and therefore i have hope
this morning, part of my reading was from romans 15, which contains much to reflect on.
15.13 caught my attention:
May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. (NRSVue)
hope is such a marvelous place to be. when hope fills my heart & mind, there's such a lightness to my spirit.
but hope in this shattered world is often (usually?) so fragile. and when hope (inevitably?) dies away, there's a heaviness, a cloud of gloom that weighs me down. "i had hoped..." is one of the saddest possible starts to a sentence. remember those two in luke 24 trudging their despondent way to emmaus, telling an unrecognized jesus all about what had happened to him? "we had hoped..."
what then does it mean for god to be "a god of hope"? i read it simply as that god can always be relied on, can always be hoped in.
relied on for what? hoped in for what? i suppose simply that god is good. that god is always, always, always acting & moving from a posture of love toward me, toward you, toward all creation, simultaneously. when i find myself believing these things in spite of what i see around me, the god of hope then fills me with all joy & peace... and this joy & peace create even more hope within me, an overflowing abundance of hope within me.
and all of that — the believing & the joy & the peace & the abounding hope are all themselves the power of the holy spirit within me, filling me with life eternal.
but what if my actual circumstances are simply awful? what if everything points sensibly to a place of exhaustion, of despair, of gloom, of hopelessness?
if god is actually a god of hope, of love, of steadfast faithfulness, then there must be a path out of that awful place that leads to honesty, to complaint, to grief, to lament, to hope, to joy, to peace, to freedom, to self-giving love, to life. it may not necessarily or always be a path out of those circumstances. perhaps the path that leads to life doesn't lead us out of that awful place but rather sets us free to be filled with hope & joy & peace right where we are. that is surely the witness of so many who have walked the way of jesus before us.
but what if we altogether miss that path that leads to life? what if we choose something else? well, in the wisdom & mercy & love of god, when we make the wrong choice, we find ourselves in a fresh set of circumstances within which there is yet another new (old?) path toward freedom, joy, peace.
always, always, always.
at least, that's how i read romans 15.13.
recall yesterday's reflections on hope...
this morning: lamentations 3.21-26 (NRSVue)
But this I call to mind,
and therefore I have hope:
The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases,
his mercies never come to an end;
they are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness.
“The LORD is my portion,” says my soul,
“therefore I will hope in him.”
The LORD is good to those who wait for him,
to the soul that seeks him.
It is good that one should wait quietly
for the salvation of the LORD.
startling perspective in the midst of unbearable horror. listen to what comes directly before:
I am one who has seen affliction
under the rod of God’s wrath;
he has driven and brought me
into darkness without any light;
against me alone he turns his hand,
again and again, all day long.
He has made my flesh and my skin waste away;
he has broken my bones;
he has besieged and enveloped me
with bitterness and tribulation;
he has made me sit in darkness
like the dead of long ago.
He has walled me about so that I cannot escape;
he has put heavy chains on me;
though I call and cry for help,
he shuts out my prayer;
he has blocked my ways with hewn stones;
he has made my paths crooked.
He is a bear lying in wait for me,
a lion in hiding;
he led me off my way and tore me to pieces;
he has made me desolate;
he bent his bow and set me
as a mark for his arrow.
He shot into my vitals
the arrows of his quiver;
I have become the laughingstock of all my people,
the object of their taunt songs all day long.
He has filled me with bitterness;
he has sated me with wormwood.
He has made my teeth grind on gravel;
he has made me cower in ashes;
my soul is bereft of peace;
I have forgotten what happiness is;
so I say, “Gone is my glory
and all that I had hoped for from the LORD.”
The thought of my affliction and my homelessness
is wormwood and gall!
My soul continually thinks of it
and is bowed down within me.
and then today i'm in luke 24
Now on that same day two of them were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem, and talking with each other about all these things that had happened. While they were talking and discussing, Jesus himself came near and went with them, but their eyes were kept from recognizing him. And he said to them, “What are you discussing with each other while you walk along?” They stood still, looking sad. Then one of them, whose name was Cleopas, answered him, “Are you the only stranger in Jerusalem who does not know the things that have taken place there in these days?” He asked them, “What things?” They replied, “The things about Jesus of Nazareth, who was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, and how our chief priests and leaders handed him over to be condemned to death and crucified him. But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel. Yes, and besides all this, it is now the third day since these things took place. Moreover, some women of our group astounded us. They were at the tomb early this morning, and when they did not find his body there they came back and told us that they had indeed seen a vision of angels who said that he was alive. Some of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said, but they did not see him.” Then he said to them, “Oh, how foolish you are and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have declared! Was it not necessary that the Messiah should suffer these things and then enter into his glory?” Then beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them the things about himself in all the scriptures.
As they came near the village to which they were going, he walked ahead as if he were going on. But they urged him strongly, saying, “Stay with us, because it is almost evening and the day is now nearly over.” So he went in to stay with them. When he was at the table with them, he took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them. Then their eyes were opened, and they recognized him, and he vanished from their sight. They said to each other, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he was talking to us on the road, while he was opening the scriptures to us?”