Abounding in Hope — A Benediction for the Discipline of Community
Romans 15:1–13
Romans 15 opens with a challenge: “We who are strong ought to put up with the failings of the weak, and not to please ourselves.”
The Apostle Paul is writing to a diverse and often tense community in Rome — Jews and Gentiles with different histories, instincts, and assumptions about what faithfulness looks like. Their struggles are not theoretical; they are embodied, emotional, deeply human. And yet Paul’s vision is stunning: a community in which people willingly restrain their own self-interest for the sake of someone else’s flourishing.
Modern life has transformed nearly everything about our rhythms — transportation, technology, abundance, schedules, and the illusion of independence. But it has not changed human nature. We still default to the self. Our instinct is often toward convenience, preference, and control. Community costs something. Unity requires discipline. Serving others before serving ourselves remains — in any century — an act of spiritual resistance.
Paul frames this discipline not as drudgery but as generativity — an act that multiplies life beyond its initial cost. When we care for others truly and willingly, something far deeper than “niceness” occurs: community is formed. Hope is sparked. Faith becomes mutual rather than private. We step into the life of Christ Himself, who “did not please himself” (v. 3). And we discover that love is not depletion — it is participation in the very overflow of God.
So when Paul concludes with this benediction, it is the power source for everything he has just asked of us: “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.” — Romans 15:13
We conclude our stewardship series, Anchored in Faith, this week with a call to turn our resources — all of them: our prayers, presence, gifts, service, and witness — into tangible hope. Whether this takes shape on a Super Serve Saturday across the city, at a Community Breakfast in OTR, in a book study, on a mission trip, or in a simple conversation over coffee on Sunday morning, Hyde Park Community United Methodist Church is a living embodiment of the hope Paul describes. Hope lives here!!
Pastor Todd