First Presbyterian Church
Despair's Opposite
Sermon for November 28, 2004
by Pastor Susan Barnes

Isaiah was a prophet during the seventh century when the northern kingdom of Israel was part of the Assyrian empire. Isaiah warns Israel that its social injustices indicate its relationship with God needs some work. In this passage, Isaiah reminds us of the strength of God as well as God's plan for peace, our reason for hope. Listen for the word of God as it is found in Isaiah 2:1-5

1 The word that Isaiah son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem. 2 In days to come the mountain of the LORD's house shall be established as the highest of the mountains, and shall be raised above the hills; all the nations shall stream to it. 3 Many peoples shall come and say, "Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob; that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths." For out of Zion shall go forth instruction, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem. 4 He shall judge between the nations, and shall arbitrate for many peoples; they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.

5 O house of Jacob, come, let us walk in the light of the LORD!

This ends our reading from the prophet Isaiah. A land of warfare is turned into orchards and fields, and soldiers are turned into farmers. There is hope in the coming judgment of God. Listen for the words of hope the choir has to share.

Anthem

This vision of hope we heard from Isaiah gets drowned out some times by the other verses in the old testament that tell of the Lord delivering whole populations to be killed, and cutting off rulers and killing officials. It is always more entertaining to read stories of war than of peace.

I think in the United States we are especially hungry for entertainment. One theologian said “Americans astonish the world with their religious fervor—and their material acquisitiveness. They cherish rural traditions but abuse the land. They treasure individualism but revere big corporations. They disdain elites but love celebrities. America 's many “born-again” Christians champion marriage but rank among the highest in divorce rates. [One] TV network touts conservative family values in its news programs and presents lewdness in its entertainment shows.” (1)

In our epistle reading, Paul speaks of lewd entertainment as fleshly desires. In the thirteenth chapter of Romans, Paul reminds the church that being ready means acting differently now that salvation draws nearer. Listen for the word of God as it is found in Romans 13:11-14.

11 Besides this, you know what time it is, how it is now the moment for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we became believers; 12 the night is far gone, the day is near. Let us then lay aside the works of darkness and put on the armor of light; 13 let us live honorably as in the day, not in reveling and drunkenness, not in debauchery and licentiousness, not in quarreling and jealousy. 14 Instead, put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.

This ends our reading from the word of God.

What do you think of when you hear the word party? For a long time, I was naïve about the word party. I imagine games, singing, goofiness, good conversations and a lot of fun. It wasn't until I got to college I found out the word party is a verb that means drinking, doing drugs, and playing music so loud no conversation is possible so many people have sex instead. A party school does not mean students are having fun. It means students are engaging in destructive behaviors.

Paul lists what prevents us from living honorably. Reveling, best translated as excessive feasting. Drunkenness. Debauchery, better translated as promiscuity. Licentiousness or indecent conduct. We expect all those things to be on the Christian list of things not to do. Part of our culture thinks of these things as fun, and harmless, if everyone is consenting. If you do those things, you are only hurting yourself. But then Paul puts in quarreling and jealousy. Quarreling can be translated as anger or strife. Jealousy can be translated as obsession. Most of us wouldn't put quarreling and jealousy in the same category a promiscuity and licentiousness. But quarreling and jealousy can hurt the life of the community.

And these behaviors are common among people experiencing trouble or crisis. To hide our pain we eat or drink too much. To combat any loneliness, we become promiscuous. To mask our fears, we behave recklessly. And those kinds of behaviors lead to more destructive thinking, and so we quarrel with our friends and act out of jealousy. It spirals down, and we continue to shift the blame onto others, deceive our real friends, and ignore our obligations to our families. Until we can stop our destructive behaviors, until we recognize we are just gratifying the flesh, we cannot begin to nurture our souls.

I have a relative who has been in and out of rehab. Alcoholism runs in his family. James has experienced depression and is still on a variety of med ications for several conditions. He has a good Christian friend who had helped him strengthen his faith. Suddenly, his friend experienced a severe mental breakdown and had to be institutionalized . Their close relationship ended . James had been clean for a few months when this happened . He wrote me that his life is full of dark days. I knew he was full of despair and self-loathing. He had made some poor choices in his life, and he was experiencing their repercussions.

So I wrote to him. My letters don't have the quality of Paul's epistles. But I do use shorter sentences. I wrote,

“Dear James, I'm sorry to hear about your dark days. No matter how dark they are, no matter how worthless you feel, know that YOU ARE WRONG to feel worthless and I am RIGHT to know you are worthwhile. Is that pastoral enough for you? Go ahead and feel what you need to feel, but remember, you are WRONG WRONG WRONG when you feel as if you are bad. God can forgive anything. You may have to repent, ask for forgiveness, make amends, and do other hard work to feel the forgiveness that is already there, but God can forgive anything. I love you and you are a part of the family God gave me as a gift.”

I talked to him about his father. I wrote “ His alcoholism was a demon he was not
delivered from. And James, that is why I celebrate your being in recovery. You could have ended up like your dad, estranged from your family by your own choice and addiction and YOU DIDN'T. I continue to pray you won't. Have courage, be strong, or worry, and be weak and pathetic. Your family will love you.”

And then he wrote me about an upcoming family reunion, where he couldn't afford to pay his own way, but had to rely on relatives' charity. I wrote him this:

“James, here are your choices as I see them:

1. spend all your cash on lottery tickets, hoping to win enough to send us all to Disneyland , lose all your money, feel so terrible you relapse and instead of a nice time with your family, you spend the weekend in the gutter/jail/park, insert terrible spot here.
2. realize you can self-med icate your guilt by relapsing, and instead of a nice time with your family, you spend the weekend in the gutter/jail/park, insert terrible spot here.
3. decide to keep a running total of how much everyone has spent on you for your lifetime, vow to pay them back, and start selling drugs to earn the money, relapse, and instead of a nice time with your family, you spend the weekend in the gutter/jail/park, insert terrible spot here.
4. realize your family is so glad to see you, they don't care that you can't pay for anything. You say thank you politely ONE time after each meal, and don't order the lobster.

I choose number 4.”

I wrote a little flippantly. I don't have any background at all with addictions, and I know very little about co-dependency. But I knew James had no hope. I tried to let him know that even when he had no hope for himself, I had hope for him. I would keep that hope until he could do it himself. But I was not really satisfied with how I responded . I was worried about James. I still am worried about him.

He talked to me recently. He's been clean for almost a year. He thanked me for what I had done. I knew what I had done was nothing extraordinary at all. I just reminded him of my love for him and God's love for him and God's forgiveness.

He said “what I really appreciated was that you let me be depressed. You listened to me. You met me where I was, and you let me be there.” I told him I didn't think that was at all extraordinary. Any pastor would have done the same.

And he said something that surprised me. He said, “I didn't reach out to any pastor. You were the one I talked to. I was too full of despair to talk to any one else. Thank you.”

I protested that I hadn't done much.

He said, “Now you say ‘you're welcome.'”

And so I said “you're welcome.”

I share this correspondence with you because someone might ask you for help when they are despairing. You might feel inadequate to the task. I encourage you to give it an honest try. Just share your hope for them.

I also share these letters because some of you might need to ask for help. There is no need to despair alone; go ahead and share it with someone you trust. It might help. The opposite of despair isn't happiness or success; it is hope. Hope isn't just despair's opposite, it's the antidote. Someone might be able to hope for you when you can't hope for yourself.

It is hard to be without hope. Part of being a Christian is hoping. Hoping that in God's time, peace will come. Swords will be beaten into plowshares. Gardens will grow over battlefields. People will lay aside the works of darkness and put on the armor of light; people will live honorably, and not need to disguise their despair. In this world, where people lust for entertainment, there is plenty of room for putting on Jesus Christ. Living in the light of the Lord is not just possible, it is more fun. Salvation is near. Christ's advent is coming. Be ready. Be hopeful. Amen.

(1) “Values and Virtues,” Christian Century, Nov. 30, 2004 , christiancentury.org