Sermons

St. John’s Parish, Clayton                            Pastor Jim Stickney
Sunday, April 27, 2008

Always be ready to make your defense when anyone
challenges you
to justify the hope that is in you. [I Peter 3: 15]

About a month ago I was on my way for an interim interview in
San Francisco. I parked my car on the street near a BART
station, when an old clunker car stopped. A woman got out and
began telling me a hard luck story, thinking I lived there. When
she asked for money for gas and food for her mother in San
Leandro, I decided to help her out a little, She promised she’d
come back to my home and repay me. So I told her that I was
not local, just taking BART for a job interview. Immediately she
told me I would get that job, in Jesus’ holy Name. Amen.

Well, that buoyed me up quite a bit before I entered the
interview room, and I thought that perhaps Divine Providence
had placed her there just to reassure me. At the same time I
thought that it was just coincidence, that she was just making
nice. A week later I got a call from the Senior Warden that they
chose someone else.

Here’s what I’m wrestling with today: how can we justify the
hope that is in us? Instead of walking to BART, what if I had
stopped and asked that woman, “You’ve just given me
reassurance, and I thank you. But how can you be so sure?
You spoke of God’s holy name. But God didn’t tell you I’d get
this job. Realistically, she would not be ready to make a
defense when challenged to justify the hope that was in her.
And realistically, I already knew that.