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Sunday's Sermon
Sep 30, 2007

1082
"The Comma"
The Rev. Dennis Posno

Today I will be talk about hope …
and I want to begin by telling you about two people
whose lives seemed to be filled with nothing, and everything … but hope.

The one is a man, born into a large family.
His father was an alcoholic, and abusive whether drunk or sober.
His mother was the usual target of his violent behaviour,
but so were the children.

His mother, after one particularly awful time in their lives,
was able to get her children into foster care
to allow them a time of relative safety and serenity.

But it didn’t last, and the family ended up together again.
One night, when his father was about to beat his mother,
this man’s his older brother, now a match for his father, intervened,
and told his father that he was never to hit his mother again,
that if he did, he would kill him.
Well, the violence, but not the misery, ended.

This young man grew up …
moved out in his early adult years …
and moved on with his life.

It was years later that he received the news  ~
a year after the fact  ~
that his father had died.
When I asked him how he dealt with that news,
he said that his first thought was,
“I hope they buried him deep so he will never come back to hurt us again.”

A young girl, no longer a child but not yet an adult, gets pregnant …
        marries and moves in with the child’s father.
                But he, like the man’s father in the other story,
is abusive, and alcoholic,
                                and her life, too, gets caught up in a spiral of misery.

She is able to get out of the marriage.
Finds herself on her own with her young child.
Little education, few skills,
she ends up on welfare …
winds up in a shelter …
and struggles to deal with her own addiction problems.

But for love of her child she determines to get her life in order.
        Starts a 12 step program,
and by the grace of God
cleans up her act,
gets a job,
       finds a decent place to live.

And a day came when these two met:
        two wounded souls looking for happiness …
                two broken hearts looking for wholeness …
                        two children of God looking for life that was worth the living.

They found it in each other.
They found it in being loved.
They found it.
They see each other as a gift from God
who has rescued them from their anything but abundant lives.

As I think about those two people
and how the hope that they carried within them  ~
that life had to be better than this
                                happier than this
                        safer than this
                healthier than this  ~
was given wings when they met each other,
how many times is that story, or a story like it, told.

Often times we are the innocents
        and have to live with the consequences of other’s actions and attitudes,
                as that man was.
Often times we are the authors of our own misfortunes
                                and we have to live with the consequences of our own behaviour,
                                        as that woman was.
               
But I believe,
however that place-of-wanting-to-start-over-again is arrived at,
that all of us long for so much:
for someone to love us …
for someone to watch over us …
for a home that has peace …
for a life that has meaning and value.

I believe,
however that place-of-wanting-to-start-over-again is arrived at,
that all of us long for so much:
for a resolution to the problem …
for a break in the weather …
for a way up or a way out or a way through …
for an answer when answers are hard to come by.

I believe,
however that place-of-wanting-to-start-over-again is arrived at,
that all of us long for so much:
and it is that longing that is called hope.
And very often, more often than not,
it is hope, and hope alone, that keeps us going.

Where would we be without hope?

Samuel Johnson wrote that
“Hope is necessary in every condition.  The miseries of poverty, sickness,
of captivity, would, without this comfort, be insupportable.”
Without the comfort hope brings, many would be lost in despair.

Thomas Fuller echoed that sentiment when he wrote:
“If it were not for hopes, the heart would break.” 
Without the possibilities hope holds, broken hearts would never get mended.

Where would we be without hope?

Where would the alcoholic be
        if the hope of recovery and contented sobriety
                was not in the picture?

Where would the stroke victims be
        if the hope of walking or talking again
                was stripped from them?

Where would broken relationships be
        if the hope of reconciliation
                had vanished?

Where would the prodigal son be
        if the hope that his father would welcome him home and forgive him
                was not a possibility …
                        or the father, waiting, hopefully
                                that his lost son would find his way home?

Where would many people be
        if the hope of second chances and new beginnings
                was taken away?

Where would you or I be  ~
        at so many times and in so many places in our lives  ~
                if hope was out of reach?

Where would the two I have spoken of today be
if it were not for the hope of meeting a someone, somewhere, somehow,
in whom they could find a safe and caring love,
with whom they could get their lives back?

Where, indeed?

I am here today to proclaim to all of you
that hope is as essential as the air we breathe,
and to remind you, as Gracie Allen once said:
“Never put a period where God has put a comma.”

It is that just-around-the-corner possibility,
        that maybe-tomorrow-it-will-come belief,
                that I-have-another-chance feeling,
                        that next-time-it’s-going-to-work attitude, that keeps us going …
                                and reminds us that
                                        we should never put a period where God has put a comma.

As I read our scriptures,
        as I listen to the stories of the ancestors of our faith, the Jewish people,
                as I try to understand who they were
                        and what their relationship with God was all about,
                                a phrase, a word, keeps jumping off the page …
                                        a phrase, a word, borne of their experience …
                                                a phrase, a word, that speaks of a comma, not a period.

The word is “wait.”
Listen to these sentences.

“Wait for the Lord,”the psalmist writes, “be strong and take heart.”

“Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him.”

“I wait for the Lord, my soul waits,
and in his word I put my trust.
My soul waits for the Lord,
more than watchmen wait for the morning,
more than watch men wait for the morning.”

“Yet the Lord longs to be gracious to you;
he rises to show his compassion.
For the Lord is a God of justice.
Blessed are all who wait for him.”

As I read those words again
it is evident to me that these people were a waiting people.

Now there are all kinds of waiting.

There’s the waiting-for-the-bus kind of waiting
        where we’re watching our watch
                and tapping our foot
                        and looking down the street to see the bus in the distance,
                                an impatient kind of waiting.

There’s the waiting-your-turn kind of waiting
        that is often laced with restlessness.

There’s the waiting-it-out kind of waiting
        where you almost can’t wait for some something to come to an end.

There’s the waiting-for-the-results kind of waiting
        where we become anxious or worried or unsettled,
                hopeful for a good result,
                        yet fearful of a bad one.

And there’s the kind of waiting  ~
        the waiting-for-something-to-happen kind of waiting …
                the waiting-for-things-to-change kind of waiting …
                        the waiting-for-the-ship-to-come-in kind of waiting  ~
                                that is almost like inertia …
                                        where the only way that something is going to happen,                                                            the only way something is going to change
                                                        is if we stop waiting
and start moving,
                                                                        if we stop waiting
                                                                                and start doing something about it.

Often in our waiting there’s frustration
                                                                restlessness
impatience
                                                fear
                                        and hopelessness …
and our waiting becomes a time of fretful anticipation.

But the kind waiting that the psalmist wrote of
        is expressed in these simple words
                from the song, You Raise Me Up.

“When I am down and O my soul’s so weary
When troubles come and my heart burdened be
Then I am still and wait here in the silence
Until you come and sit awhile with me.”

That kind of waiting finds its genesis in a conviction of faith:
“I trust in God’s unfailing love forever and ever.”
The unfailing love of God gives us reason to hope.

The trouble is, for many, that there is little stillness in their lives.
        There is a rushing to and fro.
                There are promises to keep and miles to go before they sleep.
                        There are deadlines to meet.
                                There are commitments and obligations that must be fulfilled.
                                        No wonder we’re in such a mess, sometimes.

Stop.
Find time for yourself to be alone with God
Make time for yourself to be alone with your Creator
Find a time and place for the sacred.

In the midst of the noise
find a quiet place
where, in the stillness, waiting in the silence,
God can come to you.

In the midst of the confusion and muddle
find a quiet time
where, in the peace, waiting in the silence,
God can come to you.

And when God comes  ~
        in the stillness and peace  ~
                and replaces the period with a comma,
                        a deep, undeniable inner sense can take hold:
that this is the not the end
but things can begin again …
the corner can be turned …
   the situation can be resolved …
the trouble can be dealt with …
the brokenness can be mended …
   the hurt can be healed …
life can be better than this.
           God raises you up.

There is truth in the notion
that the only way we can stand, sometimes,
is to first get on our knees.

There is truth in the notion
that when we kneel, however weak,
we can rise, full of power.

It is becoming clearer to me that this waiting for the Lord,
this being still and knowing that God is God,
is, in the truest sense,     
where spiritual hope is born … again and again.

Isaiah wrote these words which most of you will know …
words which have become reality in the lives of countless people …
words that have become truer for many than any words ever spoken.

Isaiah wrote:
“Those who wait upon the Lord,”
or as others have translated it,
“Those who hope in the Lord
will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles;
they will run and not grow weary;
they will walk and not be faith.”

When you wait, in hope,
with an open heart and spirit and mind,
   if you listen closely enough,
           you will hear God speaking to you.
                   Oh, it won’t be audible words like I am speaking now,
                           but it will be that gentle Spirit speaking to you.
                                   “Move on”, it may say.
“Let go,” it may whisper.
         “Stay the course,” in may encourage.

But when you hear it,
and when you experience God’s unfailing love for you, you will know.
Let you faith in the God who loves and cares for you
put you on that road,
and let hope keep you there.

Let your faith in God’s unfailing love
put you on that road …
and let hope keep you there.

 

SOLI  DEO  GLORIA

 

 

SCRIPTURE

“Wait for the Lord,”the psalmist writes, “be strong and take heart.”

“Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him.”

“I wait for the Lord, my soul waits,
and in his word I put my trust.
My soul waits for the Lord,
more than watchmen wait for the morning,
more than watch men wait for the morning.”

“Yet the Lord longs to be gracious to you;
he rises to show his compassion.
For the Lord is a God of justice.
Blessed are all who wait for him.”

“I trust in God’s unfailing love forever and ever.”

Isaiah wrote:
“Those who wait upon the Lord,”
or as others have translated it,
“Those who hope in the Lord
will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles;
they will run and not grow weary;
they will walk and not be faith.”

 

 

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