Signs of Hope
By George “Chip” Hammond
(For video. Please Click on image above.)
It’s Friday, but Sunday’s a’comin’
I first heard these words represented as the repeated refrain of a sermon preached in a black Baptist church in the Mississippi delta. The reference was to Good Friday and Easter Sunday, but the situation it addressed was some pressing crisis of the time.
It’s Friday, but Sunday’s a’comin’
“Good Friday” is what we traditionally call it, but for those who were present at the events the day marks, it was anything but good. The Teacher that had become beloved to them, the one who taught them about the love of God, the one they had come to whole-heartedly believe was the Messiah, had been condemned before a Roman tribunal and sentenced to death by crucifixion. It was Friday.
Jesus had told them that the Son of Man must go to Jerusalem and be betrayed into the hands of sinners, and crucified. He also told them that he must be raised up on the third day – on Sunday. For Jesus, his death and resurrection went together. Of course, there can be no resurrection without death, but for Jesus there could be no death without resurrection. This did not relieve the horror he felt. His death would not merely be the wretched painful death of crucifixion, but separation from the life and smiling Face of God – in a word, it would quite literally be hell. But Jesus had predicted not only his death, but the resurrection that would surely follow.
It’s Friday, but Sunday’s a’comin’
We are now in the midst of a crisis that for moderns “was not supposed to happen.” We’ve been humbled into the realization that we don’t control the world. All our plans have been put on hold. “Now listen, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.’ Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, ‘If it is the Lord's will, we will live and do this or that’” (James 4:13-15).
With the extreme measures taken we can hope for a national death toll from the virus of “only” 100,000 to 200,000 people, a vast reduction in the estimated 2.2 million had we carried on “business as usual.” The realization is beginning to dawn on people and is provoking terror: “I could die from this.” Certainly, we will all at least know someone who dies from this (as I write this, an old high school friend is on a ventilator fighting for his life). It’s Friday. It’s probably the darkest Friday any of us have ever personally seen when the scale of the mortality and morbidity is considered.
. . . but Sunday’s a’comin’
Easter is a week off. And Easter is a day of hope. For the resurrection of Jesus brings hope that we can have life eternal. Not merely “existence” eternal – LIFE eternal. As the Christmas hymn writer said alluding to the prophet Malachi, “Ris’n with healing in his wings!”
But not all our neighbors know this. They are in despair. They need hope. And we have hope to give. So I want to ask you to join me in a Signs of Hope campaign.
Here’s how it works:
You and your children make up signs of encouragement on poster board or cardboard with messages of encouragement. You don’t need to try to tell them the whole gospel on a sign. If we can encourage them with a few words of hope to get them through this time, I’m sure God will give us ample opportunities to do that in person.
The signs might quote Scripture passages such as, “God is our refuge and our strength, a very present help in trouble” (Psalm 46:1), “God is love” (1 John 4:8), “Be gracious to me God. Whenever I am afraid I will trust in you” (Psalm 56:3). Or they may simply express encouragement: “God will bring us through this,” “We are praying for you,” or “God’s love is greater than the virus.” Virtually anything that would remind our neighbors that we have a loving God who cares, that we care, and that we are thinking of them and praying for them.
By Friday afternoon, April 3 there will be a pile of signposts on the back concrete pad by the fellowship hall. Bring your sign(s), a hammer and a staple gun with LONG staples (or the wind will rip it off), and put the signs in the ground between the Church sign and the access road (you could use one or two posts as you may need). Then take a picture and email it to us.
Each Wednesday the signs will be examined for damage (especially if it’s rained) and those that are damaged will be taken down, so keep making signs. There’s no limit to the number of signs your family can make. In fact, how encouraging would it be if the whole front lot were to be littered with Signs of Hope!
Good Friday will be here in little more than a week, and after that Easter Sunday!
We are living in a dark time right now. But it will not last forever. “Weeping lasts for a night, but joy comes in the morning” (Psalm 30:5).
Let’s remind those who are feeling hopeless.
It’s Friday, but Sunday’s a’comin’
