Introduction:

Sometimes hope is hard to come by. The harder we search for it, the more elusive it is.

This seven part series leads us into and through Advent by inviting us to stillness. In that stillness, we may begin to hear hope’s song.

Hope for the Gentiles

Read: Romans 15:7-13

Rejoice, O Gentiles, with his people. (Romans 15:10)

Most of us don’t pay much attention to the Bible’s references to “Gentiles.” But we ought to. In fact, our ears ought to be tingling. Unless we came to Christ along a Jewish path, the Bible is talking about us.

This passage is full of quotes from the Old Testament. The one thing they all have in common is a concern for the Gentiles. That concern has been on God’s agenda since the call of Abraham, who was blessed to be a blessing to “all the families of the earth” (Genesis 12:3).

This extravagant example of God’s grace is the basis for Paul’s exhortation: “Welcome one another, therefore, just as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God” (v. 7).

This Advent, remember that your invitation to celebrate the birth and blessing of the Messiah is nothing less than an act of God’s extravagant grace. Then let your own hope overflow from that abundance, and share the good news with everyone you meet.

Prayer: As you have welcomed us, Lord Jesus, help us to welcome others into the joy and peace of believing.

Introduction:

Sometimes hope is hard to come by. The harder we search for it, the more elusive it is.

This seven part series leads us into and through Advent by inviting us to stillness. In that stillness, we may begin to hear hope’s song.

Hope for Harmony

Read: Romans 15:4-6

May the God of steadfastness and encouragement grant that you live in harmony with one another, in accordance with Christ Jesus. (Romans 15:5)

Nineteenth-century novelist George Eliot has one of her characters complain of Christians who make themselves as little like the Savior as possible. “If I want to see Jesus,” the character says, “I must avert my eyes for fear I should see a Christian” (Felix Holt, Oxford University Press, 1988, p. 246).

How it must grieve the Lord Jesus Christ when those of us who bear his name are such poor representatives of it. Surely, the lack of harmony among believers is one of the ways we hurt his reputation the most. Why, after all, would anyone want to sign on to a church characterized by cruelty and hypocrisy?

Maybe if we took our cue from Christ, we would be better representatives of him. In the verses just prior to this passage Paul speaks about how “Christ did not please himself” (v.3).   How would our witness to the world be different if we worried less about pleasing ourselves and more about pleasing our neighbor (v. 2)?

Prayer: Help us, Lord, to live in harmony—for your name’s sake.

Introduction:

Sometimes hope is hard to come by. The harder we search for it, the more elusive it is.

This seven part series leads us into and through Advent by inviting us to stillness. In that stillness, we may begin to hear hope’s song.

Hope for Forgiveness

Read: Matthew 3:1-12

Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. (Matthew 3:3b; Isaiah 40:3)

John the Baptist functioned as a kind of advance man for the Messiah. Advent functions in something of the same way. It urges us to clean up our act as we anticipate Christ’s coming. If its “encouragement” seems a bit harsh (“You brood of vipers!”), remember part of what is implied in this call to repentance is the promise of forgiveness.

Barbara Brown Taylor points out that, “Disillusionment is the loss of illusion…and while it is almost always painful, it is not a bad thing to lose the lies we have mistaken for the truth” (The Preaching Life, p. 8). Perhaps one of the ways we can prepare the way of the Lord is to experience this kind of disillusionment. After all, “if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he who is faithful and just will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:8-9).

Prayer: In your mercy, O God, forgive what we have been, help us to amend what we are,

and direct what we shall be.

Introduction:

Sometimes hope is hard to come by. The harder we search for it, the more elusive it is.

This seven part series leads us into and through Advent by inviting us to stillness. In that stillness, we may begin to hear hope’s song.

Hope for Justice

Scripture: Psalm 72:1-7, 18-19

Give the king your justice, O God. (Psalm 72:1a)

I remember reading this psalm on the eve of a presidential election. I was struck, first, by the contrast to any earthly ruler I knew. It was hard to imagine any of the candidates under consideration being described in such extravagant terms.

But then my attention turned to the priorities apparent in this prayer. First on the list is justice for the poor and the oppressed. With a ruler like that, who wouldn’t pray that he or she would rule “as long as the moon, throughout all generations.”

While I think earthly rulers would do well to study this prayer’s priorities, I suspect that the only ruler who truly lives up to this psalmist’s standards is God. And when we read these words during Advent, they help us to understand the priorities of Jesus, the Prince of Peace. They also call us to reevaluate our own priorities. How high is justice for the poor on your Christmas list?

Prayer: In our days, O God, may righteousness flourish and peace abound, until the moon is no more.

Introduction:

Sometimes hope is hard to come by. The harder we search for it, the more elusive it is.

This seven part series leads us into and through Advent by inviting us to stillness. In that stillness, we may begin to hear hope’s song.

Hope for Peace

Read: Isaiah 11:6-10

The wolf shall live with the lamb. (Isaiah 11:6a)

Where I come from, this kind of thing doesn’t happen. It just isn’t “natural.”

But isn’t that the point? In this litany of unlikely scenarios, the prophet Isaiah paints a picture of nature that is highly “unnatural.” Nobody this side of the Fall has ever experienced nature like this. It is an echo of Eden—and a picture of the restored creation for which Advent aches.

Part of the pain of Advent is that this vision of peace is not yet fully realized. Yet, part of Advent’s promise lies in the fact that the Prince of Peace has come and is coming again. Nature as we know it was knocked for a loop when God rose from a grave. And that, the Bible reassures us, is only the beginning.

If peace on earth depended on us there would be little cause for hope in this or any other season. But peace, it seems, is part of God’s grand agenda. And that should give us hope as we seek to follow the Prince of Peace. After all, as Isaiah says, “a little child shall lead them.”

Prayer: Prince of Peace, grant us peace.

Introduction:

Sometimes hope is hard to come by. The harder we search for it, the more elusive it is.

This seven part series leads us into and through Advent by inviting us to stillness. In that stillness, we may begin to hear hope’s song.

Hope for the Messiah

Read: Isaiah 11:1-5

He shall not judge by what his eye sees…. (Isaiah 11:3b)

Appearances can be deceiving. Each spring I wonder whether the Rose of Sharon in my back yard has survived the winter. Long after other trees and shrubs have leapt into bloom, it stands leafless—and to all appearances—lifeless. Then, long about mid-May, green buds begin to displace the dead seed pods. By mid July it is transformed into a breath-taking display of purple blossoms and verdant leaves.

Isaiah presents us with a similar picture in this passage. From an apparently dead stump a surprising shoot bursts forth.

It seems like an odd way to introduce the Messiah. Yet, looking back at his description through the lens of Jesus Christ, it makes miraculous sense. And so we sing of this surprising savior:

O come, thou Rod of Jesse’s stem;

from every foe deliver them

that trust thy mighty power to save,

and give them victory o’er the grave.

Rejoice! Rejoice! Immanuel

shall come to thee, O Israel.

Prayer: Come to your world, Immanuel. Help us to see it as you do—a world for which you were willing to die. Then with new eyes, help us to love and live more faithfully.

Introduction:

Sometimes hope is hard to come by. The harder we search for it, the more elusive it is.

This seven part series leads us into and through Advent by inviting us to stillness. In that stillness, we may begin to hear hope’s song.

Our God of Hope

Read: Romans 15:13

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing. (Romans 15:13a)

Emily Dickinson describes hope as “the thing with feathers” that sits in our soul and sings even when our own voices are incapable of song.

Why do I love that image? Let me count the ways. First, I love it because it recognizes that hope is not some flimsy, ephemeral fantasy that we conjure up to make ourselves feet better. Hope is not something we manufacture by thinking good thoughts or praying polite prayers. Hope is not the brave face we put on at the funeral home or in the lawyer’s office. Hope is a tangible, determined emissary from God’s altars that flaps in and makes its nest right smack in the middle of our despair. And then it sings and sings and sings until, at the very least, we start humming along.

Although Advent is still a few weeks away, start listening for hope’s song today. Prepare a perch for it in your soul. Then wait, wonder, and pray. May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing.

Prayer: Oh God, help us to hear hope’s song above the din of our despair.