TITLE: THE AUDACITY OF HOPE
SCRIPTURE: ISAIAH 64:4
We continue our Advent series this morning with the thought – The Audacity of Hope. It was the REV. DR. JEREMIAH WRIGHT, former Pastor of TRINITY UNITED CHURCH OF CHRIST, who ultimately served as the Pastor to former President Barak and First Lady Obama. Dr. Wright would do the honor of performing the wedding ceremony of the Obama’s before the world knew who they were. President Obama would go on to become a Senator out of Chicago, Illinois. Dr. Wright would also baptize the daughters of the Obama’s.
President Obama was moved by a sermon delivered by his Pastor during his early years. The sermon was entitled “THE AUDACITY TO HOPE.” The sermon was so inspiring that President Obama would write his second book that would go on to become a best seller – He changed the title slightly from the sermon and entitled his book – The Audacity of Hope. He would use this thought and theme during a DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL CONVENTION that would ultimately place him in the Spotlight of the World. I would like to lift that that same thought for a few minutes this morning – The Audacity of Hope.
Hope is a strange thing. Every day we use that small, magical word—HOPE. It's tough to live or even make it through a single day without hope. So let’s begin with a simple question -- What is Hope?
• Hope is a vision for better days that changes us in the present
• Hope is a vision that things will get better
• There's something up ahead, around the corner, in sight, and it's good
• But that good future isn't just abstract, because it reaches in and transforms us in the present
What therefore, is the purpose of Christian Hope? As believers, what precisely do we hope for? These are apt questions to ask as we continue our Advent journey particularly following our celebration of Thanksgiving a few weeks ago where prayers of thanksgiving and anguish echoed from our family tables and the streets of our cities. This ushered in a season marked by hope with candles lit for a meal and buildings lit in despair ought to give us pause when considering WHAT IT IS THAT HOPE IDENTIFIES AND MAKES POSSIBLE, beyond, of course, some heartfelt longing or wistful yearning.
FOR HOPE IS NOTHING BUT FACILE OPTIMISM if it is not a power we are given to desire after and SEE GOD’S PRESENCE AND PROVISION in a time and in a world where God’s promise of salvation is not always obvious.
From the outset, we must avoid confusing Christian hope with a spirit of Can-Do Optimism. Christian hope is not “Positive Thinking” nor can it be reduced to Feel-Good Slogans. The gift of hope grounded in Divine Grace is not some kind of motivational tool that can be thrust into the service of one’s PERSONAL – PROFESSIONAL - or SPIRITUAL goals. If anything, the hope we embrace is somewhat precarious.
Matter of fact, Christian Hope can be somewhat of a Paradox. We stand in the pulpit each week and speak visions of –
• Peace and Hope
• Hills made low and Valleys raised up
• Lions lying down with Lambs
• Swords beaten into Plowshares
We read ominous warnings of the end and watch what looks like a crazy man cry out in the wilderness that salvation is coming.
• We pronounce beautiful promises to the poor and oppressed
• We center our worship on the ethereal concepts of Hope – Peace - Joy – Love
And then after the Sunday morning benediction we exit to the parking lot and get back into our cars and drive into the swirling Vortex of –
• Charity drives
• Ringing Bells of Salvation Army
• Jewelry commercials
• TV Commercial with Christmas Products being sold – BUT WAIT, buy now and get the Second One Free!
• Consumer guilt
• Family pressures
• Worries about money drowned out by tinsel, carols, baked sweets
• Promises of incredible interest-free financing for 18 months
• And the words of peace and hope for an amped-up and worn-out world seem quaint and pretend
• Not really real at all
If we are not careful, hope can give way to what feels real.
• I can describe for you the smell walking through a mall
• The taste inside my seasonal red Starbucks cup
• The sound of the 24/7 holiday music stations
• The feeling each time I hand over my credit card
• When I turn on the news and see more war and starvation and sickness and foolishness of our President
• When I look into my own life and the lives of those I love, and let myself notice all the brokenness and anger, the sadness and stuckness
• I can even sometimes admit there's an easy and strange sweet comfort in succumbing to the holiday buzz
• Where the perfect gift can heal the breach and the brightness of children in scarves and puppies in bows obscures for a while the darkness inside us and around us
And yet, throughout all of this, every week in Advent, I must stand in the pulpit and talk about this other reality. The one that's often hard to see and that we almost never touch -- this reality of -
• Enduring Peace
• Transforming Hope
• This Eschatological vision of Rightness
• This light that the darkness can never put out
Every week of Advent we suggest –
• That Christmas means something
• And something is coming
• That something changes at Christmas
• And we use words like "INCARNATION" and "SALVATION,"
• Sing - O Come, O Come Emmanuel
• And then we bless the congregation and send them all back into the real world
Yes, my Brothers and Sisters – The Audacity of Hope. If truth be told we are still waiting at times.
• Just because Christmas is coming doesn't mean Cancer is leaving
• Just because Christmas is coming doesn’t mean deployed children are returning home for good
• Just because Christmas is coming doesn’t mean jobs suddenly appear
• Just because Christmas is coming doesn’t mean tensions between us disappear
• Just because Christmas is coming doesn’t mean relationships will be mended
• Just because Christmas is coming doesn’t mean we no longer miss the voice, smile, laughter, embrace of our loved ones that are no longer here with us
The birth of Jesus doesn't erase the death of a child or the loss of a loving spouse or parent. And unless we say this aloud -- unless you and I announce that Advent embraces these realities, makes space for them and gives voice to them – we will feel more alone and isolated right now than any other time of year.
This is what I love most about Advent. Advent Is Honesty. Advent lets us go to those places of waiting and unearth them, hold them out in front of us, and cry out, "Come, Lord Jesus!" “Oh Come, Oh Come, Emmanuel.” Because when all the rest of the world would rush us out of our discomfort and hush us from our celebration - Advent calls to us –
• God is With Us
• Embrace the Waiting
• Christmas is Coming
• The End has already been written
• We are the people of the promise
• We wait for its fulfillment
• Advent commissions us
OUR HOPE – CHRISTIAN HOPE – IS THEREFORE VITAL IF WE ARE TO BE A PEOPLE OF FAITH, A COMMUNITY THAT BEARS WITNESS TO SOMETHING MORE THAN FLEETING CONFIDENCE. Our task in Advent is to journey in Hope and Expectation of the God who breaks open the heavens and descends in power and glory so that we fallen creatures might know Healing and Salvation.
• We do not wander aimlessly through life
• For Hope names our status as pilgrims oriented toward the heavenly banquet
• Though we face the difficulties of an arduous journey – we yet have The Audacity of Hope
In Hope we grasp that human history is neither a meaningless flux nor an endless cycle of violence; rather, through Hope we insist the story of our lives and our world is forever being taken up into the story of God’s love and restoration of all creation. As such, we are not a people of despair, but a community commissioned to speak and act out of the hope that God’s purposes are at work in the world.
We must be careful not to get so bogged down with other stuff – after all we are challenged in ROMANS 12:2 “AND BE NOT CONFORMED TO THIS WORLD: BUT BE YE TRANSFORMED BY THE RENEWING OF YOUR MIND…..” – Therefore we ought not get so caught up in what -
• Donald Trump is doing
• What is going in in North Korea
• We cannot get so bogged down in what is going in the Alabama Senate race
• We cannot get so bogged down in what this new Tax Reform means to us that we forget - OUR RESPONSE MATTERS
Our response as believers does make a difference for our hope has been entrusted to us as a sign for the world that neither feast nor famine are barriers to the revelation of God’s glory. As ISAIAH declares, “NO EYE HAS SEEN ANY GOD BESIDES YOU, WHO WORKS FOR THOSE WHO WAIT FOR HIM.” This Advent, may we learn to be alert, be awake, pay attention, for the Lord of Hosts is coming.
In our text read this morning from the Old Testament Book of ISAIAH - God, through the Prophet, is promising the Israelites, His Children, the Exile is about to come to an end. There is no need to despair, because God’s people are about to go back home. It’s no wonder Isaiah begins with the words, in 40:1 - “COMFORT, O COMFORT MY PEOPLE, SAYS YOUR GOD.” Isaiah is one of the most beautiful examples in Scripture of a vital biblical concept — Hope.
• Now, in our modern vernacular, “hope” has to do with wishing for something, or wanting something
• Something which may or may not ultimately come true
• For example, I hope that Oklahoma Sooners will win another National Championship in January
• I also hope the Dallas Cowboys win a Super Bowl while I am still young enough to enjoy it
• Needless to say, “HOPE” as a secular concept contains a fair amount of uncertainty, because it depends upon our limited human abilities
Theologically speaking, on the other hand, “HOPE” is another matter.
• In Scripture, hope is the expectation of a favorable future under God’s direction
• In other words, we expect that God is going to do what God has said He is going to do!
• It’s one thing for us to tell each other everything’s going to be ok
• It’s another thing entirely for God to say, “Comfort, O comfort my people”
• The former is a wish, a desire that we really, really, really want to be true
• The latter is a promise that we can trust because our Hope is Tried and True
NOW, FOR GOD’S PEOPLE IN EXILE, HOPE CENTERED AROUND THEIR RETURN HOME. Eventually, though, there developed an expectation for a Messiah, for One who would Redeem and Save God’s people.
• For centuries, that hope centered around a political leader who would throw off foreign rule and restore the Kingdom of David
• What we know, of course, is God had something different in mind
• A Messiah who would indeed redeem and save
• Just not in the way God’s people thought
On this Second Sunday of Advent, we read the prophet Isaiah and are reminded that our comfort, our hope is in Christ.
• Christ who is with us always
• Christ who is our Lord and Redeemer
• Christ who saves us and in whom we have eternal life
• Our circumstance is not exile, thank God
• But we do have spiritual longings and spiritual needs that only God in Christ can meet
With slightly over two weeks to go until Christmas, I’m sure there are those here this morning who need a little Hope.
• We all bring wishes and desires to this time of year — the secular “Hope” that all too often disappoints
• Wishes for something that we don’t have
• Or for something to be different than it is
• A desire for some change that seems too frightening or too difficult to manage on our own
• Or a desire that things could somehow be the way they used to be even in the midst of our uncertainty and pain
• There are challenges in our lives that are sometimes too overwhelming or too frightening or too sad to bear on our own
THE PROMISE THAT GOD HAS MADE TO US IN JESUS CHRIST IS WE ARE NOT ALONE -- THAT IS OUR HOPE AND ASSURANCE.
• That God walks with us through all of life
• The good and the bad
• The joyful and the sorrowful
• And that as members of the Body of Christ, we have each other
• Both to lean on in difficult times and to celebrate with in happy times
--Making a way for hope means trusting in these promises of God
--Advent is a symbol of Christ our Hope
--May the light sent from God shine in the darkness to show us the way
--As we continue our Advent journey together, may we allow the Hope of Christ to comfort and sustain us
--Yes, my Brothers and Sisters we ought to have The Audacity of Hope
--In these dark days in which we live, we ought to be a light Shining in Dark Places
--Our Hope is not in the Senate
--Our Hope is not in the White House
--Our Hope is not in this Tax Reform
--Our Hope goes all the way back to that Wonderful Day in a little town called Bethlehem
--Our Hope is in the Assurance that Wise Men Still Seek Him
--Our Hope is in the Assurance that the Christ Child came to make a way for each and every one of us
--I don’t know about you this morning, but just like in Isaiah’s time I have The Audacity of Hope
--Hope came into the World to make a difference to all those who Believe
