allowing the bias of others and our own assumptions to inhibit us from being welcoming and understanding to those who are different. May our ministries here at Good Shepherd continue to reflect a fearlessness to engage our struggling world by sharing the hope we find in Christ. And may we live each day empowered with the knowledge of a God who sent His Son to bring us a message of encouragement and strength for a rough day. Amen.
The Rev. Jessica E. Sexton
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