Tonight we look at hope. And it’s a meandering structure, but maybe, just maybe there is something in this that will be helpful.

This is an age of apathy. And it’s not surprising really, but what makes people want to attempt suicide in this time? We live in a time when we think that this society is good, and there are aspects of it that are prosperous. Good education, good job prospects, good living conditions. But then, why do we have one of the highest teenage suicide rate in the world? Why this lack of hope?

After world war II there was a cultural sigh of relief as people thought that this was as far as we were ever going to go. We could do no worse, we would learn from this mistake. We had seen the horror of the human disease. We hoped that things would be better.

So what followed was the optimism of the 50’s, disillusionment of the sixties, despair of the seventies, new hope in the eighties, apathy in the 90’s and finally what we have now which is a complete and utter disillusionment for why we would have purpose in this world.

There was hope in a great trajectory of scientific and technological advancement, where we would expand beyond the borders of earth’s gravity and colonise space. There was hope in the medical fields that we’d find a pill for everything, there was hope that the future would be cleaner, people would be better rounded, there’d be more intelligence and greater prosperity for all. The so called trickle down effect of the free market economy would be fully operational.

What has instead happened is that there has been an outright rejection of these dreams, and I think as a result a disillusionment with anything other than self achievement.

Another reason why many people don’t need God, is because they’ve actually lost hope. They’ve lost hope in anything that is greater than their own world. They don’t think things will be solved on the world stage unless they aspire to be political. But there is a growing disillusionment with the propaganda machine. And part of this is to do with the internet. It’s undermining things from left right and center. There are a number of conspiracy videos around the World Trade Center bombings that are easily accessible to all. And people want it.

There is a lack of trust with the establishment, not in a militant, activist sense, not here in New Zealand anyway, but it’s just a case of apathy that keeps us quiet. It holds us in a plod.

Our greatest hope is getting wealthy. And even that’s a pipe dream.

People can’t buy houses on one income now. There is so much debt around, we borrow to get our next fix.

We’re sucked into this vortex of consumerism and we justify it somehow. And so we place our hope in the immediate stuff, not the eternal.

And it’s not enough to have the latest thing. Six months goes by and there’s something else. We have an insatiable urge to consume and have more. It’s infected us so much that we can’t help ourselves. And Christmas, just around the corner, our religious celebration of Hope, Peace, Joy and Love, is now the ultimate symbol of consumerism. Even Santa, the innocent man of history is simple a carrot that is dangled in front of the children to get them into the mall so that there’ll be more pressure on the parents to get what the kids want. Get a picture with Santa…what for? Is this too cynical? Let’s be thankful that it isn’t men dressed up like Jesus, and kids sitting on his knee, smiling or crying, pulling at Jesus’ fake beard and prodding his eyeballs. Thanks St Nic, at least you’ve actually saved a part of our religious heritage.

But then, if it had been a baby Jesus, then maybe the response would be different. Babies are sticky. And too see God in the Flesh, writhing around, helpless, smelly, cute much of the time, but at other times, sticky and noisy and messy. Kids getting a photo with Jesus on their knee, maybe that would be more appropriate…and I wonder if the consumers would still get their share? No doubt, Anne Geddes would have a field day with special discounts on the Madonna and Child series. Boys would have to stand there serene and Joseph like while the girls have all the fun. Ah yes, there’s no sense thinking about it really.

So to talk of a hope, especially one that is so far removed from our daily experience of reality seems silly, especially in this season.

How can you have hope in anything that’ll be superseded in a few months? The only thing within your control is your own destiny and your own happiness. Well, that’s the lie we like to believe.

I think apathy is even more prevalent now, because part of our backdrop in recent history has got to include things like the Tsunami, Hurricanes Katrien and Wilma, escalating gang violence in South Auckland. Nathan Woolly’s sudden and tragic death at Avondale college. Our destiny is not in our control, and this unsettledness eats away at any hope we might have in our own futures being in our prerogative. Generally, though we can make decisions that we can follow through on. But actually, we are apathetic about the future.

Hope it would seem is the thing that prevents us from calling it quits on this life. Our bodies are wired with hope. It’s the knowledge that God is there, listening and interested. That there is more to this life that this existence. Hope is the thing that keeps us going when times are tough. Hope is the thing that helps us when we are weak. Hope will guide us into making decisions that are wise and for a greater good. Hope can combat sin, hope can move us forward, hope will motivate us, hope will drive us.

But where is our hope really? And this is the question of the ages. Where is our hope really? Even when we have faith in God, is our hope actually in the right thing? Or is it misplaced?

This is the crunch. Recently in our home-group we were reading from 1 Peter 1:3–9:

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! By his great mercy he has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who are being protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you rejoice, even if now for a little while you have had to suffer various trials, so that the genuineness of your faith—being more precious than gold that, though perishable, is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honour when Jesus Christ is revealed. Although you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and rejoice with an indescribable and glorious joy, for you are receiving the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

And there are some very big words there and I want to look very specifically at verses 8–9.

Although you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and rejoice with an indescribable and glorious joy, for you are receiving the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

Here is a description of our hope that is so beautiful.

I want to take us back in history where we might find some way of finding hope again. Israel is taken over by the Assyrian army from the north, Jerusalem is well destroyed and the monarchy, the kings are banned. It’s like this for two centuries. Now, the Assyrians thought it best to make sure that their conquest stuck and the best way to do this is to demoralise the people’s culture and history. They deported the Israelites from their cities and homes, and replaced them with Assyrian residents. Over a couple of centuries, Israel seemed to have no identity. Assyria was conquered by Persia and then the movie about Alexander the Great kicks in.

Yet somehow they sustained their distinctiveness. Remember the stories of Daniel? These were written during the exile. Daniel is in Babylon refusing to neglect his faith so conspicuously that he is thrown to the lions. God shuts the mouths of the lions and Daniel survives. And his mates, Shedrach Meshack and Adednigo who refused to bow down to a statue of the emperor. In a sea of bottoms, there are three men standing tall, and afraid for what would happen to them Enraged the emperor puts them in a furnace to be incinerated, but they don’t get burned, just their ropes and they came out unscathed having been protected by a fourth person in the fire.

Now put yourself in this position. Imagine the Australians attacked and conquered us. Then deported us all to Alice Springs. It’s now 100 years later and anything we knew of New Zealand has disappeared into history. What would you be thinking about…what would you be feeling?

The problem of course is that there probably aren’t too many of you here who are that patriotic. We don’t seem to care too much for our country, and that’s because we’re safe. But I imagine that we would get patriotic rather rapidly if we were invaded. We’d get all braveheart and defend ourselves against the enemies. It would get pretty brutal pretty quickly. It’s the nature of war and persecution, I suppose. So there we are deported and humiliated, for 100 years. And then someone writes this.

Comfort, O comfort my people, says your God.

Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her that she has served her term, that her penalty is paid, that she has received from the LORD’s hand double for all her sins.

A voice cries out: “In the wilderness prepare the way of the LORD, make straight in the desert a highway for our God.

Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low; the uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain.

Then the glory of the LORD shall be revealed, and all people shall see it together, for the mouth of the LORD has spoken.”

A voice says, “Cry out!” And I said, “What shall I cry?” All people are grass, their constancy is like the flower of the field.

The grass withers, the flower fades, when the breath of the LORD blows upon it; surely the people are grass.

The grass withers, the flower fades; but the word of our God will stand forever.

Get you up to a high mountain, O Zion, herald of good tidings; lift up your voice with strength, O Jerusalem, herald of good tidings, lift it up, do not fear; say to the cities of Judah, “Here is your God!”

See, the Lord GOD comes with might, and his arm rules for him; his reward is with him, and his recompense before him.

He will feed his flock like a shepherd; he will gather the lambs in his arms, and carry them in his bosom, and gently lead the mother sheep.

Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand and marked off the heavens with a span, enclosed the dust of the earth in a measure, and weighed the mountains in scales and the hills in a balance?

Who has directed the spirit of the LORD, or as his counselor has instructed him?

Whom did he consult for his enlightenment, and who taught him the path of justice? Who taught him knowledge, and showed him the way of understanding?

Even the nations are like a drop from a bucket, and are accounted as dust on the scales; see, he takes up the isles like fine dust.

25: To whom then will you compare me, or who is my equal? says the Holy One.

Lift up your eyes on high and see: Who created these? He who brings out their host and numbers them, calling them all by name; because he is great in strength, mighty in power, not one is missing.

Why do you say, O Jacob, and speak, O Israel, “My way is hidden from the LORD, and my right is disregarded by my God”?

Have you not known? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable.

He gives power to the faint, and strengthens the powerless.

Even youths will faint and be weary, and the young will fall exhausted;

but those who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.

Do you think there would be a buzz? Do you think people would start holding out for this? Do you think you would? The big difference between an exiled New Zealander and an exiled Israelite, is that they have a history of God intervening and setting them free. So these words remind them of the old days, of God’s hand showing them favour once again. A tremendous hope, a tremendous future. It’s worth believing in.

The book of Isaiah is written in this era. Chapter 40 in particular. It’s a beautiful chapter that I think resonates with us in this day that we live in.

I think we are in exile. The great bastion of Christian influence in our nation has crumbled. Secularism and pseudo-spirituality have become the religion du jour and we as Christians have been banished into silence of “Keeping it personal.” We haven’t been removed from our land, but we have had our beliefs, our treasured and cherished beliefs, ridiculed and banished. And if we’re honest, not for good reason.

It’s not that this has ever been a Christian nation as such, our peak of church attendance has never gone above 50% and that was during the optimism of a country rebuilding post-war. So our current stats aren’t too bad all things considered.

I think though, you could express your faith and it wasn’t such a big deal. Billy Graham crusades had thousands begin their faith journey, but let’s be honest. The way to now, the path of time is strewn with the carcasses of wrecked faith. Social disillusionment with Christianity has left it pushed internally, suppressed under the guise of tolerance in the name of unity. So we don’t talk politics and religion anymore.

How is it that something that is meant to be about us being a new creation can be suppressed like that without us feeling some deep compromise? How can this charge that Jesus himself has given us, to be his hands, feet and heartbeat in this world, how can this be suppressed without us resenting it?

I’m not calling for marches here, I’m not even calling for us to reclaim the nation : it was never the Christian’s in the first place. No I’m simply calling us to speak from a transformed heart into a world that needs those actions to soothe it’s wounds.

What are the idols of our society that we refuse to bow down to? Three men, in a sea of apathy, stood up to the test of the Babylonians. Three men out of a crowd probably of thousands, many of whom shared the same faith but opted to sell out.

Where is our point of difference? That we attend something? What is our point of difference?

So we will stop. And break into groups and talk about the point of difference that we have been this last week.

Let’s cut to the chase. Our hope is a wonderful hope. It’s about the future, an afterlife where we will share in heaven. It’s not whacky to believe in that, most people do. We know we’re going to get in. it’s a beautiful thing. But that hope doesn’t mean that I’m going to change. God shows too much mercy for that. Our problem here is that this hope that everything is going to be ok in the end is kind of irrelevant to us today. We’re not interested so much in death, not as young people, no, we’re still actually living in some kind of hope that we won’t die tomorrow. And besides, our lives aren’t so bad really in the scheme of things. Our families aren’t being carted off to Ericsson stadium to be torn to shreds by wild beasts and soldiers.

And even though there are predictions about the end times, most of us pay no heed to these things, because the old adage that Jesus is coming back soon, has worn a bit thin over 2000 years. Some of the end times stuff fuelled by the fears of the atomic age are just not felt by us now that the cold war is over.

Our biggest crises aren’t really touched by global terror. It’s just not an issue in New Zealand. Let’s face it, we can be spectators on the world stage because we’re so insignificant.

And to put the whole thing in perspective, our biggest crises are often relational anyway. We are so apathetic, that our need to feel strongly about things centres more on who is snogging who, than on the fact that this world is a world full of despair. What’s our point of difference?

We don’t need a Christian hope if we don’t care about anything other than ourselves. And I suspect that this is a spiral that take us down.

WE have no hope because we cannot care too much about anything that doesn’t affect us personally.

We don’t care that everything is going to work out in the end, because it doesn’t matter to us. We can cover up our dis-ease with life by buying stuff, getting entertained and following a career path. There will be fulfilment in that because it’s goal oriented.

But our Christian hope should be more than this, much more.

Where is our hope that Jesus will make a difference in our friends lives? Where is our hope that we can be shaped by the love of Jesus to be his light in this world? Where is our hope that we have been given the Holy Spirit to perform wonders in the communities we are involved in, where the love of Christ will be seen through our deeds? Where is our hope that says a firm “No” to spending energy on petty disputes at the expense of serving this world? Where is our hope that this faith in Jesus, this belief that we have, this assurance that we are getting into heaven, that we are a new creation, that we are his chosen people, that we are heirs to his throne, that we are a royal priesthood, that we are salt of the earth, that we able to make a visible difference in this world? Where is this hope?

Where is this hope that Jesus can make my life better, not worse, that I might have life to the full, not the emptiest, that if I am able to pin my lifestyle onto this example of Jesus that I can be truly free from my sin, my dis-ease, my condition. Where is the hope that motivates us to go and find the homeless and befriend them, to go and find the downtrodden and explain to them that the kingdom of Heaven belongs to them and that they shall inherit the earth? Is this a hope that we carry with us? That if we pray for people to be healed they can be healed, that if we pray for God to intervene, that He will intervene; that if we stand up for justice and truth that even if we are crushed underfoot that the principle remains and is worth the pain?

Do we really believe that this faith can make a difference? Because if we don’t, then don’t let us dare to worship our God in song. Don’t let us dare to pretend that we have any right in his throneroom. Don’t let us dare to think that we are living our faith with any integrity.

And I stand as a shadow in the corner, watching this torrent of words being spoken at a small congregation. And a still voice speaks into the tempest and says ‘mercy’ because the preacher’s got a plank in his eye and they can all see it.

And we might begin to seep back like driftwood into the ocean of apathy having just broken against the shore of Truth, a brief touch on the sands of new life. The tide sucking us back into itself because we feel we cannot bear to be separate and distinct from our friends let alone this nation. We choose to drift, close to the shore allowing the easy rhythms of our life wash over us.

But tonight we have that choice presented to us once again. So yes, mercy and grace prevail to give us hope, but are not escaping the hardness of this message. Myself included.

And the rhythms of the ocean of apathy are driven by unforgiveness, gossip, slander, wilfully hurting others, disrespecting others, hate, pride, selfishness, insecurity, un-ease at who we are, dis-ease from the pains of life. And it manifests as aggression, closing up, being uncommitted, being distracted, and addictions.

Hope comes at cost. We can’t escape that. And it’s clear to me that we can do the rhythms of faith without having hope. But this is not the reason why we celebrate the birth of Jesus! He brings a hope to us that costs. He brings hope that we can live life to the full, but he demands that we die to ourselves as part of that.

Too stark? Truth is often like that.