Hope
Before I begin I have a bit of a confession to make. In school last week in an assembly I confessed to watching neighbours on tv – I actually record it each day so I make sure that I don’t miss it, but that is nothing compared to the next confession. I enjoy politics and I enjoy economics ! They may not be the coolest things around but I enjoy listening to the news at the moment with the various discussions of economists and politicians – of course what is not so good is the very real pain being felt by many people closely affected by the current economic problems around most of the world.
I find it interesting that the polls being taken at the moment seem to be showing an increase in popularity for the Prime Minister – the Prime Minster that for the past decade has been telling us, in his role as Chancellor, that the age of boom and bust economies has gone !
Now, I am not for one moment blaming Gordon Brown for the economic turmoil in the world today, but his idea of boom and bust economics being gone was far fetched, naïve or plain stupid ! The reality is that where there is a boom, a crash will always to some degree follow. Economies are run in cycles, and they are governed very much by human actions.
For all of the complicated economic arguments expressing suggestions as to why any collapse in an economy comes about, the most important reason is not government borrowing or spending, or production capacities, or oil prices or banks lending to ridiculous and negligent levels, the most important reason for an economic collapse is confidence or lack of it.
Confidence is what really sustains and grows an economy, and that’s not really as surprising as it sounds, because it’s very often confidence or lack of it that governs how we all behave. In Christian terms we may well call this confidence ‘Hope’. A man asked a friend if he had ever achieved any of his childhood hopes, and the friend replied, ‘Yes, when my mother used to comb my hair, I often wished I didn’t have any !’
More seriously, there’s an Italian proverb that says that ‘The man who lives only by hope will die with despair’, but whoever wrote that obviously hadn’t found the hope that we find in Jesus.
Many people today, not just those affected by the economic crisis are living without any hope at all. One night at dinner a man, fascinated his companions by telling of his experiences in a little town named Flagstaff. The town was to be flooded, as part of a large lake for which a dam was being built. In the months before it was to be flooded, all improvements and repairs in the whole town were stopped. What was the use of painting a house if it were to be covered with water in six months? Why repair anything when the whole village was to be wiped out? So, week by week, the whole town became more and more dirty and derelict. And then the man added by way of explanation: "Where there is no faith in the future, there is no power in the present."
How true that is – to live well today we need to believe that there is a bright tomorrow – however far in the distance that tomorrow may seem.
I hate black and white answers, I can’t stand the fact that some people seem to have all the answers conveniently. I’m a huge fan of Billy Graham the American evangelist, he’s had a wonderful effect on my life, but some time ago I found a book which is given out to his workers in which life’s difficult situations are addressed, and there’s an answer for every one of them ! But in my experience, and perhaps it’s a deficiency on my part, sometimes there are no answers.
Sometimes people hope in things that are not realistic, sometimes people hedge their bets so finely that disaster will almost certainly follow at some point. There’s a story of a man sentenced to death. He obtained a reprieve by assuring the king he would teach his majesty's horse to fly within a year - on the condition that if he didn't succeed, he would be put to death at the end of the year. "Within a year," the man explained later, "the king may die, or I may die, or the horse may die. Furthermore, in a year, who knows? Maybe the horse will learn to fly."
In the gospel reading we heard from John’s gospel (12:12-13) we read of people without real hope. On the day we know as Palm Sunday the crowds lined the streets waving their palm branches, with some sort of hope that Jesus was coming to give them earthly freedom – to take away their taxes, to remove Roman rule, perhaps even to provide a bit of relief from the religious authorities – they pinned their hopes on something Jesus had never promised them… Their sentiment wasn’t hope, but some kind of wishful thinking…
But the other gospel reading (Mark 5:21-end) offered a totally different picture – there was the faith and hope of Jairus who begged Jesus to come and help his daughter, and there was the faith of the woman who believed that even by touching the clothes of Jesus she could be made well. Their hope was not misplaced…
The woman was healed and Jairus’ daughter was raised to life when all hope seemed to have gone, and today, putting our imperfect human hopes in Jesus will be rewarded by the joy and peace of knowing that in even the darkest of times, we can still look forward to a better tomorrow.
Some would say our faith is a vain hope. Some would say it’s just a crutch to get us through, others would say it has no meaning in a world where we need to help ourselves, but we must point them, and they must look to Jesus – in him we have a secure hope.
He didn’t come with empty promises – he didn’t come promising wealth or happiness. He came promising peace, he came offering hope… He took people with him on his ministry, and they watched him deliver his promises – he healed, he preached justice and fairness, he taught people to love, he showed people the futility of earthly wealth and success and told them of the joys of seeking real success in life – the ability to help one another, and to be helped, the gift of compassion and understanding.
And though at times it looked to many of the followers that the ministry had failed, Jesus never once broke his commitment to them – there were times when all seemed lost, he was followed like a criminal, arrested, tortured, even killed – but there was still hope because he conquered death and rose again, destroying the power of death once and for all !
I said earlier I didn’t like people painting a picture of the world that is just black and white – I don’t. We must always seek to ask questions, it’s only by doing that that we can ever really learn, but by looking at Jesus we see a man who never disappointed in giving people what they needed. Sometimes he didn’t give what they wanted, but he never promised to…
Jesus never broke a promise – he lived the life he said he would. Today he’s still making promises to each one of us – the promise to love us, to accept us, to heal us, to challenge us, to move us and to fill us with his power and his wisdom….
We’re going sing now – ‘make me a channel of your peace’, and as we sing let’s offer this as our prayer, that we may be used to spread God’s peace out into the world today. AMEN
I find it interesting that the polls being taken at the moment seem to be showing an increase in popularity for the Prime Minister – the Prime Minster that for the past decade has been telling us, in his role as Chancellor, that the age of boom and bust economies has gone !
Now, I am not for one moment blaming Gordon Brown for the economic turmoil in the world today, but his idea of boom and bust economics being gone was far fetched, naïve or plain stupid ! The reality is that where there is a boom, a crash will always to some degree follow. Economies are run in cycles, and they are governed very much by human actions.
For all of the complicated economic arguments expressing suggestions as to why any collapse in an economy comes about, the most important reason is not government borrowing or spending, or production capacities, or oil prices or banks lending to ridiculous and negligent levels, the most important reason for an economic collapse is confidence or lack of it.
Confidence is what really sustains and grows an economy, and that’s not really as surprising as it sounds, because it’s very often confidence or lack of it that governs how we all behave. In Christian terms we may well call this confidence ‘Hope’. A man asked a friend if he had ever achieved any of his childhood hopes, and the friend replied, ‘Yes, when my mother used to comb my hair, I often wished I didn’t have any !’
More seriously, there’s an Italian proverb that says that ‘The man who lives only by hope will die with despair’, but whoever wrote that obviously hadn’t found the hope that we find in Jesus.
Many people today, not just those affected by the economic crisis are living without any hope at all. One night at dinner a man, fascinated his companions by telling of his experiences in a little town named Flagstaff. The town was to be flooded, as part of a large lake for which a dam was being built. In the months before it was to be flooded, all improvements and repairs in the whole town were stopped. What was the use of painting a house if it were to be covered with water in six months? Why repair anything when the whole village was to be wiped out? So, week by week, the whole town became more and more dirty and derelict. And then the man added by way of explanation: "Where there is no faith in the future, there is no power in the present."
How true that is – to live well today we need to believe that there is a bright tomorrow – however far in the distance that tomorrow may seem.
I hate black and white answers, I can’t stand the fact that some people seem to have all the answers conveniently. I’m a huge fan of Billy Graham the American evangelist, he’s had a wonderful effect on my life, but some time ago I found a book which is given out to his workers in which life’s difficult situations are addressed, and there’s an answer for every one of them ! But in my experience, and perhaps it’s a deficiency on my part, sometimes there are no answers.
Sometimes people hope in things that are not realistic, sometimes people hedge their bets so finely that disaster will almost certainly follow at some point. There’s a story of a man sentenced to death. He obtained a reprieve by assuring the king he would teach his majesty's horse to fly within a year - on the condition that if he didn't succeed, he would be put to death at the end of the year. "Within a year," the man explained later, "the king may die, or I may die, or the horse may die. Furthermore, in a year, who knows? Maybe the horse will learn to fly."
In the gospel reading we heard from John’s gospel (12:12-13) we read of people without real hope. On the day we know as Palm Sunday the crowds lined the streets waving their palm branches, with some sort of hope that Jesus was coming to give them earthly freedom – to take away their taxes, to remove Roman rule, perhaps even to provide a bit of relief from the religious authorities – they pinned their hopes on something Jesus had never promised them… Their sentiment wasn’t hope, but some kind of wishful thinking…
But the other gospel reading (Mark 5:21-end) offered a totally different picture – there was the faith and hope of Jairus who begged Jesus to come and help his daughter, and there was the faith of the woman who believed that even by touching the clothes of Jesus she could be made well. Their hope was not misplaced…
The woman was healed and Jairus’ daughter was raised to life when all hope seemed to have gone, and today, putting our imperfect human hopes in Jesus will be rewarded by the joy and peace of knowing that in even the darkest of times, we can still look forward to a better tomorrow.
Some would say our faith is a vain hope. Some would say it’s just a crutch to get us through, others would say it has no meaning in a world where we need to help ourselves, but we must point them, and they must look to Jesus – in him we have a secure hope.
He didn’t come with empty promises – he didn’t come promising wealth or happiness. He came promising peace, he came offering hope… He took people with him on his ministry, and they watched him deliver his promises – he healed, he preached justice and fairness, he taught people to love, he showed people the futility of earthly wealth and success and told them of the joys of seeking real success in life – the ability to help one another, and to be helped, the gift of compassion and understanding.
And though at times it looked to many of the followers that the ministry had failed, Jesus never once broke his commitment to them – there were times when all seemed lost, he was followed like a criminal, arrested, tortured, even killed – but there was still hope because he conquered death and rose again, destroying the power of death once and for all !
I said earlier I didn’t like people painting a picture of the world that is just black and white – I don’t. We must always seek to ask questions, it’s only by doing that that we can ever really learn, but by looking at Jesus we see a man who never disappointed in giving people what they needed. Sometimes he didn’t give what they wanted, but he never promised to…
Jesus never broke a promise – he lived the life he said he would. Today he’s still making promises to each one of us – the promise to love us, to accept us, to heal us, to challenge us, to move us and to fill us with his power and his wisdom….
We’re going sing now – ‘make me a channel of your peace’, and as we sing let’s offer this as our prayer, that we may be used to spread God’s peace out into the world today. AMEN
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