Hope

Matthew 24:36-44

During the season of Advent we wait for the coming Christ Child.  Today’s scripture reminds us that we are always waiting for the Son of Man’s return.  Jesus clearly states that no one except the Father knows when.  It is important to realize that people that try to discern contemporary events and even scripture for the Eschaton, are missing Jesus’ message.  We are to be ready and not know. Being ready is not simply looking forward to the event, but living today knowing it will happen.  Jesus makes it clear that there will be a day when the elect will be gathered and God will dwell with us and there will be a new heaven and a new earth.  But until the promise is fulfilled, “…you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an unexpected hour.” (v. 44)

So how are we to be ready?  We can remember to see Jesus in the “least of these”, as he told us in Matthew 25, and we should be ready by teaching discipleship around the world, as per Matthew 28.  To be ready we live by faith, hope, and love, as per Paul’s letter the Corinthians 13:13.  These words can be attributed to human time; faith tied to what has happened, hope is about the anticipated future, and love is about the present.  Now each is interwoven with the other, just as the Trinity, totally one and yet totally separate as well.  When Paul says that Love is the greatest of these, I cannot argue with that, since love is how one acts at any present time, taking their faith and hope in mind, to act in the moment.  To follow Jesus and be ready we should always be present with love.  Of course our faith is important as well, for it is the basis of or current moment and.  Today we look at hope as it is how we look to the future, the Christ Child and the Eschaton.

When I was a chaplain in a large hospital, I would do my rounds and thus visit patients I did not know.  In the course of the visit, I was always trying to be present with love as I was to witness for the Divine.  Every conversation would include some aspect of their faith.  They would tell me of their lovely church and how they became close to God.  Or they would tell me about the church that ostracized them and how they became distant with God.  This was their history, their faith, and it affected how they looked to the future, but you would not be able to predict simply from their history.  Some that had a wonderful history with God and church were just so angry they were ill they did not look forward with hope, while some that had a rocky past with God and church found the divine in their situation, and looked forward with hope.  I would listen for the stories of hope, such as Thanksgiving meals despite their chart suggesting they would be in that bed on Thanksgiving, hearing about their plans after they were home, simply talking about future years, or the most powerful, talking about being with the Divine love in heaven.  These are stories of hope, knowing God’s promise, and living it.  It is not about being optimistic, rather it is to know God’s triumph (we are attempting to be ready for) and living as if it already occurred.  Without it one lives in despair, and those stories in the hospital were limited to the reality of that bed, illness, discomfort and pain, or going home to a more the same, or the saddest, death.  Not seeing death as being part of the resurrection and rebirth is despair, of course we are all scared of death, but with hope we see it as the fulfillment of God’s promise. 

Let us live ready, living as if the promise of God has been fulfilled as we know it will.   Let us await the Christ with Hope.