Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. | 1 Peter 1:3–6
On Sunday, we talked about the HOPE that we are given in the gospel. This is more than just a hope that fulfills our wants; this is a hope that defines our desires. The hope of the incarnation reframes all of human history in relation to Jesus:
It reveals that He is the SOURCE of all that exists.
It reveals that He is POWER by which the world functions.
It reveals that He is the PURPOSE for everything that happens.
The Hope that we are given is far more than a solution to our problems; Jesus does not help us to reach our goals. Instead, we have a LIVING hope that transforms us. Rather than helping us along the road to where we are going, Jesus provides a completely different destination for us. In the first chapter of 1 Peter (above), we are told that this living hope is both carrying us to eternity, but also preparing us for it along the way. This world, with all of its trials, is the means that God uses to do this transformation. Paul tells us in Romans 5:
Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. | 3-5
We can rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that this life is a training-ground for heaven.
As a pastor, I have pushed back constantly against the temptation to be ‘so heavenly minded that we are of no earthly good.’ Yet, the opposite is more common. Far more people are so earthly minded that they do no eternal good. It is very easy to let the momentary blind us to the realities that exist beyond the power structures of this world. In this, we not only terminate our enjoyment on the temporary, but also our hope. We begin to believe that fulfillment will come from some earthly situation. We invest in short-term things to provide lasting satisfaction.
The incarnation is meant to open our eyes to how small our desires are. CS Lewis says that our earthly-mindedness has turned us into half-hearted creatures who have forgotten how to hope:
We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.
I realize that this quote is used far too often, but for good reason: it resonates with what we see all around us. It is what we all struggle with. This world gives us temporary pleasure in exchange for the hope of infinite joy. May we all use this ADVENT season to reframe our lives toward Christ, asking God to use our lives to sanctify us toward eternity. May we hold tightly to the great hope we have in Jesus, a hope that promises perfection forever. In Jesus, we not only have a widening of expectations, but we have a promise that our eternal hope is assured. He who has promised is faithful.