1 Corinthians 15: 12-20 (links validated on 1/17/22)

In his book, Secrets in the Dark, Frederick Buechner writes, “Ministers and congregation … came to church year after year, and who is to say how, if at all, their lives were changed as the result? If you’d stopped and asked them on any given Sunday, I suspect they would have said they weren’t changed much. “Yet they kept on coming anyway; and beneath all the lesser reasons they had for doing so, so far beneath that they themselves were only half aware of it, I think there was a deep reason, and if I could give only one word to characterize that reason, the word I would give is hope (italics added) … “I think it is hope that lies at our hearts and hope that finally brings us all here. Hope that in spite of all the devastating evidence to the contrary, the ground we stand on is holy ground because Christ walked here and walks here still. “Hope that we are known, each one of us, by name, and that out of the burning moments of our lives he will call us by our names to the lives he would have us live and the selves he would have us become. Hope that into the secret grief and pain and bewilderment of each of us and of our world he will come at last to heal and to save.”

Empty hope is the grim specter that looms over John Steinbeck’s classic, The Grapes of Wrath’s Joad family. The Joads are among the people who suffered severe economic deprivation during the Great Depression. The banks drove them off the land they farmed during Oklahoma’s infamous dust bowl. Greedy employers in California’s fertile fields and vineyards lured desperate people like the Joads to make the dangerous trip west in search of work. They scattered handbills all over the financially destitute Midwest, promising many jobs at good wages. The Grapes of Wrath is the heartbreaking story of the Joads’ search for good work...

Iona McLaughlin’s book, Triumph Over Tragedy, tells of her struggle to find purpose and meaning in life following the death of her daughter Jane and husband Pete and son Jack in an accident which also left her near death. The sequence of tragedy, as you can imagine, was overwhelming for her. Lying in her hospital room she wondered for what purpose she continued to live. She often wished for and prayed for death. But there were people in her life who would not let her give in. Though she was some 1500 miles from home, they flew to her side.The day came when she was able to leave the hospital. But what could she do? For 20 years she had been a wife and mother. Now her husband, her 14-year-old daughter and 10-year-old son were gone. How do you so radically change from being wife and mother to being neither. She went back to school to retrain. But there, among the cynicism of college students and professors, her faith in God began to falter. Maybe they were right. The universe was without reason or plan. Her despair led to thoughts of suicide. There would be no need to struggle any longer. The anniversary of the deaths for first Jane and then Pete and Jack were difficult milestones. It was the sudden unexpected memories which would shatter her the most. A note left in a forgotten book. A person walking down the street with the same gate as Peter. The struggle with “Why?” was the most difficult struggle in her life...

Exposition Notes

The pastor took his seat as the airplane prepared for take off. Sitting beside the pastor was a well known theologian. Thrilled by the opportunity to talk with such a distinguished scholar, the pastor initiated a conversation. After a few minutes the scholar talked about his family. He told the pastor that one day his young son came home from school with a fever. They gave him some aspirin and sent him to bed thinking it was just one of those childhood things. Before the night was over, they were in the emergency room. The boy had a very virulent form of meningitis. The doctors had to tell the professor that his son was going to die. Shocked by the news, the seminary professor assumed a seat beside his son to wait. By mid-afternoon, the little boy's strength was depleted. With his vision becoming cloudy, he said, "Daddy, it's getting dark isn't it?" The professor replied, "yes, son it is getting dark, very dark." A few minutes passed and the boy said, "Daddy, loving his son as he did, sat by the bed side to watch this death I guess its time for me to go to sleep isn't it?" He said, "Yes, son, it's time for you to go to sleep." The professor said that his fixed his pillow and put his head on his head just as he had done every other night and said, "Good night Daddy. I will see you in the morning." He then closed his eyes and took his final breath. The professor looked out the window of the airplane for a long time as the pastor sat in silence grieving for his new friend. Eventually, the professor turned, looked at the pastor and with tears streaming down his cheeks said, "Pastor, I can hardly wait till the morning."...