Advent 1 - Hope & Faith
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Inspirobot
Inspirobot
An AI designed to pick up random phrases from the internet, and make inspirational posters
Brings together three things that we put a lot of hope and faith in:
Information, technology, humanity
Does anyone notice anything slightly off about all of this?
Not exactly altogether inspiring is it?
Shows how shallow and vain our hopes can be.
Someimtes people say it’s the hope that kills, you, but it’s not hope that kills you, it is false hope that lets you down.
True hope
True hope
We can see the false hope of Inspirobot pretty clearly, but what does true hope look like?
Comes through in the face of adversity - often false hope is about avoiding adversity, true hope is about getting through to the other side. Trustin that there is another side, even when the walls are closing in around you.
Mum
Looks beyond our current circumstances - there is a future
The thing about hope, is that it is not grounded in our current circumstances, but in something beyond ourselves. It is so often on ly in hindsight that we see how our hopes have been fulfilled.
We can see the way forward by looking back over our shoulder, and trusting in the one who has brought us this far.
Looks beyond ourselves - not just about making ourselves better like technology or information or education, as important and productive as those things are, they cannot, ultimately, transcend our circumstances
True hope is based in a combinatino f our own tenacity and imagination with God’s love and grace. God’s intervention and participation in our lives.
In our first reading, from Isaiah, we see a hope beyond, a hope that has been fulfilled in Jesus, and will be made complete in his heavenly raign
In our second reading we have that great litany of people living in hope and in faith, we see the inspiration and the call to live in the same way
It is said that we are living through an epidemic of hopelessness. We need faith, we need Jesus to help us find our way.
Faith feeds on faith, hopelessness feeds on hopelessness
True hope is not only for ourselves, but for others
Jared
Things did not turn out the way he had hoped, but in his daughter’s life, and in the lives of those whom he has touched through his writing and his work, all kinds of hopes are being fulfilled.
The more hope that you hold, the more hope there is to give.
In a world of finite resources, the love of Jesus, and the hope of salvation that we find in him is unlimited in it’s height and width and depth and breadth. It is a stream of living water that grows deeper the farther it flows.
As we look towards Christmas, let’s move beyond false and limited hope, and towards the great hope promised to us in the birth of Christ. The hope for salvation. Teh hope for resurrection. The hope for the restoration and fulfillment of creation as it has always been meant to be. Hope for life in all its fullness.
We can see the way forward by looking back over it shoulder
Only in hindsight do we see where our hopes have been fulfilled