Romans 5: 1-8

The members of the churches I serve must be getting a little tired of me going on about this, but I have got some Good News to share! I have just become a granddad! Now if I am in conversation with you and the topic comes up, the correct comment is, “Chris, you don’t look old enough to be a granddad!” Is that ok? It will really build me up.

It’s great! She is a beautiful baby! I look at her and there is this new life so full of possibilities. I want the very best for her, just like I did for my own children. I want to see her thrive. I want to see her stretched to the uttermost. I want to see her live life to the fullest. And I will do everything in my power to see it happen.

One or two people have already told me that it will be costly! And although I may regret saying this, at the moment that’s fine. I would give anything to see her blessed. In fact I long for that so much that I ache inside. I want to bless her. I want good things for her.

Now the Good News of our faith is that we have a God who looks upon each and every one of us in exactly the same way. He sees us as full of possibilities. He wants the very best for us. He wants to see us thrive. He wants to see us stretched to the uttermost. He wants to see us live life to its very fullest. In fact, I think we can say that there is an ache in the heart of God - a longing to bless us. God will give anything to bless and heal and restore and bring us life – no matter what it costs.

And St Paul reminds us that that is exactly what our living God has done:

You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly… God demonstrates his own love for us in this: while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

(Romans 5: 6&8)

God has given himself completely and utterly in Jesus. And those who realise that on their own they just cannot do it, they just cannot find fullness of life and purpose and meaning; that on their own they mess it up, they get it wrong; those who acknowledge the truth about themselves and put their trust, their faith in Jesus and all that he accomplished on the cross; find peace with God.

St Paul puts it this way:

Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ…

(Romans 5: 1)

We have a God whose default position is to bless us and to pour out his love into our hearts. What a message of hope is that! In fact Paul describes it in verse 2 as “the hope of the glory of God”. And that is incredible Good News! A God who wants to bless and who has given everything to do it!

And of course God wants to use us to bring blessing and hope to our community. We are channels for God’s blessing.

We have just heard some stories of hope. I would like to share one with you from last year’s “Hope in the Park”. Sadly I could not be around yesterday. But last year I was helping to serve cakes. I quite like cakes and I thought that one or two might come my way…This lad got to the front of the queue and pointed to the cake he wanted. You could see his eyes staring and his mouth drooling and his hands shaking at the thought of this chocolate sensation before him. I put the cake on a paper plate to hand to him and he put his hand into his pocket to get out his money.

“It’s free!” I said.

“Free?”

“Yes, it’s free.” His jaw dropped wide open and his eyes glazed over.

“Is this heaven?” he asked.

“It’s a gift,” I said. And he walked away stunned.

Now I wish I had been able to follow that up and talk to him about why we had been doing that. I couldn’t. But I have not been able to get him out of my brain. And my prayer is that that small episode will have shaken him. I hope that it will have been a small but significant step on the road to his understanding that we have a God of outrageous grace who gives and gives and gives.

And I am sure that many stories could be told of people who have been startled by hope, not just this weekend but over the last year. For some people hope has dawned because a credit union is offering a new way to save and borrow.

For some people hope has dawned because some gardening has been done for them or their neighbourhood has been tidied up and they feel blessed for the first time in ages.

For some people hope has dawned because they feel encouraged rather than undervalued in their workplace.

For some elderly people hope has dawned because they have been given a holiday at home. For some young people hope has dawned because they have met with Jesus in a Holiday Club.

For some hope has dawned because they have been given a meal. And for others hope has dawned because they have heard the message of the Good News of Jesus through a choir event like last night or a special worship event. God wants to use us, and to use us together, to bring hope and blessing on this community. For we have a God whose default position is to give and to bless.

I’m reading a book at the moment called “The Grace Outpouring”. It’s about a Christian Centre in Pembrokeshire called “Ffald-y-Brenin” (Sheepfold of the King). It’s a place of retreat where the late Rob Lacey was able to bring Scripture to life through the Street Bible.

Roy Godwin, the Centre Director, and others in the community have felt led to form a house of prayer where the aim is simply to pray God’s blessing on people. So visitors to the centre are offered simple hospitality and then a prayer of blessing before they leave. And lives are being changed through that simple ministry.

Prayers of blessing are said for the communities round about – that God would bless the schools and aid the pupils in their learning, that God would bless local farms and farmers, that God would bless local families and marriages and businesses. And the result – God’s blessing has started to fall. There is a real sense of uplift and encouragement in that neighbourhood. Their default position is to pray God’s blessing on their community.

In a world that is riddled with words that curse and words that undermine and words that deceive and words that flatter and words that crush, what a wonderful privilege is ours to speak words of blessing over our community, its homes, its businesses, its schools, its churches, its clubs and societies, its pubs and restaurants. Through our actions and words and prayers God wants to bless. God wants to bring hope.

I’m pleased that in our shared working together as churches we have changed our name. We are not just Churches Together, we’re Hope NG9 Churches Together. That is not just a gimmick. It came from the dawning realisation twelve months ago that God is doing something new among us. So the event this weekend is not just a community festival run by local churches, it’s Hope in the Park. Our default position now is to bless and bring hope.

Back in Romans 5 Paul speaks about us being sustained by the hope we have in Christ even through suffering. And he says that this hope “does not put us to shame” (v5). In other words, this hope that we have and this hope that we offer does not let us down. It does not fail us.

To quote Mark Wakelin:

Hope isn’t a form of optimism, putting a positive spin on a difficult situation, calling half empty half full. It is the skill of seeing now in the light of eternity, of understanding what is in the knowledge of what will be. Hope is the frame of mind of those who choose to believe in God’s promise that one day all will be made new.

Hope doesn’t make you feel comfortable, it isn’t soothing and relaxing, it sets your heart beating with new possibilities, it makes now almost unbearable because of how things could be. Hope is the child sleepless on Christmas Eve who is caught in the agony of expectation that is almost too much to bear.

That’s the sort of hope we have.

Our hope in God pulls us into the future. Hope allows us to affirm the reality of the abundant life that is ours in Christ. Hope allows us to stand with those in pain and hold them until they are able to feel the love of God for themselves again. Hope allows us to work to bring God’s reign upon the earth even when we see no results. Our hope begins and ends in God, the source of all hope.

We have a God who aches, who longs to bless and bring life. We have a God who has not flinched from the cost of that and has given himself outrageously in Jesus. And we have a God who wants to use our actions, words and prayers to bless our community.

The hope in which we stand is the hope we have to offer.

On a day when so many Christians from local churches have gathered together to demonstrate our unity in Jesus, our hope in Jesus and our offering of hope to this area, I need to offer myself again to the God who in Jesus loved me and gave himself for me. If you feel you want to share with me in a prayer of dedication now, then I invite you to stand with me.

“God demonstrates his own love for us in this: while we were still sinners, Chris died for us.” Lord, you have given yourself completely for us. We acknowledge that sometimes we have given less than our all for you. Forgive us. We offer ourselves again in service to you by serving those around us. Help us to bring hope to those whom you love so much. May we ache with your love. May we work together in unity. Fill us with your Spirit. Amen.