Plans For You

The Rev. Dr. Skip Ferguson

Manassas Presbyterian Church

Manassas, Virginia

January 3, 2016

Plans For You

Jeremiah 29:11

“For surely I know the plans I have for you,

 says the Lord,

plans for your welfare and not for harm,

to give you a future with hope.”

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“For surely I know the plans I have for you,”

says the Lord,

“plans for your welfare

and not for harm,

to give you a future with hope,

…to give you a future with hope.”

I cannot imagine better words for us to hear

as we begin a new year—

as we each begin the new year,

and as our church begins it 149^th year.

“Plans for our welfare.”

“A future with hope.”

It is what we all want, isn’t it?

Every one of us:

a future with hope

as we look to the year ahead.

The young person who has sent off

college applications

and anxiously awaits word,

hoping for her first choice,

hoping for a future come fall

on a college campus she now dreams about.

“God, grant me a future with hope.”

The young couple talking about a life together,

talking about marriage,

talking about binding themselves

through promises of love,

such extravagrant promises

when we hear them:

“in plenty and in want,

in joy and in sorrow,

in sickness and health,”

through good times

and the inevitable bad times.

“God, grant us a future with hope.”

The middle-aged couple

watching grown children leave,

setting out on their own;

the couple thinking about

how quiet the house will be,

too quiet,

wondering what the years ahead will be like

for their children,

for themselves.

“God, grant our children a future with hope.

God, grant us a future with hope.”

The man, the woman looking back

at the end of a career,

looking back over 30, 40 years,

of working, living, striving;

now looking at a future

so different from the past,

a future filled with new possibilities,

but also new uncertainties,

the familiar, the routine,

forever changed.

“God, grant me a future with hope.”

Those of any age, struggling,

struggling in relationships,

struggling with illness;

struggling with worry;

struggling with anger;

struggling with guilt;

struggling to forgive;

struggling with what path to follow:

“God, grant me a future with hope.”

Hope: a feeling of expectation,

a feeling of anticipation.

It is the essence of our faith

– that we are filled with expectation,

anticipation as we walk through our days,

as children of God,

as disciples of Christ,

empowered, energized,

pulled,

and sometimes pushed

by the Holy Spirit.

Hope grounded in the promise

we hear at Christmas

that God is with us,

our Immanuel.

“Fear not” are words we read

time and time again in Scripture,

words spoken by Jesus,

spoken by angels

spoken because the future,

even with its possibilities

can freeze us with fear,

fear of the uncertain,

fear of the unknown,

fear simply of change.

“Fear not”,

for God graces us a future with hope.

We can walk into the future confidently,

God’s future.

for God is calling us,

saying to us,  

as Frederick Buechner has written,

“GO!

BE!

LIVE!

LOVE!”

Fear not!

        

And as we respond in hope and faith,

“God sends us on an extraordinary journey

for which there are no sure maps

and whose end we will never fully know

until we get there”

(Secrets in the Dark)

But God will be with us,

this we know,

with us on life’s journey

in both joy and sorrow,

sickness and health,

plenty and want

in this life and the next.

                                   

What do you hope for

as you look at the year ahead?

What is your hope for yourself?

What is your hope for your family?

What is your hope for your community?

What is your hope for your church

this body of Christ to which you and I,

all of us, have been called?

Many of you are participating in

the Year of the Bible.

As you read through your Bible,

look at each person’s story

and see how it is a story of hope.

Even Adam and Eve after they disobeyed God;

even Cain, after he so brutally murdered Abel;

even Moses after he killed the Egyptian in anger;

even David,

even Solomon,

even Jonah,

even Peter,

even Paul.  

Eleven months from now,

as this year comes to an end,

as we once again prepare for

Advent and Christmas,

we’ll begin our trek through

the Book of Revelation,

a book that one eminent biblical scholar

has called the most widely and

wildly misinterpreted

book in the Bible.

I could not agree with him more:

It is a book we tend to think is about

everything dark,

death and destruction all around,

fire, smoke, and ash rising from

the very pages as we try to read,

as we try to understand.

But it is a book about hope.

It is a message of hope

John wanted Christians to hear

even in the midst of brutal Roman persecution:

“Live in hope,” John wrote,

“God’s love will prevail.”

The very word apocalypse means simply,

revelation,

and what is revealed is God’s hope for us,

for all humanity,

that God will bring heaven to us,

and live among us,

as we, all God’s children, live in love.

That’s God’s hope for us,

That’s God’s plan for us.

        

Let us all live in hope as we begin this year;

as we walk through this year.

As we work,

as we serve,

as we pray,

as we worship,

as we feed the hungry,

as we reach out to welcome all,

as we grow in faith,

as we grow in discipleship

following our Lord Jesus Christ.

God hear our prayer:

grant us –

your children and this church –

a future with hope.

AMEN