On November 21, 1943, Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote a letter to his fiancee, Maria von Wedemeyer, while he was imprisoned by Hitler during World War II. In the letter, he talked about a spiritual lesson he was learning from his life as a prisoner. He wrote: “A prison cell, in which one waits, hopes, does various unessential things, and is completely dependent on the fact that the door of freedom has to be opened from the outside is not a bad picture of Advent.”
The theme of hope is a welcome one when we are faced with some of the things that life can throw at us. When we are filled with fear, we need the hope of God’s presence, power and promises. When we are faced with pain or illness, we need the hope that God is aware of what is going on in our lives. When a bad and difficult situation goes on for a long time, we need the hope of knowing that God is able to overcome the evil that has besieged us in his time. When it seems the world has lost its mind and has become hostile to God and everything good, then we need the hope of knowing that God is still in control and is the ultimate victor.
It is always at this time of year that we are especially faced with the world’s hostility to Christ and his coming. You can say anything about Christmas these days, except what it is really all about. Of course this is nothing new, it is just as it was when he came 2000 years ago. It came home again to me this year as I read the story of a Christmas parade out in Denver, Colorado. Faith Bible Chapel is among Denver’s largest evangelical churches with over 4,000 people in attendance each week. They wanted to enter a float in the annual Christmas parade which has a 30-year tradition. But they were not allowed to enter a float in the CHRISTmas parade because they planned to sing Christmas hymns and have a simple banner that read “Merry Christmas” on it. It was too provocative. The parade is billed as an “international procession to celebrate the cultural and ethnic diversity of the region.” I’m not sure what that has to do with Christmas, but evidently that is the evolution of the event. So instead of a Church float with a message of “Merry Christmas”, the parade will feature gay American Indians, Kung Fu artisans, and belly dancers to get people in the spirit of anti-Christmas. Among those who were allowed to participate in the celebration is the Two Spirit Society of Denver, a support group for American Indians who are homosexual, bisexual, or transgendered, honoring them as “holy people.” The Rocky Mountain News reported that also included in the parade were performers of the Lion Dance, a Chinese New Year tradition “meant to chase away evil spirits and welcome good luck and good fortune for the year.” Parade spokesman Michael Krikorian told the News: “We want to avoid that specific religious message out of respect for other religions in the region. It could be construed as disrespectful to other people who enjoy a parade each year.” Catholic League president William Donohue issued a statement calling those in charge of the parade “cultural fascists.”
But our hope does not rest on the way the culture seems to be drifting — good or bad. Our hope is in something quite different. There are at least three areas from which our hope springs which I want us to look at this morning. The first is: We have hope because of who we are. Who are we? We are the people of God. He has created us with his own hands. He has redeemed us with the blood of his own Son. He has raised Christ from the grave and promised that we will follow in like manner. He is preparing us a place in his kingdom. We are the children of God. We are the redeemed. We are the heirs of a coming kingdom. This is our origin, our present reality and our inheritance. What could be better?
We should not be angry at those who will not allow a simple greeting like “Merry Christmas!” We are marching to a different Drummer in a different parade. We really don’t need to go down Main Street. We should pity those who do not have this hope. We should pray for them with genuine concern. I keep trying to figure out what people do when they do not believe in God. In what do they place their hope? The truth is they have no hope. If this material world is all there is, then there is nothing transcendent or beyond themselves on which they can place their trust and hope. And all that is left is their own ingenuity, strength and success. That might keep you for awhile, but what happens when all those things in which you have placed your trust and hope fail? Success and strength come to an end. There is only an empty void without God. If you have placed all of your hope in your abilities, and your abilities fail, then you are going to have to figure out who you are all over again. If you believe this whole world happened by chance, then chance is all you can hope for. If you believe this world is the result of a cosmic accident, then the best you can hope for is something accidental. If existence does not have meaning, then the best you can hope for is a meaningless existence. If there was no God in the beginning, then the best you can hope for is a godless future.
But, praise be to God, we have a sure and certain hope that is grounded in reality — the reality of God and life itself. Our lives began with God and will end with God. Jeremiah said, “The word of the Lord came to me, saying, ‘Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart’” (Jeremiah 1:4-5). Isaiah the prophet said, “Before I was born the Lord called me; from my birth he has made mention of my name” (Isaiah 49:1). The apostle Paul wrote about the: “God, who set me apart from birth and called me by his grace” (Galatians 1:15). The point is, if that was true for them, it is also true for you. In fact, the Bible says, “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will — to the praise of his glorious grace” (Ephesians 1:3-6). God knew you before you were born — even before the world was created. He set you apart to belong to him. He called you and knew you by name. He created you to belong to him that you might know him and live with him forever. This is who you are. This is your heritage, and your position is secure in him. As the apostle Peter wrote, this is “an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade — kept in heaven for you” (1 Peter 1:4).
Here is what the Bible says about you: “But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light” (1 Peter 2:9). The book of Revelation says: “To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood, and has made us to be a kingdom and priests to serve his God and Father — to him be glory and power for ever and ever!” (Revelation 1:5-6).
If you have confessed your sins and come to God for his healing and forgiveness, stop thinking of yourself as a miserable sinner and claim your inheritance. This is who you are, no matter how the world may see you now. To build your life around your strength and abilities is an illusion. You need something that is lasting, and that something is who you are in Christ. The Bible says that it is Christ in you which is the hope of glory (Colossians 1:27).
The second point is: We have hope because of whose we are. The only way that we can have hope in who we are, is because of Whose we are. God is the ground of our being and existence. He is the ground of our hope. He is our father and we are his children. He has ransomed, restored and raised us. It is all about him. We have confidence because our confidence is in him. We have hope because we know that God knows what is going on in our lives. We have courage to face the future because he is in control of all of existence, and he will overcome all the problems that evil has brought into our lives. God will overcome this and make us victorious in the process.
Because of who God is, we know that something good is going to happen. Something is on the horizon. Something is growing. Something is happening because there is Someone behind the scenes making it happen. We are not sure what it is going to look like, but we know it is going to be wonderful. It has already begun in us, and one day it will be completed. Paul said that he was “confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus” (Philippians 1:6).
It is in knowing whose we are that we are able to redirect our confidence from ourselves, our efforts and our abilities to something which is lasting. We are able to hope because we are able to trust God. We no longer have to be in control. We can let go and let God. It is important to understand that hoping is not wishing. Wishing is something that those who do not have God do. At one time that is where we were, for as the Bible says, “Remember that at that time you were separate from Christ. . . and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world” (Ephesians 2:12). Henri Nouwen writes: “I have found it very important in my own life to let go of my wishes and start hoping. It was only when I was willing to let go of wishes that something really new, something beyond my own expectations could happen to me. . . . To wait open-endedly is an enormously radical attitude toward life. So is to trust that something will happen to us that is far beyond our own imaginings. So, too, is giving up control over our future and letting God define our life, trusting that God molds us according to God’s love and not according to our fear. The spiritual life is a life in which we wait, actively present to the moment, trusting that new things will happen to us, new things that are far beyond our own imagination, fantasy, or prediction. That, indeed, is a very radical stance toward life in a world preoccupied with control.”
To hope is to give up control and give the control to God. It replaces confidence in ourselves to confidence in God. It is not wishing, for wishing keeps things within the bounds of our own imaginations. Hope is open-ended — an expectation that God is going to do something greater than we could have ever dreamed. Wishing is fantasy, hope is based in a grand reality — the person and character of a loving, ever imaginative God who always has our best in mind. Here is how the apostle Paul put it: “For no matter how many promises God has made, they are ‘Yes’ in Christ. And so through him the ‘Amen’ is spoken by us to the glory of God. Now it is God who makes both us and you stand firm in Christ. He anointed us, set his seal of ownership on us, and put his Spirit in our hearts as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come” (2 Corinthians 1:20-22). We have wonderful hope because we have a wonderful God. The Bible says, “If we are faithless, he will remain faithful, for he cannot disown himself” (2 Timothy 2:13). We are hopeful because of whose we are.
The third point is: We have hope because of where we are. Where do you live? If you thought of your physical address, or the name of your state, you have missed the point. If you belong to Jesus Christ you are living in his kingdom. That’s where you are. You do not have to wait until Jesus comes again. He has already come. The kingdom of God is here. It is within us and around us. We are walking with God every day. We live with an awareness of his presence and the expectation of his working in our lives. We are not just sitting around waiting for heaven. Heaven has already begun for believers. We are already getting a taste of what it will be like. God is our Father, Jesus Christ is our brother, and our sins are forgiven. His resurrection is the promise of eternal life for us. God has shared his joy with us and placed his peace within us. Because we are living in the kingdom, we live in hope. It is because of where we are that we know where we are going. We live with confidence in the present and we face the future with courage. “We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure” (Hebrews 6:19).
Bethany Hamilton was once ranked as the best amateur teen surfer in Hawaii. But one day in October, 2003, she lost an arm to a tiger shark while surfing. The story of a beautiful and talented teenager losing an arm to a shark made national news. However, there is another side to Bethany that kept her from being depressed and sinking into a life of self-pity — she had a relationship with Christ that transcended the tragedy she experienced. Soon after the attack, she began to raise money to restore a man’s eyesight. While she was visiting New York City, she gave her ski coat to a homeless girl. Her story which appeared in USA Today states: “As always, Hamilton remains undaunted. She has told her father that if having only one arm proved detrimental to reaching the top in competitive surfing, then she’d see about playing soccer.” Her pastor, Steve Thompson, said, “She’s looking forward to the future. She’s asking herself, ‘How can I show the world I still have a life, that I enjoy my life, and that my life is filled with joy?’ She has an underlying trust that God is taking care of her.” There is someone who understands who she is, whose she is and where she is. Her tragedy became a triumph, and it was all because Hope came to earth one Christmas day.
And so, I say with Paul: “I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints” (Ephesians 1:18).
Rodney J. Buchanan
December 5, 2004
Mulberry St. UMC
Mount Vernon, OH
www.MulberryUMC.org
Rod.Buchanan@MulberryUMC.org
There Is Hope
(Questions for December 5, 2004)
1. What are the things that make it difficult to keep hope alive?
2. In what do the people you know who are without God place their trust and hope?
3. Why are these things often and ultimately disappointing? What is the missing element?
4. Read Ephesians 2:12. Why do Christians have a special advantage when it comes to living with hope and positive anticipation?
5. Read Ephesians 1:3-6. Do you really understand who you are in Christ? What keeps us from understanding and embracing our inheritance?
6. Read Romans 5:5. What is the difference between hoping and wishing?
7. Read Ephesians 1:18. What do we mean by defining hope as “open-ended waiting”?
8. Why is it difficult to let go of control and let God be in control?
9. Read 2 Corinthians 1:20-22. Our hope for the future is based on God’s performance in the past. According to these verses, on what is our hope based?
10. What are your hopes for the future?
