January 18, 2026 - Second Sunday after Epiphany: An Unconditional Hope

January 18, 2026  Second Sunday after Epiphany
Ladue Chapel Presbyterian Church
Romans 5:1-8
“An Unconditional Hope”
Douglas T. King


I have a “use of language” confession this morning.  I must admit that I am immensely wishy-washy in my use of the word “hope.”  I am constantly using it in such an embarrassingly watered-down fashion.  Sometimes I use it in rather mundane matters. “I hope the weather is nice tomorrow.” Or “I hope there are fresh strawberries at the Kirkwood Farmer’s market.” Other times I use it in matters of life and death. “I hope the wars that plague our world, and the violence on our city streets can be replaced with peace.”  I use the word “hope” without any sense of sure confidence.  I use it in place of the phrases, “wouldn’t it be nice if” or “I dearly wish.”  

Well, the apostle Paul is not nearly so sloppy and inconsequential in his use of the word.  When Paul speaks of “hope” he is talking of an expectation which he is certain will occur.  Hope is not some flimsy conditional word of pleasant possibility.  “Hope” is a strong,steadfast substantial stone of a word Paul confidently weighs in his hand.  There is nothing fleeting about Paul’s understanding of hope.  Hope is a recognition of the guarantee we have been given in God’s love.

According to Paul, our faith in Christ has justified and reconciled us to God.  With God’s grace we stand as people forgiven for all of our mistakes.  And as we stand forgiven, God is working in each of us that we may become sanctified, that we may actually participate in the very glory of God.

Paul believes that we as followers of Christ, are on a journey to the Promised Land.  We have been freed from the slavery of our failures and weaknesses by trusting in God.  The rest of our lives are about traveling toward perfect union with the divine.  Although we may be fallible and weak, God’s purposes will never be denied and we will indeed share in God’s glory.  

Of course, the tricky part of it all is that we remember what that journey to the Promised Land was like for God’s liberated people.  Freed or not, the journey was no cake walk.  It was forty years of hardship and wandering, whining, moaning, and doubting before the destination was achieved.  In the Cecille B. Demille version we get the obviously miscast Edward G. Robinson challenging the wisdom of the Israelites’ faith in God and their journey.  He urges them to turn back to Egypt when things get rough.  He spoke in an accent similar to the one common in the neighborhood of Hell’s Kitchen in which my father grew up.  “Yeah see, what has this God of Moses done for us lately?”  The question of what God has done for us lately is always present in the midst of life’s challenges.  

All bad movie imitations aside, it is the juxtaposition of the difficulty of the journey with Paul’s almost blind trust in the result, which can seem simultaneously inspiring and facile.  A line such as “we boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope…” suggests to me some mathematical equation of masochism.  Celebrating suffering is a truly inappropriate way of honoring God’s providence.  

But in actuality that is not what Paul is doing here.  As Paul leads us down this chain of suffering to endurance to character to hope, he has already established that we have hope.  Our faith in God, enfleshed in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus the Christ, has brought us the promise of sharing in God’s glory which gives us hope.  What he is saying is that when we have hope in God, suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces an even greater hope.  

Without hope to begin with, the suffering itself does not produce much of anything.  There have been times in our Christian tradition, where people believed that we should intentionally seek out suffering.  As if the more we suffer the closer we can become to Christ who suffered.  This is not what Paul is instructing us to do.  Paul is not telling us to lash ourselves or wear a hair-shirt and then go around bragging to everyone about how much we are suffering for Jesus.

Paul is acknowledging that there already is suffering in our lives.  With his steadfast trust in the promise of our destination in the loving glory of God, Paul is telling us that whatever comes in the journey of our lives it can be used to lead us home to the divine.  I always had great trouble with this notion until I had a church member who was going through a tremendous period of suffering.  His wife had recently died and he was dealing with multiple serious medical issues.  He shared with me the scripture text that brought them strength on each new day.  It too comes from Paul in the book of Romans, “We know that all things work together for good for those who love God…”  All things.  His claiming of this text in the midst of his suffering was a powerful testimony for me from which I am still seeking to learn.

It is such a transforming belief, this standing strong in our hope, trusting that whatever befalls us on each new day, is yet another step toward our God.  I wish I could claim these words as deeply and completely as that church member did all those years ago.  I wish I could announce I never have a difficulty in my life that I do not celebrate as an opportunity to grow closer to God.  I wish I could look at the vast and deep brokenness in our world and grounded in a rock-solid hope, step forth with confidence that with God by our side all will be made well.  I wish I could preach with confidence that I see the Prince of Peace rounding the bend about to lead us into setting everything in our very askew world right.  I am far more likely to flounder in frustration and fear with a hope that is often too feeble for the fight.

But on this weekend when we remember the ministry and testimony of the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr, I am reminded of one of his quotes. “We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope.  Darkness cannot drive out darkness, only light can do that.  Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that.  I believe when you have hope it enables you to grow beyond the divisions and darkness and hatred which continue to separate us and bring light and love into the world…”  

I seek to grow into the possession of Paul’s form of hope, of MLK’s form of hope.  Paul explains that the journey of suffering to hope works “because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.”  Perhaps for Paul the Spirit was poured a little faster into his heart than I am being poured into.  

However, this metaphor of the Spirit working on our hearts as a poured liquid is very helpful.  We know of the vast power of water on the move, even when it moves slowly.  A steady ever-so-gentle rain will over time saturate a field for abundant growth.  As well, a river over time can carve out the wide-open magnificence of the Grand Canyon.  

So let us not give up too quickly on Paul’s hope just because we may not be ready to claim it today.  Let us let God’s love work in our hearts that they may become fertile enough and open enough that even the suffering of this world and in our lives will not produce in us bitterness, but will produce endurance which will produce character which will produce hope.

The Irish poet Seamus Heaney once said, “Hope is a condition of the soul, not a response to the circumstance in which you find yourself.”  Graced with such a powerful hope may we be the ones who bring more light and love into this world that the Prince of Peace may indeed reign.

Thanks be to God.  Amen.