Of Hopes and Advents
During advent the church lights four candles. One each for hope, peace, joy, and love. Advent and hope are Siamese twins. First thing to be said:
What we hope for shapes what we live for.
Case in point. Abraham’s and Sarah’s hopes were ignited when God promised them a son. They waited for decades. God delivered on his promise.
Israel spent four hundred years in Egypt. They waited in hope, in the tension between brick making and deliverance. God rescued them through Moses. Their hope paid big dividends.
Twelve leaders spied the promised land. Israel’s hope for a permanent residence. Fear overcame ten of them, “There are giants in the land”. Joshua’s and Caleb’s hope trumped their fears.
Fast forward a millennium or so. Mary sang a song of praise to express her expectation after Gabriel ignited her hopes (Luke 1:45-56). This time the advent was “God in flesh appearing”.
What’s true of our ancestors is true of us today.
But I’m sobered. That’s word I’d pick to describe us today. Sobered by the vicious division among fellow Americans. Our zeal for progress subdued by the lack of love. Sobered by racial tensions we imagined time had erased. Sobered by a bug we can’t see killing millions and paralyzing by fear.
What to do?
Restore our hopes, O Lord!
First, hope is not optimism. Not at all. Being optimistic that circumstances might change while we wait. OK! But what happens when present events don’t change? Optimism is dashed. Why? Optimism relies on circumstances. Hope relies on the character of the object of our hope! God
Hope lives on God.
Second, hope is more robust than optimism. Christian hope comes alive in the tension we feel between what is and what isn’t yet. “Yet” is important here. Yet doesn’t work for optimism. But in hope yet leaves space for God. His character and reputation are on the line. God’s past behavior is the best predictor of his future performance. He came through for all who hoped in his deliverance. He will for us
The Christian hope is not about circumstances, it’s about the faithfulness of God.
In the advent of Christ, “the hopes and fears of all the years” meet. Because of his death and resurrection because of the Holy Spirit’s work, and the promise of his next advent our hope is buoyed up.
Because the resurrection infuses hope in us, we continue to live in the tension between waiting and resolution, “Maranatha [Come], Lord Jesus.” May hope shape our lives, one and all.
“Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you believe in him, so that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit” (Romans 15:13).