Light of Hope

 

A precursor to 

As we wrap up 2021, I find myself being drawn back to more of a manuscript preaching mode. This means, we are coming back to the blog setting where my time began here in the Thornville church. Now that Thornville and Hopewell are together again in this two point, connectional, sharing ministry (sharing me as their pastor) we find ourselves in a place where both churches will begin to get the same message on Sunday morning. Up until now, I have felt the need to speak to Hopewell on a different plane of thought. I have been with Thornville for 10 years. Hopewell was not in the same place as Thornville, in their relationship with me or as a church. Now, as we get ready to round the corner into 2022, I feel we are ready to take that step. Both churches will get the same message on Sunday. 

What we are going to journey into is an explanation of what our United Methodist beliefs are and why we believe them the way we do. This structure of messages going forward can truly begin right here in the season of Advent as we cover these four topics the next four Sundays. Hope. Peace. Joy. Love. These are words and ideals we truly believe in as United Methodists. But, why? What is it about these four words that we hold so dear? 

Well, lets get started with the first word on this first Sunday of Advent. 

Hope. What is so important about it? What does it mean to have hope? What is it you are hoping for?

As I have done in previous years, lets delve into the dictionary as a place to begin thinking about what the word means. 

There are six entries at Merriam-Webster which includes some biographical and geographical names. I'm sure you've met a girl named Hope or been through a small town somewhere in the Mid-West or deep South that was called Hope. But, what is it to "cherish a desire with anticipation"? Have you ever wanted something happen or to be true? Little ones are hoping that the gifts they are wanting will show up under the tree in just a few weeks. People are hoping some political candidate will rise up and change the country in the way they want. Many of us have heard the famous line from the movie The Shawshank Redemption. Andy Dufresne (played by Tim Robbins) says to his prisoner friend Red (played by Morgan Freeman) "Remember Red, hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies." Hope is something that we hang on to because we have this unspoken confidence inside that the thing we hoping for will happen. It will come to pass. For the Israelite, though, there is a matter of words that come to fulfillment. The matter had been spoken about for some time. Through the annals of prophecy words like what we hear from Isaiah chapter 9 come to fruition. 

 

 

 

Imagine being in a place where you are at the mercy of those who lord themselves over you. The one thing you would hope for is to be free. You would hope that someone would come and break that reign you find yourself in. This is the plight of the Israelite. Roman rule commands the life of the people of Israel. Rome has control of much of the Middle East during this time frame. Their technology and influence can be felt and seen in the language and architecture surrounding the Israeli people. The freedom the people felt at one time before the punishment in Babylon and at the hands of the Assyrians is long gone. When the Greek world began to press in after their return from Babylon, the persistence is made permanent as the Hellenistic influence changes to the Roman background we read about in our New Testament Gospel setting. As they rebuild their walls around Jerusalem, all they want is to be free again. But, never again will they live as they once did during the magnificent reigns of David and Solomon. They will live heavily taxed and burdened with the cares of Rome pressing into their daily lives. Hope is what they feel as those who trust the scriptures hearing words about One who will come and make things right. 

If the people of Israel are hoping for someone who will come and save them, what does it look like in our world to hope? What are you hoping for? Is what you are hoping for realistic? The last line of the definition speaks about "hoping against hope". It's the most unrealistic of hopes because if a person doesn't have any basis for expecting fulfillment then how can they hope for a thing? Yet many a person in our world hope in just such a way. We want things we cannot have. We hope that things will end up the way we want them yet all the while having no grounds for those assumptions to ever find fruition. Scriptural hope finds its basis and grounding in the promises of the Lord. When our God says "I will never leave you nor forsake you." we know that our hope that God will be there beside of us whatever we face or go through will find its way to fulfillment. Many a person who sits in pews, like these you find yourself in this morning, believes that God exists. However, the need to surrender to the Lord, to allow Him rule over the heart, is missing and when the hard times come, we are void of hope. We find despair and misery because we are trusting in ourselves. We want to handle the problem to achieve the outcome we desire instead of trusting God to handle the chaos of our lives. Trust is an essential piece of Hope. It seems strange that part of the definition we read labels the trust part of Hope as "archaic". It's thought of as "old fashioned". Trust is in short supply where people cannot hope. And, people don't truly know what hope is without God in the picture of their lives. 

The conversation between Agent Coulson and Steve Rogers in the first Avengers movie from 2012 is must see. It truly lays the ground work for much of what we will see ahead as the Marvel Cinematic Universe unfolds. Riding in a quinjet, talking about everything that is happening since Captain America woke up from 70 years in an icy sleep in the North Atlantic, it is here that Agent Coulson declares some prophetic truth. Agent Coulson took some liberties with updating Captain America's uniform to which Steve Rogers exclaims, "The stars and stripes... aren't they a little... old fashioned." Agent Coulson is always optimistic. "With everything that's happening, the things that are about to come to light, people might just need a little old fashioned."

So, I will leave you with a thought. What is it yoy are hoping for? Does it have a good foundation to stand on or is it on shifting sand that won't hold up under the pressure of life? When the storms come and the rain falls, will your hope be fulfilled? Or will it leave you empty? 

Jesus is coming again. That's a hope we can truly believe in. And a hope that we can trust.