Defending Our Hope

Now who will harm you if you are eager to do what is good? 14 But even if you do suffer for doing what is right, you are blessed. Do not fear what they fear, and do not be intimidated, 15 but in your hearts sanctify Christ as Lord. Always be ready to make your defense to anyone who demands from you an accounting for the hope that is in you; 16 yet do it with gentleness and reverence. Keep your conscience clear, so that, when you are maligned, those who abuse you for your good conduct in Christ may be put to shame. 17 For it is better to suffer for doing good, if suffering should be God's will, than to suffer for doing evil. 18 For Christ also suffered for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, in order to bring you to God. He was put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit, 19 in which also he went and made a proclamation to the spirits in prison, 20 who in former times did not obey, when God waited patiently in the days of Noah, during the building of the ark, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were saved through water. 21 And baptism, which this prefigured, now saves you-- not as a removal of dirt from the body, but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, 22 who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers made subject to him. (1 Peter 3:13-22, NRSV)

"If you love me, you will keep my commandments. 16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever. 17 This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, because he abides with you, and he will be in you. 18 "I will not leave you orphaned; I am coming to you. 19 In a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me; because I live, you also will live. 20 On that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. 21 They who have my commandments and keep them are those who love me; and those who love me will be loved by my Father, and I will love them and reveal myself to them." (John 14:15-21, NRSV)

The 6th Sunday of Easter, Year A


“DEFENDING YOUR HOPE”


My Dad preferred hearing about things by word-of-mouth over advertisements on TV or in the papers. After all that is the purpose of advertising—to get a person to hear and to do something or buy something other than what they are used to. In fact, it is people’s jobs to do that. People make careers in advertising. He knew that TV and print ads could be very impressive but just not true. A recommendation from someone he knew and trusted carried a certain weight with him. It mattered that it was done personally. When I think about the people he did business with, it worked for him. He got meat from Leo and Buddy Grieshaber in a small store and you could see how they did things, weighing things on the scale, cutting up the meat, scraping down the old butcher wooden block each night. You could see the cooler, smell that it was fresh. He used to joke that he knew the cow personally, but it was the butchers he knew and trusted. You could see what kind of butchers they were by what they did. I largely agree with Dad. But I would add that some ideas are good ones, but still need a little help getting around. If those who knew about the great new things kept quiet about them, I might never find out what they are. There are some new ideas that appear on the scene. Word-of mouth is rather slow. So there are some things that can use a little help getting around. Sometimes we need to hear about what is new.

The First Letter of Peter is from the time when the Christian faith was spreading through Palestine and beyond. It was something new to the people around it. It was the message about Jesus, who he was and what he did. That news could affect people’s lives deeply. It could change their lives. Peter tells the church some things about suffering. If a person suffers for doing what is wrong, that is expected. But if a person suffers for doing right, they are blessed. That surprises us. He says that sometimes doing right is its own blessing. If they suffer while doing right, they are to remember that Christ suffered, too, suffered for them. Faith in Jesus could change how a person looks at things. God’s purpose in sending Jesus was to bring people to God. It was achieved through the death of Christ. And the symbol of that salvation is the ark. Noah and his family were saved from the destruction of judgment on the water. Baptism is a sign of this. That is the good news they have seen and are living in right now.

The other is that they are to always be ready to make their defense of their hope. That is, if anyone asks them about it they are to give an accounting of it. There are those who have not heard the good news and this could be their chance. It is to be done with gentleness and respect. That is an additional reason they are to conduct themselves well, so that people who might criticize them will be discredited. Their behavior and their words are to reveal to those around them the reality of faith in their lives. It is no false claim. They could see what kind of people they were by how they lived. The book began with telling them that they have been born anew into a living hope by Christ’s resurrection from the dead. They have experienced the resurrection of Christ and that, in turn, has given them hope. And they are to be ready to tell others about the hope that they see in them. To do that they need to live in hope.

What we are talking about is something that goes by many names. It can be called witnessing, sharing your faith, church growth, or evangelism. When we do it, we are living as the first disciples did. It is telling others about how God has blessed you in your life, whether it is by giving you strength in times of suffering or by other blessings. It points to God. It is telling others about the greatness of God, as the Psalmist did, when he wrote, “Come and hear, all you who fear God, and I will tell what he has done for me.” or as John Newton, the author of the hymn, “Amazing Grace”, did in his old age. He said that there were only two important things, that he was a great sinner and Jesus was a great Savior.

There is no doubt that this is a time of great change in our society and churches. Many churches lived according to the plan that the members had children who became part of the church, and those children had children, and those children had children, and so on, the church continued. And many churches depended on the same families staying in the same place. Nowadays, people no longer live generation after generation in the same place. Many people nowadays were not raised in a church and are not familiar with the ideas of the faith. What is a church to do when the plan changes? One way of responding to the change is by returning to the way of life at the beginning of Christianity when the Christians were few and surrounded by those who did not know the faith. What did they do? They shared their faith with the world around them and it became a worldwide faith.

Churches struggle with what to do in this changed world. Some put their hope in a location, or a program, or a sign, or a personality, or an ad campaign. Studies show these things are important, but not the most important thing. The most important thing is when one person invites another. It is, strangely old-fashioned, in a modern, sophisticated age. It is by word-of mouth. It is like Leo and Buddy, people we can see and trust to help us have something good, to help us see more, help us want to be a part.

In the Gospel reading, Jesus promises to send another Advocate to be with the disciples forever. He has been alongside the disciples and will soon leave them. But they will not be alone. He will send this other One. This is the Holy Spirit, sometimes called the Paraclete, which is a way of saying what the Greek word does, ‘the one who is called to our side’. The Spirit helps us and will never leave us. This leads us, not to focus on our tradition, or history, but on the reality of God among us.

What if we changed how we looked at that scary word, evangelism, to show what it really is? It is not arguing with or misleading people. Maybe its goal should not be gaining members, not getting people to join us in order to support our church, but rather sharing what we have, with only the goal of helping others. Of offering to them what the church and faith can be in their lives, what is has been in our lives, but even more importantly, helping them to know that One, whether for the first time or more deeply, who will be with them forever, who will be with them in good times and bad times.

Maybe we need to change how we see the church, to see it not as an organization which draws people or is the center of a community, but as one which reaches out to people. Maybe we need to change the plan. Tim Williams found that plans do not always work. He went to Greensboro, Alabama, to help rebuild the Rising Star Baptist Church, recent victim of a fire. He loved his role as builder and felt that he had entered the kingdom of God. His volunteers learned their tasks and worked hard, except for a young man named Ian who would run over to any children brought on to the work site to play with them. His team was annoyed by this and he had planned on talking to Ian about it. The members of the church served the workers a huge meal at the building site. There were no questions in the time that followed about the new design and work at the church, but all afternoon, the parents thanked Ian for being so good to their kids. He concluded: “My crew and I thought we were in Greensboro to rebuild a church. None of us thought we could rebuild the broken hearts of its people. None of us, that is, except Ian.” When we change the plan, what was most important in the past becomes less so. When we rediscover the plan, we regain it. What becomes more important is how we are with the people who need us. That brings them life.

In First Peter we are told to be ready to share our hope with those who ask us. That is the first challenge, that our faith should be meaningful enough that it is shown in our words and deeds, that others would be attracted to the faith by them. And then there is the second challenge that we have an answer for those who ask us. When we meet those challenges, then the good news of the gospel goes out to those who can hear it. When we live in that new way, we can not only share our faith, but also share our hope. We not only have the help of the Spirit in our lives, but we can be help to others. When we are asked, we will have an answer. A hopeful answer. An answer for them.