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Welcome to the John Mark Comer Teachings podcast by

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Practicing the Way. This

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teaching was originally given at Bridgetown Church

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in Portland, Oregon as a part of

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an Advent series. Hey,

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please turn in your Bibles to

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Luke chapter 2 as we finish

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up our teaching series on Advent. Luke

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chapter 1. If

0:33

you are new to Advent, it is

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based on an ancient Latin word.

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If you are extra nerd level,

0:39

add is a preposition meaning to,

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and vent is a verb meaning

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to come. At Advent,

0:46

we remember that God came

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to us in Jesus and

0:50

that God will come again.

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We look back to Jesus' first coming

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and as we've said over the last

0:57

few weeks in the history of the

0:59

church calendar, Advent was more about how

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we look forward to Jesus' second

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coming and at Advent, we

1:06

get in touch with the

1:08

felt experience of living in

1:10

the in-between. On that

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note, please stand with me for the

1:15

reading of Scripture as more than just

1:17

a first century biography, but as the

1:19

word of God. Luke

1:22

chapter 1, verse 26. In

1:26

the sixth month of Elizabeth's pregnancy, God

1:29

sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a

1:32

town in Galilee up in the north

1:34

of Israel, to a

1:36

virgin pledged to be married to

1:38

a man named Joseph, a descendant

1:40

of David. Now that detail right

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there is important because in the

1:44

first century, all Israelites were waiting

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for a descendant of David to

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come as the Messiah and usher

1:50

in the kingdom of God. Israel

1:53

at the time was under the oppression of the

1:55

Roman Empire. About hundreds of years before, God made

1:57

a promise to King David that one of his

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sons or descendants would do

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that job and Israel was

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literally waiting on pins and

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needles for God's promise to

2:09

come to pass. Here is

2:11

a descendant of David. The

2:13

virgin's name though was Mary.

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The angel went to her and

2:18

said, greetings you are highly favored

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the Lord is with

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you. Mary was greatly

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troubled at his words and wondered

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what kind of greeting this might

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be but the angel said to

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her do not be afraid. Mary

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you have found favor with

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God you will conceive and give

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birth to his son and you are to call

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him Jesus or Yeshua

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in Hebrew meaning Yahweh saves.

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He will be great and will be

2:49

called the son of the Most High.

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The Lord God will

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give him the throne of his

2:55

father David and he will reign

2:57

over Jacob's descendants forever his kingdom

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will never end meaning you are

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about to give birth to the

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long-awaited Messiah. How

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will this be? Mary asked the angel

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since I am a virgin

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not only am I a poor teenage

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girl living up in a off the

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beaten path village in the north but

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I'm a virgin. The angel answered the

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Holy Spirit will come on

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you and the power

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of the Most High will

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overshadow you so the

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Holy One to be born will be called

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the son not only of David but

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the son of God. Even

3:35

Elizabeth your relative is going to have a

3:37

child in her old age and she who

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is said to be unable to conceive is

3:42

in her sixth month for no word from

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God will ever fail. Let me read that

3:46

again no word from God will ever fail.

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I am

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the Lord's servant Mary answered may

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your word to me be fulfilled or that

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can be translated. translated, may it

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be to me according to

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your word. Then the angel

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left her. Now before you sit

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down turn over to the right to Luke chapter

4:09

24 from the beginning

4:12

of Luke's gospel to the

4:14

end to the story right

4:17

before the birth of Jesus to

4:20

the story right after the birth

4:22

of Jesus. Take

4:24

a look at Luke chapter 24 verse 13.

4:26

Now that same day two of them were going

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to a village called

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Emmaus about seven miles from Jerusalem.

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Always pay attention to details in

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the biblical text. This is before

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a word processor and Gutenberg. Every

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word is all about real estate.

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Details matter. Note that detail about

4:47

seven miles. Why is that in

4:49

the text? Well one reason is

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it could be because Bethlehem

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is also just about seven miles

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from Jerusalem. When I was doing

4:58

graduate work and I remember I went on

5:00

a run one day. I just thought I should run the

5:03

journey from Jerusalem to Bethlehem just to be able

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to brag about it one day in a sermon.

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This is my moment. I've been waiting a decade.

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Here I am done right.

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Never mind how slow I was. But

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I ran it right. But it's just

5:16

about seven miles. Bethlehem is to the

5:18

south Emmaus is to the west. This

5:20

could be a literary clue from the

5:22

writer Luke that we are about to

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read a bookend story and we're to

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read this story side by side with

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the one at the beginning. Keep

5:30

reading. Then they were talking

5:33

with each other about everything that had

5:35

just happened. As they talked

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and discussed these things with each other

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Jesus himself came up and walked with

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them but they were kept from recognizing

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him. He asked them what is

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it that you are discussing as you walk

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along. They stood still

5:50

their faces downcast. Jesus

5:52

so they thought had just

5:55

died. Can you imagine the

5:57

feeling of disappointment and disillusionment.

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One of them named Cleopas asked him,

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are you the only one visiting Jerusalem

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who does not know the things that

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have happened here in these days? What

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things he asked, I imagine a little smirk in

6:10

Jesus, or at least a twinkle in his eye. About

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Jesus of Nazareth, they replied, he was

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a prophet, no, prophet, not

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king. Powerful in word and

6:20

deed before God and all the people,

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the chief priests and our rulers handed

6:24

him over to be sentenced to death

6:27

and they crucified him, but we had

6:29

hoped that he was

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the one who was going to redeem

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Israel, meaning we had hoped that he

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was the Messiah, that he was the one who was

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going to save us and deliver us from Rome. And

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what is more, it is the third day since all

6:42

this took place. In addition, some of

6:45

our women amazed us. They went to the tomb

6:47

early this morning, but didn't find his body. They

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came and told us that they had seen a

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vision of angels who said he was alive. Then

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some of our companions went to the tomb and found

6:55

it just as the women had said, but they did

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not see him. Jesus said to

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them, how foolish you are

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and how slow to believe. All

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that the prophets have spoken. Did

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not the Messiah have to suffer

7:11

these things and then enter his

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glory? And beginning

7:15

with Moses and all the prophets, he

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explained to them what was said and

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all the scriptures concerning himself. Take

7:22

a seat. We

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had hoped that he was the one who

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was going to redeem Israel. We

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had hoped that our business would make it

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through. We had hoped

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that we would not lose our job or

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that if we did, we would have another

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one by now or even a better one.

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We had hoped that our nation

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would come together rather than fracture

7:50

apart. We had hoped that injustice

7:52

would end generations ago. We

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had hoped that our marriage would

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last. that

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our children would grow up to follow

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Jesus. We

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had hoped that we would find a

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spouse long before now. We

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had hoped for Christmas with our family,

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at least that. We

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had hoped that he was the one who was going

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to redeem Israel. The

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name for that feeling of letdown

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and confusion and

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angst and sadness is

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Disappointment. Today we come

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to the final theme of Advent, which is hope.

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We tend to think of the opposite

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of hope as despair. And at least

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my mind goes straight to the suicide

8:39

rate in Oregon or the rapid uptick

8:41

in clinical depression. But for most people,

8:43

the struggle is not with full-on despair,

8:46

but down a notch or two with

8:48

disappointment. Yes, there are moments of despair.

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A fascinating survey came out in

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June saying that one third of

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millennials in June had suicidal thoughts.

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But that's not normal for most

9:02

people. What is normal

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for a lot of people is disappointment.

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I was looking into a group

9:09

of sociologists recently who said the

9:11

primary American emotion is

9:13

disappointment, that feeling

9:15

of letdown. Part

9:17

of that is what sociologists call the myth of

9:19

progress. We Americans, in particular, if

9:22

we are from the middle class, expect

9:24

life to be kind of up and to the

9:26

right, what my therapist calls

9:28

the gospel of upward mobility, which

9:30

is the gospel of America, and

9:33

is the cause of a hidden trauma

9:35

in American life. Plus,

9:37

in the secular view of reality, suffering

9:39

has no role in the meaning or

9:42

purpose of life. There is no meaning

9:44

or purpose to life, other than survival

9:46

and pleasure. And it has no role

9:48

in either of that. So when you

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come up against a global pandemic or

9:53

death or unemployment, we have no meaning

9:55

to assign to our pain. It's just

9:57

pain, a blockage to what we feel.

10:00

think life is all about. Sociologists

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also use the formula happiness

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equals reality minus expectations. Does

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that cut deep? It does for me. It's

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ironic, but when you expect a

10:11

life of ease and upward mobility,

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life is very hard, because at

10:16

some point, it is not up

10:18

and to the right. It's

10:20

full of suffering and setback, no

10:22

matter how much money or education or

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you fill in the blank you have. So

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many of the things that we have put

10:29

our hope in have let

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us down. We

10:34

put our hope in the myth of progress, but

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very few of us feel up and to the

10:39

right this December over last. We

10:41

put our hope in politics, the

10:43

quasi-religion of our secular age, to

10:46

solve the problem or problems of

10:48

the human condition, but it's

10:50

just a mess. We

10:53

put our hope in secular humanism

10:55

and human altruism to end injustice,

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in particular racial injustice, in our

10:59

nation that goes back hundreds of

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years, but it cannot deliver on

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its promise generation after generation. We

11:07

put our hope in the church, but

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it turns out that we, too, are human

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and fragile and

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deeply in need of the mercy of God. So

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a lot of us are feeling a little

11:22

or a lot of disappointment. I

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am. Are you? It's OK to

11:27

admit that. But what if

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disappointment is a good thing? What

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if there's a secret gift in it? What

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if disappointment is an emotional signal

11:38

from our body that

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our hope was set on the wrong object?

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After all, hope must have

11:45

an object. It must have

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something or someone to attach

11:50

itself to, to aim

11:52

at a better future over the

11:54

horizon. What if disappointment comes with

11:56

a gentle invitation from the Spirit?

12:00

to re-center our

12:02

hope, that inner orientation

12:04

of our heart toward the

12:06

future and our energy

12:08

for the present onto God.

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A synonym for disappointment is

12:14

disillusionment, which I think

12:16

of as a bad thing, but

12:18

if you parse out that word

12:20

disillusionment, that's not all bad. To

12:22

be disillusioned is to

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be disavowed of our illusions,

12:28

to face reality. Remember,

12:30

the enemy's specialty is

12:33

illusion. Jesus' specialty

12:35

is truth. You shall know the truth

12:37

and it will set you free. What

12:40

if when we feel disillusionment, rather

12:42

than asking, why has God let

12:45

me down, we were to ask,

12:47

where was I living in an

12:49

illusion? Where was my hope set

12:51

on the wrong object? Now, I

12:53

wish it was as simple as saying that as followers

12:55

of Jesus, our hope is in Jesus and he will

12:57

never let us down. Come on Ziggy, come on up.

13:00

You're never gonna let, never gonna let us down. Every

13:02

time we sing that, I think as a pastor here, I

13:04

really should stop that song. I

13:08

agree with it with about 19 like asterisks

13:11

at the bottom of that statement, you know.

13:13

Man, are we just

13:15

setting people up. Ziggy, let's chat about that later,

13:17

you know. I

13:20

wish it was as simple. Hey, our hope

13:22

is in Jesus. He will never let us

13:25

down, but let's be honest, not religious for

13:27

a moment. Do you

13:29

ever feel at least at an

13:31

emotional level like God has let

13:34

you down? It's not a trick question. I

13:37

sure do. I sure have at times. I

13:39

have felt let down by God.

13:42

Even when our hope is in Jesus, we

13:44

often relate to the two disciples on the

13:46

road to Emmaus. We had

13:49

hoped that Jesus would, we fill

13:51

in the blank, do this

13:53

or do that, show up in this way

13:55

or show up in that way. Note that

13:57

Luke does not name the second disciple. most

14:00

likely in a literary move

14:02

designed to prompt the reader

14:04

to imagine himself or herself

14:07

as the anonymous disciple. Anonymous

14:11

in that, that unnamed

14:13

disciple is you, and it's

14:15

me. All of us come to the

14:18

point in our road where

14:20

we just feel let down by

14:22

Jesus. This is

14:24

why so many first century Jews rejected

14:27

Jesus and refused to believe

14:29

that he was the Messiah because Jesus

14:31

let them down. He did not

14:33

rally an army. He did not defeat Rome. He

14:35

did not even campaign for lower taxes in the

14:37

name of justice in an era where some historians

14:40

argue the tax rate was as high as 80

14:42

to 90 percent. And

14:44

the vast majority of Israel was

14:47

living in slavery, living hand to

14:49

mouth on their own land due

14:52

to Roman suppression. And yet Jesus even

14:54

said barely anything about politics. Jesus

14:57

came and went and

15:00

Rome was still in power. It

15:02

was still oppressor and oppressed. Because

15:05

of that many rejected Jesus. If this is

15:07

what the king is, if this is what

15:09

the kingdom is, no, that's not for me.

15:13

What we need then and

15:15

now is what Paul and

15:17

Romans five, a Jew who

15:19

did accept Jesus and come to believe

15:21

that Jesus was the Messiah. What

15:24

we need is what he calls

15:27

a hope that does not disappoint

15:29

us. That's what we need. A hope

15:32

that does not disappoint us.

15:34

Which raises the question, what

15:36

exactly is hope? At

15:39

least that kind of a hope that

15:41

does not disappoint us and the hope

15:43

of Advent. Well, first we need to

15:45

distinguish from how the word hope is

15:47

used in American and how it's used

15:49

in scripture because it's not the same.

15:51

Same word, different idea. In American, hope

15:53

means a few things. It can mean

15:55

wishful thinking as in I hope it's sunny today.

15:58

Did you think that when you woke up? I

16:00

hope it snows on Christmas. I

16:03

hope I get an end of year

16:05

bonus, whatever. Or it can mean positivity,

16:07

a kind of optimism. We Americans, we

16:09

love our optimism, not Portlanders, but whatever,

16:11

we love our pessimism and cynicism, whatever

16:14

other teaching. But it can mean a

16:17

kind of optimism that, hey, the best is yet

16:19

to come, onward and upward. There's that up

16:21

and to the right mindset. It

16:23

can mean statistics and probability, just being

16:25

like the math in our head. I'm

16:27

hopeful that we will make budget by

16:29

end of fourth quarter. I'm hopeful that

16:32

I can go on vacation by June.

16:35

Now, none of that is bad, though some of

16:37

it is based on fantasy, not on reality. But

16:39

it's not bad. But that's

16:41

not the way hope is used

16:43

in scripture. Here's my working definition

16:46

of hope in scripture. The expectation

16:48

of coming good based

16:50

on the person and promises of

16:52

God. Hope

16:54

is a kind of emotional energy that

16:57

is based in the future but is

17:00

fuel for the present. Here's Eugene Peterson.

17:02

Quote, hope is not about the future.

17:05

Hope is about the present. It obviously

17:07

has to do with the future. But

17:09

it is a virtue, note that, which

17:12

is cultivated in the present. It

17:14

fills the present with energy. It

17:17

connects the two comings of Jesus

17:20

so that we are now participate

17:22

in them. We're not just remembering

17:24

the one and believing in the

17:27

other. We are participating in

17:29

the continuity of the comings.

17:32

Meaning hope, like Advent, is all

17:34

about the now and the not

17:36

yet. Now, all humans,

17:38

religious or not, followers of Jesus

17:41

or Buddhists or secular or whatever,

17:43

all humans are hope based creatures.

17:46

Unlike the animals, survival is not

17:48

enough for us, in particular

17:50

in a time of suffering. We

17:53

need hope that things

17:55

will get better, that good

17:57

will come into our life

17:59

through. the pain. As Martin Luther once

18:01

said, everything that is done in the world

18:04

is done by hope. Everything,

18:06

every business that is started, every

18:08

vow to a marriage that is made,

18:11

every friendship that you kindle, every act

18:13

you do at your job, everything that

18:15

is done in the world is done

18:17

by hope. The question is not do

18:20

you hope. We can't help

18:22

but hope. The question

18:24

is what do you put your

18:26

hope in? As I said before,

18:28

hope must have an object, something

18:31

to attach to. As followers of

18:33

Jesus, our hope is not based

18:36

in a generic sense of optimism,

18:38

nor is it in

18:40

the stability of Western civilization or America

18:42

or a rising standard of living or

18:44

a political vision. Not that any of

18:47

that stuff is bad per se, not

18:49

that it's bad to desire that or

18:51

want that or even have a set

18:53

of expectations for that that's based in

18:55

reality. It's just that all of that

18:57

stuff can and often will let us

18:59

down. It will disappoint us

19:01

and it will disillusion us. Our

19:04

hope must transcend that. It's okay to

19:06

want that, it's okay to even expect

19:08

it, but our hope must go beyond

19:11

that. Our sense of emotional energy for

19:13

why we do what we do, why

19:15

we live in the way of Jesus

19:17

must persevere through the letdown

19:19

of hopes this side of

19:21

the return of Jesus. So

19:24

let me sketch out a biblical theology of

19:26

hope in four very simple parts. To say

19:28

our hope is in God is to say

19:30

four things. Number one, our

19:33

hope is that Jesus will

19:36

return to make all things new,

19:39

that in the language of Revelation he

19:41

will wipe away every tear from their

19:43

eyes, there will be no more death

19:46

or mourning or crying or pain.

19:48

How does that sound? Or

19:50

in the language of Isaiah,

19:53

gladness and joy will overtake

19:55

them and sorrow and sighing

19:57

will flee away. The

20:01

dead will be raised imperishable,

20:03

and we will be changed.

20:05

For the perishable must clothe

20:07

itself with the imperishable, and

20:09

the mortal with immortality. When

20:11

the perishable has been clothed

20:13

with the imperishable, and the

20:15

mortal with immortality, then the

20:17

saying that is written will

20:19

come true. Death has been

20:21

swallowed up in victory. Where,

20:23

O death, is your victory? Where,

20:26

O death, is your sting? That

20:29

is the hope of Jesus. Many

20:31

in our generation, and myself included here, have

20:34

lost sight of the hope of the second

20:36

coming, and what theologians

20:38

call an over-realized eschatology, meaning

20:40

an emphasis on the now over the not

20:42

yet, or the hope of what God will

20:44

do in this life, over the

20:47

hope of what God will do in the life to come. Few

20:50

Gen X and below Christians, at least in

20:52

America, think on a regular basis about the

20:54

hope of Jesus' return, and

20:57

live as if it was eminent in their

20:59

mind's eye. That is not

21:01

a critique of other Christians and other churches.

21:03

That is a loving critique of myself and

21:05

all of you. But

21:08

hope that does not look over the horizon to

21:10

the life to come is not Christian hope at

21:12

all. It's more like

21:14

secular humanism with the twist of Christianity for

21:17

the middle class. As

21:20

Paul put it, if only for

21:22

this life we have hope in Christ,

21:25

we are of all people most to

21:27

be pitied. The

21:29

writings of the New Testament are just

21:31

saturated with the hope of Jesus' return.

21:34

If you read through the New Testament,

21:36

and I would encourage you to get

21:39

our reading plan, or one from the

21:41

Bible Project, or whatever, the hope of

21:43

Jesus' return is literally on every single

21:46

page. It's

21:48

just a radical, different vision

21:51

of hope. Unlike

21:54

our secular world, that has put its hope

21:56

on politics, science, technology, and the

21:59

rise of the world. standard of

22:01

living and even psychedelic mushrooms,

22:03

anything other than Jesus,

22:06

to usher in the kingdom without the

22:08

King, a social order of peace and

22:10

prosperity with no disease or disunity, but

22:13

without Jesus as King, where we're all free to

22:15

basically do whatever we want. And

22:18

as much as we, as followers of

22:20

Jesus, laud and link arms with human

22:22

effort, any human effort to alleviate suffering,

22:25

those things as good as they are

22:27

cannot bring about the kingdom. Humanity

22:30

cannot self-save. We

22:32

can't save the world or even

22:34

ourselves because we need to be saved

22:36

from the world and from ourselves. And

22:40

no politician or policy

22:42

or app or gadget or pill

22:45

can do that. On

22:47

a regular basis, people inject a kind

22:49

of messianic hope into a

22:51

policy or a politician or medical

22:54

breakthrough or technology and

22:56

in the end are let down. The

22:58

gospel of Jesus is that the government

23:00

will be on his shoulders, end quote,

23:03

not ours. His.

23:07

God is the subject of the verb in

23:09

human history. God is the

23:11

one who will bring the kingdom to pass. Do we

23:13

have a role to play? Yes, we partner with God,

23:16

but it's happening with or without us. As

23:19

Lynn is on the move, as C.S. Lewis put it,

23:22

God is at work. That is the hope.

23:24

God will return and make all things new. Second,

23:27

and that's that's the top tier. That's the there's

23:29

an order of importance here. That's at the top.

23:31

Second, in the meantime, Jesus is

23:34

with us in our suffering. Whatever

23:37

comes or does not come, we are not alone.

23:39

It's the language of Christmas that he is Emmanuel.

23:41

That song was beautiful. Ziggy, did you write that?

23:44

That sounded like a Ziggy to me. That was

23:46

beautiful. Emmanuel or God

23:48

with us, as

23:51

John Wesley put it, as he lay

23:53

dying, best of all, God

23:55

is with us. Here's

23:57

a man who literally like is a saint.

24:00

in church history, literally a

24:02

worldwide name who saw miracle

24:04

after miracle after miracle. What did he say

24:06

on his deathbed? You know what the best

24:08

thing of all of it is? I'm

24:12

not alone. God

24:14

is with me. Do you

24:16

believe that? Do I? The

24:18

best thing in life is

24:21

that through Jesus, his

24:23

death on the cross, his resurrection from

24:25

the dead and by the spirit that

24:28

came in the wake of him, we

24:31

all, as followers of Jesus,

24:33

have access to the

24:35

Father and to his

24:37

love. We get

24:39

to participate in the

24:42

inner life of the Trinity through

24:44

prayer and community, in

24:46

the here and now, as

24:48

we wait to step into

24:50

God's presence forever. We

24:53

get to wake up in the morning and find

24:55

a quiet place if such a thing exists,

24:57

if you have little children or roommates. And

25:01

we get to just look at God, looking

25:03

at us in love and

25:06

let his love heal the deepest

25:09

part of our wound, set

25:12

free the deepest slavery to our

25:14

attachments to other things and

25:17

write the deepest sense of our hope

25:19

that is on the wrong object. And

25:22

let his compassion wash

25:24

over the mess and the

25:26

fragility and the humanity of

25:29

our spirit. And nothing,

25:32

no suffering, no failure,

25:35

no recession, no family

25:38

that isn't what you want it to be, not

25:41

the death even of somebody that you love,

25:44

nothing can take away our access

25:46

to God's loving presence. Nothing

25:49

can stop us from right after this

25:52

walking out the door or right here now, just

25:57

living in awareness of and connection.

26:00

to the loving presence of God, the

26:03

gentle, compassionate goodness

26:05

of God by the Spirit. All

26:07

of that is available. All we have to do is stop

26:10

and pray. All we

26:12

have to do is stop and turn our mind and

26:14

our heart to God. He's

26:16

with us no matter what happens.

26:19

It's okay. Third, our

26:22

hope is that Jesus will use our

26:25

suffering to form us into

26:27

people of love in order

26:29

to co-rule with him in the world

26:31

to come. The

26:33

hope of Advent is not just about what happens

26:35

when all our dreams come true, but about

26:38

what happens when our worst nightmares come

26:40

true too. Even

26:43

then, when your suffering is at its

26:45

most acute, it's not in vain. Now,

26:48

to clarify, because I think this is one of the

26:50

great false teachings of our age, just my opinion, I

26:53

am not a theological determinist. I

26:56

don't think that, quote, everything happens for a reason.

26:58

I think that's a lie. I think

27:00

a lot of suffering is senseless. I

27:03

don't think that, and I hesitate to say this on

27:05

the internet, but I don't think that God is in

27:07

control in the sense that he has

27:09

a secret plan behind all evil in my life.

27:12

I don't think he, quote, allows evil. You notice

27:14

I never use that language because that's just code

27:16

for most people that he, not

27:19

really what he wants, but he kind of wants it and

27:21

he has a secret plan. So it's like he's the gatekeeper

27:23

and he will only let into your life what he thinks

27:25

is good for you. I think he

27:27

allows free will because God

27:29

is love and God is

27:31

relationship and love cannot exist outside of

27:33

relationship and love cannot exist without choice.

27:36

And so in the universe that God

27:38

has chosen to actualize that the creator

27:40

has created where love is the ultimate

27:42

value, love cannot exist without freedom. And

27:44

where there is freedom, there is the

27:46

potential for love, but there is also

27:49

the potential for sin, which means there

27:51

is suffering and pain. God

27:53

allows freedom because God wants love

27:55

and the result is love and

27:57

the result is pain and suffering.

28:00

suffering. But all followers of

28:02

Jesus, lots of very smart God-like

28:04

followers of Jesus would disagree with what I

28:06

just said. They're wrong, but they would disagree.

28:09

I'm kidding. My point

28:11

is, all followers of Jesus from across

28:13

the theological spectrum, from a seven-point Calvinist

28:15

to an open theist, or more moderate

28:18

from a five-point Calvinist to an Arminian

28:20

or whatever, all of

28:22

them agree that wherever suffering comes

28:24

from, it goes to good if we open

28:29

it to God. If

28:31

my reading of the New Testament is right

28:34

and the meaning of life is to become

28:36

a person of agape, that life itself

28:38

is a kind of school of

28:41

agape where we learn under Rabbi

28:43

Jesus' tutelage how to grow and

28:45

mature into people of love who

28:48

have the character and the capacity

28:50

to co-rule over the kingdom of

28:52

God with Jesus upon his

28:55

return to take power not to oppress

28:57

the weak but to leverage it for

28:59

the good of all. If that

29:01

is the meaning and purpose of life, and

29:04

if love, as defined by

29:06

Jesus, who said greater love as

29:09

no one than this to lay

29:11

down their life for their friends,

29:13

if love is not tolerance, you

29:15

do you, that's actually a very

29:17

unloving and narcissistic mentality, or

29:20

if love is not desire, I love

29:22

you, meaning I want you or often in our

29:24

city I want to have sex with you, if

29:27

love is not even warm affection, though

29:29

that is a part of it, but if

29:31

love is to desire the good of

29:34

another ahead of your own no matter

29:36

the cost or the sacrifice to yourself,

29:38

then that means that love itself is

29:41

a form of self-giving. It

29:43

is the opposite of narcissism, which is

29:45

why most of what we call romantic

29:47

love isn't love at all, it's ego

29:49

and it's lust, that's

29:52

why the divorce rate is through the roof. Love

29:55

then is giving up your seat on the bus,

29:58

it's getting up in the middle of the night to comfort your family. your

30:00

child after a bad dream. It's

30:02

giving away your hard-earned money to those that need it

30:04

more than you. It's taking on a

30:06

project for a colleague at work who's stressed out.

30:09

It's inviting somebody into your home when you'd

30:11

rather just have it be your family, but

30:13

they're alone this holiday. If

30:15

love is self-giving, and that's what love is,

30:18

then listen, all self-giving

30:20

is a form of suffering. All

30:23

of it. Ergo,

30:25

learning how to suffer well is learning how

30:27

to love. And

30:30

the primary way we become people

30:32

of agape is by suffering. Not

30:35

by sermons. Not by

30:37

reading books. I read a lot of books.

30:41

I'm a little tiny bit behind on my quota because of

30:43

2020. Normally about 120, 130

30:45

this year. I'm just

30:47

over 100, I feel really bad about it. But

30:50

guess what? They have not made

30:52

me more loving. Good

30:54

inspiration, good teaching and

30:56

technique, I'm grateful. You

30:59

don't learn, you don't become a person of love

31:01

by hearing a sermon or reading a book, or

31:04

even by going to church. Though those

31:06

things can become spiritual disciplines in that they

31:08

can open us up to the spirit of

31:10

God. But

31:13

the main way that most of us become loving is

31:15

through suffering. And not just

31:17

through suffering, but

31:20

as Jean-Pierre Des Cassards put it,

31:23

17th century Jesuit, brilliant mind, in

31:26

suffering lovingly. That

31:29

is to say with sweetness and

31:32

consolation, those things

31:35

that often cause weariness and

31:37

disgust in this

31:39

consist sanctity. That

31:41

is our hope, my friends. Not that

31:44

nothing bad will happen to us because

31:46

we're Christians, or that if it

31:48

does, there's a secret plan behind all of it, but

31:50

that no matter what happens to us, whether

31:53

it's from God or from Satan or just

31:55

our own stupid decisions or just chaos in

31:57

a world with a global pandemic, whatever

31:59

happens. happens. We're not

32:01

alone. God is with us.

32:04

And if we give Him our suffering and our

32:06

pain and our disappointment and our

32:08

letdown, God will take all of

32:10

that and by His Spirit give

32:12

us back transformation. He

32:15

will grow and mature us into people of

32:17

love and of joy and of peace and

32:19

of hope, the kind of people who can

32:21

one day rule over the kingdom of

32:23

God with Him. He will work all

32:25

things together for the good of those

32:27

who are called to His purpose. Finally,

32:30

number four, our hope is

32:32

that Jesus will bring forward good from

32:35

that future world into the mess of

32:37

this one. So I need to say this.

32:39

I have to say this last, but I do need to say it.

32:42

Our hope is not just for the life to come.

32:44

It is also for this life. God

32:46

is with us and the Father is

32:49

generous and good and all powerful. Remember

32:51

the kingdom is now and it's not

32:53

yet. Jesus can and does bring forward

32:55

good from the age to come into

32:58

what the New Testament calls this present

33:00

evil age from heaven to earth. N.

33:02

T. Wright wants to find heaven as

33:04

the place where God is storing the

33:07

earth's future. God

33:09

can and does bring forward

33:11

a sneak peek of our

33:13

coming life together. Life

33:15

is full of surprise goodness

33:18

from God. Just keep

33:20

your eyes open. Just watch,

33:23

slow down, unhurry, pay attention.

33:25

The surprise goodness of God

33:27

is all around us. Practice

33:30

gratitude. I'm feeling so much gratitude as we

33:32

come to the end of the year for

33:34

things that from all of my life I

33:36

took for granted. Take

33:38

note of how much goodness is already

33:40

in your life. This

33:43

is our hope, my friends, that Jesus

33:45

will return, that we're not alone, that

33:47

our suffering is

33:49

not in vain. It has the potential to

33:51

shape us into our deepest desire, which is

33:53

to become people of love and that good

33:55

will come to us in this life and

33:58

the next from the hand of God. God.

34:01

The invitation of Advent this year especially

34:03

but every year is to

34:05

set our hope back onto its rightful

34:07

place in Jesus. As my

34:10

teaching mentor Mike Erie said it, Advent is

34:12

not simply a season to await the coming

34:14

of Christmas much less as

34:16

it is simply a reenactment of ancient hopes

34:18

long ago fulfilled. It is a time to

34:20

renew and enlarge our hopes. I'm not asking

34:23

you to have less hope today, I'm asking

34:25

you to have more just on the right

34:27

object to tap into the deepest

34:29

hopes of the human race for the age

34:31

that is to come and then to

34:33

prepare a mystery visible only to the

34:35

eyes of faith the fact that in

34:37

this humble birth so long ago the

34:39

coming age has begun.

34:43

But to end there are times when

34:45

like the two disciples on the road to

34:47

Emmaus the emotional energy runs

34:49

out of fuel. There

34:51

are times when life doesn't make sense, when

34:54

the math doesn't add up, when

34:56

we can't draw a line between our

34:59

suffering and God's plan or purpose, when

35:01

we're scared, when we're angry

35:03

even at God or at ourself, Advent

35:06

is a time for a confused heart.

35:10

It's a time for asking the hard

35:12

questions and facing the dark

35:14

emotions. That's one of the

35:16

reasons that when the church calendar was put

35:19

together Advent was tied to the

35:21

winter solstice to the darkest time of the year.

35:23

It's not when Jesus was born, shepherds are not out

35:25

in their fields at night in December, just do

35:27

the math. They're out in the yielding season which is

35:29

in the spring. It was

35:32

tied for a lot of different reasons

35:34

but one was because that in an

35:36

agrarian society, pre-modern society where people were

35:38

much more in touch with the

35:40

length of the day and the temperature

35:42

outside and the yield of the field,

35:45

that was the best time of year

35:47

to put your

35:49

body in alignment with the

35:51

story of Advent. Fleming Rutledge

35:53

again in her masterful work on Advent

35:56

writes this, religious systems that

35:58

ignore the dark side of life

36:00

are fundamentally dishonest. That's

36:03

just as true as Christian religion systems as other

36:05

ones. In Advent,

36:07

we don't pretend, as I

36:10

once thought, that we are in the darkness before

36:12

the birth of Christ. Rather,

36:14

we take a good, hard look at

36:16

the darkness we are now facing

36:19

and defining it honestly so

36:22

that we will understand with utmost

36:24

clarity that our great and only

36:26

hope is in Jesus' final, victorious

36:28

coming. Take that, Fleming.

36:32

In all honesty, I'm terrible at waiting

36:34

in the dark for God. I

36:38

prefer the light, sunny day. I'm

36:40

from California. Nothing to hope

36:42

for because everything is great. I

36:46

don't want to have to hope. I want to just wake up

36:48

in the morning and enjoy my life. I'd

36:50

rather feel in control over my life and

36:52

my destiny. I would rather feel up and

36:54

to the right. I would rather plan out

36:57

my own good than have to wait on

36:59

God for his. When

37:02

COVID hit, I became painfully aware

37:05

of how weak my hope muscle was.

37:08

In all honesty, I became aware that I'm not a

37:11

hopeful person, as embarrassing as

37:13

that is to admit. And

37:15

I felt a prompt from the Spirit early in

37:17

the year to do some research on hope, just

37:20

a simple word study and a little reading, not

37:22

for a teaching, but just for me. In

37:25

that research, I came across the theological dictionary of

37:27

the New Testament that said hope has three elements.

37:29

And I've been sitting with this all year. One,

37:32

expectation of the future. Good

37:35

will come from God. Two,

37:38

trust in God.

37:41

And three, the patience

37:43

of waiting. I

37:48

was like, check, kind of sort of

37:50

check. No, check. Expectation

37:53

of the future a little bit. Trust,

37:55

uh, the patience

37:57

of waiting. hope

38:00

like joy last week and peace and

38:02

love is more than just a feeling

38:05

or even an emotional energy. It is

38:07

a muscle we exercise. It is a

38:09

virtue we develop. It is a choice

38:11

we make as an act of obedience

38:14

to our rabbi and our Lord and

38:16

our Savior Jesus. Let

38:18

me close with this line from Romans

38:20

4 about Abraham, that icon of hope

38:22

in Scripture. Then his line, this line

38:24

from Romans has been haunting my imagination

38:27

all week long. Against

38:29

all hope, Abraham

38:32

in hope believed and

38:35

so became the father of many

38:37

nations. Just as it had

38:39

been said to him, social your offspring

38:41

be. Without weakening in his faith, he

38:44

faced the fact that his body was

38:46

as good as dead since he was

38:48

about a hundred years old and that

38:51

Sarah's womb was also dead. Yet he

38:53

did not waver through unbelief regarding the

38:55

promise of God but was strengthened in

38:57

his faith and gave glory to God

38:59

being fully persuaded that God had

39:02

power to do what he had promised.

39:04

Are you against all hope right

39:07

now? Is your life, is your

39:09

income, is your family, is your

39:11

immune system, is your future against

39:13

all hope? Against all hope in

39:15

hope, believe in God, trust

39:17

in God and wait in God

39:19

and for God in patience. May

39:22

you, may I, may we as

39:24

a church, may we have the

39:26

faith of Abraham that is unshakable.

39:29

Abraham, to whom God made the promise

39:31

that through Abraham's descendants he would come

39:34

and save and rescue the world and

39:36

the faith of Mary who was one

39:38

of Abraham's descendants to whom God fulfilled

39:41

the promise that he made hundreds of

39:43

years before to her ancestor Abraham and

39:45

he came through her own body to

39:48

save and rescue the world. That Mary

39:50

who said I am the Lord's servant,

39:52

here I am, may it be to

39:54

me according to your word. Here

39:57

I am, have your way, I wait on

39:59

your you