Hasn’t this been a winter??
It has been a real doozy! We have experienced all kinds of winter weather
during the past two months. We’ve had more than our share of ice and snow – in
fact, we broke the previous snow record for January – not to mention the kind
of bitter cold that usually occurs only much farther north. Fifteen below zero
with wind chill temperatures even lower than that – yeah, we’ve had winter, all
right! Now we’re right in the middle of it. Six weeks down, six weeks to go
until spring officially begins on March 21st. And today is Groundhog
Day, our official midwinter holiday. Only Americans could invent such a crazy
holiday. What happened this morning in the little town of Punxsutawney,
Pennsylvania? At the crack of dawn, several dignitaries dressed in top hats and
tails coaxed a large rodent out of his den, held him up in front of a big crowd
who had also gathered at the crack of dawn, and offered a long-term weather forecast
based on whether or not that rodent saw his shadow. To add to the silliness,
all this was televised and watched by
several million people.
And it doesn’t stop there.
When I looked up “Punxsutawney Phil” on the internet – in case you didn’t know,
that’s the official name of the groundhog – I found a website named “Groundhog
Stuff.com.” You can check it out for yourself if you don’t believe me. This
site offers all sorts of groundhog souvenirs – mugs, scarves, hats, and tote
bags. They even sell envelopes of Phil’s Hot Chocolate Mix and groundhog wine
bottle stoppers! (If you’re planning to visit Punxsutawney, by the way, you can
stop by Punxsutawney Phil's Official Souvenir Shop located at 102 West Mahoning
Street.) A typical American holiday, you might say – another way to rake in
money from people who have nothing better to do than to engage in midwinter tomfoolery.
But… let’s take another look.
Groundhog Day might be a lot more serious than it appears to be at first glance.
It isn’t really about a rodent making long-term forecasts. We have Jim
Cantore on the Weather Channel to do that for us. No, way down deep, Groundhog
Day is about hope. It’s about the
hope that this year, spring will
break out in February! It’s the hope that one morning soon, we’ll wake up to
robins singing under a clear, blue sky. It’s the hope that when we go outside
to get the mail, warm breezes will caress our faces, and little green buds will
dot the tree branches. It’s the hope that winter’s bleak, bitter cold won’t get
the last word, after all!
We Christians understand the importance
of hope. Hope is what keeps us going. An old proverb says with confidence that
“hope springs eternal.” But hope doesn’t spring eternal, not for everyone. Lots
of people have no hope at all. They are convinced that love isn’t real, and
that miracles are impossible, and that eventually we die and that’s that. Period.
The end. But that’s not what we
believe! We see hope all around us! We have hope in the power of God to create
and to recreate; and we have hope in the power of Jesus Christ to defeat even
death; and we have hope in the power of the Holy Spirit to work miracles. If
you don’t believe me, ask Beth McAllister about her son, Logan. (You can read
the whole story in the February, 2014 issue of Guideposts magazine.) Logan was 7 years old when he became
desperately ill from a strep infection that attacked his kidneys – an infection
that did not respond to drug therapy. Logan went into kidney failure and was
put on dialysis. His condition became so critical that the doctors were afraid
that he would go into cardiac arrest. But Logan’s parents had hope. They asked
several churches to put Logan on their prayer chains. You might guess the end
of the story. When the McAllister family returned to the hospital for Logan’s
next session of dialysis, they found that he didn’t need it. Against all odds,
his kidneys had begun working again.
Hope is a powerful thing. But
let me be clear – hope doesn’t guarantee that we will get what we want. Anybody
over the age of 5 knows that life is uncertain. Sometimes things turn out;
sometimes they don’t. But that shouldn’t cause us to lose hope! God has our
back; and sometimes God answers our prayers in ways that we never even
imagined! Just 10 years ago, a charming little movie came out that illustrates
this beautifully. That movie, Angels in
the Outfield, was about two young boys in the California foster care system
who were huge fans of the Angels baseball team. The younger boy, JP, was always
upbeat. “It could happen,” he would say, flashing a dazzling smile. The older
boy, Roger, had been sent to foster care by his widowed father. He wanted
nothing more than to be a part of a family. Early in the movie he asks his
father, “When can we be a family again?” “When the Angels win the pennant” was
the sarcastic reply. And so, that night, Roger said a prayer. “God… if there is
a God… If you’re a man or a woman… if you’re listening, I’d really, really like
a family. My dad says that will only happen if the Angels win the pennant. The
baseball team, I mean. So, maybe you can help them a little. Amen.” And the Angels
– the woeful, can’t hit a ball, can’t catch a ball, can’t steal a base Angels –
started to win games. Lots of games. Because heavenly angels – angels with
wings and halos – were helping the batters bat, the pitchers pitch, and the
fielders field. Sometimes they even helped the runners run! And Roger was the
only one who could see them as they helped the team. Midway through the movie,
Roger’s father abandons him to the foster care system; and Roger gives up hope
of ever being a part of a family. But JP’s irrepressible response is, “It could
happen!” In the end, Roger does, indeed, become part of a family. He is adopted
by none other than the Angels’ coach who has grown to love him as a son. And
did I mention that the coach adopts Roger’s friend JP, too? Roger’s prayer is
answered in a way that he could never have imagined. And as the movie ends, the
Angels win the pennant.
No, we don’t always get what
we hope for. But sometimes we get something even better! After all, what we
hope for is only what we can imagine. God can bless us far beyond our own
imaginations. But hope doesn’t always come easy. Faithful Christians lose their
hold on it now and then. Even in this congregation, I hear comments from folks
who just aren’t sure what the future will hold for us here at Nashville. They
say that we’re an older congregation; that we don’t have many young people
anymore; and that people just aren’t as interested in church as they used to
be. And all those things are true. But ages, numbers, and interest have never
stopped God! Abraham’s wife Sarah gave birth in the geriatric ward; God took a
rag-tag bunch of Egyptian slaves and made them into a nation; and Jesus started
with only 12 people following him. I’m not ready to lose hope in our future
just yet! Why, just pick up a copy of last year’s annual report and leaf
through it. You’ll see just how much ministry we’re doing, both in our own
congregation and in the communities around us. Listen to the reports of
answered prayer that we hear every Sunday during worship! We hope, and we pray,
and God answers those prayers. And then, trust in God to lead us into the
future! If this time last year, someone would have told me that we would
receive both a generous bequest and a
long-term contract with a cell phone company, I would have smiled politely and
responded, “Sure, we will.” But you know what? We did receive that request and we did
receive that contract; and now we have some breathing room to both make needed
repairs on our physical facilities and
to begin new ministries.
Don’t give up hope. Don’t ever give up hope! Paul witnesses to
that hope in his second letter to the church at Corinth: “On God we have set
our hope that he will continue to deliver us, as you help us by our prayers.” So
on this Groundhog Day, I choose to hope. Not in a prediction of an early spring
from a ground-dwelling rodent, but in the power of God to surprise us with
blessings that we never even imagined! Revitalize an aging congregation? Begin new
mission ministries? Have hope for the future? As JP would say, “It could happen!
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