"A Hope-Filled Heart"

    Dear Friends in Christ,       

   Today is a big day for you confirmands, isn’t it?  And because it’s such an important day for you, I thought that whatever I would say to you at this time should also be of the utmost importance.  So after milling over in my mind a number of things that I could talk to you about, I finally decided that I would speak to you and all of us about the extremely important subject of…garbage.  That’s right.  You heard me correctly.  Today I want to talk to you about garbage.  Why garbage?  Well, perhaps because garbage has been fresh on my mind recently since I came across some interesting findings that one researcher discovered about garbage here in America.  Here’s what he found:

   The average American household today wastes 10-15% of its solid food.  The average American produces a half pound of trash each day, which, as best as I can figure, comes out to about 150 million pounds of trash per day.  And listen to this: the largest landfill in our country is located near New York City and it has enough garbage in it right now to fill the Panama Canal.

   All important information, I’m sure, but again, why all this talk about garbage, especially on this Confirmation Sunday that is also doubling as the 1^st Sunday after Easter?  Well, when I read about this garbologist, which is what I will call him for lack of a better term, and the fascinating research that he has conducted on garbage, I got to thinking, what if we learned to do the same?  What if we learned to view differently all the garbage that comes our way in life?  And there’s no doubt about it, we do have to deal with our share of garbage, don’t we?  That garbage can come in so many different forms: overdue bills, health problems, car problems, marital problems, work-related problems, problems in school, and so on.  In fact, I’m sure that if we were to take the time to go around the sanctuary this morning and give people an opportunity to share, many of you could tell some pretty sad stories about the garbage that got dumped in your life just this past week.  Indeed, some days our trash dumpsters get pretty full, don’t they?

   Well, nobody knew better what that was like than the One whose resurrection we continue to celebrate this Sunday after Easter.  And that, of course, would be Jesus.  Just consider some of the garbage that got dumped on him a few days before his glorious resurrection: betrayed by a friend, arrested in the garden, forsaken by the disciples, denied by Peter, unjustly tried by the Jewish council, mocked and scourged by Pilate’s soldiers, rejected by the crowd, crowned with thorns, nailed to a cross, mocked by the multitudes, forsaken by his own Heavenly Father, pierced with a spear, and placed in a borrowed tomb.

   And you thought life got pretty rough for you sometimes!  Well, how did Jesus do it?  How did he handle and cope with all that garbage that got dumped on him, not just during his Passion but throughout his earthly life and ministry?  Perhaps if we can answer those questions this morning, we can gain some insight into how we can better manage and cope with all the garbage that gets dumped on us.

   And the 1^st point that I want to make today as we consider the theme “A Hope-Filled Heart” is that Jesus was the master at finding good in the garbage.  Let me give you a couple of examples of what I’m talking about.  Remember when Jesus met with his disciples in the upper room the night before he was put to death and he told them that all of them would forsake him later that night?  Well, good old Simon Peter chose that moment to shine.  He immediately spoke up and proclaimed to Jesus that even though all the other disciples might do what he said, he would not.  Jesus could definitely count on him.  That was for sure.  But only a few hours later, Peter had to eat those boastful claims as he openly and vehemently denied any association, any relationship, any connection with Christ whatsoever when he was questioned about it by a few harmless servant girls out in the courtyard of the high priest’s palace.  Why, he even resorted to cursing and swearing to get his point across.  And when it was all over, he knew that he had let his Lord down horribly, so he went out and cried bitter tears of remorse and repentance.

   Peter dumped a lot of garbage on Jesus that night, didn’t he?  And yet in spite of that, Jesus was still able to see good in him.  And so a few weeks after his resurrection, when Jesus met with 7 of his disciples on the shore of the Sea of Galilee, one of whom was Peter, he took Peter aside and basically reinstated him as a disciple.  He let Peter know that even though he had blown it big time, he still had confidence in him, he still believed in him, and still felt he could use Peter in some pretty amazing and wonderful ways.  And sure enough, that’s exactly what Jesus did as Peter went on to become one of the key figures in the establishment and development of the early Christian church and was ultimately put to death for being a follower of Christ, crucified upside down at his own request because he didn’t feel worthy to die in the same way Jesus had.

   We see a very similar thing happening in our text for today with Thomas.  You know the story well: how Thomas was not present with the disciples when Jesus first appeared to them the evening of his resurrection.  And when the disciples excitedly reported to him how the risen Christ had appeared to them, Thomas refused to believe it and adamantly insisted that he would have to see the risen Christ with his own eyes before he would ever believe such a fanciful tale.

   Now Jesus could have very easily said at that point, “Well, if that’s the way Thomas is going to be, then that does it.  He’s out of the group.  We don’t need any nay-sayers like that tagging along with us because we’ve got important work to do.”  But that’s not what Jesus did, did he?  Instead, he saw good in Thomas.  He recognized this doubting, garbage-dumping disciple as a real diamond in the rough, so to speak.  So Jesus removed all doubts from Thomas’ mind when he appeared to his disciples a week later, this time with Thomas present.  And I don’t know how many of you know the rest of the story about Thomas, but he eventually went on to carry the good news of the Gospel all the way to India where he was ultimately martyred or put to death for his faith in the risen Christ.

   So my friends, the 1^st lesson we learn from Jesus today is to look for the good in the garbage that comes our way.  Admittedly, that’s not always easy to do.  So if you are having trouble finding any good, I have a few suggestions for you.  First of all, Wait!  That’s what the psalmist encourages us to do in Ps. 40 when he found himself up to his neck in garbage.  He says, “I waited patiently for the LORD; he turned to me and heard my cry. He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire; he set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand. He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God.”

   So wait on God to work his mighty wonders if you’re having trouble finding good in your garbage.  And as you wait, here’s another suggestion: Trust.  Trust that the One who has all the power in the universe at his disposal is able to take the worst of situations, the most foul-smelling garbage that comes our way, and he is able to make something good out of it.  And if you don’t believe that, then I have another suggestion for you: Look at the cross.  For there God took the most inhumane and unjust act that had ever been perpetrated against a single human being and transformed it into the means of forgiveness and salvation for all who would trust in the Savior who died on that cross.

   Then a 2^nd thing we want to note about Jesus and how he handled the garbage in his life is that he looked for God’s plans and purposes in his pain.  Let me give you one example of this.  Of the 98 words that Jesus spoke at his arrest in the garden, 30 of them – nearly 1/3 of them! – referred to the purposes and plans of God as revealed in the Old Testament Scriptures.  For example, in Matthew’s account of the arrest, Jesus tells the Roman soldiers and Jewish leaders who have come for him: “All this has taken place that the writings of the prophets might be fulfilled.”  When Peter drew his sword and tried to defend Jesus, Jesus scolded him and told him to put his sword back into its sheath.  Then he said, “It must happen this way to bring about what the Scriptures say.”  So Jesus recognized that his Heavenly Father was ultimately in control of things and that he had his reasons for allowing all of this to happen.  In other words, it was part of a much larger and much grander plan than was evident at the moment.

   Sometime ago I read a good modern day example of this in one of Max Lucado’s books.  He tells of being on a plane one time whose take-off was delayed because of bad weather.  During the delay, while he grew impatient, the fellow across the aisle from him noticed Max had a Bible in his lap, so he asked if he could borrow it.  Max gave it to him and then watched as this man opened it and started reading different passages to a young woman sitting next to him.  When the plane finally landed, the man returned the Bible to Max and explained in a low voice that this was the girl’s first flight, that she’d recently joined the military, and that she was leaving home for the first time.  So rather than grumble and complain about the delay, he seized the moment and saw it as an opportunity to introduce this girl to Jesus, using Max’s Bible as his roadmap, and by the time the plane landed, she had professed her faith in Christ.  She had become a Christian.

   Now doesn’t that make you wonder?  Could it be that God brought that storm at that particular time to the particular airport to delay that particular flight just so that girl could hear the Gospel, even though it resulted in inconveniences for most of the other passengers?  I wouldn’t put it past him, for he tells us in Isaiah 55:8-9: “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the LORD.  "As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”

   So remember that the next time some garbage gets dumped in your life.  Remember that God is in control of it all and has his reasons for allowing it, reasons that may go far beyond our understanding at the time, but reasons that will fit into his good plans and purposes for our lives.

   Then one more thing we want to note about Jesus to help us attain the kind of hope-filled, garbage-free heart he had is that he knew that there’s a better life beyond the garbage.  Over and over again he told his disciples that even though he would be put to death in a most cruel and awful way, he would rise again on the third day.  There would be life beyond all that garbage that would happen to him.  And my friends, that’s the blessed hope that Easter brings to us as well.  One of my favorite sayings that I like to recall when I’m having all kinds of garbage dumped on me is “This too shall pass.”  I know that not real profound.  It’s not even a Bible verse.  But it’s true.  For when you think about it, most of the problems that come our way in life are very brief in nature when compared to the overall picture of our lives and especially when compared to the overall picture of eternity.  But even if they aren’t brief, even if they hang on for a while or dog us until the day we die, that saying still applies.  This too shall pass.  For because of Jesus’ death and resurrection we have the blessed knowledge and hope and assurance that this world with all of its garbage is not all there is to life; that God has a much better life in store for us, a life that he is more than happy to give to all who place their hope and trust in Jesus as the One who died on the cross to pay for their sins.  And I guarantee you, my friends, that when we finally begin that life, when we finally step across the threshold that will take us from time into eternity, we won’t care how rough the road was that got us there.  In fact, we may not even remember it at all.  At least that’s what God seems to be saying in Is. 65:17 where he says: “Behold, I will create new heavens and a new earth. The former things will not be remembered, nor will they come to mind.”  And I think one reason that they won’t come to mind is that we will be so amazed and awestruck and caught up in what God has in store for us there that those eternal glories and joys will simply blot from our minds all the bad memories that we have in life right now.

   So do you want to have the kind of hope-filled, garbage-free heart that we’ve been talking about this morning, my friends?  If so, then follow Jesus’ example.  Look for the good in the garbage that comes your way, and if that good is hard to find, just wait on the Lord and trust him to bring it to light.  Secondly, look for God’s plans and purposes in your pain.  Recognize that he is in control and he has his reasons for allowing what he allows and doing what he does.  And again, trust him to bring his plans and purposes to fulfillment.  Then finally, realize that this too shall pass, that there is a better life beyond the garbage, and that this earthly vale of tears with all of it sins and sorrows, all of its trials and troubles, all of it heartaches and hurts, is but a brief blip on the radar screen of time, especially when compared to the eternity that we will one day enjoy in the perfect and peaceful presence of our perfect and powerful God.

   Amen.