Hope As A Foundation

Jeremiah 33:14 – 16
The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will fulfill the promise I made to the house of Israel and the house of Judah. In those days and at that time I will cause a righteous Branch to spring up for David; and he shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. In those days Judah will be saved and Jerusalem will live in safety. And this is the name by which it will be called: “The Lord is our righteousness.”

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Jeremiah said a lot of harsh things before we come to the 33rd chapter. There was a lot to be concerned about, but in general folks didn’t agree with him. He called the people to repentance. He prophesied punishment. They ignored him. Eventually they were conquered and taken into exile.

In the book, “An Introduction To The Bible” by Christian Hauer and William Young we read, “When the doom of which Jeremiah had spoken arrived, a new side of the prophet emerged. … He turned from the time of judgment to envision hope for Israel. It was not the naïve hope he had condemned other prophets for voicing. It was a long-range hope grounded in a deep faith in the love and fidelity of the Lord.”

Long-range hope. This is what the people needed. Not a superficial hope or a naïve hope. This is also what we need. And so we turn to Jeremiah. We look forward while we look back and see that what Jeremiah prophesied relates not only to his time. These words, originally meant for their current situation, can also be seen as prophecy for the time of the incarnation of God in Jesus Christ. Additionally, the kind of hope that Jeremiah is offering can be a foundation for us to stand on while we live in the promises of God in the spirit, but still see the suffering of hunger, homelessness, bullies, and greed rampant in our society.

Placing our hope in Jesus, the incarnation of God, is a big deal. Sometimes we can see no hope in our circumstances or imagine hope for our lives. At these times can we summon up hope from the core of God’s own self based on God’s unrelenting love that led to the incarnation? This is the foundation of hope that I want us to stand on. God could have stayed as Spirit and yet desired us so greatly as to make this sacrifice to become embodied, subject to both the joys and pains of our life. And the pains were not averted for the sake of comfort, but Jesus willingly took all the pain that his life offered. He could have said no or made some convenient ways out, but he didn’t.  I am willing to live my life based on this long-range hope.

Sometimes we want a more tangible hope. It feels more concrete when we can see or touch the process that leads to hope. Paul addresses this when he writes to the Galatians.

Galatians 5:2 – 6
Listen! I, Paul, am telling you that if you let yourselves be circumcised, Christ will be of no benefit to you. Once again I testify to every man who lets himself be circumcised that he is obliged to obey the entire law. You who want to be justified by the law have cut yourselves off from Christ; you have fallen away from grace. For through the Spirit, by faith, we eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything; the only thing that counts is faith working through love.

I think we can agree that circumcision is a visceral experience. I won’t tarry long on this uncomfortable subject, but let’s think for a moment about this. Paul is talking to the Galatians. Gentiles. These folks want to be real Christians and some people are telling them that in order for them to be real Christians they have to undergo the Jewish ritual of circumcision which marks a man as being a follower of Yahweh. While circumcision is what many baby boys continue to experience today, for the Jews it was a religious ritual. Because the Gentiles weren’t Jews, they weren’t circumcised.

Paul is telling the Galatians that they do not have to undergo this ritual. Through faith in Jesus the law is fulfilled. They are to cling to grace. They already are real Christians and need not prove anything by a physical act.

The ambiguity and mystery in all of this can make it challenging. How do we stand on a foundation that isn’t physical; that we can’t see or touch? For me, it is the physicality … the embodiment … of Jesus on which I stand. Jesus as a person, as the incarnation of our Divine Beloved offers me both the mystery and the visceral satisfaction that I need.

I believe that we have to be intentional about standing on this foundation. We have not seen Jesus in the flesh … or at least I haven’t. I am counting on the ancient witnesses to help me see him. I cannot walk up to Jesus but I can experience him through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. That is a faith experience, even when my body feels it, possibly in the form of goose bumps or a sense of something ethereal. It isn’t something that I can point to and say, “Look here. See?” But that doesn’t make it less real.

For the sake of intentional waiting during this advent season I’m going to ask you to consider a few questions each week. We are going to decorate this tree with our ideas about Hope, Love, Joy, and Peace. It will be our Advent Tree. I invite you to write words or draw pictures or shapes.

This week, on the subject of hope, please think about these questions. If something comes to you today, please write it down on the card provided so that we can fill up our tree. If something comes to you later you can fill it out and bring it in during the week or next Sunday. For those of you listening on the radio, you are welcome to send us your own card or a note and we will fill out a card for you and add it to the tree.

Hope
What is the hope that keeps you centered when you have lots of questions?
What are the promises of God that give you hope?
When have you experienced your hope become your truth?
How do you extend hope to others?

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Now, may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.