God’s Hope

Hope is a big part of our Christian faith. Hope. I think of the well-known passage from the Book of Hebrews: "Faith is the assurance of things hoped for." Faith and hope are almost interchangeable. Faith is the assurance of things hoped for. This does not mean that, if you have enough faith, you will get whatever you happen to hope for. The outcome of today’s game will not be a measure of anyone’s faith. But Hebrews does mean that to be faith-full people is to be hope-full people. Think also of how many of the great hymns of the church speak of hope. "O, God our help in ages past, our hope for years to come." "All my hope on God is founded, he doth still my trust renew." The prayer book catechism defines the Christian hope for us: The Christian hope is to live with confidence in newness and fullness of life, and to await the coming of Christ in glory, and the completion of God’s purpose for the world." This comes at the very end of the catechism, the summing up of the Christian life and faith. That summation is hope. And that hope is confidence… the confident assurance of God’s presence with us now and the assurance that God’s purpose will be fulfilled in the future.

I suppose one way we might define the Christian hope is to say that no matter what is going on now… absolutely no matter what is going on now in your personal life or in the life of our community or in the world… Absolutely no matter what is going on now, God is with us. And no matter where you are currently standing in life, God gives us something to look forward to. Hope is about now and also about looking forward. Looking forward and seeing God there.

God is our hope. God gives us hope. All of today’s readings give us this reassurance. The time of the judges was a difficult time in the history of God’s people. Earlier in their history they had been led and nurtured by the great leaders Moses and Joshua. Remember, Moses had literally walked between God and the people, up and down the mountain, actually carrying God’s message and God’s presence to the people. Joshua had almost showed them where to put their feet, step by step, as they passed into the promised land and Joshua, personally, gave them the city of Jericho. These leaders had connected them to God, but now Moses and Joshua were gone.

Now the people of God were on their own to be God’s people, to live into the promise they had been given, to grow up. They were no less cherished, no less chosen as God’s beloved. But it was hard. They were tempted by pagan ways and assailed by foreign powers. They were uncertain of themselves and uncertain of God’s presence with them. That is the setting for the story of Gideon we heard this morning. Gideon is beating out wheat in the wine press to hide the wheat from the foreign oppressors who were stealing the people’s food. And the Lord, or an angel of the Lord, comes to him and says, "The Lord is with you." And the Lord literally was with him. The Lord is with you; the Lord is your hope. Not just in the past, but now. The Lord is with your people and with you, Gideon. And the Lord will help you, Gideon, to liberate God’s people from oppression.

In today’s epistle St. Paul, as he does over and over again, reassures the people of the profound, fundamental resurrection hope that they have been given. To the Corinthians, who seemed to need a lot of reassuring, he says: Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, and he was buried, and he was raised on the third day in accordance with our scriptures. This is what our God has done for us. Now. This is the faith, this is the hope we have been given. The promise of God’s presence and God’s purpose with us beyond even death itself. Life not bound by sin, but freely shared with the resurrected Christ. And this promise is given, as Paul points out, even to someone like himself who was untimely born, who did not know Jesus face to face. A promise given for all time for all people, even those of us who have never known Jesus face to face.

And of course in the wonderful Gospel story Jesus himself shows Peter, James and John that he, Jesus, brings fullness of life. It was just an ordinary day of fishing… a particularly frustrating ordinary day of fishing. And then full nets, against all odds and expectations. Nets bursting with the fullness of life. Fullness of life is Jesus’ gift. That is our hope.

"O God our help in ages past, our hope for years to come, be thou our guide while life shall last and our eternal home." Do you hear that message, that reassurance, speaking to you today from the pages of Holy Scripture? O God, our help in ages past, our hope for years to come. In the unlikeliest of times and settings, God’s people have heard and known God’s word, God’s presence, God’s promise. Over and over the Bible tells those stories, so that we may hear them in our lives. God is our hope.

But there’s another message, too, in all three of this morning’s readings. Yes, God was Gideon’s hope. God brought Gideon hope. God was Paul’s hope and the hope of the people of Corinth. God was the hope of Peter, James and John, and all those who walked with Jesus. God was their hope.

And they were God’s hope.

All three of these readings tell or refer to individuals’ calls to serve God in some particular way, to bring God’s presence and promise to others. God put his hope in Gideon. God put his hope in Paul, and in Peter of all people. God’s hope for the world was invested in the life and ministry of Gideon, in the lives and ministries of Paul and a fractious bunch of new Christians in Corinth. God put his hope in the lives and words of some hot-headed, self-centered fisherman in Galilee. They found their hope in God. God placed his hope in them. God looked forward towards a future that they would help transform.

Gideon was a reluctant hope-bearer. He was a bit of whiner. He was a staunch member of that club that you still find from time to time within the people of God… the "somebody should" club. Somebody should help us. But not me, my clan is the least in Manasseh. Somebody should do something about this situation we’re in. But not me, I am weak. Somebody should, but not me. But God had great hope even in Gideon. And with a little convincing, Gideon came to see that with God’s help, he was plenty strong. God’s strength was with him. And with the help of God’s strength, he could be the mighty warrior that was needed to be hope bearer, the hope bringer in that time.

And Paul, that weird mixture of extreme self-confidence and yet insecurity. Extremely self-confident in his own abilities, yet insecure because he had not known Jesus face to face. And Paul could never forgot that in his past, he had persecuted the early Christians. An arrogant, insecure, former persecutor. God placed great hope in Paul.

And Peter, James and John. Everyday, ordinary, sinful people. The hope for God’s world.

May you know the Christian hope in your life. May God give you hope. Now and for the future’s promise. May you find the word and presence of God with you as you read the stories of the Bible; may you discover God’s hope as you worship, as you look upon the faces of others in the Body of Christ, who are bearers of the image of Christ. May you hear God’s reassurance and promise in your personal meetings with God in prayer. God is with you now and promises you always a hope-full future. God is our hope.

And we are God’s hope. We are God’s hope for the world. Just as he did for Gideon and Paul and Peter, God has great hopes for us.

Amen.