Therefore, brothers, we have an obligation – but it is not to the sinful nature, to live according to it. For if you live according to the sinful nature, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live, because those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by Him we cry, “Abba, Father.” The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children. Now if we are children, then we are heirs – heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in His sufferings in order that we may also share in His glory. I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of god to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God. We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently. (Romans 8:12-25)

 

     In a book called “Signs of the Times,” the great Christian author G.K. Chesterton wrote that “hope means hoping when things are hopeless, or it is no virtue at all. … As long as matters are really hopeful, hope is mere flattery or platitude; it is only when everything is hopeless that hope begins to be a strength.” That point is driven home by the story of a man who was a passenger on a plane in the midst of a long flight. Everything was going rather smoothly, when suddenly the captain's voice came over the intercom. “Ladies and gentlemen, this is your captain speaking. I just want to advise you that we've lost power in one engine. That's nothing to worry about. The plane can easily fly with three engines, but we are going to arrive at our destination fifteen minutes late. Please enjoy the rest of your flight.” Things seemed to be fine for a while, and then the captain's voice came over the intercom again: “Ladies and gentlemen, this is your captain speaking once again. I just want to advise you that we've lost power in a second engine. That's also nothing to worry about. The plane can easily fly with two engines, but we're now going to be arriving at our destination thirty minutes late. We apologize for the delay. Please enjoy the rest of your flight.” The captain was right. The plane flew on for a while with no problem, but then the captain's voice came over the intercom again: “Ladies and gentlemen, this is your captain speaking. I have to advise you that we've now lost power in a third engine. There's still no reason to be alarmed. This plane is still able to fly even with only one engine, but now we are going to be arriving about forty-five minutes late. Sorry again for the delay, but please do enjoy the rest of your flight.” Well, the man finally turned to the passenger in the seat beside him and said, “First fifteen minutes, then thirty and now forty-five. I sure hope that last engine doesn't go. If it does, we'll be up here all day!” Now that's what I call hope!

 

     Hope is surely the centre of the Christian life. Clare Booth Luce – the daughter of the founder of the Salvation Army, said that “there are no hopeless situations; there are only people who have grown hopeless about them.” The man in the plane that I just spoke about might have had a little bit too much hope given the circumstances, but I can nevertheless appreciate where he was coming from! Paul tells us that somehow we have to be able to learn to hope in the things we can't see and even in the things we can't fully understand but whose power we have felt. Hope is no hope if it's in something that we can both see and understand. For me to look at a snow-covered lawn in January and say “I sure hope the snow is gone by July” makes no sense. I don't need to hope that the snow will be gone by July. Hope means to hope in those things that aren't so apparent. From a Christian perspective, hope means to hope in God - Whom we can't see, but Whose presence we can be assured of. A lot of people don't understand that hope. They're so fixated on the material that they can't contemplate the possible existence of the spiritual. Or they're so overwhelmed by problems that they can't even acknowledge the possibility of hope. A lot of people live in hopelessness and despair, and in conditions that breed hopelessness and despair. On July 3, I attended worship at Hyde Park Community Church in Chicago. That was the first week of a 10-week summer series they had named “Urban Dolorosa” (roughly translated, “The Suffering City.”) It was a look at the many social problems facing the city of Chicago and it was driven home by a series of three banners they had placed on the front lawn of the church that included the names (and there were a lot of names) of children who had died violently in Chicago since 2009, including one victim of violence young enough that he could only be listed as “Baby Boy.” He didn't even have a name, but he had died violently. I want to believe that things are better here, and yet I'm aware that in the few days since I've been home a 7 year old boy on a native reserve in Alberta was killed in a drive-by shooting and a 17 year old boy in Vaughan was stabbed to death – and those are just the ones I've noticed in perusing the news. I can understand people falling into hopelessness and despair. And one of the problems dealing with those things is that we put our hope in all the wrong places and usually only in the things we see around us – none of which will ultimately satisfy us, some of which exist only to distract us from the reality of what's going on around us. Think with me for a moment.

 

     Think of the things we hope in that don't really satisfy us. We hope that the health care system will keep us well – but then we see hospitals close and staffs cut back and disease breaking out in the very places that we believe will make us healthy.  We hope that our pensions will be secure and enough to support us when we retire – and yet, for a lot of people of my generation, pensions are a pretty dicey thing. We hope that the government will put good policies in place, and yet no matter who's in power we see growing disillusionment with the system and with all of the parties and all of their leaders who often seem to compete with each other to propose polices that are the most out of touch with reality. We hope the police will protect us from harm, and yet as hard as they try we know that people do get harmed. We put our hope in all of these things and none of them really satisfy us. 

 

     And then there are the things we hope in that serve only to distract us. I noticed on a sign outside a variety store the other day that this week's Lotto 6/49 draw was worth $32 million. How many people bought those tickets I wonder with a forlorn hope that this would solve all their problems? I'm not coming down on recreational gambling, by the way, but we know from statistics that the people who spend the most money on lottery tickets are the people who can least afford them. It's right out of the pages of George Orwell's great novel “1984” - the lottery that keeps people too busy to notice how desperate they actually are. I spend all winter hoping that maybe this year the Toronto Maple Leafs will win the Stanley Cup – but even if by some miracle they do will it really make a difference in my life? We waste precious hope on so many silly things. But not all hope is silly. Some hope strengthens us to face reality head-on and to make a difference.

 

     What I found most hopeful about my experience at Hyde Park Union Church two weeks ago was the sight of a small group of Christians – a congregation of maybe 40 or 50 that day – who were obviously aware of the troubles around them and who chose not to bury their heads in the sand in the face of them and who refused to be beaten into either hopelessness or despair – but who set out to make a difference regardless of the odds against them. And why did those 40 or 50 Christian people have enough hope to believe that they could make a difference against such overwhelming odds? Because they had hope in unseen things – which are the only things that can really do battle against the very obvious things that cause hopelessness and despair in the first place. “This I call to mind and therefore I have hope,” wrote the prophet Jeremiah – himself no stranger to hopelessness and despair - “the steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; His mercies never come to an end. They are new every morning.”

 

     Just like the people of Hyde Park Union Church in Chicago, the people of Central United Church in Port Colborne have access to that same hope – unseen but powerful; the only hope that can truly counter the problems we see around us – but we have to believe in that hope, trust in its source and access it. You see, before we can counter the hopelessness we see in society, we have to overcome our own fears and lack of hope. We have to start believing in our own future. We have to stop worrying about whether we'll have enough people or whether we'll have enough money and we have to commit ourselves to doing the ministry that Christ Himself has called us to – to confronting the powers and principalities that hold so many around us (and sometimes us too) in bondage. That hope we find in God – Whom we haven't seen, but Whom we know through Christ. After all, “hope that is seen is no hope at all.” We put our hope in an unseen God Who will see us through anything. We know that “those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength.” We know that “they will soar on wings like eagles.” We know that “they will run and not grow weary.” We know that “they will walk and not be faint.” If we can have that kind of hope then we can do anything – we can make a difference for ourselves, for our community, for the world around us, and most importantly – for those who feel that hopelessness is their only choice. As the people of God we can bring hope to a world that seems to offer – to some people all of the time and to all people some of the time – only hopelessness and despair. We can be the bearers of hope, because that is what God has called us to do.