word of WARNING Advent week 4
Don’t let yourself be fooled by false visions foretold by false prophets that offer the glitz and glamor of hope. Remember Jeremiah’s situation? He proclaimed God’s plan and hope while the false prophets were also dropping some bedazzled words of hope as well. Yes, hope does ignite a vision that is worth the fight and inspires us to keep moving forward. The hope that is rooted in God and given for his creation will never be bedazzled. It is real and doesn’t always look pretty.
There is something about the Christmas story that keeps hope anchored in reality. So often, we accentuate and glamorize concepts or ideas in order to satisfy our lustful need for more and the original idea is distorted. Hope was never meant to be glamorized or sold from overpriced Christian bookstores in order to make money and clutter up our walls. Hope is given to God’s creation as a warrior to champion redemption and bring aid to the imago Dei. This warrior confronts suffering and carves out space for you and me to find peace and redemption in the midst of it all. The false prophets of Jeremiah’s days promised smooth sailings or simple prayers that could “take away the suffering” without the enduring. In the end, those false words were nothing but glitter and shadows.
Hope that was proclaimed and realized for those shepherds and even more for a teenage mother who was swept up in the anticipation of redemption sparked a reality that began to unfold before them. Like a painting that begins with a few graceful strokes, this humble baby brought a sense of joy, but what would the picture turn out to be? Days and years later people were still wondering and even struggled to wrap their head around that picture. That boy grew up in the midst of the groanings and oppression of the world. As he walked the dusty road of suffering, along with everyone else, people were still waiting for the bedazzled work of Hope to destroy Rome. Yet, just as his birth anchored hope in reality his life demonstrated there were no smoke machines and cheap tricks to his methods.
The tension in all of this hoping is strained between glamorizing and the dirty struggle of life. While it might be convenient and pretty to walk a bedazzled path of hope that people like Jeremiah’s peers or the prosperity and shallow preachers of the day create, that isn’t the hope that is anchored in God’s reality. Hope is not glamorized. Hope is bloodied and beaten up as it works to bring us through life. We are all subjected to groaning and suffering, and all people need a hope that confronts and won’t ignore it. Humanity faces hunger, oppressive leaders, homelessness, there are children lost in the rubble of wars created by evil, hatred continues to grow, and what people need to experience is not bedazzled concepts but the reality of the incarnation. Which means you and me going into those moments to ignite a true Hope.
Paul writes in Romans 8, “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it., in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly we wait eagerly for adoption as sons and daughters, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope, we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.”
Paul does not sidestep the suffering or groanings but, empowered but the reality of hope, he finds the strength to endure. This is Good News. Hope has a name. Hope’s name is Jesus. Jesus is that warrior. Hope for ALL people has stepped into our broken reality, not with smoke and mirrors, but with love and peace.
