Wishes and Hopes.

Text:  Luke 21:25–36  First Sunday of Advent, Dec. 2 2012

Preached by Rev. James Murray at Dominion-Chalmers United Church.

Next spring our congregation is going to be co-sponsoring a concert with a Jewish synagogue. The concert will commemorate Yom HaShoah, which is the remembering of the Holocaust. It is a chance to partner with our Jewish brothers and sisters and make a statement together about violence born out of hatred. Together we will stand in the hope that such a tragedy will never happen again. At the end of our last planning meeting, we agreed that we would talk again in January. As we were about to hang up the phone, Rabbi Isaac Romano wished me a Merry Christmas and I wished him a Happy Hanukkah.

Wishing each other well is one of the most basic things we can do for each other. To wish someone well is a simple act of good will. All people of faith are called to be a source of good will in the world. We should never be a source of ill will. Ill will sows hatred, suspicion and fear. Good will seeks the flourishing of all people. It doesn’t cost us a lot to offer good will, but it can be hard to do.

A social scientist did a study recently where he offered a person a reward if the person was willing to give an equal reward to someone else. So you had to be willing to give the same cookie to someone else in order to receive a cookie for yourself. The scientist then offered the same person a double reward, but in order to get the double reward, they had to give someone else a triple reward. So you would get two cookies if you give someone else three cookies. No one wanted to give the three cookies, even though they would be getting twice as many cookies. The spirit of self-interest prevented them from getting even more cookies. You could say the spirit of self-interest worked against their own best interests. A spirit of good will is willing to look past our own self-interest and seek the best interests of everyone.

So our best wishes can often be stymied by our own self-interest. We need to move beyond merely wishing for something good to happen. We have to find a way to make it happen.

Once upon a time a poor man prayed to God to let him win the lottery. He prayed to God every day for a month that his numbers would come up to win the big prize. After a month, the man asked God why he hadn’t won the jackpot yet. God spoke to the man and said, “Well, first you have to buy a ticket.”

Hope is different than wishing. Hope is a strong confidence that a goal will be reached. Hope is the encouragement that drives us to work for that goal. Hope is the belief that God is working for that same goal to be realized.

Jim Wallis is the founder of Sojourners, which is a group of evangelical Christians who work for social justice. Last year Jim Wallis brought together many of the leading evangelical leaders to discuss the problem of illegal immigration in the United States. He showed the church leaders how many of these new immigrants were already in their churches. He shared the stories of these immigrants. Together they prayed and studied the impact the government policies were having on families, and on the economy. The group put out a statement calling for reform. Within days several major evangelical denominations signed on to the Sojourners declaration. Two days later Wallis received a call from the White House. On June fifteenth of this year, President Obama introduced a policy which stopped deporting the children of illegal immigrants, and opened the door for them to receive work permits. The administration told Wallis that this change happened because the churches who had been opposing any kind of immigration reform were now working with Sojourners to promote reforms. Jim Wallis says “Hope is believing in spite of the evidence, and then watching the evidence change.”

Hope believes that change is possible. And by the act of hoping, of living into that hope, hope changes what is possible.

Hope is not the same thing as optimism. Optimism is the belief that things will turn out well. Hope is the certainty that something makes sense, regardless of how it turns out. (Vaclav Havel) Hope is trusting that God is at work in all of this. Hope is possible when we see God is at work in all of this. Because we do not face our challenges alone.

 Jesus spoke to his disciples about how they should react when they see troubles. He tells them not to be afraid. As the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy says, “Don’t panic”. Jesus is saying, ‘Yes there will be troubles in this world. There’s going to be wars and revolts. There’s going to be huge hurricanes and earthquakes. But don’t panic. Because God is going to be at work, even in such terrible moments as these. If you look, you will see God coming to you in the middle of that disaster.” God is working to set things right. In every moment God is at work, seeking to heal that which is hurting. God is seeking to mend that which is broken. God is seeking to restore that which is lost. God is seeking to liberate that which has been imprisoned.

And when you can see how God is at work in your life, in every moment, you will be filled with such a strong hope that no circumstance will be able to defeat you. When you trust in Jesus to be with you, no storm will be able to knock you down. No matter what the outcome us, you will know the Holy Spirit has been guiding you every step of the way.

When you are filled with hope, the world will never look the same to you. For you will see the world as God sees it. When we are filled with hope in God, good will between all people is possible.  When we are filled with hope in God, anything is possible.