What I’m about to share with you is not rocket science. It is something we know so deeply that we often forget it is there.
- Hope is an amazing gift of God. It is not something we can generate from within.
- There is a path to hope. We arrive at hope through suffering, perseverance, and finally character.
- Hope comes from a promise made to us.
- The quality of hope is only as good as the ability of the promising one’s ability to fulfill that promise.
- Hope is a sign of God’s presence through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.
There are many twists and turns along life’s path that can seek to destroy our hope. You know them all too well: disease, damaging weather, tough economic times, and divisions within our families or our congregations. The list could go on and on.
As I travel the synod celebrating ministry milestones, I’m becoming increasingly aware that we are the recipients/trustees of the hopes of our spiritual forbearers. They built the buildings in which we worship each week. They founded publishing houses to produce educational materials for our church. They built the Bible camps, the Lutheran colleges, the campus ministries, and the seminaries that shape us for Christian leadership in this God-so-loved world, whether lay or clergy. They built a network for and provided monies to send missionaries to the ends of the earth. In faithfulness to God’s leading, they trusted in God’s promise so much that none of the incredible obstacles they faced prevented them from doing all of the above.
Not only are we recipients of the hope, we are stewards/trustees of that life-giving hope. We live in a time when focusing inward seems the norm in our society. We live in a time when many of the “tap root” ministries of our church have been reduced to a word called benevolence, or the synod, or the ELCA. At times these ministries can seem secondary, unimportant, or even un-needed. Yet here’s where you and I can learn from our forbearers in the faith. They didn’t do all of the above for themselves… they did it for their children and their children’s children. They did it so that the hope they shared might be ours.
At the same time, the church is reforming. This is no surprise to trained theologians, but even Luther and the reformers knew the church must continually be reforming. Each generation needs to hear the Good News that has come to us, lest we be the last generation of the church on earth.
The housing market, the financial markets, the military, and agriculture are all reforming. Some would suggest our country, indeed our world is reforming. It should be no surprise that the ELCA is reforming. The Living In Faith Together (LIFT) taskforce (external link) is preparing recommendations for a reshaped ELCA for the 2011 Churchwide Assembly. Through millions of dollars in budget cuts, many of our ministries we have done together historically are already being reformed or pruned. At our synod level, we are hoping that congregations will be able to fulfill their commitments to mission for the sake of the ministries we do together as we navigate change.
Is it a challenging time to be the church? Yes. Is it a challenging time to be part of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America? Yes. Has there ever been a time when God has not challenged the church? No. Every generation has had to rise to the challenges set before it. Was there suffering? No doubt. Was there perseverance? Our faith is the witness. Was character developed? I hope you’ve been blessed by giants of the faith. Was there hope? Just look around at what has been entrusted to us.
In hope, may we boldly witness to the resurrected Lord, that others might share in the hope of sharing the glory of God. This is our task. This is our challenge. With the promised presence of the Holy Spirit, may it be our children’s children’s reality.
Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.
Romans 5:3-5 NIV
In hope,
Bill
Serving as Bishop of the Eastern North Dakota Synod, ELCA
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