A Living Hope
Indianapolis First Friends Quaker Meeting
Bob Henry, Minister
December 13, 2020
Ephesians 1:18-19 (Common English Bible)
I pray that the eyes of your heart will have enough light to see what is the hope of God’s call, what is the richness of God’s glorious inheritance among believers, and what is the overwhelming greatness of God’s power that is working among us believers. This power is conferred by the energy of God’s powerful strength.
John 1:5 (The Message)
3-5 Everything was created through him;
nothing—not one thing!—
came into being without him.
What came into existence was Life,
and the Life was Light to live by.
The Life-Light blazed out of the darkness;
the darkness couldn’t put it out.
For quite some time now, I have to admit I have been wrestling with, what we typically call, hope. I don’t consider myself hopeless, but I do keep hearing myself and others say, “We need to have more hope during these difficult times.”
What do we actually mean when we say we need hope?
Many churches during the holiday season spend the four weeks leading up to Christmas talking about love, joy, peace, and yes, hope. Yet, it seems to me hope is the hardest to define or wrap our minds around.
In some ways it seems too easy to turn these four attributes over to Jesus and his miraculous birth and life, and never see the impact of hope in our present condition.
Just maybe, the hope we see in the Christmas story is the same hope we long for in our daily experience.
To explore this hope, I want to look at some of the queries I have been wrestling with lately…let’s begin with…
Why is hope so important?
Many today describe hope as wanting an outcome that makes one’s life better in some way.
It not only can help make a tough present situation more bearable but also can eventually improve one’s life – because envisioning a better future motivates one to take the steps to make it a reality.
Jesus’s birth was the beginning of a life that was to show us a better way to live. A way to transcend our current situations and envision a better future.
This means that the life and ministry of Jesus was fundamentally about HOPE – what often is described in scriptures as a “living hope” which is given by the Divine.
For example, 1 Peter 1:3 states, “[God] has given us new birth into a living hope through…Jesus Christ.”
This means, just as there is that of God in everyone, there is a living hope in each of us as well - you and I are considered a “living hope” right now!
Just think about it, we all hope for something. It’s an inherent part of being a human. Hope is what helps us define what we want for our futures. It is also part of the self-narrative about our lives we all have running within our being.
This is why our scriptures insist we “abide in faith, hope and love.”
Out of those three, faith, hope, and love, I believe hope is the hardest to define. So that leads me into my next query…
What Is Hope, Exactly?
I have found that the definition of hope can differ quite dramatically depending on the person or theologian doing the talking.
When people speak about hope in a spiritual context, they often mean believing good things will happen with faith in a higher power. Some would even direct these hopes outward in prayer or meditation.
Others might mean always looking on the bright side and seeing challenges as opportunities. I am sure you know people like this – they are always saying, “I’m just hoping for the best.”
If we turn to the definition experts at Merriam-Webster, they make “hope” almost more like a “wish” or as they say, “to cherish a desire with anticipation: to want something to happen or be true.”
Many believe their hopes are going to come true in Jiminy Cricket-fashion “When you wish upon a star…” And that I think is why we say, “may your hopes and dreams come true.” Even though it may seem a bit of a stretch at first, we must remember, even Pinocchio hoped to fully live.
Whatever the specifics, hope in general means a desire for things to change for the better, and to desire a better situation or outcome of life.
Also, I need to clarify something else I have learned in this study. Hope is not the same as optimism.
If one is considered an optimist (like my wife, who even won the optimist award in high school) they are naturally more hopeful than others.
Yet, on the other hand, some of the most pessimistic people we encounter can still be hopeful about something. Hope is often very specific and focused, usually on just one issue, though.
This is why as the embodiment of the Divine’s living hope, we each may find different ways to express our hopes for a better world.
I see it playing out in real-time, right here in our meeting. Some of us hope for a better world through the work and opportunities presented by Witness and Service, some through taking care of the building and grounds through being a Trustee, some in caring for others through Circle of Care, and some creating opportunities for hospitality and connecting through the Fellowship Committee and Connections, and we could go on and on…
We could easily say that at First Friends we embody the living hope in all that we do.
So that brings me to another of my queries…
Why is Hope So Vital?
Most people associate hope with a dire situation – it is evident in our current condition with the pandemic and political atmosphere in our country. Just listen carefully and you will hear the word, “hope,” being used more and more.
People hope to get out of difficult times like we are in currently. It is often in these moments, when people do find themselves hoping fervently! As the scriptures indicate:
Not only so, but we glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, HOPE. (Romans 5:3-4)
But…it is not just in the dreadful situations people turn to hope.
What I am learning, and have been made keenly aware of, is that hope can actually provide the key to making everyday life better.
The American Psychology Association reported that children who grew up in poverty but had success later in life all had one thing in common – hope.
Dr. Valerie Maholmes, who worked on the research, said hope involves “planning and motivation and determination” to get what one hopes for.
And this is the piece we often miss…hoping in God to make a difference in our lives is not magic. Christmas for Christians should not be about a baby who came to help us escape this world, but rather about a living hope that showed us how to live a better life in this world right now.
God wants us to be co-workers, co-creators, co-hope-bearers to our world. And God wants us to utilize our gifts, our stories, our entire lives to bring hope into our world.
For Jesus, having hope links one’s past and present to the future – and that is the same for us.
This is why Jesus said, “Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.” (John 14:12)
You and I have a vision for what we hope will happen each and every day. Whether it comes to fruition or not, just envisioning and sharing it can begin to make the world a better place.
I believe hope is contagious. Just think about it, you and I are drawn to people who present and convey hope. It is people of hope who motivate us to take the steps needed to make the world a better place.
This all means, having hope is essential to the very act of being human – and that means it is also directly connected to the Divine – since there is that of God in each of us.
As Dr. Judith Rich writes,
“Hope is a match in a dark tunnel, a moment of light, just enough to reveal the path ahead and ultimately the way out.”
Or as it says in 2 Corinthians 4:6 (NRSV),
6 For it is God who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
Christ was the light coming into the darkness of our world bringing hope on that first Christmas, and you and I are the Light being sent into the world today in all of its darkness, pain, and suffering.
We must embody the living hope and continue the legacy that Christ lived on this planet. May we be the match in the dark tunnel of life -- a moment of light that reveals the next steps or path to freedom and peace – this is the call of Christmas to our hurting world.
Go and be a living hope in the way of Christ this Christmas!
This morning, I have prepared some queries for us to ponder as we enter waiting worship.
1. Currently, who is helping me see hope in the world?
2. Do I consider myself a co-worker, co-creator, co-hope-bearer with Christ?
3. How am I being called to be a living hope and continue the legacy of Christ, this Christmas?