Hope is a Candle in the Wind.
Isaiah 2: 1 – 5: Matthew 24: 36 – 44
Isaiah 2: 1 – 5: Matthew 24: 36 – 44
“Hope is one of the principal springs that keeps humankind in motion”, wrote Andrew Fuller.
Today we lit the Hope Candle in the Christmas wreath. Hope is the theme of the first Sunday in Advent. Advent is the season when we remember how God had long prepared people to receive a very special revelation of God’s love. The word, ‘advent’, means the arrival of a notable person or event. An example is the advent of television in Australia. Bruce Gyngel introduced television to Australia in 1956 (Nov 5) with the words “Good evening, and welcome to television”. So, welcome to Advent 2016 and let us prepare ourselves for Christmas. We will spend this Advent season following the themes of Hope, Peace, Joy and Love. Each Sunday’s Lectionary readings will be read, but the sermons will focus on these four themes.
Today, Advent 1 celebrates hope. This powerful life shaping emotion kept the faith of God’s people alive. They lived in the hope that God would forgive and restore them. When we read the background story to Jesus we are reading the story of a chosen people’s faith in God. That’s why Jesus began his ministry with a call to repentance and the offer of forgiveness [Mk 1: 15]. Jesus began his ministry with people whose hearts and minds had been filled with the great promises of God, the love of God and God’s faithfulness. They knew God would come again to rescue them. They longed and hoped for God’s messiah to come and save them. Their love and faith were fuelled by this hope.
Let’s remind ourselves what hope means. So often we use words assuming that we all understand what is meant. Clarifying our understanding sharpens our insight.
The Dictionary defines hope as a feeling of expectation and desire for a particular thing to happen. So we use the word hope in different ways. The detective searched through his belongings hoping to find some evidence. She has high hopes of making the Olympic team. They hope that the surgery will make all the difference. He is hoping he will be successful with this application. We use ‘hope’ in a number of phrases: ‘hope for the best; hope against hope; hope springs eternal in the human breast; not a hope in hell; in the hope of’ and so forth. Some synonyms for ‘hope’ are aspiration, dream, desire, yearning and longing.
The Dictionary defines hope as a feeling of expectation and desire for a particular thing to happen. So we use the word hope in different ways. The detective searched through his belongings hoping to find some evidence. She has high hopes of making the Olympic team. They hope that the surgery will make all the difference. He is hoping he will be successful with this application. We use ‘hope’ in a number of phrases: ‘hope for the best; hope against hope; hope springs eternal in the human breast; not a hope in hell; in the hope of’ and so forth. Some synonyms for ‘hope’ are aspiration, dream, desire, yearning and longing.
What is important is the basis of our hope. Sometimes we hope things will change when all the evidence suggests the opposite and there is no ground for that hope. It is one thing to hope that the venture will prosper when you have put in the hard work. It is another thing to hope that a venture will prosper when you are relying more on good luck. Hope based on daydreams is nothing more than wishful thinking. Hoping for success when one has not done the preparation is fruitless. While reflecting on hope I came across this story of two senior men, Bill and Pete. Bill said to Pete one day; “Have you ever realized any of your childhood hopes?” Peter replied, touching his bald head; “ Yes, when my mother used to brush my hair I often wished I didn’t have any.”
In past times hope was used as an expression of trust. So to hope was to trust. John Calvin, the great Reformer, captured this thinking when he said; “The word hope I take for faith, and indeed hope is nothing else but the constancy of faith.” So when we speak of Christian hope – that is, hope in God – then hope is truly a first cousin to faith. I understand that Calvin has put his finger on the very nature of hope. I see, like other saints of the Church, that hope is an essential part of Christian belief. Indeed, did not Paul say when speaking of the gifts of God that faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love. [1 Cor 13: 13] Hope stands alongside faith and love. Hope is part of that sacred triad – faith, hope and love. The Bible is full of stories of God’s promises that gave people the motivation to follow God. Their faith in God’s promises gave them hope for a better future – a God given future.
When Sir Walter Scott was a boy, he was considered to be a dull lad. His accustomed place in the schoolroom was the ignominious dunce corner, with the high-pointed paper cap of shame on his head. When about twelve years old, he happened to be in a house where some famous literary guests were being entertained. Robert Burns, the great Scottish poet, was standing admiring a picture under which was written the couplet of a stanza. He inquired who the author was. No one seemed to know. Timidly a boy crept up alongside Burns and gave the name and quoted the rest of the stanza. Burns was surprised and delighted. Laying his hand on the boy’s head, he exclaimed, ‘Ah, bairnie, ye will be a great man in Scotland some day’. From that day Walter Scott was a changed lad. One word of encouragement set him on the road to greatness. Walter Scott became a great historical novelist with such books as Ivanhoe and Rob Roy.
When Sir Walter Scott was a boy, he was considered to be a dull lad. His accustomed place in the schoolroom was the ignominious dunce corner, with the high-pointed paper cap of shame on his head. When about twelve years old, he happened to be in a house where some famous literary guests were being entertained. Robert Burns, the great Scottish poet, was standing admiring a picture under which was written the couplet of a stanza. He inquired who the author was. No one seemed to know. Timidly a boy crept up alongside Burns and gave the name and quoted the rest of the stanza. Burns was surprised and delighted. Laying his hand on the boy’s head, he exclaimed, ‘Ah, bairnie, ye will be a great man in Scotland some day’. From that day Walter Scott was a changed lad. One word of encouragement set him on the road to greatness. Walter Scott became a great historical novelist with such books as Ivanhoe and Rob Roy.
Abraham and Sarah trusted God. They left their home and became nomads living in the hope that they would establish a great family. How long did they hope for a son? And how long did they live by faith and in hope? Many years! Joseph sold into slavery by his brothers and later imprisoned never stopped hoping and believing in God’s future. The Hebrew slaves in Egypt hoped and believed in their liberation and finally God sent Moses, Miriam and Aaron. The faithful kings and prophets lived with hope and in faith. The Hebrews in Babylon hoped for a return to Jerusalem and the restoration of their city. 70 years later their trust and hope in God was fulfilled. The Hebrew people under the Greeks and then the Romans trusted and hoped for a freedom from the foreign yoke. They longed for a messiah. They dreamed of a messiah. They expected a messiah. All the prophets, in one way or another, spoke of God sending a messiah who would rescue them. We believe God answered their hopefulness by sending Jesus. The only problem is that many were so locked in a one-way-street of thinking that they missed the messiah when he came.
There lies a truth. Our hopes are often fulfilled but not in the exact way as expected, or as we would want. Nevertheless they are met and sometimes in a much richer way. When the Hebrews of Jesus’ day saw Jesus, even those who followed him, could not have imagined the success and universal effect of His life, death and resurrection upon the earth. They could not have imagined the enduring quality of Jesus’ teachings and the transforming depth of his sacrificial-love.
Matthew Henry, a very significant Bible scholar of the late 17th Century, wrote; “The ground of our hope is Christ in the world, but the evidence of our hope is Christ in our heart.” Hope changes the way we think and see things. Our hope based on God’s promises will shape the way we see this world. That hope lived out in our trusting hearts, will shape the world. That is exactly what has happened. Those first Christians, building on the faithfulness of faithful Jews, hoped against the odds and they shaped a different world with the power of God’s Holy Spirit.
In 79 AD, the city of Pompeii in southern Italy was destroyed by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius. Less well known is another town, Herculaneum, which was also destroyed. This town was a popular first century resort until that day Mount Vesuvius exploded and buried it under sixty-five feet of solidified mud and lava.
Excavations of Herculaneum have revealed a wealthy town and like all towns had smaller houses and blocks of tenement houses for the workers. In one of the smaller houses in a back room was found a cross that appears to have been hidden. There are three nail prints that suggest the cross was covered. We also know that there were persecutions in Italy. It is probable that the people of this home held a house church here in this ordinary house.
What does it tells us? The archeologist sees this cross and knows that a Christian lived there. Mostly likely more than one Christian. These Christians lived in a pagan world and from time to time were threatened. So this cross is of some interest. The believer sees this cross and begins to understand a great deal about this room and its occupants. There was hope in this tiny room. There was hope that raised the hope of the few who lived or gathered there. There was freedom from the gods that filled the lives of so many people with superstition and fear. The cross symbolised the knowledge that one is loved. These were people who believed that the ultimate meaning of the universe is life-nourishing love. They believed they were not alone. They believed that there was a future with God. They lived in hope that gave them an inner strength to rise above the superstition, fear and drudgery of the common life.
I offer you this final story from the Bible Society’s news magazine, ‘The Sower’. [Summer 2016-17]
“Pray for us,” pleads George, head of the Bible Society in Aleppo, Syria. As the ongoing war continues to escalate, he says: “There’s nothing we can do, nowhere we can go. It is God who decides. Every day we get to live is a gift from God. Therefore people continue to live as normally as possible.”
In what many might see as a disastrous situation George and his fellow Christians live with hope. Hope in God liberates them from fear and directs their daily lives.
“Pray for us,” pleads George, head of the Bible Society in Aleppo, Syria. As the ongoing war continues to escalate, he says: “There’s nothing we can do, nowhere we can go. It is God who decides. Every day we get to live is a gift from God. Therefore people continue to live as normally as possible.”
In what many might see as a disastrous situation George and his fellow Christians live with hope. Hope in God liberates them from fear and directs their daily lives.
My Christian friends, do an audit on your trust and hope and let the Holy Spirit renew your hope in God’s truth.
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Peter C Whitaker, Leighmoor UC: 17/11/2016
pgwhitaker@tpg.com.au
/ www.leighmoorunitingchurch.org.au
pgwhitaker@tpg.com.au
/ www.leighmoorunitingchurch.org.au
