Through Stained Glass: Advent Word a Day--Day 1 Hope

O that you would tear open the heavens and come down, so that the mountains would quake at your presence— 2as when fire kindles brushwood and the fire causes water to boil— to make your name known to your adversaries, so that the nations might tremble at your presence! 3When you did awesome deeds that we did not expect, you came down, the mountains quaked at your presence. 4From ages past no one has heard, no ear has perceived, no eye has seen any God besides you, who works for those who wait for him. ~Isaiah 64

Hope.

It always begins with hope.

And I don’t mean that cheap kind of hope. You know, the kind that says, “This too shall pass.”

Nah, I mean the Biblical kind of hope. The hope that is the courage behind “Let my people go.”

The type of hope that cries out to Holy One, “O that you would tear open the heavens and come down so that the mountains would quake at your presence--…”

A hope rooted in the reality of the action and involvement of the One who not only hears the cries of the oppressed but does something about it.

Yea, that hope. The hope that says to those who say, “It is what it is,” “Enough is enough—and it is time for a change.” This kind of hope is not okay with the status quo. It can’t be. Because it knows in times past when the status quo has been preserved at the people's expense, God enters history.

Yes, that kind of hope.

Biblical hope. Which is more than cheap hope. It is something else.

Let's not be mistaken either about Biblical hope. It is not optimism or wishful thinking. It is not a simple act of the will, a decision under human control, or a willful determination. It emerges without exact cause like grace, without explanation, amid despair and at the point of least hope.

Hope is what keeps us awake, alert, aware.

Hope is the “yea, but…” to disorder and despair.

Hope says, “It doesn’t have to be this way.”

Because we know the story, we know the story of God coming to God's people and liberating them from Egypt. We know the story of the Universal Love choosing a particular, poor couple to give birth to Love so that the revolution of Love inhabits the earth.

It is hope burning in our bellies that moves us to act as God acted in and throughout history. It is what guides us as we create the way towards God's reign on earth.

Hope moves us from the theoretical, “Who is God?” to the practical, “What shall we do?”

Hope in the face of great despair and inconceivable uncertainty, asks, “What will God do with us to make the paths straight?”

Hope is believing that the world is about to turn…

While we wait, how will you spark hope for someone near to you?