From the Pastor's Pen, November, 2005:

December 2006 From the Pastor's Pen

“Hope does not disappoint us”

We've all had the experience at one time or another of climbing a staircase in a public building. That industrial, institutional kind of staircase—you climb half a flight, turn around and climb the other half, over and over again until you get to the floor where you want to be. Depending on how far the climb, it sometimes seems endless. (Half a flight… “Are we there yet?” Turn, half a flight more…) Sometimes, conquering my fear of falling, I'll look down through the space in between the flights of stairs to see what looks like a great spiral, as all those flights of stairs compress. It can seem not only endless but hopeless.

But that's the way to gain access to the place you want to be. The point of the stairs is to get to where you want to go. Access depends on it.

The Church season of Advent is a little like that. Unlike the stores, which think that it's Christmas already, the Church recognizes that there needs to be a time of preparation, of access. Advent is that season. We look forward to Christ's coming in Jesus' birth at Christmas, but also forward to his coming again, the completion of creation, the reign of God made fully realized-in the world. The time (or the times) compress like looking down through those flights of stairs. We live, as one of my seminary professors put it, “in between Advents,” in a time in between the times. We're waiting on one level, for Christmas; but on another level we're waiting for Christ to come again and make all things new.

We surely do need to be made new! We need to know that God is in the world, we need to know that we are loved, we need to know that God calls us through Jesus Christ to follow, and to do good; and we need to know that God will give us the strength to follow. Those are not just one-time lessons. We need to learn them again and again, to take them to heart. That's what Advent is about. It is a time to prepare, to grow, to repent, which means to turn toward God. It's a progressive season, as we move closer and closer to the coming of Christ. We open one door each day on an Advent calendar. We light one more candle each Sunday to remind us that Christ is coming, and to push back the darkness a little further.

It may feel a little like that endless staircase. It may feel like we have to keep turning and turning and climbing and climbing. But there is hope. There is always hope. Hope is not just a wish, or a fleeting thought that might, but probably won't, come true. Hope is the power of trusting, or even wanting to trust, that God will make all things new and right.

The Apostle Paul's words in his letter to the Romans have always sounded like one of those staircases to me. Listen to how the words climb to higher and higher levels:

“Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand; and we boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God. And not only that, but we also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit which has been given to us.” (Romans 5:1-5)

Do you hear the staircase? But instead of a hopeless, endless staircase, it's one that climbs toward access to God. That's hope. That's grace!

In this Advent season, we're busy. We're busy with the beautiful special events in the life of the church. We're busy with decorating, baking, buying, planning, entertaining, wrapping, and giving in our homes, communities and workplaces. It's easy to lose the hope in the midst of all those stairs. It's easy to be so caught up in the busy-ness and the high expectations for a “perfect” holiday, that we miss the joy, and feel disappointed. But hope does not disappoint us! We are a people called to hope. We are called to live in God's love, with the realistic hope that God makes all things new. That hope comes to us in Jesus Christ, God-made-flesh in our world–this world. This hurting, broken, busy, scary world. God comes in Jesus the Christ to bring hope.

May that be our focus this holy season. May we keep our eyes and heart set on Jesus, that we may know God's love, made real for us. May we live in hope.

On the Journey with you,

e-mail Pastor Baker-Streevy