on the First Sunday of Advent...
Sunday, November 30, 2008
From the Book of Jeremiah, Chapter 33: 14 The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will fulfil the promise I made to the house of Israel and the house of Judah. 15In 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. 16In 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.’ From the Gospel of Luke, Chapter 21: 125 ‘There will be signs in the sun, the moon, and the stars, and on the earth distress among nations confused by the roaring of the sea and the waves. 26People will faint from fear and foreboding of what is coming upon the world, for the powers of the heavens will be shaken. 27Then they will see “the Son of Man coming in a cloud” with power and great glory.
"Audacious Hope" A
Sermon Preached by at the First Congregational Church of Stoughton United Church of Christ
President-elect Barack Obama wrote a book a few years ago entitled The Audacity of Hope. In it, he talks about the people he met while campaigning for the US Senate seat from Illinois… People like Tim Wheeler and his wife in Galesburg who were trying to figure out how to get their teenage son the liver transplant he needed… People like a young man in East Moline named Seamus Ahern who was heading to Iraq to serve his country… People like the young black woman whose name Obama did not catch, but who told him of her efforts to attend college even though no one in her family had ever graduated from high school. In his book, Obama shares how moved he was by the determination, self-reliance, and relentless optimism these people maintained even in the face of struggle and hardship. And their stories brought to mind a phrase he had heard in a sermon: “the audacity of hope.” Audacity: it means to be bold and fearless, especially in the face of obstacles. Hope: it means to have trust, optimism, faith. This audacity of hope, says Obama, is the best of the American spirit – a pervasive belief in better things to come – despite all the evidence to the contrary, despite personal setbacks, job loss, illness, or poverty. The audacity of hope. Today is the First Sunday of Advent, and it is the day we light the candle of hope on our Advent wreath. And we could all use a little hope right now, for there is a sense of despair in our world these days. The economic crisis is putting a damper on everyone’s holiday celebrations this year. Clouds of anxiety about the future hover so low that is has become a fog which prevents us from seeing much beyond our own lost jobs, lost homes, and lost retirement savings. Tomorrow is World AIDS Day, and we are reminded of that disease and all illnesses which ravage our bodies and our spirits. Add to these the war in Iraq, which continues to rage at the cost of human lives, as well as the recent siege in Mumbai, India, which is yet another reminder of terrorism’s constant threat. And some of us have personal situations which might seem hopeless – an illness, an addiction, a broken relationship. Yes, I think we all long to hear a message of hope right now. And into the pain of this moment, the call of the prophet Jeremiah offers words of comfort and promise. “The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will fulfill the promise I made… I will cause a righteous Branch to spring up… and he shall execute justice and righteousness.” Jeremiah wrote these words during a time of political upheaval, in a time of a divided people and an occupied land. And yet, he speaks boldly, fearlessly, audaciously, of God’s promise of security, justice, and righteous leadership. In this morning’s Gospel reading, which was written shortly after the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem, Luke also calls for hope in the days to come. While his use of words like “distress,” “perplexity,” “fear,” and “foreboding” seem oddly dissonant with the feel-good vocabulary of the season, Luke’s is an audacious hope which focuses on the promise that, just as God came to us in a little child 2,000 years ago, Christ will return at the end of the age. When Jeremiah or Luke speak of hope, it is not the empty promises of secular deities or the earthly hope of wishing on a star. The hope that our candle represents is not just wishful or optimistic thinking; nor is it something that we individually generate within ourselves. If we limit ourselves to thinking of hope only in human, finite terms – if we look only at the horizontal dimensions of life and relationships – then hope can seem naïve or empty. This is the kind of hope that can be lost in the face of hardship, trial, or suffering, and experts tell us that when hope is lost, fear and despair begin to take over; the normal civilities which serve as the adhesive that holds life together – community, compassion, consideration – they all become overshadowed by pessimism, cynicism, and doubt. No, the hope Jeremiah and Luke speak of is about the vertical dimension of life; it is about our relationship with God. Luke tells us to “stand up and raise our heads” – in other words, look vertically, not horizontally. Our hope – our Christian hope – is founded on the promises of God – our God who is faithful, our God in whom we can trust. It is the hope that God comes to us as one of us, as Jesus. It is the hope that Christ is waiting to enter our humble hearts, to fill us with joy. It is the hope that divine love will transform our lives. From despair to hope, from occupation to freedom, from division to unity, from suffering to joy, that is the meaning of God’s coming to us as one of us. It is bold hope; it is fearless hope; it is audacious hope. And when we choose this kind of hope, we choose to enter into the Advent journey. We choose to let go of the stuff inside that clutters and complicates our lives and distracts us from God. When we choose hope, we choose be awake to how we can be Christ-like in what we do and in whose lives we touch, we choose to incarnate God through our love and our actions, to let the light of Christ shine through us to someone needing our love, our understanding, our presence. How audacious! Our Christian hope will always live in tension with earthly realities. Yes, many of us are facing difficult circumstances. But our hope for better things to come – despite all the evidence to the contrary, despite personal setbacks, despite the challenges of our lives – our Christian hope is based on the promises of God. Even when we walk through the valley, hope can shine through. Even when we are at the end of our rope, hope can shine through. Even when we face insurmountable odds, hope can shine through. Do you have the audacity to hope? You may hope for the stock market to rebound, or the credit crunch to ease, or the job market to improve. But that’s the horizontal level. Raise your head like Luke says; look up; keep your eyes vertical; point your focus toward God. Hope is out there just waiting for us to claim it. In the face of any and every circumstance, hope boldly stands up and says I will not give up; it fearlessly announces I will not give in, I will move forward in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds. That is what hope is. That is what hope does. It can be audacious, because it is built on the firm foundation of God’s promises. In spite of all the challenges this new year portends, we can hope boldly for great things, not because of human bravery, or strength of spirit, or even our new President. We can hope fearlessly because of our God, who will soon be born as one of us, to dwell with us and within us. Let us begin our Advent journey with bold, fearless, audacious hope. Amen.
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| 1For more specific statistics, refer to “The U.S. Religious Landscape Survey Reveals a Fluid and Diverse Pattern of Faith,” Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, February 25, 2008, http://pewresearch.org/pubs/743/united-states-religion. |
The New Revised Standard Version, copyright 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.