Living Beyond Hopelessness

Devotional Reflection, Thursday, June 23, 2022

The week of the second Sunday after Pentecost

The Rev. David W. Perkins, Th.D.

Key phrases for reflection from today’s reading:

3And not only that, but we also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, 4and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 5and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.

Daily Office Lectionary Readings (BCP, 973)

AM Psalm 105:1-22; PM Psalm 105:23-45

Num. 17:1-11; Rom. 5:1-11; Matt. 20:17-28

Morning Prayer, Rite 2, page 75, Book of Common Prayer

Evening Prayer, Rite 2, page 115, Book of Common Prayer

Compline (Night Prayer), Page 127, Book of Common Prayer

Daily Office Epistle, Romans 5:1-11

5:1Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, a 2through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand; and we boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God.bc 3And not only that, but we also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, 4and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 5and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.

6 For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. 7Indeed, rarely will anyone die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person someone might actually dare to die. 8But God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us. 9Much more surely then, now that we have been justified by his blood, will we be saved through him from the wrath of God.e 10For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, much more surely, having been reconciled, will we be saved by his life. 11But more than that, we even boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.

David’s Reflections

Jürgen Moltmann, a German theologian, said this about hope:

"God's promises are understood best by those without hope."* When all recourse and all solution by any visible means seems lost, when the situation seems hopeless, God’s promises become most powerfully meaningful As Paul put it in today’s reading, “while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.”

When you reach that place of hopelessness, that place beyond all human solution, what keeps you going? What unseen arm keeps you afloat on the sea of despair? According to this passage, God’s love does. As Paul put it, God’s love is being poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit.

Can you grasp that image—the human spirit awash in divine love like rocks in a stream at the base of a waterfall? You might say that you do not feel God’s presence, that you wonder whether God is real. Yet, you keep going. You find a way to put one foot in front of the other and live through a heart-wrenching crisis.

Just how did you manage that? Was it an encouraging friend? Was it the simple refusal to let life get the best of you? Could God have been active through that friend? Could your refusal to quit have found its steel strength from that invisible flow of God’s love?

Episcopal psychiatrist Gerald G. May, wrote, "God is far more intimate with us than human parents ever could be, even closer than a pregnant woman is to her unborn child. God's love pervades us, flows through every molecule, vibrates every particle of our being."#

*Jürgen Moltmann, Experiences in Theology: Ways and Forms of Christian Theology, trans. Margaret Kohl (Minneapolis: Fortress, 2000), p. 131.

#Gerald G. May, Addition and Grace (New York: Harper, 1988), p. 122.

Collect of the Day, Proper 7, the second Sunday after Pentecost

O Lord, make us have perpetual love and reverence for your holy Name, for you never fail to help and govern those whom you have set upon the sure foundation of your loving-kindness; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. (BCP, 230)

A Collect for Protection

O God, the life of all who live, the light of the faithful, the strength of those who labor, and the repose of the dead: We thank you for the blessings of the day that is past, and humbly ask for your protection through the coming night. Bring us in safety to the morning hours; through him who died and rose again for us, your Son our Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. (BCP, 124)

A Collect for Social Justice

Almighty God, who created us in your image: Grant us grace fearlessly to contend against evil and to make no peace with oppression; and, that we may reverently use our freedom, help us to employ it in the maintenance of justice in our communities and among the nations, to the glory of your holy Name; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen. (BCP, 260)

Collect, Year C, Series 1

God, our refuge and hope, when race, status, or gender divide us, when despondency and despair haunt and afflict us, divide us, when community lies shattered: comfort and convict us with the stillness of your presence, that we may confess all you have done, through Christ, to whom we belong and in whom we are one. Amen.

[Revised Common Lectionary Prayers: Proposed by the Consultation on Common Texts (Preaching the Revised Common Lectionary) (Fortress, 2002), p. 151.]

A Collect for Early Evening

O Lord God Almighty, as you have taught us to call the evening, the morning, and the noonday one day; and have made the sun to know its going down: Dispel the darkness of our hearts, that by your brightness we may know you to be the true God and eternal light, living and reigning for ever and ever. Amen. (BCP, 110)

A Collect for Mission

O God and Father of all, whom the whole heavens adore: Let the whole earth also worship you, all nations obey you, all tongues confess and bless you, and men and women everywhere love you and serve you in peace; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (BCP, 124)