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Transcript

Prisoners of Hope · St. Paul Podcast

• 0:06
  SPEAKER_00: Hi everyone and welcome to the St.
• 0:08
  SPEAKER_00: Paul Podcast.
• 0:08
  SPEAKER_00: My name is Mark Neethammer, senior pastor at St.
• 0:11
  SPEAKER_00: Paul Lutheran Church, located in Davenport, Iowa, part of the Greater Quad Cities area of Iowa and Illinois.
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_00: Right here, each week, you will find beautiful music and a message of hope and good news to guide your life.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_00: I'm hopeful that this podcast can inspire you and help you on your journey of faith as you grow in love and trust in our God.
• 4:01
  SPEAKER_01: Before we hear this week's message, we'll listen to a reading from Zechariah chapter 9.
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_01: This prophecy was given to God's people as they reestablished their lives and communities after returning from exile in Babylon.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_01: You may recognize the opening verses from Palm Sunday, where this prophecy finds its fulfillment in Jesus' entry into Jerusalem on a donkey.
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_01: But this week we will pay particular attention to how the passage ends, with God's invitation to hope.
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_01: Hear now these words from Zechariah chapter 9, verses 9 through 12.
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_01: Rejoice greatly, O daughter Zion.
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_01: Shout aloud, O daughter Jerusalem.
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_01: See your king comes to you.
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_01: Triumphant and victorious is he, humble and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_01: He will cut off the chariot from Ephraim and the war horse from Jerusalem, and the battle bow shall be cut off, and he shall command peace to the nations.
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_01: His dominion shall be from sea to sea, and from the river to the ends of the earth.
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_01: As for you also, because of the blood of my covenant with you, I will set your prisoners free from the waterless pit.
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_01: Return to your stronghold, O prisoners of hope.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_01: Today I declare that I will restore to you double the word of the Lord.
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_01: As I mentioned earlier, these words were first spoken to God's people as they were returning home from exile, carrying both the joy of restoration and the complications and uncertainty of what the future may hold.
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_01: And to that moment, God spoke a promise that continues to echo today.
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_01: Return to your stronghold, O prisoners of hope.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_01: And although these words were spoken long ago, and the circumstances of our lives may be different, God's faithfulness remains the same.
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_01: As you listen to this week's message, may these words from God continue to speak to you today, inviting you into the joy of God's promises and grace.
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_01: Scripture often has a funny way of getting our attention, and it's not necessarily in the ways we always expect.
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_01: As I mentioned, this passage is a prophecy telling of a future king, one that would ride into Jerusalem on a donkey.
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_01: And if that detail sounds familiar to you, it's the same prophecy that's fulfilled on Palm Sunday with Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem.
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_01: But what captured my attention this week was a phrase at the end of this passage.
• 6:51
  SPEAKER_01: Return to your stronghold, you prisoners of hope.
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_01: I just couldn't shake that strange phrase.
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_01: Prisoners of hope.
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_01: It almost sounds backwards.
• 7:05
  SPEAKER_01: Normally prisoners want freedom.
• 7:07
  SPEAKER_01: We don't normally think of captivity as a good thing.
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_01: Yet Zechariah names God's people as prisoners.
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_01: Not of fear or shame or even of the exile that they're experiencing, but as prisoners of hope.
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_01: And maybe they're prisoners of hope because they've become captivated by the hope of what is to come, this promise of the coming king.
• 7:36
  SPEAKER_01: I think that leaves us with a question: what are the things that captivate you?
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_01: What has your attention?
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_01: What shapes the way that you see the world or yourself?
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_01: What are the things that you are allowing to hold on to you?
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_01: I think the truth is we're all being held captive by something.
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_01: We live in a world of instant gratification.
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_01: We're all creatures of habit, whether there's media, print, or otherwise, to consume everywhere we turn.
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_01: How can we not be captivated by all that's going on?
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_01: And the image of captivity would have been all too painfully familiar to the people who heard these words from Zechariah.
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_01: They were living in Babylon, under Babylonian rule.
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_01: Their ancestors had been displaced from Jerusalem, the temple had been destroyed, and decades later, this new generation that was born in exile away from their home was left wondering if God had forgotten about them.
• 8:47
  SPEAKER_01: And then there's this pivotal moment in history when the Persians conquer Babylon, and King Cyrus sends out a decree to the empire that all of the people of Israel are to return home to Jerusalem and to rebuild the temple.
• 9:03
  SPEAKER_01: And this these words from Zechariah come pretty close to when they would have returned to Jerusalem.
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_01: They've probably started rebuilding the temple.
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_01: But even at home, life hasn't necessarily been easy-going for them.
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_01: They're in conflict with the people who had been living in Jerusalem while they were away and are still living in Jerusalem.
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_01: They still lived in fear as a territory of the Persian Empire, and the land had suffered droughts and plagues, and harvest wasn't quite up to snuff.
• 9:37
  SPEAKER_01: And amid all these complexities of returning home, God speaks through Zechariah, telling the people to rejoice greatly, to shout aloud, your king will come, return to your stronghold.
• 9:56
  SPEAKER_01: God doesn't simply bring them home.
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_01: God reminds them of who they are.
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_01: Saying, Because the blood of my covenant with you, I will set your prisoners free.
• 10:09
  SPEAKER_01: I think it's hard for us to hear those words without thinking of the words that Jesus says at the communion table.
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_01: This cup is the new covenant in my blood.
• 10:19
  SPEAKER_01: We are given this tangible reminder of the grace and love that God promises.
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_01: This new covenant comes from the same God that calls Israel home, the God that continues to call us home each and every day.
• 10:37
  SPEAKER_01: But that call doesn't always come in the ways that we expect.
• 10:42
  SPEAKER_01: One of the best pieces of wisdom I've been given is expect God to show up and let that be your only expectation.
• 10:53
  SPEAKER_01: I'll say that one more time.
• 10:55
  SPEAKER_01: Expect God to show up and let that be your only expectation.
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_01: We often become so attached to how we think God works or what we think faith looks like that we miss what's actually happening.
• 11:14
  SPEAKER_01: And the triumphal entry on Palm Sunday is a great example of God showing up in unexpected ways.
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_01: For years this moment has been talked about, and the people are expecting upheaval, a reckoning, a king that comes to take back the land for the people of Israel, an all-powerful ruler.
• 11:35
  SPEAKER_01: The government is expecting might and force.
• 11:39
  SPEAKER_01: They're expecting Rome to fall.
• 11:43
  SPEAKER_01: But Jesus enters Jerusalem on a donkey, not a war horse.
• 11:49
  SPEAKER_01: He declares peace, he washes feet, and then he humbly dies on a cross for the sins of all the world.
• 12:06
  SPEAKER_01: God simply refused to arrive in the way that people expected.
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_01: Jesus entirely redefines what it means to be king.
• 12:17
  SPEAKER_01: And in doing so, gives us a new understanding of hope.
• 12:22
  SPEAKER_01: I think there are really two kinds of hope.
• 12:25
  SPEAKER_01: There's the hope that is grounded in our own plans and expectations for life.
• 12:31
  SPEAKER_01: And then there's hope rooted in the promises of God.
• 12:36
  SPEAKER_01: And that first kind of hope grounded in ourselves and the world can easily turn into the building of our own prisons.
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_01: We become captive to expectations and we lock ourselves into timelines and life plans.
• 12:51
  SPEAKER_01: Saying, by this age I'll be married.
• 12:55
  SPEAKER_01: I thought I'd have kids by now.
• 12:58
  SPEAKER_01: I thought I would get a promotion or a new job.
• 13:01
  SPEAKER_01: I wasn't expecting to be caring for my parents.
• 13:05
  SPEAKER_01: I never thought this diagnosis would be mine.
• 13:09
  SPEAKER_01: I thought retirement would be different.
• 13:12
  SPEAKER_01: I thought the grief would have passed already.
• 13:16
  SPEAKER_01: I thought this prayer would have been answered.
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_01: I feel like the world is trying to decide if we measure up.
• 13:25
  SPEAKER_01: Constantly telling us what happiness should look like.
• 13:29
  SPEAKER_01: Telling us we're not enough and we should be doing more.
• 13:34
  SPEAKER_01: But we've been measuring success through our own self-inflicted expectations.
• 13:39
  SPEAKER_01: And the paralyzing disappointment of failure becomes our own captivity.
• 13:46
  SPEAKER_01: But Jesus offers us a different way.
• 13:48
  SPEAKER_01: A hope that rests not in our own expectations, but in the promises of God.
• 13:55
  SPEAKER_01: Because while everyone was expecting a king and a throne, Jesus carried a cross.
• 14:02
  SPEAKER_01: Everyone expected victory on Friday, and God waited until Sunday.
• 14:10
  SPEAKER_01: Expect God to show up and let that be your only expectation.
• 14:18
  SPEAKER_01: God's expectation for us isn't that we become perfect.
• 14:22
  SPEAKER_01: God's hope for us is rooted in covenant grace.
• 14:26
  SPEAKER_01: Jesus died for our sins so that we can live in the promise that nothing we do can separate us from the love of God.
• 14:35
  SPEAKER_01: In the resurrection, Christ does not simply give us hope.
• 14:40
  SPEAKER_01: Christ claims us as his own.
• 14:42
  SPEAKER_01: Hope takes hold of us because Christ first took hold of us.
• 14:47
  SPEAKER_01: And that's why we get to call ourselves prisoners of hope.
• 14:52
  SPEAKER_01: Not because we can hold on to hope, but because God's promises refuse to let us go.
• 15:02
  SPEAKER_01: Death no longer has the final word, and we are no longer captive to sin.
• 15:08
  SPEAKER_01: The resurrection transforms everything.
• 15:12
  SPEAKER_01: No matter what life brings, our disappointments, our grief, our unrealized expectations.
• 15:20
  SPEAKER_01: We get to live knowing that we are beloved children of God, holy and dearly loved.
• 15:29
  SPEAKER_01: And hope sings in the background through it all.
• 15:48
  SPEAKER_01: And I love that image because hope doesn't need to be loud or bold or dramatic.
• 15:54
  SPEAKER_01: It simply keeps singing.
• 15:57
  SPEAKER_01: It sings through grief, through disappointment, through unanswered prayers.
• 16:04
  SPEAKER_01: Hope sings because God's covenant with us still stands.
• 16:08
  SPEAKER_01: It sings because Christ is risen.
• 16:11
  SPEAKER_01: It sings because hope is stronger than our expectations.
• 16:17
  SPEAKER_01: So what will you allow to hold you captive?
• 16:21
  SPEAKER_01: Fear, regret, the expectations of the world or Christ, our hope who has already taken hold of you.
• 16:32
  SPEAKER_01: When we stop being held captive by the expectations of the world, we can simply rest in knowing that we are brought to new life through Christ.
• 16:42
  SPEAKER_01: Wrapped in the promise of God's grace and mercy, we cannot escape the unconditional love of God.
• 16:52
  SPEAKER_01: We don't have to cling desperately to hope.
• 16:54
  SPEAKER_01: Hope has already taken a hold of us.
• 16:58
  SPEAKER_01: In Christ, we are held by grace and promise.
• 17:03
  SPEAKER_01: So expect God to show up and let that be your only expectation.
• 17:10
  SPEAKER_01: Because we are, and we always will be, the prisoners of hope.
• 17:17
  SPEAKER_01: Amen.
• 21:17
  SPEAKER_01: Give us today our daily bread.
• 21:20
  SPEAKER_01: Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us.
• 21:34
  SPEAKER_01: Now and forever.
• 21:36
  SPEAKER_01: Amen.
• 21:39
  SPEAKER_01: As you go about your week, expect God to show up, even in, especially in unexpected ways.
• 21:48
  SPEAKER_01: May you go out as prisoners of hope, sharing God's peace and love with the world, knowing that you are and always will be held by God's grace.
• 21:59
  SPEAKER_01: Amen.
• 22:11
  SPEAKER_00: Our commitment to endeavors that lend hope to other people stretches across the country and around the world.
• 22:18
  SPEAKER_00: We hope that in a good way you feel a part of that reach.
• 22:22
  SPEAKER_00: Tune in next Thursday for another edition of the Saint Paul Podcast.