HOPE that DOES NOT disappoint

Have you ever been disappointed??

Have you ever been disappointed by something that happened in your life, by someone in your life? 

I think if we answer honestly we would all say ‘YES,’ we have been disappointed. By something, someone, whatever it may be. 

So if we know disappointment happens in life, let me ask you this: when was the last time you were disappointed?

Maybe it was this morning, maybe your toast was in the toaster a bit long and now it’s burnt.

Maybe it was over the weekend when you wanted the weather to be a certain way, but it had other ideas. 

Maybe your sporting team didn’t do so well in their last game.

Or maybe you were disappointed on a more serious level >

Maybe you were disappointed by the actions or inactions of someone you love.

Maybe you were disappointed by someone not listening to you, someone not hearing what you were saying.

Maybe you were disappointed by an expectation you had of someone or something not turning out the way you had planned. 

Maybe you even felt disappointed by God himself, that’s a big one to get into!

Many ways we can be disappointed, small thing and bigger things. 

And what happens when we feel disappointed?

We get a bit down, a bit low. 

We might feel different emotions, sadness, frustration or anger even.

We might become a bit negative, a bit cynical, a bit withdrawn and resigned, we might feel like giving up on that something or that someone that has disappointed us. I’m sure we’ve all been there.

So that’s a bit about disappointment, being disappointed, what being disappointed feels like. You might have some thoughts and experiences you reflect on there.

Why are we talking about this today, being disappointed??

Why would we be talking about that on a day like today, when we’ve just witnessed a young child being welcomed into God’s family through the waters of baptism, what a joyful thing to celebrate – why are we talking about disappointment?!

Because we get disappointed. Disappointment happens. 

Because it’s worth acknowledging that disappointment happens in life, it’s worth admitting it, it’s worth talking to God about it, and it’s worth hearing what he has to say about it.

So what does God say about disappointment – today in our second reading from Romans 5 we hear something about disappointment, about ‘being put to shame.’ 

That’s the end of the sentence, but what do we hear at the start? ‘HOPE DOES NOT.’

HOPE DOES NOT put us to shame, HOPE DOES NOT disappoint us. 

That’s how Paul puts it, HOPE is the key ingredient God provides here in the midst of disappointment, of being put to shame.

So we’ve got two contrasting things now, the disappointment of our experience as human beings – even disappointment with God himself – contrasted with the HOPE God gives, the HOPE he provides, the HOPE that is always there for us.

So let’s talk about HOPE for a moment, what does God say about this HOPE??

Paul goes right into it today, this passage is absolutely packed with one-liners and phrases that summarise the goodness of our God and what he’s done for us – maybe there’s even too much in here, too much for us to take in in one go, too much good stuff that what we really need to do is SLOW DOWN, slow down to hear just one or two things about what God has to give us today.

So I can give you one or two things: Paul says Jesus ‘died for the ungodly’ (that’s us by the way, all people are in that category until God did something about it), and he didn’t die for them because they were wonderful people and they deserved it. He died for them ‘when we were still powerless’ Paul says. Not powerful, power-LESS. We had nothing to give our God, but he had everything to give us. 

While we were sinners even, sinners aka people who actively went against God, even then Jesus had enough love to give us to cover our wrongs and make us his. 

And Paul’s not done yet, while we were God’s enemies he had this love to give us. 

Powerless, sinful, enemies of God – not something we would call ourselves!

Imagine introducing yourself to someone and saying that! ‘Hi, my name’s Tom and I’m a powerless, sinful, enemy of God – until Jesus changed my life and made me his own child’ – add on that second part and it sounds a bit better!

Powerless, sinful, enemies of God is what we are without the saving grace of Jesus. There is HOPE in that, serious HOPE, even our ONLY HOPE we could say.

In that gospel video we just saw from John 4 there’s one line I want to pick up from what Jesus says to the woman at the well, this woman who Jesus knows intimately, even though she’s of a different culture to his own and most people from his culture would not be associating with her as Jesus does!

What does Jesus say to her about water, about being thirsty:

John 4:13, 14 – ‘Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst’

She’s a bit confused by what he says – aren’t we all at times! – she asks ‘where can I get this living water?’ And Jesus redirects her to show her how intimately he knows her, what he knows about her life. Things in her life she might not be proud of, things she might not want other people to know!

Let me bring in disappointment again here – when we have these serious-level disappointments in our lives, when we feel ‘put to shame’ even and we really don’t want anyone else to know about it, what we hear from Jesus is that he already knows.

He knows without us saying a word to anyone else. 

God knows our deepest disappointments, the disappointment of the burnt toast and the disappointment of the person we love letting us down. God knows our hearts and minds – because he is our creator, of course he knows what’s going on in our hearts and minds! 

So if you’re ever feeling disappointed – even by God himself – let him know! It’s ok to tell God you’re disappointed, acknowledging what’s really going on in your life is a key ingredient for us in building a relationship with him! Talk to him, share what’s on your heart and mind with him. Tell him how it is, know that his listening ear is for you, and then listen to what he tells you next.

Back to the woman at the well > So what this woman hears here from Jesus is significant – the words of Jesus are not just nice, kind, thoughtful words. Not just about doing the right thing and avoiding the wrong thing – so much more than that! 

The words of Jesus are LIFE-CHANGING words.

WORLD-changing, REALITY-SHIFTING words. Just look at what happens next in this woman’s community > she tells her people about this guy and the words he said to her, and the verse is: ‘Because of his words many more became believers’ (John 5:42). 

Many more became believers, BECAUSE OF HIS WORDS. 

They heard the words of God from the mouth of Jesus. And that’s how it happened, that’s how it happens today!

We hear the words of God too – these same LIFE-CHANGING, WORLD-changing, REALITY-SHIFTING words are for us too. 

We heard a bunch of them in the baptism today – let the children come to me, ask and you will receive, receive the forgiveness of your sins and be part of my family – all words we’ve heard today, all words from God that give us SERIOUS HOPE. 

Words to live by, words to depend on in times of need, like when we’re disappointed.

These are words to live by, words to depend on because the HOPE our God gives DOES NOT disappoint. 

It DOES NOT disappoint, instead it gives us new life. Peace. Joy. Protection. Wisdom. Knowledge. More things we could add to that list. The open-hand of a loving relationship with out creator himself. That’s what God’s HOPE gives. 

SERIOUS HOPE, a HOPE that DOES NOT disappoint. 

Thank you heavenly Father for being our hope, for giving us hope, even when we feel anything but hopeful. Remind us you’re there for us always, you always have HOPE to give us, you always have a listening ear we can turn to, and you always have the words of life that give us hope for the soul. We pray this in Jesus’ name, Amen.

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