A Fresh Perspective - July 27, 2009
A man on the brink of despair entered an art gallery. He was drawn to those paintings that seemed to reflect the hopelessness he was feeling. A chess master also entered the gallery. Both men found themselves staring at a painting of Faust playing chess with the Devil for his soul. Faust had a look of desperation, even despair, while the Devil hovered over the chess board with a delightful glee, for it appeared that the Devil had Faust checkmated. Then suddenly, out of the quietness of that place rang out a cry of hope. The chess master, pointing to the painting exclaimed, "It's a lie! It's a lie! The knight and king still have moves left."
Christian hope is grounded in the life, death, resurrection, and living presence of Christ. Christians believe that Christ lives in us and in the community of faith. His presence is a comforting, convicting, life changing presence. His living presence means that we still have moves left.
In Paul's letter to the Colossians he says, "Christ in you, the hope of glory" (Col 1:27). The presence of Christ with us and in us through the trials and tragedies of this journey is our promise that God will make all things right, that God will renew, restore, and redeem the world.
The hope we have in Christ is not reality denying. It is not an illusory optimism that we choose to maintain because we cannot bear to face the cold, hard facts of our existence. Loved ones die. Friends betray us and we betray our friends. Businesses go out of business. Dreams are destroyed. Careers collapse. Diseases debilitate us. Bad things happen to good people. Evil is real.
But in all of this, our Christian hope sustains us. Paul, in his letter to the Romans, says that "suffering produces endurance, endurance produces character, and character produces hope" (Rom 5:3 - 4). Hope, Paul goes on to say, "does not disappoint us, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us" (Rom 5:5).
We are convinced that no matter what threatens to overwhelm us, "hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword . . . in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us." For we know that nothing "will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Rom 8:35 - 39).
Love has the final word and that gives us hope.