Questions of Hope

This particular week of every year in the Christian Church is celebrated not only as the first week in Advent but specifically as the week of hope. I have noted before that the Hebrews understood hope as a waiting in anxious anticipation. If that is true, then they had to be waiting for some thing in particular. As a result, this week is also known as the week of expectation in some traditions. An expectation suggests that there is a specificity in what one is hoping/waiting for. As we know, the expectation on the part of the Hebrew people was that a Messiah was coming. They knew this because a prophecy had been made that a Messiah would come to save the people. Thus, this is also known in some traditions as the week of prophecy.

These words hope, expectation and prophecy are curious words to me. We use them as separate entities but I wonder and am wondering out loud with with you, if they weren't meant to be used together. They build on each other. First there was a prophecy that people chose to believe and then they turned toward expecting with hope (that kind of "on the edge of their seats' anticipation") that the prophecy would come to fruition.

For them the prophecy was clear. There would be a Messiah. Then they inserted their own perspectives of what that Messiah would be like. They came to agree that he would be a great warrior king coming to fight off neighboring nations and ensure their security. Never did they dream that he would be a Messiah for their souls nor did they imagine an infant born in a stable or a cave as was more likely.

Somewhere along the way of our living, we have forgotten that prophets still exist even in the old fashion kind of way. There are people with that spiritual gift who know what God tells them about a variety of things. But we don't tend to believe them because we are too scared of that ancient idea. Even people who understand that they have this gift are often scared of it because they don't want to confuse what God tells them with their own way of being in the world. It makes me wonder what God is telling us that we refuse to listen to or what God is telling us that we know in the pit of our stomachs is pure truth but we have this incessant need to run it by other humans who don't have the gifts we do instead of just trusting God and the way that he's gifted us to know this truth for ourselves.

So my first questions for us in this week of prophecy are: what promises has God made for you? Are they promises that you can allow yourself to trust? Are they promises that you can allow God to unfold for you in his own way just as he unfolded the coming of the Messiah in a way the Jews could never have fathomed?

Expectations tend to get us in trouble because we decide that something will be a certain way. It got the Hebrews in trouble and some were so caught up in the belief that the Messiah would be a warrior king that they refused to accept that Jesus was the Messiah. So it seems that the call of the Christmas story and as we prepare for its advent, is to believe in the prophecy but to take care to not paint the picture of its happening for God. Simone Weil once wrote, "in what concerns divine beings, belief is inappropriate, only certainty will do. Anything less than certainty is unworthy of God. God calls us to expectations. God calls us to expect that He will fulfill his prophecies but God also calls us to detach and let God unfold the picture of his prophecy as he designs.

So my second group of questions for you are: What are you expecting this season about the promises God has offered? Are your expectations fair? Are you able to let go if they don't pan out the way you hope?

Hope is that certainty that is worthy of God. It is that thing that says, "God you've made a promise to me. I know you are faithful to fulfill that promise, that you don't need my help in designing it or implementing it but you do need me to claim the assurance that it is coming, to practice gratitude for it even before it shows up tangibly and to honor your word by trusting in what you say!"

I was visiting in the hospital one day and I remember the woman that I visited talking about how God was so faithful. She began to tell me how she regularly thanked God for things he hadn't even done yet, "Thank you God for the parking space that you are about to give me." I realized that what she had done was to hope. She had said to God, "I'm not asking you for this thing because I know you know that I need it and that you are faithful to provide for all of my needs. So I'm just going to thank you for the gift of the need that I see as if you've already fulfilled it." That is the certainty worthy of God. That is hope.

Can you claim hope that God's promises for your life are sure? Can you expect God to be the faithful God he is without defining for him what the picture must look like on your terms? Can you wait with anxious anticipation and gratitude?

May this week of hope call us to accept with joy the prophecies God has for each of us! May we expect them with detachment! May we await their arrival with anticipation and with gratitude! May we have the same perspective as we celebrate the advent of the Christ Child! Amen.