The hope of Advent goes beyond optimism and “good luck.”
Advent Week 1
Hope is paradoxical: The price of admission is the risk of belief.
By Roy Harryman
The Bible is replete with references to hope. Is this just a sentimental appeal to wishful thinking? Like, “I hope the Royals win the World Series next year?” Or, “I hope things turn out alright?”
If this were true, these appeals would indeed be naive and maybe even a little superstitious. Instead, the biblical concept of hope differs radically from Western definitions. And that’s a good thing. Otherwise hope would be merely a pathetic appeal to unwarranted optimism.
Biblical hope is a firm confidence that something good is going to happen. This confidence is not based on being upbeat or optimistic. Instead, it’s rooted in God himself. He, not circumstances, is the reason for our hope.
What does this have to do with Advent season and Christmas? Well, lots. In Luke 1, there are two remarkable hope-giving events. The first is an angel’s prophecy to Zechariah: “Don’t be afraid, Zechariah! God has heard your prayer. Your wife, Elizabeth, will give you a son, and you are to name him John.” The kicker? The author previously tells us that “Elizabeth was unable to conceive, and they were both very old.”
John was a cousin of and sort of an advance man for Jesus. John’s mission was to prepare the spiritual soil of human hearts for the Lord.
Like the X Files’ Fox Mulder, Zechariah wanted to believe. But it was all too much for him and he sought assurances from the angel. To paraphrase, “Sir, you many not know that I’m like, really old. And so is my old lady. Did you perhaps get the wrong address? I’d like to see some identification.”
Well, that didn’t go over well. “I stand in the very presence of God,” said the angel. “It was He who sent me to bring this good news. … Since you didn’t believe what I said, you will be silent and unable to speak until the child is born. My words will certainly be fulfilled at the proper time.”
Later, there is another hope-giving event. In fact, it’s the world’s ultimate promise. An angelic-yet-unannounced visitor dropped a word to a young peasant girl named Mary: “You have found favor with God. You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you will name him Jesus. … The Holy Spirit will come upon you. … The baby to be born will be holy, and he will be called the son of God.”
In case you didn’t know, she was a virgin and would remain so until after Jesus’ birth. So how …?
Mind B-L-O-W-N.
Mary was very likely a teenager. A nobody. Not of noble birth. But notice her hopeful response: “I am the Lord’s servant. May everything you have said about me come to pass.”
Two promises. Two different human responses. But God’s record proved to be 100% reliable in both cases.
Hope is inextricably tied to believing God and His commitments to us.
“Faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. … Without faith it is impossible to believe God.”
This does not mean that, if I choose to believe it, God will achieve it: “I hope that I will get a new convertible tomorrow.” Nope. Or even, “I have hope that my relative will defeat cancer and live 20 more years.” Unfortunately, no. It’s possible, but not promised.
What can we have hope in?
Yet we can have concrete hope in things God has promised in the Bible. This is the same hope that was available to Zechariah and Mary.
Like what? Well, God’s promises to his children include:
God will never leave us.
God will meet our basic needs for food, shelter and clothing.
God loves us with supernatural (“superhuman”) love.
God will sustain us through every trial and challenge.
God will use even bad things that happen to us for ultimate good.
There are hundreds and hundreds of promises. Read the Bible and highlight them. Better yet, memorize some of them.
Perhaps greatest of all, God promises eternal life to those who believe: “This is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.” – John 3:16
Hope is wonderful. But hope includes a challenge. For Zechariah and Mary to experience the confidence of hope, they had to look beyond circumstances (in this case the sciences of anatomy and biology!) and to focus solely on the promise of God. The facts on the ground appeared insurmountable. Each was confronted with a decision: Choose to hope in spite of substantial and nagging doubts, or be overwhelmed and crushed by them.
Advent is a term for “waiting.” Waiting requires hope. This waiting is not an idle “waiting room” type of experience. Instead, it’s an eager expectancy that God will, somehow, in his own way and time, break through.
The angel told Zechariah, “My words will be fulfilled at the proper time.” Therein lies the challenge – the proper time. The best time. But not necessarily our preferred time.
We may need a job or a different job.
Our boss may be driving us insane (or vice versa).
Our health may be declining.
Or a million other serious, stressful things.
Yet, in faith, believing the promises of God, we can face each day with hope, knowing that somehow, some way, God will deliver us.
In his posthumous book, “Letters to an American Lady,” C.S. Lewis corresponds with a woman struggling through difficulties of aging and poverty. To paraphrase Lewis’ advice, he says, “What would you do if you knew everything would turn out alright? Picture what that is, then do it.”
A life of hope, then, means doing the next right thing. We can’t fast forward to tomorrow or rewind to yesterday. Life is now. But so is hope.
This Advent season, God can light a fire of transformative hope in our souls.
Prayer
“Lord, I seem chained to only what my senses can perceive. Yet you are beyond my senses. You transcend all of my worries and fears. I wish you would waive a magic wand and make them all disappear. But that isn’t the way you operate. You’re God, not a wizard. And I’m thankful for that! Although I have been disappointed many times, you have never let me down or failed to sustain me. I can look back at your coming when Zechariah and Mary could only look forward in faith. Your arrival was intended to build my faith: It was real. And your Second Coming will be the culmination of my faith and hope. Help me to live this moment and this day in hope by doing the next right thing. Amen.”
Roy Harryman is a regular guy who is thankful for God’s work in his life and is looking forward to its continuation and fulfillment.