The focus of our conference on this opening day is Hope. In the Scriptures, hope is not some vague wishful thinking, as in, "I hope things work out for our Church, but they probably won't." No, hope is a sure expectation, a confident looking to the future because of the victory won on the cross by Jesus, who is called our Hope.

Our readings tonight point us to three vital insights into the hope to which we are called.

First, hope stands on the Word of God. Second, hope springs from intimacy with the Lord. And, third, hope arises out of suffering for Jesus.

First, hope stands on the Word of God.

"Everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice," Jesus said, "is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock."

The crisis in our Church is not at its root about human sexuality, though that is certainly the flash point that has attracted so much of the attention. It is rather about the authority and interpretation of Holy Scripture. Not only have the unbiblical actions of the General Convention and many dioceses approved what God has forbidden, but the explicit statements of all too many bishops have denied the truth and authority of the Word of God.

The Presiding Bishop once said, "Broadly speaking, the Episcopal Church is in conflict with Scripture...The mind of Christ operative in the church over time...has led the church to in effect contradict the words of the Gospel."

That is a grievously false statement. Of course the Episcopal Church is in conflict with Scripture. But the idea that "the mind of Christ" would contradict "the words of the Gospel" is not only wrong, it is dangerous. We are not free to make up our own religion, our own version of truth, and then arrogantly declare that it is the mind of Christ. The rejection of the authority of Scripture has put the Episcopal Church, like the house of the foolish man, on a foundation of sand, and we see the resulting cracks and crumbling all around us.

Still another prominent bishop said this: "We believe God didn't stop revealing God's self when the canon of Scripture was closed. We worship a living God, not one who checked out 2,000 years ago." But that's a false dichotomy. God hasn't stopped revealing himself, but he will never contradict what he has revealed in Scripture.

One bishop famously said, "The church wrote the Bible and we can rewrite it," but yet another bishop said this, "Jesus changed the Old Testament and he gave us that power. Now we can change the New Testament in like manner."

But we are not to judge the truth of Scripture. The truth of Scripture judges us! It was J.B. Phillips, I believe, who likened Bible translation to rewiring a house with the power left on. How much more the reworking of Scripture to suit our fancy. The Word of God is living and active and we manipulate it at our peril.

The words of Jeremiah speak to us: "How can you say, 'We are wise, for we have the law of the Lord,' when actually the lying pen of the scribes has handled it falsely...Since they have rejected the Word of the Lord, what kind of wisdom do they have?" (Jeremiah 8:8, 9b)

Timothy George, the Dean of Beeson Divinity School has cautioned, "A Church that cannot distinguish heresy from truth, or, even worse, a Church that no longer thinks this is worth doing, is a Church which has lost its right to bear witness to the transforming Gospel of Jesus Christ who declared himself to be not only the Way and the Life, but also the Truth."

I know in my own life that when I will turn to the Bible and allow the Lord to speak, transformation follows. The Bible convicts us. It changes us. It calls us up short. Our selfish and complacent ways are shown for the sin that they are.

Again and again, my experience has been like that of the seven-year-old girl whose family took her to Disney World for the first time. The little girl was thrilled, and she headed straight for Space Mountain.

The father reports:

I worried that the roller coaster would be too scary for her, but she insisted.

To her delight, we rode it twice.

The next year we returned to the Magic Kingdom, and my daughter, now eight, again dragged me to Space Mountain.

As we stood in line, though, I could see her soberly studying the signs that warn about the ride's speed.

"Dad," she said, 'I don't think I want to go."

I asked her why she would be nervous when she had enjoyed herself last time.

She replied, "This year, I can read."

I stand before you as one who reads the Word of God and who has again and again been convicted by it. The Word has restrained me from where I-in my flesh-have wanted to go. It has compelled me to go where I had no personal desire to venture. I have encountered the Bible and have found it to be alien to my natural desires. The Scriptures reveal to me a God whose thoughts are not my thoughts.

The popular religious website, beliefnet.com, has a fascinating section among its pages that I find to be extraordinarily revealing of the mindset of our culture, a mindset which has so devastatingly penetrated the Episcopal Church. It's called "Belief-O-Matic." It makes this promise:

"Even if you don't know what faith you are, Belief-O-Matic(tm) knows. Answer 20 questions about your concept of God, the afterlife, human nature, and more, and Belief-O-Matic(tm) will tell you what religion (if any) you practice...or ought to consider practicing."

In other words, you say what you already believe and Belief-O-Matic will help you find a religion that conforms to your beliefs. Perhaps only partially tongue in cheek, the website offers this disclaimer:

"Warning: Belief-O-Matic(tm) assumes no legal liability for the ultimate fate of your soul."

But it is this approach to faith that is precisely the problem in our Church today. We bring our own truths to our reading of the Bible; we select what conforms to our beliefs and we filter out or explain away that which offends our sensibilities.

But we must live under the Bible. We must yield to its authority over our beliefs, our morals, our actions, because it is the Word of God. It is not our own word. It is not merely a human word, which we can ignore or change to suit our pre-determined convictions.

The former President of Integrity, put it this way, "I have to believe if [the Apostle] Paul could spend some time with us [meaning the homosexual community], he'd revise Romans chapter one."

The clear implication being that the Letter to the Romans is simply one person's opinion, and a not-very-well-informed opinion, at that.

Contrast that dismissive view of Paul's writings-and indeed that dismissive view of Scripture-with that of the Thessalonians. Paul commended them, saying:

"We also thank God continually because, when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men, but as it actually is, the word of God, which is at work in you who believe" (1 Thessalonians 2:13).

Jeremiah again warns our Church: "To whom can I speak and give warning? Who will listen to me? Their ears are closed so they cannot hear. The word of the Lord is offensive to them; they find no pleasure in it" (Jeremiah 6:10).

But Scripture must be our delight. It must be our passion, our joy. It is not enough to say we believe in the Bible's authority, but then ignore it altogether. Some seem to think that all that is required to be considered biblically orthodox is to assert the Bible's authority, but it is not actually necessary to read it!

But we must meditate upon it, study it, memorize it, teach it, proclaim it, devour it, marinate in it. And then we obediently go out with the Word in mission, to bring good news to the poor, the broken, the lost. As Paul puts it in 2 Corinthians 3:12, "Since we have such a hope we are very bold." The motto of our parish's 4th, 5th and 6th grade youth group is, "I have a Bible and I'm not afraid to use it." Those kids get it, don't they?

The truth and power of the Word is our only sure foundation in this perilous time. Upon the rock of the Word our hope stands. Without it, we are lost, blown about by every wind of doctrine. In the words of Psalm 119, "If your law had not been my delight, I would have perished in my affliction" (verse 92).

I learned a verse of Scripture thirty years ago which the Lord uses to speak to me again and again. It is Deuteronomy 29:29: "The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things that have been revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this Law." In other words, we don't know everything in this uncertain time. We don't know how all this is going to work out. We don't know what the new alignment will look like, we don't know the answers to so many of our questions. But we know enough. We know enough to obey. We know enough to follow the Lord if we will but trust His revelation given in the Scriptures.

Our hope stands on the Word of God.

Second, hope springs from intimacy with the Lord.

Our Old Testament reading contains the famous verse, which is the basis for our conference theme, "'For I know the plans I have for you,' declares the Lord, 'plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future" (Jeremiah 29:11).

But that sweet promise for our wellbeing is linked directly to faithful, wholehearted seeking of the Lord in prayer. Verse 11 is followed by these words: "Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart."

It's important to remember that Jeremiah's words were spoken in a time of great suffering, when the people of Jerusalem had been exiled to Babylon. They had lost their homes and their nation, but even more horrific, they had lost the Temple, their place of worship. They were tempted to despair, to hopelessness.

The antidote to this discouragement, Jeremiah told them, was to be found in the intimacy of prayer. It is a remedy we find again and again in the Scriptures.

King David knew it. In Psalm 27, David cried out at the relentless assaults of his enemies, but his trust was in the Lord.

Verse 3: "Though an army besiege me, my heart will not fear; though war break out against me, even then will I be confident."

Why? Where did this hope come from? David makes it clear in the very next verse:

"One thing I ask of the Lord, this is what I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to seek him in his temple."

It was this intimacy with the Lord, born out of intense encounters in worship and in prayer, that sustained David when he was under assault. Hope overflowed out of his life of prayer.

I suspect that most Christians, certainly most evangelical and catholic Christians, would agree that intimacy with the Lord is a good thing. In fact, I know a great many people who are open to a deeper prayer life, a closer relationship with the Lord.

Well, at this point in my life, I am open to losing a little weight, too, but I am not really committed to it. Do you understand the difference? I know many who are open to a deeper devotional life. They would be delighted if they woke up one morning and found that they knew God more closely, heard His voice more clearly. But they are not committed to it. They are not passionate about the things of God. They are not seeking Him with all their heart.

But it is in intimate communion with the Lord that we find hope.

I want to speak a word here to you all as leaders in the Church, both clergy and lay.

It is vital that we who are entrusted with leadership in the Body of Christ be those who give priority to nurturing our life of prayer. Clergy and lay leaders, who have the responsibility to give hope to the people, can only fulfill our calling out of that secret place of prayer and intimacy.

A college professor was giving a final exam to a large lecture class of several hundred students. He told them, "Here is your exam. You will have exactly 2 hours to complete it. At the end of 2 hours, you must turn in your papers immediately. I will not accept any exams after the time has expired. No exceptions. You may begin."

Well, they all wrote feverishly for the two hours until the professor said, "All right. Time is up. Papers in. Now." The students all came forward and put their exams in a huge pile. All except one student in the back who kept writing and writing. Five minutes. Ten minutes. Twenty minutes.

Finally, the student came forward and started to put his paper on the enormous pile of exams on the professor's desk. "Not so fast," said the professor. "I said 2 hours and no more. I will not accept your exam and you get a zero for the final."

Well, the student was hot and pulled himself up to his full height and said, "Professor, do you know who I am?"

And the professor said, "No, I don't."

And the student said, "Great!" and shoved his exam in the middle of the pile.

When it comes to probing questions about our prayer life and Bible reading, a lot of clergy and lay leaders would love to hide in the middle of the pile and say, "Oh no, we're just as weak and fallible as anyone else. Don't expect that of us." But we must accept the weight of responsibility that comes with leadership. The principle is clear: the spiritual maturity of the congregation will never exceed the spiritual maturity of its clergy and lay leadership. Now of course there will always be individuals who, spiritually, are light-years ahead of some of their leaders-that's certainly true in our parish-but the church as a whole will not grow beyond its leadership. We follow our leaders.

If we are to be people of hope, we must set aside every other demand, every other opportunity, until we have come first into that secret place of intimacy with the Lord. It was the great teacher on prayer, Dr. A.J. Gordon, who said, "You can do more than pray after you have prayed, but you cannot do more than pray until you have prayed."

In that timeless children's classic, Winnie the Pooh, A.A. Milne describes Christopher Robin coming downstairs, dragging his teddy bear behind him. Or rather, I should say, he describes it from the teddy bear's perspective: "Here is Edward Bear coming downstairs now-bump, bump, bump on the back of the head. It is, as far as he knows, the only way of coming down stairs. But sometimes he feels that there really is another way, if only he could stop bumping for a moment and think of it."

I don't know about you, but I feel that way entirely too much of the time. I rush here and there, I meet with people, I answer phone calls, I deal with the limitless supply of email, I hurry, I drown in paperwork. Bump, bump, bump. It is, as far as I was taught, the only way of doing ministry. But sometimes I feel that there really is another way, if only I could stop bumping for a moment and think of it.

I well remember the day that I read the interesting fact that Martin Luther prayed 4 hours a day. I thought that was interesting and probably good for him, but I'd always said that I'm not a contemplative type. I'm an activist. But I had to admit that Luther-even while praying 4 hours a day-had had more influence on the Christian Church than anyone since Paul. I read that fact, and then, in the very same week, I heard from a priest who said to me out of the blue, "Did you know that Martin Luther prayed 4 hours a day?" I began to squirm a bit at that. The Holy Spirit was beginning to convict me of my prayerlessness. Then I was in the car and I switched on the radio and I heard "Martin Luther prayed 4 hours a day" before I could shut it off. And in that moment, I knew I was called to embark on an experiment, an experiment in seeking intimacy with the Lord, seeking His presence, seeking His face.

So I resolved to set aside every morning for prayer for 6 weeks. I had my regular hour of quiet time at home, and then I went to our church, but instead of heading for the office, I went to the altar, where I listened and prayed and sought the Lord for Himself alone. As I came to view it, the Lord put me into a six-week detox program to break my addiction to busyness. But out of that experience arose a new joy in obedience to Him, a new power in the Spirit for ministry, a new hope and confidence for the future.

We face great adversity in the crisis of our Church, and it will only get tougher for many of us. But we can have hope, hope that springs from intimacy with the Lord. Part 2 of 3

And third, hope arises out of suffering for Jesus.

Paul put it this way in tonight's Epistle in Romans 5: "We also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope."

When Paul speaks of "suffering," he is referring to suffering for the sake of Christ. While a bad back or an obnoxious brother-in-law may be a form of suffering, it is not what the Apostle had in mind.

We are to celebrate when we suffer for the Name of Jesus. "Rejoice and be glad," Jesus himself said, "because great is your reward in heaven" (Matthew 5:12).

But the reward is not automatic. Suffering is a test! We are being tested and proved. How we respond to suffering for Jesus is the key.

Suffering produces perseverance, Paul says, or "endurance," as some translations have it. You can't develop endurance without suffering, because there must be something for you to endure. You can't develop a virtue without having the circumstances to exercise that virtue. You can't become a patient person without being forced to wait. You cannot become merciful without being wounded and needing to forgive. And you can't form perseverance without the experience of suffering for Christ.

Endurance produces character-or at least it can. There is nothing automatic about the process of growing in spiritual maturity. How we respond to adversity makes all the difference.

Character is the Greek word, "dokime." It means the quality of having been tested and approved, like metal that's been tried in the furnace. It is the nature of someone who has been put to the test and who has measured up.

But testing doesn't just reveal what qualities lie within us, testing actually produces in us something of great importance: mature Christ-like character.

1 Peter says that our faith is tested by the trials of adversity like gold in the fire. Our faith is purified and shown to be genuine, so that we may bring forth "praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed" (1 Peter 1:6-7).

In the words of John Stott, "If suffering leads to glory in the end, it leads to maturity meanwhile."

And it is this character, tried and true, that is the prerequisite for hope.

Joseph Ton is a remarkable biblical scholar, a Romanian who suffered greatly in the persecution of the Church under the communist dictatorship of Nicolae Ceausescu. Josef Ton has written an extraordinary Ph.D. dissertation, now published as a book entitled, "Suffering, Martyrdom and Rewards in Heaven." It contains a detailed exposition of every text on suffering, martyrdom and rewards in heaven in Scripture, the early Church fathers and the Reformers. I found it to be riveting, powerful, even life-changing, though it is not light reading.

With evangelical passion, Ton emphasizes the uniqueness of what Christ achieved on the cross. It is a finished work to which we can add nothing. But Ton makes clear that "what was achieved at Calvary now has to be delivered to humanity worldwide, and exactly this is done by people who accept suffering and self-sacrifice for Christ and His gospel as their way of life" (page 147).

How we respond to the pressure we are facing matters for the cause of Christ, now and for eternity. We will one day be judged not only for what we have done, but for who we have become through our afflictions.

As Ton puts it, "At the end of the process, God wants to see in each of His children a blameless, unselfish, self-giving, enduring, faithful, and obedient character. This is what is well-pleasing to Him, and this is his conception of a mature person who is worthy of being entrusted with great and glorious positions of ruling and authority in His eternal kingdom" (pages 165, 168).

Suffering is a test. If we face criticism and ridicule of our biblical faith and we fall silent, we fail the test. If we face the loss of property or career or reputation and shrink back, we are not worthy of Christ.

Yet God intends suffering for our good and for the extension of His Kingdom. Have you come to that place of maturity in Christ where you can echo these words of Psalm 119: "It was good for me to be afflicted so that I might learn your decrees" (verse 71)? Or these words of Isaiah: "I will walk humbly all my years because of this anguish of my soul...Surely it was for my benefit that I suffered such anguish" (38:15, 17)?

In the face of suffering for the cause of Christ, I confess to you that all too often I respond not with abiding perseverance, but with immature impatience.

When the new alignment of North American Anglicanism experiences yet anothersetback, sadly I can show forth not the character of Jesus, but the anger and frustration of my flesh.

When I do not get the answers I crave, I can get stuck in discouragement instead of soaring in joy and hope.

Psalm 33 says, "A horse is a vain hope for deliverance; despite all its great strength it cannot save...We wait in hope for the Lord; he is our help and our shield."

We could equally say, "Our hope for deliverance is not in Windsor Reports or in Panels of Reference or our own political cleverness, but in the Lord. And our beloved fathers in God would be the first to say to us, our hope is found not even in Primates, but in Jesus Christ.

Josef Ton recounts his own experience of the Lord bringing godly character out of suffering, and hope out of character. He writes:

"On the fourth of October, 1974, the Romanian secret police ordered a house search of our home in Ploiesti. Seven policemen invaded our house and in the course of seven hours, they turned every room upside down, confiscating my entire library, as well as all of my personal papers and notes. I was forced to sign each book before it was taken away, and as I was doing this, my eyes fell on a book with this title: Joy Unspeakable and Full of Glory, followed by the subtitle: Is It Yours Right Now? I stopped, staring at the book cover, and began to pray, "Lord, if this joy is not mine now, it will never be! Please, Lord, make it mine now!" At that very moment, my whole being felt as though it had been inundated with light. From that time on, I was no longer the victim of a house search, but the host of seven men to whom I witnessed about my faith and my Lord!"

I have seen that same joy and that same overflowing hope in the faces and hearts of Christians in Uganda and in Southeast Asia, in those from Northern Nigeria and the Southern Cone. They and others in the Global South have suffered so much and yet they are filled with thanksgiving and a supernatural peace. To be around such people is humbling, and it convicts me of the shallowness and superficiality of my faith.

But I have also seen that same joy and hope in faithful Christians under fire in places like New Hampshire and Connecticut, Los Angeles and Philadelphia, Lexington and Oklahoma and Ohio and Rochester.

It has taken this crisis in our Church to humble us. By God's grace, our need has driven us back to Jesus.

God spoke through the prophet Hosea about his people when their prosperity had led to a disastrous combination of false worship and spiritual complacency. God said of them these terrifying words: "When I fed them, they were satisfied; when they were satisfied, they became proud; then they forgot me" (Hosea 13:6).

Our desperation is bringing us back to the Lord and for this we must give thanks. If we will respond rightly to the attacks we are experiencing, then God will use them for our good. If we react to suffering with bitterness, resentment, anger, hostility, vengeance, then we forfeit the blessing, our witness is compromised, and we prove ourselves unworthy of the reward that would be ours in Christ.

But if we meet hostility and attack with grace and forgiveness and with steadfast proclamation of the Gospel, then God will bring us through to glory.

Jesus is our Hope: His Word is our sure foundation. Intimacy with Him is our deepest joy. Suffering for Him, our great privilege.

Jesus is our Hope. "To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be praise and honor and glory and power, for ever and ever!" Amen! (Revelation 5:13).

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