Find Hope in Uncertainties! Rediscover Christmas - Advent 2020, Week 1
No matter how bad things are, never give up hope. This is a season of expectation and preparation, an opportunity to align ourselves with God’s presence and rediscover Christmas.
Over the next four weeks, we’re going to explore the attributes of Christ. Looking at His birth and the whole Christmas season: hope, peace, joy, and love. Then, on Christmas Eve, we will celebrate the arrival of Jesus, the Christ. Today we begin with rediscovering the hope of Christmas, even when we are surrounded by uncertainty.
God has given us hope to see, know He is with us, and to be inspired.
It’s been a tough year. A global pandemic, economic recession, mass unemployment, political division, cultural upheaval, racial reckoning, record wildfires, complete with fire tornados, extra-powerful hurricanes, and floods. Did I miss anything?
If there’s ever a year we need Christmas, this is it! If there’s ever a year we need the hope of Christmas, this is it. If there’s ever a year we need Christ, my friends, this is that year.
It’s a good thing we’ve made it here—to Advent, nearly to Christmas!
Advent
This is a season of hope. Advent is all about hope. The word Advent means “coming” or “arrival,” and the season is traditionally a time of expectation, waiting, anticipation, and longing. Advent is not just an extension of Christmas—it is a season that links the past, present, and future. Advent offers us the opportunity to share in the ancient longing for the coming of the Messiah, to celebrate His birth, and to be alert for His second coming. Advent looks back in celebration at the hope fulfilled in Jesus’s coming, while at the same time looking forward in hopeful and eager anticipation to the coming of Christ’s kingdom when He returns for His people. During Advent we wait for both—it’s an active, assured, and hopeful waiting.
Advent is a time to prepare our hearts and help us focus on a far greater story than our own—the story of God’s redeeming love for our world. It’s not a season of pretending to be happy or covering up the pain or hardships we have experienced during the past 11 months—it is a season of digging deep into the reality of what it means that God sent His Son into the world to be God With Us. It is a season of expectation and preparation, an opportunity to align ourselves with God’s presence more than just the hectic season of presents.
So wherever you are on your 2020 anxiety level, wherever you are on your own spiritual journey, I invite you into this season of Advent.
I’d like to suggest that in the craziness and uncertainty of this year, we’ve been given a gift. We’ve been given the opportunity to rediscover Christmas.
As we explore these themes of Advent over the next four weeks, we’ll see how they relate to and are exemplified in different characters of the biblical Christmas story. We start with Luke’s account including Simeon and Anna.
Simeon and Anna: Keeping Hope Alive
“When the time came for the purification rites required by the Law of Moses, Joseph and Mary took him to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord 23 (as it is written in the Law of the Lord, “Every firstborn male is to be consecrated to the Lord”), 24 and to offer a sacrifice in keeping with what is said in the Law of the Lord: “a pair of doves or two young pigeons.”
25 Now there was a man in Jerusalem called Simeon, who was righteous and devout. He was waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was on him. 26 It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not die before he had seen the Lord’s Messiah. 27 Moved by the Spirit, he went into the temple courts. When the parents brought in the child Jesus to do for him what the custom of the Law required, 28 Simeon took him in his arms and praised God, saying:
29 “Sovereign Lord, as you have promised, you may now dismiss your servant in peace. 30 For my eyes have seen your salvation, 31 which you have prepared in the sight of all nations: 32 a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and the glory of your people Israel.”
33 The child’s father and mother marveled at what was said about him. 34 Then Simeon blessed them and said to Mary, his mother: “This child is destined to cause the falling and rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be spoken against, 35 so that the thoughts of many hearts will be revealed. And a sword will pierce your own soul too.”
36 There was also a prophet, Anna, the daughter of Penuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was very old; she had lived with her husband seven years after her marriage, 37 and then was a widow until she was eighty-four. She never left the temple but worshiped night and day, fasting and praying. 38 Coming up to them at that very moment, she gave thanks to God and spoke about the child to all who were looking forward to the redemption of Jerusalem” (Luke 2:22-38, NIV).
Simeon and Anna were sparks of hope in Israel. More than that, they were torches of hope, expecting God to fulfill what He had promised. They believed it and they were waiting for the promised child!
They were ready to see God act and do great things.
God didn’t need an angel to get the message to these two faith-giants. They were ready, waiting, watching, listening, expecting. Both Simeon and Anna were filled with hope, and that hope made them ready.
God fulfilled His word. He what He said He would do. “The Messiah is born!”
They rejoiced and celebrated and it brought new hope into the people around them, including Mary and Joseph who were still figuring out what it all meant to be the earthly parents of God’s Son, Jesus, the Messiah.
Simeon and Anna reveal several key things about hope and its power that we can all take away and apply in our lives.
1. Hope sees beyond.
Hope is the fuel of faith, dreams and possibilities.
It’s the spark that ignites a promise into a blazing fire with flames that reach the sky.
It’s the flicker of first light on a new morning.
No matter how bad your year has been, no matter what kind of problems and struggles you are facing right now, no matter what kind of season of darkness or pain you are in, let me encourage you to never abandon hope.
Hope is still alive even in our deepest pain and in the most hopeless circumstances.
Hope chases away the darkness and uncertainty. Hope is alive because God is with us.
Friends, hope exists before reality comes to pass.
You can hope that I have a $100 and that I will take it out of my pocket and give it to you. You can think about it; expect it; keep believing that it’s going to happen. However, as soon as I give you the $100 bill, hope is done. There’s no need for it any more. You can’t keep hoping it will happen because it already has happened.
Hope precedes reality. Hope, by its very nature, exists in the uncertainty. It exists in questions. In doubts. Hope is the willingness and desire to believe beyond what your present circumstances are at that moment.
2. God is with us—here, now, and always.
Friends, with God there is no uncertainty about that truth. God knows our pain, challenges, and struggles.
God was not taken by surprise when a coronavirus spread and went global. He was not surprised when the economy froze and sunk. He was not surprised when you or your loved one received that dreaded diagnosis, or call in the middle of the night, or heard those words that broke your heart and shattered your world or left you in confusion or surrounded with uncertainty.
He sees you. And He is here.
He is Immanuel, God With Us.
And this hope He delivers, this hope He embodied and fulfilled and brought into the world so long ago, this hope that He offers today—this is not a hope He dangles before us, taunting us with it just out of reach. It’s not a hope He expects us to dream up, as we struggle in life’s worst moments.
This is a hope that He infuses within us. It is a hope filled and fanned within us by God’s Spirit—even in our weakness. In our deepest pain, when hope seems too far away or impossible. When we feel too weak to carry on, when we feel hope is almost gone, His Spirit is with us. His Spirit helps to restore our hope by reminding us of God’s faithfulness and promises.
The Spirit of God leads us to the scriptures and it reminds us of what God has done for us and that his promises are yes and Amen. God fulfills all his promises. Our God, our Immanuel is with us.
His messages of hope include:
“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future (Jeremiah 29:11).
and
“But now, this is what the Lord says—he who created you, Jacob, he who formed you, Israel: “Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are mine. 2 When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze” (Isaiah 43:1-2).
We are not alone, even at our loneliest or darkest moments. Christ has come. Our God is with us every step of the way!
3. Hope inspires us to carry on.
The apostle Paul described the cycle of hope in Romans 5:2-5:
“through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. 3 Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; 4 perseverance, character; and character, hope. 5 And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us” (Romans 5:2-5).
This hope we have in God will not let us down; it does not put us to shame. It will not disappoint. Instead it gives us new strength to see beyond the pain and confusion in front of us. This hope can be seen in a story from the COVID-19 pandemic we are in today.
Have you heard the story of Captain Tom? In all the doom and gloom of the pandemic, Captain Tom rose as an unlikely hero.
Tom Moore, now Captain Sir Tom Moore, since being knighted by the Queen of England, is the 100-year-old man who singlehandedly raised $40 million for the British health care system by walking 100 laps around his garden. That’s right, 100 laps for 100 years. What started as a challenge from his son-in-law to donate $1 per lap (technically a pound in England), went viral when his daughter posted the campaign on an online charity site. The news spread quickly, and suddenly this World War II veteran, gripping his walker, wearing a navy blue blazer decorated with his military medals, walked around his garden, and became a national hero. Captain Tom was an inspiration.
What an amazing story!
There’s a great lesson about hope in this story.
Captain Tom told reporters: “The first step was the hardest,” he said. “After that, I got into the swing of it and kept on going.”
The first step was the hardest. Isn’t that true of so many things for us? It’s certainly true of hope.
It can be hard to hope when we feel low. It’s hard to see hope when we feel surrounded by pain. It is difficult to reach beyond our troubles to grasp the Lord’s outstretched hand. It can feel so impossible to take that first step toward hope when we are weighed down by our problems.
But when we receive the promise of hope in God’s Word, we can find new strength. When we accept the power of hope granted to us in God’s Spirit, we can find new inspiration. When we focus on the power of hope in the birth, life, death, resurrection and the promise of Jesus return and eternity with Him, we discover new strength to take that first step. And keep taking one step after another. Walking in hope and faith in Jesus. One step at a time.
Hope inspires us. Hope emboldens us. Hope builds upon hope and keeps us going, no matter what.
Is your next step a step of hope?
What is your next step of hope in this Advent season? So often, we want to see what happens tomorrow. We want to know the future. We want to skip to the end of the story.
But life just doesn’t work like that. It’s not a privilege we’ve been granted. But in Christ, we have been given the end of the ultimate story. In Christ, we have been given true life that transcends the pains and the brokenness of our present world.
This Advent season, look for hope in the birth of Jesus. We can draw hope from God’s faithfulness in His long-awaited promise of the Messiah. We can focus on the hope we have in Jesus. In the midst of whatever life is throwing at you, you can experience the hope of God and the strength to take the next step. Start today, take a step toward hope in this Advent season.
Hope is dawning. Christ is coming. Christ is returning soon. Let’s welcome Him into our hearts and live every day in a season of expectation and hope.
A Blessing of Hope for You
“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit” (Romans 15:13).
Suggested Praise and Worship
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