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The Rev. James A. Todhunter "What Are We Waiting For?" Jeremiah 33:1-14, I Thess 3:9-13, Luke 21:25-36 This is the first Sunday in Advent, and it is traditional that these four Sundays before Christmas are each marked by an Advent theme: Hope, Peace, Love and Joy. Today's theme is Hope. What is Hope? Christian hope is very different from optimism. We are told that pessimists lack hope and while optimists are brimming with hope. Pessimists and optimists look at the same facts, but they reach different conclusions. An optimist and a pessimist look at the same glass of water, and one says it ls half-full and the other half-empty. Each is tied to the data, tied to the world. They may agree that the current situation is not good. But one will say it is sure to get better, while the other says it is bound to get worse. But the optimism of the one is not Christian hope. Optimism, pessimism, and Christian hope are ways of responding to real world problems. Last week there was important news about the world-wide struggle against AIDS. A Washington Post headline on Wednesday read: "Estimate of HIV Infection Rises to 30.6 Million Globally." A brief quote from the article: New, far more accurate estimates of AIDS infection in Africa and Asia suggest the worldwide AIDS epidemic is much larger than previously believed, according to a new report. About 30.6 million people - roughly 1 in every 100 people of reproductive age on Earth - are infected with..HIV, epidemiologists with the United Nations AIDS program and the World Health Organization reported yesterday. Last year's estimate was 22.6 million infected people, or about 30 per cent fewer than the current one... In some places, the rate of HIV infection among pregnant women is extremely high. In Francistown, Botswana, 43 percent of women tested at one urban clinic were infected. In Zimbabwe, where 20 percent of adults are infected, the infection prevalence was 59 percent in one clinic in the city of Beit Bridge. "The predictions of stabilization of the epidemic in Africa need to be revised," said...the executive director of UNAIDS, as the United Nations program is called.."It has to happen some time, but it is not that time yet." Shall we respond to such news with optimism or pessimism? And what, in this context, is Christian hope? Christian hope is not and cannot be based on what is seen in the world, nor rooted in the observable facts. If we look in the world for signs or hope, we may frequently be disappointed. For Christians, hope is not to be found in the world. Instead, Christian hope is tied to two faith statements: one, that God is sovereign; and two, that God is righteous and just. Christian hope is based on the assertion that "All will be well," and in the end, God always wins. And Christian hope grows out of the trust that God is just. Christian hope is rooted, not in this world, but in a faith that God's victory is a triumph of justice, righteousness and peace. Jeremiah was both a prophet of doom and of hope. In the darkest days of his life, when Jerusalem was about to be overrun and destroyed by the Babylonians (largely because the people had ignored the prophet's warnings), in that bleak hour when it began to finally sink in how bad the situation really was and the people moved from naive optimism to pessimism to despair, Jeremiah spoke words of hope. He said: The days are 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 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. Jeremiah says that all will be well and God's righteousness will prevail. And this, in spite of the disaster you see before you. Jesus, in his own time, says the same thing. He says that things have to get worse before they get better. But you must understand the meaning of this chaos. An optimist says "Things are bound to pick up." The pessimist gives up in despair. The person of hope seeks to understand the hidden meaning of events and the reality that an invisible God is at the center of human history. And that this chaos, this facing into darkness and nothingness, can be seen as the birth pangs of new life. God has said to us, "Fear not, I will be with you. No matter what." And as Martin Luther King, Jr. said, "The arc of the universe is long but it bends toward justice." If hope grows out of the understanding that God is God and that God is righteous, how then are we to live? First, we are called to live in hope. To live in hope is a way of being alive. To live in hope is to recognize that things are unfulfilled, the world and our own lives are broken - we may be hungry, we may be waiting, we may be suffering, we may be searching, we may be lost. But to live in hope is to live in the very midst of this, nevertheless, with an attitude of joyful anticipation. With eagerness. With alertness. With expectation. Carl Jung once said, beautifully, that to be alive to the fullest, is like what you feel when the house has been prepared, the table has been set, and now all you can do is wait for the cherished guests to arrive. Joyful anticipation of the guest. The holiday season ls wonderfully appropriate for this. Hope ls what it feels like for the Thanksgiving or Christmas guests to arrive. Hope is what children feel when waiting for Santa to come, and what will happen on Christmas morning when the presents are opened. To see a little child leave cookies and milk for Santa is very endearing to me in its innocent hopefulness. Hope is looking forward to how beautiful a Christmas Eve worship service will be. Hope is what the homeless person feels in anticipation of a holiday meal at the Shepherd's Table. You are hungry, you are thirsty, and you are about to be filled. You are alone, and you are about to be with family and friends who care. You are about to be reminded that you are somebody. You count for something. Hope is living with the reality of the need (hunger, thirst, loneliness, injustice) in anticipation that what will happen will be good. This ls to live in hope. But secondly, if we can live in hope, then we can live as hope. Chrlstians can look at the harsh realities of this world - global or personal - where there are so few signs of hope, and resolve to themselves become signs of hope. If we are, in truth, the hands and feet and voices of Christ in our world, then we are to act out the hope that Christ represents. The Church itself becomes a beacon of hope. There are people in our congregation who toil daily to alleviate the AIDS epidemic, and it is hard because they are up against seemingly intractable ignorance and political backwardness. But such people are signs of hope. We are now witnessing, in our enlightened national capitol in 1997, a scandal in the highest levels of the D.C. Police Department that is rooted in the exploitation of the lives of gay people. I find it a shameful and ugly story. But our Church has determined that we are a place and people of refuge for gay people who know what it means to be the exploited. I believe we are trying, in our way, to be a sign of hope. Whatever the vexing realities of human suffering we face, it is tempting to cry out to God, "The situation is hopeless." And that may be an understandable cry. But I cannot help but believe that God has an answer to such a cry. God says, "If you believe the situation is hopeless, then it is up to you to do something hopeful. So what are you waiting for?" The Advent season is about waiting. What are we waiting for? Waiting for signs that God is good and God is just? Waiting for signs that God is even there at all? Waiting for signs of hope to appear? But God takes that very question, "What are we waiting for?" and hands it right back to us as a call designed to lift us up out of helplessness and discouragement. A call to courageous actions great or modest, actions as simple and direct as prayer. Indeed, "What are we waiting for?" Amen. Back to Table of Contents |