Hope Romans 15:4-13
Introduction
What are you hoping for this Christmas? Among other things I’m hoping that I won’t be hit by a tummy bug like I was last year – I hope to be able to enjoy my Christmas dinner. One of our favourite Christmas carols has the line “The hopes and fears of all the years are met in you tonight” – on a more serious note I am hoping that Jesus will be born afresh in our hearts this Christmas time. In this season of Advent as we look beyond that first arrival of Jesus towards his coming again in glory, I wonder if you share my hope that His return will be soon – bringing in his kingdom in all its glory.
The reading from Romans 15 set me thinking about hope – its one of those words which we all use without necessarily thinking about what it means. We use it in both a superficial and a deep way. Superficially it has about it the sense of wishful thinking – I hope its not raining when I take the dogs out tomorrow. More deeply it has the sense of faith and trust. It is this deeper meaning that Paul has in mind here when he prays that we may overflow with hope Rom.15:13 and of the enduring nature of hope in 1 Cor.13:13.
H eaven
Hope is forward-looking and in particular looking forward to heaven. One of the songs we sing has the phrase taken from Col.1:27 “The hope of glory in our hearts”. Our hope is based on the saving work of Jesus, Christ in us.
O ptimistic
Hope is looking forward to something good – we hope for the best not the worst! What better than a life secure in God’s love. Ultimately our hope is in the return of Jesus bringing his kingdom in all its fullness. The is what Paul refers to in his letter to Titus as a blessed hope: “we wait for the blessed hope – the glorious appearing of our great God and savious Jesus Christ” Titus 2:13 This hope is not simply for us as humans but for the whole created order. Romans 8:18-25
P atience / perseverance.
Hope has about it the commitment to a long haul. It is not a fleeting fly-by-night sort of thing, but an enduring quality. In Rom.15 Paul makes the link between hope and endurance: ”so that through endurance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope” Rom.15:4. There is a fuller treatment of this in Rom.5:1-5
E ncouragement
Hope gives courage to face the challenges of the world around us. If we have hope in God and his coming kingdom then we not only have courage ourselves to face trials and temptations but we encourage those around us too. If those around us are full of hope then it gives us hope and courage too. I did a full day of teaching on healing on Thursday. One of the things I did was to get people to think about a personal experience of healing, then to say what factors had contributed to that healing – one that came out was hope. The hope that we will recover aids that recovery. The opposite is also true, the removal of hope leads to discouragement.
Application
Whilst it is not listed as one of the fruit of the Spirit, hope might as well be. As Paul says here it is by the power of the Holy Spirit that we overflow with hope. So what are you hoping for this Christmas? My predecessor as Area Dean told me a salutary tale about dealing with the press. He was called by the Gazette and asked what he was hoping for that Christmas – off the cuff he replied “A chance to flop in an arm chair with a box of choccies” To his shame when the paper came out that weekend it said: “We asked local religious leaders what they were hoping for this Christmas – the Abbot from Ealing Abby said ‘World peace’, the chief Rabbi, ‘An end to world hunger’ and the area dean of Ealing…….”
My hope is that all of us will be filled to overflowing with hope:
“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”.