Photo by Rodion Kutsaiev on Unsplash
I heard this great story of hope at Christmas time once that went like this:
A young minister was visiting an elderly woman on her 99th birthday.
They talked at length about her long life and at the end of the visit, the young minister said ” I hope I can do this with you again on your 100th birthday.
The sprightly 99-year-old replied, ” I don’t see why not young man …. you look healthy enough to me.”
Hope springs eternal. Hope I think is the most marvelous word in the English language.
Some years we can look back and say “What a disaster”. And there certainly has been no shortage of terrible times.
I remember one of the most terrible times in my life. At that time I read a book called “The Power of Positive Thinking”. He quotes Isaiah chapter 40:31:
But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.
This verse was the start of my journey to learn all about hope and it was hope that got me through that year and many others. Hope at Christmas time is no exception.
The Journey Of Faith
The true Atheist has hope because he has faith in his belief that all suffering will end with death.
The Buddhists have hope in their faith that suffering is an illusion.
The Hindus have hope in their faith that if they mess up they will come back and have another go and hopefully in one of these incarnations get it right so they can progress eventually to oneness with the universe.
The Muslim has hope in his faith in the Justice of god.
And what about Agnostics?
It has been my experience that there are few true Agnostics. Usually, someone who says that they are an Agnostic is using it to avoid having to discuss what they believe. In reality, they are Psudo Agnostic. That is they want the freedom of the atheist to reject standards they don’t want to live by but are afraid of the consequences of that.
But one thing that the true Agnostic has in common with the pseudo-Agnostic. Their hope is in fate, or that somehow sitting on the fence will mean they are immune from whatever it is they want to be immune from. For if they say that they have hope in something then they inevitably have faith in that thing and that means that they are not an Agnostic.
Why do so many throughout the world turn to religion?
Because people need hope. Don’t let anyone fool you. Some in this country, and in fact, through most of the Western world, would like to convince us that religion is dying and that most of the world now believes in nothing and is turning to Humanism. This assumption is based on the apparent decline in the number in Western society within the Christian church.
It is Not True!
The facts are that worldwide more people are turning to religion than ever before. Christianity may appear to be struggling in Western society but only if you take a restricted demographic and even inside that demographic one has to be aware that these things are often cyclical.
Why?
Because people need hope and the human condition continues to let us down. Despite its increasing commercialisation hope at Christmas time in particular is something people often look to. Believing in nothing leads to nothing.
As Paul says, hope is inseparable from love. he says, “Love never gives up; and its faith, hope and patience never fail.” 1 Cor.13:7.
People are desperate to fill their lives with something.
As has been said many times before, we all have a God-shaped hole in our lives that has to be filled.
Christians have their hope, particularly at Christmas time, in the boy child that was born over 2000 years ago.
Are we nuts?
Let’s see.
Job says in Job 9: 32 & 33
“If God were human, I could answer Him; we could go to court and decide our quarrel. But there is no one to step between us… no one to judge both God and me.”
Job’s problem was there was no mediator. No one could understand his position and yet, know God well enough to present his case.
The Mediator
For Job, it was a bit like the lawyer in the Australian movie “The Castle”. This guy rocks up at the high court to present his case and the best argument he could come up with when arguing the injustice of the situation his client had been put in was,
“It’s just the vibe”.
This didn’t go down very well in the high court.
He was right of course but without an understanding of the workings of the court, he had no hope. He was doomed to lose.
Then along comes a Queen’s counsel. Someone who was used to dealing regularly on this level. He gets to know the plaintiff and decides he likes him so much that he presents the case. The outcome is completely different.
If you haven’t seen “The Castle” yet, it is a very funny movie. There is a bit of swearing in it but once you get past that it’s still a great movie.
With Jesus, we have one thing that no other religion has. We have something that even Job didn’t have.
We have a mediator. A King’s counsel who understands the court and how it works.
Someone who has been one of us and therefore understands us and even loves us. But also someone who, being God, knows and understands God himself. Who could ask for a better mediator? Who is better equipped to present our case to God?
What if God Were One Of Us
There is secular a Song sometimes on the radio that goes,
“What if God were one of us? Just a stranger on the bus, trying to make his way home.”
I have no idea if the person singing the song is a person of faith or is just struggling with it, but she is right on the button. Jesus was one of us. A stranger in a world that not only didn’t understand Him but didn’t even know itself. Who better is there to put our hope in? Where could we better put our faith?
I have learned that in dark times we sometimes also need symbols to help us remember that there is always hope. What greater symbol could there be than the birth of a child? This One child, in particular, is brought to mind every Christmas. The baby Jesus. bringing hope.
If we keep our eyes on Jesus, particularly at Christmas time there will always be hope. No matter how dark things get there will always be light.
Fair Dinkum
Leave a Reply