EASTER HOPE

      Many of us go from day to day not realizing the force within us that keeps us going. What is it that pushes us out of our beds and homes everyday, gives us the determination to face whatever is “out there,” and gives us the assurance that we are on the right path? I believe we can name that invisible force, that ever-present drive, hope.

      There is the secular hope that keeps us going back to work each day so we will have a paycheck. The hope that we will not get sick and others around us in our families and friends will stay healthy. We hope that our children and grandchildren will stay out of trouble, and what we have taught them is enough to start them on their way. We hope our jobs will be there when we get to work, and our government leaders will show integrity.

      We know people have a tendency to put their hope in things and people who can and will disappoint. Stock markets and retirement plans crash, people turn their backs on each other and walk away, and material things burn up or rust away. Hopes fade as we put our expectations in things that are temporal and earthly; things that do not last.

      Maybe we can say just a few more words about Easter as we turn the page of our calendars. Easter can be the ultimate assurance of everlasting life, of bodily resurrection, of Jesus who keeps his promises, and of victory over death and sin. Yet, Easter can also be a powerful expression of hope. A hope that we can be better that we are, that we can become new creations, and a hope that begins to change us into the person God intends for us to be. A hope that at times seems to be weak and wavering, but never completely gives up and goes away.

      A woman came late to the Little League baseball game. The game had already started so she asked a player sitting in the dugout the score. He replied, “We are behind fourteen to nothing.” The woman said, “You don’t look too discouraged.” The player answered, “Why should we be discouraged? We haven’t batted yet.”

      Hope is based on trust and confidence. Hope can be present tense, as well as point to the future. Hope is the essence of God’s presence as he is felt in our lives each moment of each day. Hope is the confidence that God is alive and touches us each day, working in ways we do not always understand.

      A little girl was taking a test in science class one day when she was asked, “What do hibernating animals live on during the winter?” She wrote down her answer, “Hibernating animals live on the hope of the coming spring.” We as followers of Christ should be living on the hope of  each new day as it brings fresh grace and mercies, that tomorrow will be a better than today. We should be living on the hope of everlasting life, which can begin now.

      For the world without Christ there is false hope, which is actually, no hope. However, for the Christian there is the hope that is found in a personal one-on-one relationship with Jesus Christ. Once we have established that relationship, it is our responsibility to share the hope of Christ to a hopeless world. We should never give up hope that we can make a difference in the life of someone by telling and living our story. If we are “Easter” people, we must be like Mary as she told the disciples early that morning, “I have seen the Lord.” We must be witnesses of Easter, witnesses with hope.

      As followers of Christ, we do not hunker down in retreat, sit down in compromise, or wring our hands in despair, no matter what is going on in the world around us. True followers of Jesus have hope-hope produced by faith and trust in a God who cares and fulfills his promises.  Rev Tim McConnell Long’s Chapel UMC April 7, 2013