Hope. I have noticed that I use this word a lot. I use it as a way of acknowledging possibilities. I also recognize that it can sound wishy washy or pithy, as in ‘hopes and prayers.’ It can sound like it doesn’t have a lot of substance. I learned something new about hope this week: hope is learned strength.
Researchers tell us that we experience hope when we have 3 things:
the ability to set realistic goals,
the ability to figure out how to achieve those goals (including staying flexible to develop alternative pathways), and
we believe in ourselves that we can do it. (We have agency) [1]
Hope doesn’t magically manifest itself. Hope is born of struggle, of making our way through adversity and discomfort. [2] Like when we face challenges to who we think we are or should be, what’s important to us or should be, our values, the way we think the world works, or our self confidence. Hope relies on change being possible because sometimes we cannot change social constructs. We learn hope by trying, by working through challenges, and recognizing our learning along the way to our goal. Those learnings are our strengths that tell us we can have hope again.
It’s important to pause here and talk about the opposite of hope, which is feeling hopeless. Hopelessness stems from not being able to do those three things that make up hope: set realistic goals, find pathways to the goals, and believe in ourselves and our ability to do those things. [3] When hopelessness teams up with sadness, we can feel despair. [4] Finding ourselves in the midst of struggle or pain that feels like it will never end or there’s no way out. That’s a dangerous place to find ourselves. If that is where you find yourself or someone you love, please reach out right away for help right away. 9-8-8 is a confidential 24/7 crisis line if you or someone you know or love are feeling despair. If you are concerned, don’t wait to call.
I gravitate toward hope. Because it means there’s a way through the struggle, through the tough times, through the unexpected. We have the ability to figure out a way and contingency plans, for when the first way doesn’t go the way we anticipated. Hope tells me that we WILL get there.
The gospels bring us good news of hope. The word gospel itself means ‘good news’ and they are intricate stories of hope, designed to reorient our lives and our thinking, and by changing us to change the world. The hope they offer for us and for the world is why we have the gospels, why they have endured, and why we still read them.
This Sunday, the 2nd Sunday in Advent, every year is the Sunday when we are introduced to John the Baptist. Today we meet him twice: once before his birth in the Song of Zechariah, and again as he begins his ministry.
We read/sang the Song of Zechariah (Luke 1:68-79) for our canticle today and it needs a little backstory to help connect it to Advent. Like Jesus, John’s birth is announced by the angel Gabriel. Zechariah is a priest in the temple, and he and his wife Elizabeth are getting older and have not had children. The angel Gabriel visits Zechariah and tells him that his wife Elizabeth will have a son named John, who will be filled with the Holy Spirit from before his birth and he will be empowered with the prophetic spirit of Elijah (a very powerful prophet in Jewish tradition). Zechariah doesn’t believe Gabriel, so the angel declares him mute until after the baby is born.
At the naming and circumcision ceremony when John is 8 days old, Zechariah is filled with the Holy Spirit and finally speaks. This song, the Song of Zechariah, are the first words he speaks. John will be called the prophet of the Most High, will go before the Lord to prepare his way, will give people knowledge of salvation by forgiveness of their sins. John’s own father foreshadows his ministry!
I wonder what Zechariah learned about hope in the year when he was mute. It can’t have been easy. He was a temple priest. His job was to read scripture and say prayers in the temple. He knew there would be an end to his muteness. I wonder if he saw resuming speaking as his goal, and how did he envision his pathway through that year. Did he lean into sharpening other methods of communication? Did he steam and storm at God? Did he listen more carefully to the hymns and music? To the nuances of conversation and birdsong?
Zechariah had months to think about the first words he would utter. Hope is seeded and blossoms in adversity. Zechariah starts with praise and hope for his neighbors, for hill country people living subsistence lives under political oppression. God is preparing the way for salvation, through this child John.
We fast-forward 30-ish years to our gospel reading in chapter 3 of Luke. While it’s tempting to skip over the tongue-twisting recitation of emperor, governor, rulers and high priests, this is an important list. It is a common technique in ancient literature to authenticate an event historically by naming all these verifiable people. Indeed, independent sources can verify dates for all these people, which is why we know that John’s ministry started in the late 20’s of the Common Era.
Beyond placing John’s ministry in history, the list is notable in that John, who is listed last, least important, the only one who isn’t rich and famous (or infamous). He is also the only one given divine authority, “the word of God came to John son of Zechariah” (Luke 3:2).
John’s ministry, foreshadowed by his father, is summarized in the next verse: “He went into all the regions around the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins” (Luke 3:30. John is a hope-bearer.
To people around the Jordan River, mostly in small towns and not the wealthier cities, he echoes the prophet Isaiah as he proclaims that God has the power to level mountains and valleys and to make the way to health and salvation evident, available like a straight, smooth road. So that all flesh, not a subset, all humanity, may enjoy God's vision of peace and thriving.
Hope. The goal is God’s promised salvation. John is spreading the word, making the pathway clear for Jesus’ ministry of healing and peace for all people. If John, who comes from humble beginnings in a Judean hill town, who wears animal skins and eats locusts and wanders in the wilderness, if John can proclaim this hope with authenticity, then anyone, everyone, can believe it’s for them as well.
John prepares the way for Jesus by inviting people to repentance. The Greek word translated as repentance is metanoia, which means ‘turn around’ or ‘be aware.’ John the Baptist invites us to open our eyes, not in shame or fear, but to authentically acknowledge our lives and how we can re-open our hearts to the health and peace God desires for us.
Hope comes from acknowledging that we struggle. We face adversity. Everybody deals with something - in our relationships, our health, our bodies, in grief and economic hardship, in loneliness. No one’s life is perfect, whatever image of perfect we might have. It doesn’t exist. We all struggle.
Hope is the dare, the defiance, the determination and strength, based in what we’ve accomplished before, to set our eyes on thriving, life, health, peace - because that is the world God desires for EVERY human being.
Hope grasps a possibility for the future and charts a path of steps - one small thing and then the next. And contingencies for when our first and second and third try don’t go as expected. Hope believes we can do it. Walking with God and one another for mutual support, we make our way toward thriving, health, and peace.
'Prepare the way of the Lord,
make his paths straight.
Every valley shall be filled,
and every mountain and hill shall be made low,
and the crooked shall be made straight,
and the rough ways made smooth;
and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.' (Luke 3:4b-6)
Amen.
_______
[1] and [2] The explanation of hope and hope research are based on “Hope, Hopelessness, and Despair” in Brené Brown, Atlas of the Heart (New York: Random House, 2021), 97-101.
[3] and [4] “Hopelessness and Despair” in Brené Brown, Atlas of the Heart (New York: Random House, 2021), 101-103.
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