Hope Stays Ready—Isaiah 2: 1-5; Matt. 24: 36-44
Sometimes living as a people of hope in this world is hard task to do. This Thanksgiving, I saw the decline as my family ages: my dad had a melanoma removed from his head, my uncle has a blood cancer, my dad’s wife is still recovering from colon cancer, my other uncle is on a walker because of a hip injury, and my grandmother’s mind continues to falter as she approaches 90. Sometimes we sarcastically want to pray, “Dear God, thank you for everything falling apart all at once, instead of stretching it out over a long time to make it easier to process.”
Living with hope in this world is often hard. We won’t get into all the trials and troubles going on outside of our own personal lives. But as followers of Christ, we are a people of hope because of our faith in God. That hope often lives in us DESPITE the obstacles around us. There are three things we can learn about hope from our scriptures today: hope looks forward, hope keeps us grounded in unexpected situations, and hope looks for what is best.
First, hope looks forward. In our Gospel, Jesus says, “You…must keep watch!” He uses the example that if a homeowner knew when a burglar would come to steal everything out of the house, the owner would prevent the burglar from breaking into the house. Unfortunately, burglaries and Jesus’s return share a common theme: we don’t know when it will happen. What Jesus is saying is that they must be prepared for anything at any time. But also, there is a subtext. We cannot live dwelling on mistakes and struggles of the past.
I’ve met a number of folks who simply cannot get beyond the past. It may have been someone who hurt them or something they themselves did, but they cannot move beyond it. If you get stuck in the past, whether it’s the allure of former good times or a struggle that we cannot let go, we will not be prepared and watching for Jesus. How many blessings do we watch people ignore or miss out on because they are stuck, unable to get over something from months, years, or even decades ago? We must be prepared for where God is taking us and leading us, not in things 20, 30, or even 40 years ago.
We also cannot live in the trials of the present. A friend of mine makes a good analogy. Sometimes, when we are stuck in traffic or the never-ending line at Walmart or Kroger, we get incredibly frustrated, impatient, and irritated. But don’t let that rob you of the joy of putting on elastic waist pants and laying down on the couch when you get home. I was talking to a friend the other day, and this person spent the entirety of the 20 minute conversation complaining about all the things going on in their life. They ended the conversation by saying they’d be out of touch because they’re spending 10 days in Europe on vacation. All the things they were struggling with in the present robbed them of the hope from that vacation. Hope looks forward to all the places we can go, and to the final place of hope eternal.
Hope also keeps us grounded when unexpected things happen. In the Gospel, Jesus talks about the days of the flood. Even as Noah prepared, the people went to banquets and parties. They continued to party even when Noah got on the boat itself. The only time they realized what was happening was when the floods swept them away. A friend and mentor used to say to me, “Expect the unexpected.” There is little more frustrating than the idea that unexpected things will happen when you least want or expect. But hope keeps us grounded.
A friend of mine went to buy a car the other day. He signed all the paperwork, paid $6,0000, and left in his new-to-him car. Three days later, the transmission went out. Buried in that paperwork he didn’t read was a waiver of all guarantees on the vehicle. Though the trial was unexpected, it was somewhat predictable. Noah lived in hope that even though a world-wide flood was unexpected, God would take care of him and his family.
When the unexpected comes, we must stay grounded with our hope in God. In life, we must expect the unexpected. Hope looks forward knowing that unexpected things may come our way, but hope also keeps us grounded in the knowledge that God will take care of us when such things do come our way. You have to have both because you cannot look forward if you live in fear of terror. And you can’t trust God if you never look forward. Hope keeps us grounded when the unexpected comes.
Lastly, hope looks for what is best. Isaiah gives a vision of hope to the Hebrew people. When the people go to the mountain of the Lord, some great things will happen: God will teach us Godly ways, God will settle conflict amongst nations, God will show people how to turn weapons into tools of harvest and food, God will end wars and fighting, and we will walk in the light of God.
We live in a time where we see a lot of fighting and war. Conflict rages in the Middle East and Eastern Europe. We see simmering disputes between our own nation and Venezuela, and quiet hostilities all throughout the world. We see far too much of humanity using God’s word to confirm their own beliefs instead of conforming their lives and thoughts to God’s word. Hatefulness and name-calling, arguing, split families, all of this is a problem in our world. There’s even a crime show devoted exclusively to murders between neighbors.
Yet in it all, as God’s people, we are to use hope to look for the best in life and in people. Sometimes we have to look to the small things. For me, that was getting to spend a few days with my momma. We may find a bit of hope in family, children, the excitement of a coming trip, or anything else. But hope always looks for what is best. I had a good conversation with Mom while I was home about counting blessings.
Too many people seem to focus on all the bad stuff and recount everything that is wrong. But hope tells us to start counting everything good: is there a roof over our head, food on the table, people around us who care about us? Misery can be clingy stalker, but hope helps us to escape into what is good in our lives.
When we have strife here on Earth, we must be mindful that one day the strife will end. Part of having faith and hope is believing that God has something beautiful and amazing prepared for us when our time here is done. We may not know that what or when about that eternal hope, but we have faith as part of our faith in God that it is real, and one day God will call us home.
Hope always looks forward, keeps us grounded when the unexpected comes, and helps us look for what is best when that unexpected becomes a struggle. Pamela Cranston wrote a poem in 2011 about looking for hope called “An Open Door.” I want to close by sharing it with you.
Look how long
the weary world waited,
locked in its lonely cell,
guilty as a prisoner.
As you can imagine,
it sang and whistled in the dark.
It hoped. It paced and puttered about,
tidying its little piles of inconsequence.
It wept from the weight of [despair],
draped like shackles on its wrists.
It raged and wailed against the walls
of its own plight.
But there was nothing
the world could do to find its own freedom.
The door was shut tight. It could only be opened
from the outside.
Who could believe the latch
would be turned by a pink flower —
the tiny hand of a newborn baby?
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