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Finding Hope Within Anticipation

  • We start with hope in anticipation.
  • As we take it up, I want to return to the quote we looked at last week by Schopenhauer
    • If you notice, hope and fear are bound together opposing despair.
    • This is fascinating, because, at least in Schop's mind, hope and fear are not opposed to each other, but are in relation with each other. Despair is the negation of both - a situation where nothing makes sense, and that it's just as well to consider nihilism as the sole approach to living. This is similar to recognizing that the opposite of love isn't really hate, but apathy.
    • But it's interesting to see how we might respond to something should we not despair, but instead hope or fear:
      • Am I afraid for my children to have an accident that hurts them, or do I hope for the healthiest life for them?
      • Do I fear that I may lose my job, or do I hope that I continue to succeed in my work?
      • Is the world in constant collapse, or might there be signs of hope abounding?
      • (Again, with despair, we'd not even both answering the question)
    • Given our proclivity at the moment, we're likely to respond differently, even to the same situation:
      • The difference between bubble wrapping our children and leaving them at home, or allowing them experiences that equip them to, over time, be as well rounded and healthy as possible.
      • Do just enough not to get fired, or try to grow in our positions - even strike out on something else because we find ourselves outgrowing our position?
      • With the final, we might see how political polarization takes root in our hearts: the more decay we see, the more we create enemies, the more we see destruction, the more we defend.
      • I recognize that the world is far more complicated and nuance than these, but as we pull levers, we can see how percentages of hope and fear my sway our response to the same situation.
      • And, if you notice, at least in these examples, what we have is action tied to both hope and fear.
        • We often can connect action with fear - fight or flight, etc.
        • But it is a mistake to assume that hope need just merely be passive.
  • The gospel today could lead us two different directions, too - to hope or fear
    • Was Noah afraid as he built the ark?
    • What of the people in each of the examples here?
    • Certainly, we hear the echos of fear in regards to the thief in the night.
  • How can we make this choice?
    • Well, it seems like it's right at the start of our text today - we just don't know.
    • If you notice all the examples I gave earlier, each of them is dictated by a fear of something uncontrollable.
      • I can't control everything that happens to my children, my job, or the world.
      • Noah couldn't control the flood
      • No one could control their disappearance.
      • The owner couldn't control the thief.
    • Our fear, truly, may instead be resting in what we cannot control. This has a direct connection to what we anticipate.
    • But - what we can control, even in its finitude, is all the infinite moments right here, right now. This is, of course, a bit more fragile, but it is where we're find anticipatory hope.
    • The promise is there - Christ born, resurrected, returning. Weapons of war into instruments of flourishing. Peace. Joy. Hope. It's just we can't control it.
    • When we stop fearing what we can't control, we begin to see how fear - one that is healthy that allows us to avoid despair (in which we believe believing means we are destined to fail) - is a caretaker of hope.
    • Protected, then hope has a chance to witness all of the beauty that surrounds infinite moments.
      • Let's take one that affects our church right now - this capital campaign.
      • I know that we have a lofty goal - we anticipate that we will complete the building we laid out in the back. But we can't necessarily control the future. We don't know what will happen tomorrow, six months from now, three years from now.
      • That could paralyze us. We could bury ourselves in analysis paralysis, doomsday ourselves into oblivion, or perhaps worst of all, give into a nihilistic despair believing that every time a church has big dreams it's bound to fail.
      • Or, we could trust that we will get there when we will get there, and witness all of the infinite moments of hope that abound:
        • We've surpassed every other fundraising goal this church has done and we've haven't even talked to everyone yet.
        • We've shared with one another our hopes, joys, concerns, worries - we're growing as a community.
        • It doesn't mean that we're being foolish either - our fear of failure helps us caretake. Even now we have phasing options being refined by the General Contractor and others to make sure that we can meet a goal with the funds that come in.
        • In the end, we're relieved to watch God's intervention in our lives, and witness the hope that abounds around us. Fueling us onwards.
  • The end is sure, the time is not. The hope in anticipation is witnessing God's intervention in our lives without control.