Welcome to LAFUMC

715 Diamond Drive, Los Alamos, NM

505-662-6277

Sermons

"HOPE GROWS"
GOSPEL SCRIPTURE TEXT: MATTHEW 1:1-17

DAVE RING, PASTOR
LOS ALAMOS FIRST UNITED METHODIST CHURCH
SUNDAY MORNING, DECEMBER 7, 2008
THE SECOND SUNDAY OF ADVENT

SCRIPTURE LESSON: 1A record of the genealogy of Jesus Christ the son of David, the son of Abraham: 2Abraham was the father of Isaac, Isaac the father of Jacob, Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers, 3Judah the father of Perez and Zerah, whose mother was Tamar, Perez the father of Hezron, Hezron the father of Ram, 4Ram the father of Amminadab, Amminadab the father of Nahshon, Nahshon the father of Salmon, 5Salmon the father of Boaz, whose mother was Rahab, Boaz the father of Obed, whose mother was Ruth, Obed the father of Jesse, 6and Jesse the father of King David. David was the father of Solomon, whose mother had been Uriah's wife, 7Solomon the father of Rehoboam, Rehoboam the father of Abijah, Abijah the father of Asa, 8Asa the father of Jehoshaphat, Jehoshaphat the father of Jehoram, Jehoram the father of Uzziah, 9Uzziah the father of Jotham, Jotham the father of Ahaz, Ahaz the father of Hezekiah, 10Hezekiah the father of Manasseh, Manasseh the father of Amon, Amon the father of Josiah,11and Josiah the father of Jeconiah and his brothers at the time of the exile to Babylon.12After the exile to Babylon: Jeconiah was the father of Shealtiel, Shealtiel the father of Zerubbabel,13Zerubbabel the father of Abiud, Abiud the father of Eliakim, Eliakim the father of Azor,14Azor the father of Zadok, Zadok the father of Akim, Akim the father of Eliud,15Eliud the father of Eleazar, Eleazar the father of Matthan, Matthan the father of Jacob, 16and Jacob the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus, who is called Christ. 17Thus there were fourteen generations in all from Abraham to David, fourteen from David to the exile to Babylon, and fourteen from the exile to the Christ.

MESSAGE: Shivering from the cold - hungry, dirty and alone - Yuri Gevorgian slipped the noose around his neck. His great hope, the dream of finding artistic freedom in the USA, had died. He was totally bereft; it was time to end his life.

Gevorgian had immigrated to the US in 1985 from Armenia. A successful architect there, he longed to become a painter. At that time, Soviet restrictions in Armenia barred him from pursuing his dreams. His best hope, he felt, was to immigrate to the land of opportunity, the United States. Six years after he applied for such, he received a visa. When he arrived in America, he headed for Fresno, California, hoping to find support from the relatively large Armenian community there. But his fellow countrymen had shunned him.

Nothing went right; Gevorgian quickly found himself penniless, homeless and alone in a strange land. After months of living on the streets, panhandling, finding only occasional day-labor jobs, his spirit broke. In despair, he tried to hang himself.

As he stepped off the chair, the rope supporting the noose snapped. Unexpectedly saved from death, Gevorgian felt he had received a sign: God yet had purpose for his life. Newly infused with hope, he made his way to Los Angeles and secured a job with an architectural firm. For months he slept in the office at night until he could afford a place to live. After scraping together enough money to rent a small apartment, Gevorgian began to feverishly work on a series of paintings portraying the humanity he'd seen in the faces of many other homeless persons, those he had met while living on the streets.

Currently Yuri Gevorgian's paintings sell for more than $200,000 each. His artistic name is "Yuroz;" perhaps you've heard of him. Although his paintings are always starkly set against a background of black canvas, he's one of the most positive people you'll ever meet, a champion of the homeless and of human rights in general. The U. S. Postal Service featured miniatures of Yuroz' works on a series of postage stamps issued in the spring of 2005. His oddly-discovered hope, the result of an unsuccessful suicide attempt, has kindled hope in thousands of other despairing persons.

Our Advent theme this December is hope. Last week, I shared with you that human beings simply must have hope. Without hope, life has neither purpose nor meaning. But with hope, men and women can do great things. And with the best hope of all, Jesus Christ, we can accomplish the impossible.

Today, I invite us to allow our hope in Christ to grow. And I would nurture that growth by offering you the examples of several of the human ancestors of Joseph, the husband of Mary and the earthly foster-father of Jesus.

The first earthly ancestor of the Messiah that the Bible mentions is David. I personally have an affinity for David. (Maybe because of the name?) What I like most about David is that he was a great man of faith - and an equally great sinner. David was real, he wasn't a stuffed shirt saint. He loved God - a lot. And he forgot about God - a lot. But through it all, God loved David - consistently. In fact, the Bible says that David was "a man after God's own heart."

Folks, if God can love David, then there's real hope for you - and for me. For David was both the best, and the worst, among us human beings. When I consider David, my hope in God grows by leaps and bounds. There was room in God's heart for that David, so there's likely room in God's heart for this David. And there's room for you, too!

The next person that God mentions as an earthly ancestor of the Messiah is Abraham. Abraham is the Bible's quintessential example of a very simple, yet very difficult concept for us humans to wrap ourselves around: faith. We're talking more about hope this month, but faith is a close cousin thereto. Faith, hope, and love, according to the apostle Paul, form a great "trinity" of Christian truths.

The Bible says, "Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness." The essence of faith is believing God. Note that the Word doesn't say, "Abraham believed in God." Almost everyone believes "in" God, which is merely to say "believes that there is a God." But to "believe God" is to hear and obey what God says. That's a lot more than just believing "in" God. If you need more hope, believe God. That's faith - and faith produces hope. Hope grows in faithful people.

In verse five of today's scripture text, among the earthly ancestors of Jesus the Messiah, there's a woman mentioned named Rahab. I started to say, "There's a lady mentioned named Rahab," but the truth is, Rahab was no lady. Rahab was a prostitute - the Bible says so plainly. But despite her sinful lifestyle, she was spiritually sensitive. She could discern the purpose of God when the Israelite spies came to her house, so she put their welfare, and God's purposes, above her own life. She risked herself on God's behalf - and God richly rewarded her.

Rahab was both a prostitute and a pagan - yet God adopted her into the lineage of his own earthly family. Once again, folks, there's hope for us. If God could love Rahab, if God could use Rahab for the advancement of His Kingdom - think what He can do with you, with me.

The final earthly ancestor of the Messiah I want to highlight today is Jesus' foster-father, Joseph. Joseph, in my estimation, has to have been one of the finest men who ever lived. The Bible doesn't say a whole lot about Joseph. Mary gets far more attention and, of course, Jesus is the real focus of it all. Joseph's part is merely among the "supporting cast," but what a supporter he had to have been. From accepting a pregnant fiance's preposterous story to raising a child that wasn't his, Joseph proved himself to be a quiet, hard-working, admirable man -- a man of integrity, of character. If Joseph could live for God given the strange and difficult set of circumstances that life threw at him, then there's hope for me. There's hope for all of us.

Hope. The more we learn of how God has worked through the lives of others - like Abraham, Rahab, David, and Joseph in the Bible, or like the painter Yuroz today - the more we can hope that God make our lives into something wonderful, to His glory. Hope. As the Advent season moves toward its fulfillment at Christmas, may your hope grow by leaps and bounds. Put your hope in Jesus - you won't be disappointed! Amen.

Back to Church Sermons Table of Contents