"Hope"

            This Sunday, May 8th, I will be exploring the role of Hope in Christian life.  Each of us frequently uses the word, “hope.”  For instance, we may say that we hope the weather on Mother’s Day will be beautiful.  Or, we are hopeful that the Kansas City Royals baseball team will begin winning games, even though they have lost eight out of the last ten.  However, when we are asked to describe what hope is, most of us have difficulty.

            For the purposes of my proclamation on Sunday, I will suggest that hope is a positive mental outlook—or, attitude—which trusts that positive, desired outcomes and conditions will occur, even though they are not yet certain.  Hope is fundamentally a positive, confident framework, despite sometimes overwhelming odds or evidence to the contrary. 

If we define faith as trust that there is more at play than simply what can be currently known or seen, then faith is a huge component of hope.  When we invoke faith, it is important to observe that faith is not just blind optimism that things will work out.  Instead, I understand faith to be based upon some evidence that provides a grounding for our hope.  This faith may be a religious faith, such as Christian faith.  That is, a Christian may be hopeful because of their faith that God loves us and will ultimately provide for us.  Or, this faith, which is a component of hope, may be non-religious.  For instance, our Royals baseball fan may have hope that his team will start winning because last year they won the World Series.

While some persons may have personalities that tend to be positive and upbeat, while others may be more negative, I want to suggest that the quality of hope is not a personality trait.  Instead, I think hope is an attitude which is cultivated and developed by the company we keep.  In other words, our ability to hope is nurtured or undermined by our families, our neighborhoods, and our communities.  We can only develop hope when we are accepted, forgiven, affirmed, and inspired by those persons around us, who know us and whom we believe.

This makes perfect sense because hope is not just a blind optimism, but rather an attitude or outlook that is grounded.  Hope is grounded in affirmation from those around us, our communities.  The family is our first and basic community.  So, hope is developed or undermined by our families. 

This Sunday, May 8th, is “Mother’s Day” in the United States, and we will be acknowledging our mothers as part of the Sunday service.  Mothers can be instrumental in helping their children develop attitudes of hope through their love, forgiveness, affirmation, and inspiration.  However, mothers will be the first to note that they need help in developing the quality of hope within their child.  Each of us needs love and forgiveness and affirmation and inspiration from many, many sources, if we are to develop strong, resilient hope.  Thus, even though only some women are privileged to be biological mothers, all of us—male and female, alike—can be like a mother to the children around us, by helping them to develop a strong, insurmountable grounding for hope, regardless of what happens in their lives.

For Christians, the church provides an important incubator for hope.  As the gathered community of faith, the church should be a safe, secure place where individuals are helped to feel secure and comfortable, regardless of what they have done or left undone in the past.  Christ’s community of faith should also be a safe and secure place for persons to share their questions and doubts, without fear of judgment or condemnation.  Reflecting Christ’s love for each of us, the church should also be that supportive, “mothering” community which loves, affirms, forgives, and inspires each of us, thereby encouraging us so that we develop resilient hope.

But, there is more.

Christian communities of faith are not just support groups.  There are other, important non-Christian support groups in our society.  Rather, as Christians, God calls us to live as a Resurrection People.  For Christians, the Resurrection of Christ represents a tipping point in cosmic history.  With the Resurrection, God’s work of healing and transforming the cosmos into a New Creation has begun.  Yet, at the same time, God’s Reign has not yet been fully established.  We still live in the old world of sin and death, even though we have confidence that in the end God will prevail and establish the Kingdom of Heaven. During this interim period, Christ invites his disciples to join him as junior partners in working to establish God’s full Reign on earth.

            During his ministry on earth, Jesus described how the Kingdom of God would grow in his parable of the mustard seed:

“Jesus said therefore, ‘What is the kingdom of God like?  And to what should I compare it?  It is like a mustard seed that someone took and sowed in the garden; it grew and became a tree, and the birds of the air made nests in its branches.’” (Luke 13:  18-19)

To fully appreciate Jesus’ mustard seed parable, it is important to remember that mustard seeds were infinitesimally small.  It has been calculated that it would take 328,855 to 344,730 individual mustard seeds to make one American pound of seeds.  When a mustard seed is planted and begins to grow, the resulting mustard tree can reach 8-9 feet in heighth.  As Jesus reminds his followers in the parable, despite beginning as a tiny, tiny seed, the adult mustard tree becomes a safe haven for birds to make nests and grow their young.

            Following the implications of Christ’s parable, Christians look forward to the “parousia,” the return of Jesus Christ at that time when God’s Kingdom will be completed and fully established on earth.  It is the consummation of God’s Reign which provides the ultimate grounding for a hope that informs and fills us as a Resurrection People.

Come, join us this Sunday at Christ United Methodist Church, as we honor our mothers and celebrate Mother’s Day, while also reflecting on the attitude of hope, which is grounded in our conviction that Christ’s Resurrection is just the beginning of God’s ultimate Reign.  Christ United Methodist Church is located at 4530 A Street in Lincoln, Nebraska.  Our classic worship services are at 8:30 and 11:00 on Sunday mornings. 

Everyone is welcome and accepted because God loves us all.