These days we have been hearing lots about the economy. There has been conversation about the housing market, more recently we have heard plenty in the news about the failure of General Motors, and locally things have been slowing down at Honda. People and businesses and corporations are tightening their belts and looking for ways to weather the economic storm.
In the most uncertain of economic times, Paul's message to us today is a welcome reminder. Paul says that he is of good courage. He is hopeful about the outlook for his life and for ours. When we are uncertain about the size of our paychecks or whether or not we will be receiving one at all, “good courage” is a thing that can be hard to muster up. A little dose of “good courage” would be a welcome thing.
Paul's “good courage” is not simply the power of positive thinking. Sometimes people would have us believe that if we just had a better attitude, if we changed our way of thinking we could change our situation or turn our luck around. All the positive thinking in the world isn't going to sell more automobiles or make your house payment. Those are realities that require some substance. No Paul has something different in mind. Paul is talking about Gospel Courage. Paul is talking about a hope that is founded upon the promise and guarantee of the Gospel as God's promise of salvation to all who believe. According the gospel, regardless of your situation, Paul wants you to know that you too can be of good courage.
Paul tells us we are living in tents. Our lives here in this world is comparable to living in a tent. These days we live in tents for fun. We go for a weekend out into the woods, build a fire, toast some marshmellows, make smores and call it camping. That's not what Paul is talking about. Paul is taking about living permanently in a residence that is temporary, a bit drafty, and entirely undesirable. Even for those of you who enjoy camping, after your weekend of fun is over, you are happy to get back home. It is after all more comfortable and more secure.
Think of it this way: we have all heard ample amounts about the fema trailers sent to provide temporary housing for those displaced by hurricane Katrina. The government sent hundreds and thousands of trailers down to give people a place to stay, a roof over their heads while they were waiting for their homes to be rebuilt.
Now, the people living in FEMA trailers didn't really care to stay there too long. They didn't do a whole lot of landscaping and home improvement projects because the housing arrangement was temporary. It wasn't meant to last. They had the hope of a better home and a better life as they were waiting for their new home to be reconstructed.
That's the point of view that Paul wants you and me to have. That is how Paul envisions that you and I will consider this life. It's like a fema trailer. It's temporary. It's trashy, it's a little run down, it's not very safe or secure. It is undesirable. The good stuff is still to come. God has much better things in store for us.
And that is why Paul says that he is of good courage. He is focused, not on the current situation. Not on the here and now. He is focused on the joy of what will be, on the promise of what is still to come. Paul's hope and joy and courage is based on the promise that God has given that there is a new life and a better life, you might even say a permanent life, that God has in store for the Christian.
That new life is a life given for the sake of Jesus. Remember, as we have said this is a gospel hope and a gospel courage. This is a hope and a courage, an attitude and a perspective that we take on because of the Gospel. Because of what God has promised us in Christ Jesus.
When Katrina ravaged the Gulf coast of the United States, our government recognized the need to care for and provide for the people who were devastated by that storm. Since that event has taken place, most everyone agrees that the governments overall handling of that disaster was poorly orchestrated on all levels. The local government failed, the state government failed. The federal government failed. Yet our earthly authorities despite all their failures recognized that they couldn't simply leave these people on their own without providing some food and shelter and aid. The FEMA trailers were a part of this aid.
Now if these man made governments operated by sinful men can figure out the responsibility to provide for people when a disaster has occurred, how much more then, will our Heavenly Father who is good and merciful and loving provide for people when the bigger disaster of sin has occurred.
Stop and think about the devastation of a hurricane. It's big. It's bad. It's messy and ugly. Now stop and think about the devastation of sin. Stop and think for a moment about the disaster that has come upon the earth because we have disobeyed God. Every evil act. Every act of war and terror. Every hurricane and earthquake and tornado, every act of terrorism and murder every death every sickness has come about because of sin. The devastation we see in the world around us is the aftermath of sin.
God, however, loved us too much to wipe us out and start over. He could have, maybe he even should have. But he did not. Instead he decided to rebuild. Not just the world, but also the people. He decided to accept the responsibility for our disobedience and sin. He decided to claim our guilt as his own and pay the penalty for it. So he did.
Imagine sending one man with a rake a shovel a hammer and some nails to clean up the entire region after a natural disaster has occurred. You might think to be poor planning. You might think that one man to be in over his head. That was God's plan. When God saw the total devestation brought about in the world because of sin, he sent one man to fix the whole thing single handedly. That was a tall order. Too big for your average man. So an average man wouldn't cut it. God needed an above average, an out of the ordinary sort of man. So God sent Jesus – the God/man. No body else could get the job done.
But Jesus did it. If we had an entire lifetime we couldn't reverse the damage that we have done to God's world. Indeed, every new generation has a plan for what's going to save the world. Some think it's technology. Some think it's environmentalism, some think its education, some think its government. They are all dead wrong. Men have tried to fix the world and they just wind up breaking it even more. Only Jesus has ever had a plan that will work. His plan involved his death. On a cross. IN our place. AS the sacrifice for our sin.
When Jesus died on the cross he stepped in to the place where you and I aught to be. He stepped in to take the punishment that we have earned. He stepped in to repair the devastation left behind because of the disaster of human sinfulness. He took it all. Every bit of it. He was like that one guy with the hammer and nails and shovel and rake sent in to do the job all by himself and he got it done. He accomplished it all. We never could. But he did. The job is done. Your sin is forgiven. Washed away. Cleansed. Scrubbed clean.
Sometimes when something is really dirty, when you want to remove a lot of dirt as quickly as possible, sometimes the best thing to do is get out a power washer and let the power of the water get the job done. God has His own power washer – He calls it baptism. In your baptism you were power washed – the sin that clings so closely that nothing else can get it off lets go when God dunks you into the bath of water and His Word. You get so clean that even your future sins, your sins you have still to commit are washed off and you are permanently clean!
This promise is yours now. But there is more to come. You see, in spite of the fact that we have the hope and the guarantee of new life and salvation given to us for the sake of Jesus we still live in the FEMA trailers. Our heavenly mansions are ours, we have the paper work that says we are the owners. No one can take it away from us. But we are still waiting for the full gift to be delivered. We are still living in the shanty town, we are still living in the FEMA village.
And this place stinks. It's dirty. It's run down. Its broken. Its dangerous. There's crime and death and sadness and grief and sickness and disasters and pain. There's all this stuff. Christians know that there is all this bad stuff in the world and that there are lots of times that because of it we suffer. But we don't loose hope. In fact we are of good courage. Because of the gospel – we have gospel courage!
So we are of good courage. We are hopeful. Even when life in the tent seems to be going to wrong direction, even when the stress levels go up, we still have that hope – that gospel hope of a place reserved for us, built especially for us with our own name on it, in heaven. Jesus has cleaned up the mess of this world. He has cleaned up the mess of our lives and we have the guarantee of life forever in heaven.
Amen.
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