Fourth Sunday
In 2018 the Rubin Museum in New York City opened an exhibition entitled “A Monument for the Anxious and Hopeful,” a participatory art installation that invited visitors to anonymously write down their anxieties and hopes on vellum cards and then display them on a large wall. Guests would then have a chance to read and reflect on our shared fears and aspirations, engaging in a communal act of emotional solidarity. Over 50,000 cards were submitted over the course of the exhibition, with wide-ranging themes that covered the personal, the political, and the spiritual. The creators of the exhibition had this to say about the thoughts they hoped to inspire:
“By definition, anxiety and hope are determined by a moment that has yet to arrive—but how often do we pause to fully consider our relationship with the future?”
—Candy Chang and James A. Reeves, “A Moment for the Anxious and Hopeful”
For those who have put their faith in Christ, that statement is only half-true. Anxiety is definitely rooted in “a moment that has yet to arrive,” because anxiety is about the fear of something that may yet happen. Anxiety imagines a scenario and lets it play out to its worst possible conclusion, then prompts us to react as if that conclusion has already taken place. Anxiety steals from a potential future and pulls us down in the present. Anxiety looks ahead and is afraid of what it may find.
In a secular definition, hope, like anxiety, also looks to the future. The only difference is that hope is about imagining a positive outcome rather than a negative one. Hope looks ahead and feels good about what it may find. But in both cases, the ultimate resolution is uncertain. In both cases, we are looking to the future and wondering what will take place.
Biblical hope is different. Before it looks ahead, biblical hope first finds its foundation in something that has already taken place—the resurrection of Christ. We don’t rest our hope on some imagined outcome that may or may not be assured, we rest our hope on the sure and certain truth that Jesus Christ, who was crucified, is alive. The tomb is empty, and the powers of sin and death have been defeated. That is where we find our hope!
The Apostle Paul addresses this truth in 1 Corinthians 15, when he writes:
“If Christ has not been raised, then your faith is useless and you are still guilty of your sins. In that case, all who have died believing in Christ are lost! And if our hope in Christ is only for this life, we are more to be pitied than anyone in the world.
But in fact, Christ has been raised from the dead. He is the first of a great harvest of all who have died.
So you see, just as death came into the world through a man, now the resurrection from the dead has begun through another man. Just as everyone dies because we all belong to Adam, everyone who belongs to Christ will be given new life.”—1 Corinthians 15:17-22
Paul points out an important distinction between hope from an earthly perspective and hope from a spiritual perspective—in Christ, our hope looks beyond this world, beyond its temporary cares and concerns. Our hope deals in eternal truths, truths that allow us to rest in the knowledge that our sins are forgiven and our future is secure. The resurrection of Jesus is a “down payment” that gives us an assurance which no earthly hope can even come close to providing.
To put it succinctly: we don’t find our hope in the possibility that something good may yet happen…we find our hope in the fact that the very best thing has already taken place.
This past few years have been a time when many of us have struggled to keep hope alive. The good news of Sunday, the message of these “mini-Easters,” is that hope is already alive. The forces of death conspired against it, but hope is alive. The grave tried to silence it, but hope is alive. And there are still voices today that will tell you it’s no longer real, but those voices are lying. Hope is most definitely alive.
There's hope in the morning
Hope in the evening
Hope because you're living
Hope because you're breathing
There's hope in the breaking
Hope in the sorrow
Hope for this moment
My hope for tomorrow
Read the rest of the lyrics here.
Questions for Reflection
1) Do you give in easily to the temptation to think that hope is about things that might yet happen? How might you find ways to ground your hope in what has already taken place on your behalf in the cross and the empty tomb?
2) How does the knowledge that Jesus is alive inspire hope in you? When has that knowledge been most real to you?
3) Theologian J.I. Packer made this distinction between optimism and biblical hope. Spend some time reading and reflecting on his words:
“Optimism is a wish without warrant; Christian hope is a certainty, guaranteed by God himself. Optimism reflects ignorance as to whether good things will ever actually come. Christian hope expresses knowledge that every day of his life, and every moment beyond it, the believer can say with truth, on the basis of God’s own commitment, that the best is yet to come.”—J.I. Packer
4) Today’s song talks about:
—hope in dark days
—hope in the midst of rising evil
—hope in sorrow
—hope in “the breaking.”
How has God ministered hope to you in your own experience of these? Spend some time in praise and thanksgiving for his presence and hope in difficult times.
5) Read and reflect on this verse. Let it lead you into prayerful worship and gratitude:
“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.”—Romans 15:13 (NIV)