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Rain or shine, hot or cold, seven nights a week, 365 days a year, members of area local churches and synagogues gather to bring hope to some 100 men, women, and children at the Arlington Night Shelter in Arlington, Texas. Volunteers check in people who are facing some of the hardest struggles in life. The volunteers greet the clients with a smile and help them get their few belongings settled. The clients are assigned chores like cleaning bathrooms, taking out trash, cleaning the living rooms, and doing laundry. Everyone takes some responsibility when they stay.


Clients sign up for washing machines so they can do their own laundry. It is important to look your best when you go to work or when you go for a job interview. Clients check out towels and washcloths and are given soap and shampoo. (One of the volunteers who travels extensively collects all the complimentary soaps and shampoos from his hotel rooms and donates them to the shelter.)

After check in, the clients visit with the social workers about any skills classes they should take and about personal issues. The next day's schedules are posted. All clients are expected to seek guidance and be actively seeking employment. The Night Shelter provides temporary help and assistance, leading its clients to independence.

Clients are given a hot meal each night. Volunteers prepare and serve these meals. It takes a lot of food to feed 100 people. Meals for those who are working late are prepared and set back so that all clients get fed. Most come back for seconds. Occasionally one or two will ask for third or fourth helpings. One night a little girl had six heaping-helpings of corn, her favorite. Like the miracle of the loaves and fishes, there is always more than enough.

Every night the population of the shelter changes as do the faces of those serving them. But one thing never changes, the hope and love brought and shared. For many of these temporary residents, Arlington Night Shelter is the first and only glimpse of hope they have ever had. And they find it "a hope that does not disappoint."

Here in Romans, Paul talks about "a hope that does not disappoint"; a hope that springs up even in the midst of suffering. How can that be? How can there be hope in the midst of a seemingly hopeless situation? From where does that hope come?

Paul paints a beautiful picture of hope born of our Trinitarian faith. With deft brush strokes, Paul paints a peaceful pastoral filled with bold splashes of glory in the midst of dark wide strokes of suffering. The peace and hope of this painting are not merely overlaid as an afterthought, they are an integral part of the painting. The brush strokes contain the dull colors of suffering and the muted colors of endurance, all suffused with the warm glow of hope. And like the paintings of the Impressionists who painted with little dots of paint, you can't see the fullness of the painting until you step back. One rarely sees the hope in the midst of the suffering. But, as Paul reminds us so deftly, it is there, just as it is everywhere in life. How do we come to know and experience that hope?

Peace With God

First, as Paul says, our hope comes through Peace with God. And that's good because life is full of trouble and adversity. We wish it were different but the truth is we never know when life is going to throw us an unexpected curve.

A police officer stopped a man for driving a truck with a broken taillight. The driver walked to the back of his car, looked at the burned out taillight, and then became very distressed. The officer tried to console the man, "Don't take it so hard, buddy; it's just a minor offense."

"That's not what's bothering me," replied the driver. "What's really bothering me is what happened to my wife and my trailer?"

Life is full of troubles and adversity. You can be cruising along, and everything seems to be going great. Life is good. God is in heaven and all is right with the world. It's so good you've got it on cruise control. Then all of a sudden you find yourself in a sideways slide or a head-over-tail flip and you can't figure out how you got there.

At times, some folks seem to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Life just randomly reaches up and slaps them. There is no good or bad reason for it. It just happens. They find themselves suddenly out of a job, they are diagnosed with cancer, or there is the death of a loved one in their family. There is no forewarning and nothing to signal the onslaught of tragedy. It just happens.

But sometimes, probably most of the time, we bring that curve on ourselves. We live a lifestyle of overindulgence which contributes, if not causes, heart disease. We don't pay attention when we're driving, juggling our laptop and our cell phone and adjusting the radio all at the same time. Or we put our marriage and family on cruise control while we work like a dog at our job, trying to get that promotion. We neglect those who need us the most and whom we need the most. All of these things are tragedies just waiting to happen.

We do the same thing in our relationship with God. We don't take time for prayer or study. We skip worship one week to play golf with the guys or to go fishing or whatever. One week leads to another. We take God for granted. Then one day we look up. We find that we're so far away from God that we're not sure God will even recognize us when we do come back.

Or maybe we've never really had a relationship with God. We look at our lives and we realize we have anything but peace with God.

The Good News is that God does not forget us. God does not desert us. We may desert God, we may turn away, we may break covenant and think we are at odds with God. The Good News is we can have peace with God. That is God's desire for us. God, the creator and author of all that is, desires to have a personal relationship with us. God wants us to be part of the family. God wants us all to have equal access to the promises of the kingdom, through Christ Jesus.

There isn't some long drawn-out initiation process we are required to go through. There's no hazing. We can't be blackballed. There isn't a stack of forms and applications we have to weed our way through and answer correctly.

There is no twenty-question quiz. There is no thirty-page essay question we have to answer. We don't need to memorize the books of the Bible in proper order. We don't have to be able to spout off the names of the prophets and identify which are the minor and which are the major prophets.

It's not like a ride at an amusement park, we don't have to be a certain height to get on this ride of faith. We don't need a chaperone. We don't need a date. There is not an entrance fee. It's not like applying for a job; we don't need a resume.

Access To Grace

So, how do we get in? What's the secret word? What's the password? How do we have this personal relationship that can bring peace with God?

The answer is quite simple. We have obtained access to the grace of God through Jesus. The only letter of recommendation that we need is the one Christ Jesus gives for all. We don't need any other references but his. His signature, his Word, his nail-scarred hands are all we need. He is our letter of introduction, our entrance fee, our resume, and letter of recommendation. He is all we need. All we need to do is have faith in him. All we need to do is trust in the grace of God through Christ.

Have you ever tried something because of someone else's recommendation? Maybe it was a movie. You read a review or talked to some friends who had seen it before you. They liked it. They raved about it. You've known this couple for years and they have never lead you astray. Your movie tastes are very similar. So, in an act of trust, you go see that particular movie, trusting that you will like it at least as much as they did.

Or maybe it wasn't a movie. Maybe it was a restaurant. A certain friend recommended a new restaurant so you loaded up the family and went to try it.

It could be any number of things, a furniture store, a book, a Bible study, software, a recipe, gadgets, a babysitter, a car dealer, a new brand of soap, a magazine, or whatever. We all have tried something because of someone else's recommendation. Most of the time we weren't disappointed. Our friends and family were right.

We have been given access to the Grace of God in a similar way. We have been given access to the Grace of God through God's only Son, Jesus the Christ. In a sense, through Paul's letter and the Gospels, Christ is recommended to us. But at the same time, we who have drifted away from God, we who have turned and walked away, we who have sought our own selfish way in life need someone to stand up for us. We need someone to intervene. We need someone to write a letter of recommendation. We need Jesus. Jesus is our letter of recommendation. Scripture recommends him to us and he recommends us to God.

Years ago I read or heard about a pastor during the American Revolution who was a friend of George Washington. In this pastor's hometown there was a man who was one of those thorns in the flesh. This gentleman did just about everything he could think of to oppose and humiliate that pastor. One day the troublemaker was arrested for treason and sentenced to die.

You would think this pastor would have been relieved. But instead he traveled over seventy miles on foot to Philadelphia to plead with General Washington for the life of this traitor. After Washington heard his plea, he said, "No, I'm sorry. I cannot grant you the life of your friend."

"My friend!" exclaimed the old preacher. "He's the worst enemy I have."

Washington was astounded. "You've walked seventy miles to save the life of an enemy? That puts it all in a different light. I'll grant your pardon." And he did. That pastor walked home with the man who had deviled his life for so long. Only it was a journey of friends, not enemies.

We don't need any other recommendation but Christ's. His word and his nail-scarred hands are all we need. Through Christ we have access to the grace of forgiveness, the grace of new life, the grace of friendship and peace with God.

Hope Through The Spirit

Midnight the wonder dog is half Labrador retriever and half coonhound. She's called Midnight because she is black. She's called "the wonder dog" partly because of the tricks she can do and partly because sometimes her owners wonder why they have her. Midnight loves it when her owners rent movies from the local video store. You have never seen a dog wiggle and dance and get excited like Midnight does when her owners bring home a movie. When that movie finally gets popped into the VCR the excitement dies down and Midnight goes into wait mode. She sits through the whole movie, waiting and watching, not the movie but the plastic container the video tapes are transported in.

Midnight watches and listens with hope and expectation. When the movie is over and the tape is ejected, Midnight begins to get excited. She knows that sound. She knows what it means. You can see the anticipation in her eyes. Her ears go up in attentive mode. And when the tape is put in the re-winder, Midnight gets wound up. She knows what is coming soon, if not next. When the re-winder gets finished rewinding and the tape pops up, so does Midnight. Sometimes she even barks her approval and excitement.

And when her owners put the tape back in its plastic container, Midnight can no longer contain herself. She starts bouncing in excitement, bouncing in anticipation, waiting and hoping to hear the right words. Those words? "Come on, Midnight. Let's go for a ride. Let's take the movie back."

At the sound of those words, all of her hope, anticipation, and expectation come to fruition. She gets to go for a ride, one of her favorite things in all of the known dog world. She can hardly contain herself. If the keys don't come out immediately, she starts barking with impatience. She has waited long enough. It's doggie heaven when the garage door opens, the door of the vehicle is opened, and she enters and sits in her seat, ready to go for a ride. It doesn't make any difference to her that the video store is only a couple of blocks away. She is going for a ride. It doesn't make any difference to her that she won't be able to get out and run around. She is going for a ride. It doesn't make any difference to her that she has no idea what a movie really is. She is taking the movie back and she is going for a ride.

All of this excitement and anticipation, all of this hope is caused by a video tape and the plastic box it comes in. But more importantly it is caused by a hope that does not disappoint. Midnight knows from experience that if a movie comes into the house, then at some time, it has to go back and she will probably get to go for a ride and help take it back. Her hope is not disappointed.

We could say the same thing about the hope we receive from God through God's Holy Spirit.

Hope that comes through the Holy Spirit does not disappoint. It comes as a reminder that we are forgiven. The Spirit reminds us of the burden we once bore, the burden of our sins. And the Spirit reminds us how relieved we were when that burden was lifted.

The Spirit reminds us that we belong to God and nothing can separate us from God. And that fills us with hope, a hope that does not and will not disappoint.

And with that hope we can endure almost anything.

Having peace with God, access to God's grace and hope through the Holy Spirit, brings a sense of hope to our spirit that does not and will not disappoint us because it comes from God.

Two little boys were sitting at the lunch table at school. The first little boy looked in his lunch box and with a forlorn look on his face said, "My mom made me broccoli sandwiches for lunch today. Yesterday she made me liver sandwiches. The day before it was peanut butter and sardines. I think she's still getting even with me for that lamp I broke."

We can identify with that because, even though we know it's wrong, sometimes we try to get even. Sometimes we mistakenly think that's the way God acts, too. We want hope in our life. We want peace with God, but we're afraid God will just try to get even for all the stuff we've done that we know we shouldn't have done and for the things we have left undone that we know we should have done. But the Good News is that God is merciful and forgiving. All we need to do is repent and confess our sins. All we need to do is come to the one who can give us access to the grace of God, Jesus Christ, God's son. Through Christ's recommendation we discover we can have peace with God. And we discover God doesn't get even. God forgives. God seeks peace with us through Christ and the Holy Spirit.

Come to the Son. Pick up your recommendation. Experience firsthand, the hope that does not disappoint.