December 1, 2002 - FirstSunday in Advent
Isaiah63:16-64:9
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Mark13:24-37
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“HopingAgainst Hope”

"O that you would tear open theheavens and come down, so that the mountains would quake at your presence … sothat the nations might quake at your presence!”

How many times, in essence, have weprayed that prayer? When it seems that things get more and more bleak, more andmore confusing, and less and less sure, it would be nice to have God interveneand fix it – “poof.” I envy Will Shakespeare his Globe Theatre, because itwas equipped with these wonderful trap doors through which an angel or a deitycould drop and resolve a problematic plot. Thus the term, deusex machina – “god from a machine” – as a plot device. There are times when a deus ex machina would be a handy appliance.  Tohave God reveal God’s presence, answer the great questions, and send us on ourway in contentment would be nice, wouldn’t it? It would be so much easier thanwhat we have to put with now, trying to figure things out for ourselves.

I think Advent’s theme of hopingagainst hope, which goes against the easy answer, makes us uncomfortable. Maybethat’s why so many people – including the church growth gurus – want us toskip it and go right to Christmas. Forget the longing, forget the hope, forgetthe darkness and go right to pay-off of light, peace, happiness, and joy. Iadmit that from a marketing standpoint it’s a much easier ‘sell,’ butit’s also inauthentic.

We only grasp the message of Christmasfully if we’ve gone through Advent’s season of expectation and lovinglonging. Isaiah may have cried out “tear open the heavens,” but first he haddeclared, “Thou art our Father . . . thou, O Lord, art our Father, ourRedeemer from of old is thy name.” The prophet understood that God worksthrough the present situation, the present problem, for a community that waits.Only a community that knows the name of God, who remember God’s past actionsand understands the centrality of God in their lives can wait and hope. Biblicalscholar Walter Brueggemann describes this community: “It is for them thatAdvent is accessible. The church community is a community that waits,remembering God while embracing present trouble, resiliently confident of a Godwho will ‘meet joyfully’ the faithful ones.”

What is anticipated in Mark is availableonly to those who wait – to those who are awake and alert to the presence ofhope in their midst. Advent hope shatters the “business as usual” of ourworld and calls us back to the deeper sides of ourselves and of our world,seeing God at work in every event working everything to the ultimate good ofcreation.

The waiting, hoping, longing dread andexcitement plants in us the disturbing truth that maybe the world as we know itisn’t the world God ultimately wants. Perhaps God has something very differentin mind? What the prophet foretold and Jesus preached is that this world is,indeed, coming and that God will build it for those who are waiting, ready andable to let the old one go.

Hoping against hope opens us to thepossibility of a new world, of a vision of life different from what weexperience now. Advent is a season of hope that bids us wait and watch for thesigns of God’s presence and the possibilities it brings. Our hoping againsthope isn’t empty, it’s grounded in the truth Isaiah spoke, and “Thou artour Father.” God, the loving Father, will not abandon his children, hope willbear fruit.