Hope Against Hope

Do any of you remember the Choose Your Own Adventure Books for children? The book would start with a setting and a character or characters and one would arrive at a certain point in the story and you could then choose how the story proceeds. So, for example, your character comes to a cave. Does your character enter the cave, or go get a friend to explore the cave with? Each choice would provide twists and turns, some stories longer than others. And, if you regretted any choice, you could always start over. Wouldn’t that be nice?

When I was younger, I would imagine myself as a character in one of these books when I found myself in uncomfortable situations. Choice A and I could probably wiggle out of this situation. In fact, in choice A I was usually a hero in even the worst of situations. Choice B and things went from bad to worse. Choose Choice B and I would be in trouble; most likely I would be caught in a lie. The adventures in my head and my life, reminded me that I always had choices with how I responded and acted. I always had choices in what I say, and one choice might lead to one direction, and another choice might lead to another direction. Those books, perhaps, were training me for adulthood, and being faced with really complicated decisions.

As I matured and became rooted in faith, those adventure books were replaced by a trust in God and Christ to guide me through situations. That has worked a little better for me in an adult world, yet like everyone, I still struggle with making good choices.

It seems that often those events that we pin all our hopes on turn out to be messy. Why is it that the biggest disasters always seem to coincide with events on which we pin so much of our hopes? The times we are convinced will be the best often turn out to be the very worst. How many big family get-togethers - Christmas, Thanksgiving, Fourth of July - start out fun, then turn into tense situations? Uncle Tom has had too much to drink again. Sister Gail realizes why she has never liked Frank and continues not to speak to him the entire day. Everyone ignores the big elephant squeezed into the living room or at the dining room table. Weddings are another time when bombs of both tiny and titanic proportion are regularly detonated. The number of things that can go wrong on wedding days - cakes dropped, rings lost, blazing heat, torrential rain, flowers delivered to only God and the flower delivery person knows where - is about equal to the number of people who wish they had just eloped. Sometimes it seems that whenever we expect the best of times, we get the worst of times instead.

Thankfully, we find that the worst can often turn out to be the best. How many people are living the middle class life and find themselves reminiscing about their early days when they were barely scraping by, and suddenly they realize that those were the best times of their life? What makes life so full, so rich, so wonderful is that we can never completely filter out the bad from the good or the good from the bad. There is always a little bit of both in our lives. What makes life even more grand is that each of us has choices about how we will react to each situation we find ourselves in. Will we be part of the problem at the Thanksgiving table, or will we live that situation as if we trust and hope in God’s presence in even the roughest of situations?

There are optimists in life and there are pessimists. Both people are persons who just don’t know any better. Paul uses a very interesting phrase in his letter to the Romans. Paul is talking about faithfulness and trust. He says despite how impossible it may have seemed for Abraham and his wife to have a child, Abraham “hoped against hope,” that he would become the father of many nations. “Hoped against hope.” What does that mean? Hope against hope is to understand every situation from a starting point of hope. Hope against hope means to believe there is hope even if what you are hoping for is impossible. Despite all the evidence to the contrary, Abraham's faith enables him to "hope against hope." And out of the worst conditions, extreme old age and barrenness, God brings the best to Abraham and Sarah, their son Isaac.

We have all experienced the difficulty of remaining hopeful in hopelessness. Sometimes life just doesn’t turn out the way we hope it would. And yet, we have seen God take the worst and turn it into the best over and over again in life. God creates new relationships in tragedy. God creates new callings out of anger and frustration and loneliness. God creates new lives out of love and compassion. God leaves the door of hope open even in the smallest of actions.

So, how do we remain hopeful at times such as these? What are you guys most fearful of at this time in your life? (Pause to let them answer). What gives you the most hope? Hoping against hope does not mean goodness all the time. There are times to weep and mourn. Yet, death cannot have the final say. Hoping against hope does not mean that everything you hope for will be revealed exactly as you have hoped for it. God’s vision isn’t like our vision. Things don’t always turn out the way we imagine. Yet, God takes what is and uses the good and bad to transform and heal.

Each of us has the best and the worst inside of our very selves. Take a look at Peter. Remember Simon Peter? The first called, Peter was always in the forefront of whatever was going on. In a miraculous moment of insight, Peter correctly identified and confessed Jesus as "the Christ." But, it is also true that, with the exception of Judas, no one betrayed Jesus more than Peter. He slept through Gethsemane , ran away at the first sign of trouble, then vehemently denied Jesus three times. Peter stuck his foot in his mouth many times. Yet, it is from Peter, one who someone could easily argue is the worst disciple, that the best eventually comes. Jesus takes the very man who is often the worst at understanding what Jesus is talking about, and entrusts him with the very best he has to offer, the church itself (Matthew 16:18-19). He is Peter the Rock on which Jesus will build his church.

God used Moses, and Jacob, and David. They all had seedy pasts. Moses was a murderer, Jacob a deceiver, David a murderer, deceiver, and adulterer. God used their talents, their faithfulness, their hope…God used them despite the ugliness. God uses men and women like Dorothy Duke and Duane Hendricks, men and women with painful diseases, who continue to give of themselves. Men and women who are experiencing the worst, but know that God continues to use them in ways unimaginable, even if they cannot move far from a bed. God uses men and women, boys and girls, who have experienced the worst to bring about the best. God uses men and women, boys and girls, who have confronted the worst in them, and have been transformed to share the best of themselves.

Jesus did his best work under the worst conditions. After entering Jerusalem , Jesus gathered his disciples for one last meal together. There he revealed to them, "Truly I tell you, one of you will betray me" (Matthew 26:21). Then, with full knowledge of the weaknesses and treachery lurking at their table, "Jesus took ... bread, and after blessing it he broke it, gave it to the disciples and said, 'Take, eat, this is my body'" (Matthew 26:26). On the night where all the very worst of their fears came true, Jesus gave his disciples, and all of us, the best of himself. This is the promise of the gospel. Do you think that Jesus could have done the work he did, if he did not hope against hope that God would transform lives? Hope against hope. Hope beyond hope. Hope on Hope.