Hope: the Oxygen of a Meaningful Life.
Isaiah 64: 1-9; Mark 13: 24 – 27
Is gravity pu?
Today marks the end of the first week in Advent. Advent marks the coming of Christ Jesus to earth to live amongst us and reveal more clearly the nature and intention of God. Advent also reminds us that we live in expectation of Christ’s return and the fulfilment of God’s Kingdom. These subjects contain the themes of expectation and hope. Emil Brunner wrote:
‘What oxygen is to the lungs, such is hope for the meaning of life.’
From times of old, people longed for, hoped for, and expected God to right the wrongs and bring peace. That longing, hope and expectation is as real and relevant today as it was yesterday. We still have our troubles, our suffering and political turmoil. Injustices, abuse and exploitation remain. We face our personal struggles and suffering. What sustains us is our hope. Our hope will be grounded in people, systems and of course God. Without hope our energy is sapped and motivation drained. We enter despair. Without hope there is only death of the spirit and life. It is hope they keeps us alive and keeps us expecting and working towards a better world.
Oscar Hammerstein’s (II) said:
‘I know the world is filled with troubles and many injustices. But reality is as beautiful as it is ugly. I think it is just as important to sing about beautiful mornings, as it is to talk about slums. I just couldn’t write anything without hope in it.’
Our Scripture readings speak of the hope that preceded the coming of Christ Jesus. The prophet Isaiah lived through the times when Israel had returned from Exile, but the hopes of re-building the Temple and re-establishing the nation were not completed. There was a sense of despair. Where is God? That is the question that lies behind our Isaiah reading. What kept their spirits alive is the memory of the great deeds of God. So the prophet asks the peoples’ question; ‘Why don’t you do it again?’ The prophet’s answer is revealing and insightful: no one has ever seen or heard of a God like you, who does such deeds for those who put their hope in him. You welcome those who find joy in doing what is right, those who remember how you want them to live. [Is 64:4ff] What the prophet rightly observes is that God will act in conjunction with our faith and obedience. God welcomes those who find joy in doing what is right. God will not answer our needs without our cooperation for that merely turns God into a false insurance against trouble – usually the trouble we have caused. God gives us freedom and dignity by working with us rather than working for us. This is the spiritual lesson we must learn: God calls us into a partnership. God will bring about redemption and renewal, healing and restoration in our lives in conjunction with our faith. I’m reminded of those five young maidens who ran out of oil for their lamps and found themselves shut out of the wedding feast. They had failed to do their bit. They were the type of person who expects God to do things for them when they’re in trouble, rather that working with God through the trouble.
Our suffering can lead us to the question: ‘Where is God?’ That cry is often being uttered. Elie Wiesel writes about the absence of God in her book, Night. Wiesel describes the agony of the experience of God’s absence. A child hangs from the gallows set up by the SS. Someone is heard to ask, ‘Where is God?’ ‘Where is He?’ The child struggles between life and death for more than half an hour, and the same person asks again, ‘Where is God now?’ Wiesel writes: And I heard a voice within me answer him: ‘Where is He? Here He is … He is hanging here on this gallows. [Wiesel pp.61-62]
The true prophet does not offer slick answers. The true prophet lets the contradictions of life exist. The true prophet challenges facile explanations of faith and invites us to trust and cooperate with God.
The second lesson is that hope and faith help us see God breaking into our lives in new ways that astound us. How excited those first disciples of Jesus must have been when they witnessed miracles and saw the crowds grow large? How dumfounded must those first disciples been when they witnessed the cruel death of their Lord at the hands of the authorities in collusion with Rome? How bemused they must have been when they witnessed the Resurrection? How amazed those first disciples must have been to witness the church emerge around the Roman Empire? How incredible it would have been when later generations heard of the Emperor’s acknowledgement of Christ Jesus as Lord and in time the rise to power of the Church? But living through any one of these times in history required faith and hope followed by obedience to Christ Jesus.
Here is a picture of a changed life set free.
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 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.
It tells us a story. The archeologist sees this cross and knows that Christians lived in this home. They were poor and possibly isolated from the pagan community. So the cross is of some general interest as it is part of the first archaeological evidence of Christianity in Rome. The Christian sees this cross and begins to understand a great deal about this room and its occupants. There was hope in this tiny room; hope in the midst of what must have been a very meagre existence. 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.
When we stop to see what is happening around us and in the world at large we too want to ask the question; ‘What is God doing?’ How can we respond today to the helplessness we feel? We live in a world which is bedevilled by turmoil and tension brought about largely by our wilfulness and self-interest. Millions starve while others trash their excess food! Millions remain homeless incarcerated in refugee camps. Our politicians are caught in a quagmire of self-interest. We who have so much but only share the excess crumbs from our table. We protect our indulgent way of life at the expense of others’ dignity. Our hope rests in our ability. It is strange that with all our resources and wealth we experience high suicide rates, suffer with obesity and diabetes, family violence continues and drug addiction expands. When hope slips through our fingers like sand then we turn in the circles of despair.
The other night I went to relax and re-play a Songs of Praise recording on Negro Spirituals. The music was beautiful: the words were inspiring. Negro Spirituals developed amongst the black slaves in the Americas. If any people had reason for despair and give up hope they did. They were helpless and you could readily excuse them for giving up. They had been literally and figuratively stripped of everything. They were brutalised with no means to free themselves. Yet they heard the Christian story, entirely foreign to their cultures out of which they were plucked. They believed in God the Father, Christ Jesus and the Holy Spirit. Their songs became a protest that transcended their pitiful state. Their songs lifted their spirits and gave them dignity. They knew that money couldn’t buy God’s love so they too had access to God’s love. They survived the brutality of their condition and faith in Jesus provided the hope to eternal life with God. They would also get a ticket on the heavenly train. Hope was the oxygen of their dreadful earthly lives.
Faith in God feeds our hope and our hope transports us above our condition that undermines our spiritual health. Faith and hope are the antidote to the despairing situations we find ourselves in. I want to suggest that our communal worship, our thankfulness to God for every small blessing, and our obedience in walking with Christ Jesus leads us forward.
Gilbert M Beenken said; ‘Other people see only a hopeless end, but the Christian rejoices in an endless hope.’
*******
Peter C Whitaker, Leighmoor UC: 03/12/2017
pcwhitaker@icloud.com
/ www.leighmoorunitingchurch.org.au
