One Thing We Cannot Live Without

Delivered by Rev. Dr. Randy K. Hammer, Dec. 1, 2019

Psalm 33:20-22; Lamentations 3:17-26 GNT

Text: Hope returns when I remember this one thing: The Lord’s unfailing love and mercy still continue, fresh as the morning, as sure as the sunrise.

Lamentations 3:21-23 GNT

“I have no hope.  I see no hope for the world. . . I am a man without hope.”¹ 

Now, those somber words are not my words.  They are the words of Sir Winston Churchill spoken in a conversation with American evangelist Billy Graham in 1954.  And then Churchill turned to Graham and asked, “Do you have any real hope?”

In his autobiography, Just As I Am, Graham goes on to note that in the course of their conversation, Churchill referred to hopelessness no less than nine times.  The conversation occurred, of course, some nine years after World War II had ended. So we are left wondering what was going on in Churchill’s life or mind at the time that caused him to feel so hopeless. Graham doesn’t elaborate much except to say that it was well known that Churchill at times suffered with depression.

A sense of hopelessness – have you ever been there?  Sometimes the world may look pretty dark and hopeless to us.  We cringe as we watch the evening world news and hear of the latest atrocity or act of senseless violence or the latest blatant example of man’s inhumanity to man.  Or when we hear about the drastic global climate changes.  And we wonder, Is there any hope for such a world?

And it doesn’t take much to throw us from a life of happiness into a pit of hopelessness, does it?  We may be rocking along through life and everything is coming up roses, as they say.  Life is good.  We are healthy and all of our immediate family members are healthy.  We have a good job that we love and life as we know it is happy.  But then one visit to the doctor’s office, or one telephone call informing us of a tragic accident, or the loss of that job we loved, or a major family rift can turn our rosy world upside down in a second’s notice.  And all of a sudden, our happy, healthy, rosy life begins to seem hopeless – without any hope.

If anyone had reason to feel a sense of hopelessness, the poet of the Book of Lamentations did.  Traditionally, the prophet Jeremiah has been credited with writing these meditations.  But we really don’t know who the author was.  If you have never read the entire book, the season of Advent would be a good time to do so.  The somber words were written during a horrible time in the history of the Jewish people.  The five poems lament the destruction of Jerusalem and the beloved Jewish Temple in 586 B.C.E.  Destruction of their beloved buildings, ruin, murder in the streets, the exile of many of their citizens, hunger, thirst, starvation, and more was the order of the day.  And so, as the prophet-poet of Lamentations tried to make sense of all the tragedy and trouble, he recorded his thoughts in the form of five somber poems or laments, as they are called. 

As the poet reflects upon all the devastation and trouble around him, he moans, “O Jerusalem, beloved Jerusalem, what can I say? How can I comfort you? No one has ever suffered like this. Your disaster is boundless as the ocean; there is no possible hope” (2:13).  Did you get that?  “There is no possible hope.”

He continues, “I am a prisoner with no hope of escape” (3:18).  “My hope in the Lord is gone” (3:21).  He seems to be nearing the end of his rope.

One of the reasons for the poet’s sense of hopelessness was the reality of homelessness left in the wake of the devastation of Jerusalem by their enemies.  “The thought of my pain, my homelessness, is bitter poison,” he laments (3:19).  If anything can lead to a sense of hopelessness, it has to be homelessness!

On November 19, a number of us from the United Church sat with a couple hundred other Oak Ridgers at a TORCH fundraising luncheon and heard reports and statistics and saw dozens of photographic images depicting the problem of homelessness right here in Oak Ridge and Anderson County.  When we think of homelessness, we may think that it is the problem of big cities.  Or we may think of the dozens of homeless people who hang out under the bridge on Broadway in Knoxville and who take shelter at night at KARM or the Salvation Army.  And we would be correct in doing so. 

But there are dozens, probably a few hundred, homeless persons in Oak Ridge and Anderson County.  They are the “invisible homeless” whom we may never recognize.  They may be the person that hands us our order at McDonalds or Wendy’s, or takes our money at Kroger. Or they may be the person standing in line beside us at the public library.  Even though they may have regular, low-paying jobs, they don’t make enough money to pay their rent and utilities, so they live and sleep in their cars.  Or if they are lucky, they sleep on the couch of a friend or relative. 

One of the phrases or concepts I took away from that TORCH luncheon was “the hopelessness of homelessness.”  The “hopelessness of homelessness” is a hopelessness like no other.  But through our support of TORCH, and probably Habitat for Humanity as well, we can and do help alleviate the hopelessness of at least some people of our community as we become a tiny part of helping them regain a place to call home.

But back to Lamentations.  The poet seems to see a faint ray of light in the midst of the hopeless darkness.  Because he says, “Yet hope returns when I remember this one thing: The Lord’s unfailing love and mercy still continue, Fresh as the morning, as sure as the sunrise. . . . and so in him I put my hope” (3:21-23).  Or as more traditional translations render it, “this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope: The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning” (ESV).

When all seems lost, the one thing that abides and keeps us going is hope – hope in the grace of God and hope in the goodness of those around us.

Truly it is as William Shakespeare observed,

“The miserable have no other medicine

But only hope.”

German pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote before the end of his short life, “ . . . a man cannot live without hope, and . . . all men who have really lost all hope often become wild and wicked.”  Perhaps such is at least one reason that people turn to acts of senseless violence that we hear about almost weekly – they have lost all hope.  In short, hope is the one thing we cannot live without!

And so, it is quite fitting that the first Sunday of Advent, which is also the first Sunday of the new church year, focuses upon hope.  It is the beginning of the season of hope.  We are reminded that Jesus was born into a bleak world of darkness.  The Jewish people again found themselves dominated and oppressed by enemies; this time it was the mighty Roman Empire.  I imagine that when Jesus was born, there was not much hope to be had. 

But there was hope.  Hope in a better day.  Hope of deliverance from oppression and violence.  Hope in an ear of peace.

In that hymn we are about to sing, Charles Wesley speaks of Jesus as being “Israel’s Strength and Consolation, Hope of all the earth Thou art.”

And so, during these days of Advent, which begins today, let us look for, be open to, and embrace the hope Advent has to offer.  And let us also seek ways to reach out to those around us – especially the less fortunate and the homeless – to offer them a  ray of hope as well.  Because hope is the one thing no one can live without.  May it be so.  Amen!

¹Billy Graham, Just As I Am.  New York: Harper Collins, 1997.  P. 277.