Waiting for Redemption

REFLECTION QUOTES

“Forgiveness liberates the soul, it removes fear. That’s why it’s such a powerful weapon.”

~Nelson Mandela (1918-2013), President of South Africa and Nobel laureate

“Remember, Red, hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies.”

~Andy Dufresne in The Shawshank Redemption

“Those who work well in the depths will more easily understand the heights, for indeed in their true nature they are one in the same.”

~George MacDonald (1824-1905), The Princess and Curdie

“Hoping is not dreaming. It is not spinning an illusion or fantasy to protect us from our boredom or pain. It means a confident, alert expectation that God will do what he said he will do. It is imagination put in the harness of faith. It is a willingness to let God do it his way and in his time.”

~ Eugene Peterson (1932- present), A Long Obedience in the Same Direction

“Many people suffer because of the false supposition…that there should be not fear or loneliness, no confusion or doubt. But these sufferings can only be dealt with creatively when they are understood as wounds integral to our human condition.”

~Henri Nouwen (1932-1996), The Wounded Healer

“The world is indeed full of peril, and in it there are many dark places; but still there is much that is fair, and though in all lands love is now mingled with grief, it grows perhaps the greater.”

~ J.R.R. Tolkien (1892-1973), The Fellowship of the Ring

“I don’t want to achieve immortality through my work. I want to achieve it through not dying.”

~ Woody Allen, contemporary actor and filmmaker

SERMON PASSAGE

Psalm 130 (NIV)
1 Out of the depths I cry to you, Lord;
2 Lord, hear my voice.
Let your ears be attentive
to my cry for mercy.

3 If you, Lord, kept a record of sins,
Lord, who could stand?
4 But with you there is forgiveness,
so that we can, with reverence, serve you.

5 I wait for the Lord, my whole being waits,
and in his word I put my hope.
6 I wait for the Lord
more than watchmen wait for the morning,
more than watchmen wait for the morning.

7 Israel, put your hope in the Lord,
for with the Lord is unfailing love
and with him is full redemption.
8 He himself will redeem Israel
from all their sins.