green hope

Earlier this year I asked a couple of people to read a passage from Romans 15 as part of the service one Sunday morning. It is beautifully powerful in the NIV, every verse packed full. But in this case, the Message paraphrase caught at my heart – the images sprang off the page, bright before me, calling me to serve, love, give – building in enthusiasm until you can almost hear Paul jump up out of his chair, shouting with happiness:

Oh! May the God of green hope fill you up with joy, fill you up with peace, so that your believing lives, filled with the life-giving energy of the Holy Spirit, will brim over with hope!

I love that phrase – the God of green hope. It comes back to me. It’s a description I get.

In the midst of that week, I got into a discussion with a friend who is – ummm – terrifically more theological than I am. He is passionate about understanding Scripture; applying his entire self to the task. He’s one of my favorite people, and we end up in the same places in our faith – but he gets there mostly through his thinking.

Me, not so much. In fact, one of the things I love about him is his ability to put into words the things I know to be true but have no way to say.

However, on that particular week, he was taking me a bit to task about that paraphrase that I was loving.  I remember him saying, only partly in jest – “I mean, look at this.  The God of green hope? What does that even mean?”

It was one of those place that I found myself without adequate words.

Today, I thought – this.  This is a little bit of what it means…

And if you’d like to read for yourself, here’s the whole passage…

1-2 Those of us who are strong and able in the faith need to step in and lend a hand to those who falter, and not just do what is most convenient for us. Strength is for service, not status. Each one of us needs to look after the good of the people around us, asking ourselves, “How can I help?”

3-6 That’s exactly what Jesus did. He didn’t make it easy for himself by avoiding people’s troubles, but waded right in and helped out. “I took on the troubles of the troubled,” is the way Scripture puts it. Even if it was written in Scripture long ago, you can be sure it’s written for us. God wants the combination of his steady, constant calling and warm, personal counsel in Scripture to come to characterize us, keeping us alert for whatever he will do next. May our dependably steady and warmly personal God develop maturity in you so that you get along with each other as well as Jesus gets along with us all. Then we’ll be a choir—not our voices only, but our very lives singing in harmony in a stunning anthem to the God and Father of our Master Jesus!

7-13 So reach out and welcome one another to God’s glory. Jesus did it; now you do it! Jesus, staying true to God’s purposes, reached out in a special way to the Jewish insiders so that the old ancestral promises would come true for them. As a result, the non-Jewish outsiders have been able to experience mercy and to show appreciation to God. Just think of all the Scriptures that will come true in what we do! For instance:

Then I’ll join outsiders in a hymn-sing;
I’ll sing to your name!
And this one:
Outsiders and insiders, rejoice together!
And again:
People of all nations, celebrate God!
All colors and races, give hearty praise!
And Isaiah’s word:
There’s the root of our ancestor Jesse,
breaking through the earth and growing tree tall,
Tall enough for everyone everywhere to see and take hope!

Oh! May the God of green hope fill you up with joy, fill you up with peace, so that your believing lives, filled with the life-giving energy of the Holy Spirit, will brim over with hope!