Against All Hope
Romans 4:18-21
Our video tonight was entitled “Hope Street”. It can be a hard road to find. Many people are drawn to Wall Street. Lots of people find themselves on Skid Row. Some of us even secretly hope we’ll one day know Easy Street. You may think you are stuck on the Boulevard of Broken Dreams. So what does it take for us to find our way to Hope Street?
There’s not a whole lot in life that makes it easy. The legal system doesn’t always provide us hope. I came across some of the strange laws that are evidently still on the books in all fifty states.
Minnesota
It is illegal to sleep naked.
A person may not cross state lines with a duck atop his head.
All bathtubs must have feet.
Alabama
It is illegal for a driver to be blindfolded while operating a vehicle.
It is illegal to wear a fake moustache that causes laughter in church.
It is illegal to impersonate a person of the clergy.
Wisconsin
Margarine may not be substituted for butter in restaurants unless it is requested by the customer.
Iowa
Ministers must obtain a permit to carry their liquor across state lines.
I found it odd that so many of the strange laws had something to do with church.
Institutions fail us. Scandals have rocked the church and political parties. Celebrities are held up as role-models only to be found to have the same feet of clay as the rest of us.
Where do you go when you need hope? Even our ideas about God have sometimes failed us. We’ve created God is our own image and made God into a cranky super-power with questionable ethics.
In our scripture from Romans we are told where Abraham found hope and we discover that hope is found in its own paradox. “Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed…” Isn’t that odd? Abraham found hope against all hope.
Against the evidence of unimagined cruelty between people, I find hope in my relationships with others.
Against the record of failures, mistakes and brokenness, I find hope in knowing I can have another shot at success.
Against the probability of all the ways something can go wrong, I know hope when I see someone get it right.
Hope Street is not a place in the neighborhood, it is recognizing a reality around you. You can find hope in the grungiest, messiest, most hateful, most demeaning situation. It reveals itself when you refuse to let the grunge, the mess, the hate and the demeaning define who you are.
Sources:
www.dumblaws.com