The Coming of Hope (1st Sunday of Advent)
Ruth Ann Stites, Staff Writer
As we approach the end of this year we enter Advent season. The four Sundays leading up to Christmas offer us the opportunity to focus our hearts and minds on what, or rather who, Christmas is all about. Traditionally the topics we focus on in these weeks are hope, peace, joy, and love. As we look forward to His coming, Advent, this week I want to think about what hope is.
We all hope. Some of our hopes are common, small, even trivial. We hope we can get to work on time. We hope the delivery driver left the package where we can find it. We hope we made a good choice with the flavor of ice cream we ordered. All these, as well as the big and important hopes in our lives, are “a feeling of expectation and desire for a certain thing to happen.”[1]
But I’m sure you, like me, think there is more to this hope thing than that. American poet, Emily Dickinson did. In the early 1860’s she pinned the following:
“Hope” is the thing with feathers[2]“Hope” is the thing with feathers -That perches in the soul -And sings the tune without the words -And never stops – at all –
And sweetest – in the Gale – is heard -And sore must be the storm -That could abash the little BirdThat kept so many warm –
I’ve heard it in the chillest land -And on the strangest Sea -Yet – never – in Extremity,It asked a crumb – of me.
For Dickinson hope is more than expectation or desire, it is a presence. She likens hope to a bird with a sweet and persistent song. It is innate, a part of our most essential nature, our soul. It offers comfort, especially in the midst of the storms of life. It doesn’t require anything of us, not even “a crumb.”
I think we can carry this idea of hope as a presence even further than Dickinson did. For the Cross Disciple hope is a Person, our Triune Lord Himself. In Romans 15:13 the Apostle Paul writes, “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.” In 1 Peter 1:3-5 we find, “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.” And in 1 Corinthians 15 where he speaks of the importance of the resurrection Paul says, “If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied” (1 Cor. 15:19). And in Hebrews 6 the author argues that God’s promise to Abraham was guaranteed by God himself. “God did this so that, by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled to take hold of the hope set before us may be greatly encouraged. We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure….” (Heb. 6:18-19a). Over and over again Scripture brings us back to our hope for salvation and eternal joy existing in and through a Person and that He is with us…present.
At Christmas we often hear parts of Isaiah 9 quoted. In his inimitable style, the prophet tells us of the coming of the Messiah:
For to us a child is born,to us a son is given,and the government will be on his shoulders.And he will be calledWonderful Counselor, Mighty God,Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the greatness of his government and peacethere will be no end.He will reign on David’s throneand over his kingdom,establishing and upholding itwith justice and righteousnessfrom that time on and forever.The zeal of the Lord Almightywill accomplish this. Isaiah 9:6-7
Let us not forget that the King promised in Isaiah and looked for down through the centuries is our hope abiding with us today, even our Lord Jesus whose birth we commemorate this Christmas.
(Photo credit: R. A. Stites, close-up of cedar tree with berry, Rogers, AR)
[1] Oxford Languages definition displayed in Google.
[2] “Hope” is the thing with feathers | The Poetry Foundation
