2052AFC112520 – 2020 Advent Series #5
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Typical Galilean Fishing Boat in Jesus’ Time
Hebrews 11:1 – 1 “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”
Aloha nui loa, ʻŌmea! Grace and Peace to each of you from God our Father and our Lord, Jesus the Christ, in the Power of the Holy Spirit. Today we continue with the 2020 Advent series. Back in October, I created a post called 2040AFC100220 – Think about these things and in that post was this statement: We discern what is good, and follow everything that points to the Love of God in Christ Jesus. We never, never, never, never give up Hope! We place Faith as our mast, and Love as our sail, and with Wisdom as our rudder we follow the course laid out in Scripture.
My dear friend and mentor, John Kretser, commented on that. He liked the image and contributed the thought that the Boat that holds that mast, sail, rudder, and course is our Hope in Christ Jesus. KA-CHING! There it was laid out for me just as I had hoped. As I worked on deciding how to build this series, a second set of instructions came in: BUILD IT FROM PREVIOUSLY-USED MATERIALS AND INSERT NEW MATERIAL FROM EACH SUNDAY’S READINGS. This is the 5th and last in the Series. I’ll give you links where you can go look at the origin of what you’ll see in these posts. Today, we finish up with the last in the series, The Boat – our Hope in Christ Jesus. Perhaps you are busy today with attending a Christmas service at Church, and sharing the day’s celebration with family and/or friends, and won’t have time to read this. Nonetheless, let me wish all of you a very happy Christmas. We’ll be back next week with a wish for a better and happier and healthier New Year, but for today, we will look at our Hope. I’m going to bring in a Guest Author here to start us off. This is an excerpt from a poem by Nicholas J. Stojakovich:
| Logos Present in time Imbedded in mindsLed the quest for pure actuality That paved the way To a transcendent reality As reason met revelation In an incarnation © NJS/Raging Grace PublishingNicholas J Stojakovich |
What is Hope and why do we have it? Where do we get it, and from whom? In Hebrew it is tiqvah (tik-vaw’). The root is literally the word for cord, as in a measuring line. In Greek it is elpis (el-pece’), the expectation of what is certain. In either language it implies patience – hupomoné (hoop-om-on-ay’) – literally “remaining under” as in to endure steadfastly whatever challenges God allows in our lives. Hope is patient-waiting for something we are confident will be ours eventually. It comes from our innate desire for what is Good, and that desire comes from God himself, as do all things that are Good (See James 1:17). Hoping is a way we patiently and vigilantly wait for something better, something encouraging, something we trust is well worth waiting to obtain. It is not complacent, vegetating waiting; it is active preparation for a future Blessing and so we act in Hope because of Hope. Our hope was first promised in Genesis 3:9-23 when God promised that earthlings would eventually overcome the evil caused in Eden, all through “the seed of the woman.” (See = zera (zeh’-rah) Descendants, offspring, child/children) This is a very important fact to remember, because it is the Source of our Hope as well as the process through which it will be fulfilled. God told Eve and Adam that their sin conferred on them the curse of mortality; their inheritance would be Death. In God’s infinite Wisdom, that mortality was also the means through which humanity would be restored to unity with God. Here is how that Miracle is expressed in the Preface to Eucharistic Prayer III:
For we know it belongs to your boundless glory that you came to the aid of mortal beings with your divinity and even fashioned for us a remedy out of mortality itself so that the cause of our downfall might become the means of our salvation, through Christ our Lord.
Today is Christmas, the day we celebrate the birth of that Promise of Ages. It is a wonderful thing, to be sure; but I ask you to look back and see how that came to be. It came to us THROUGH THE INCARNATION. You may recall we celebrated that a few months ago, on March 25th – just as the World was shutting down because of the pandemic. What happened then was the fulfilling Miracle of Immortality taking on mortality – we see that In Nick’s poem. The Logos (the Word, the Christ of God), always eternal, became present in time resulting in ” … a transcendent reality / As reason met revelation / In an incarnation.” If I could present that to you in an image, it would look like this:
Right there in the middle where the X-shape sits is the moment of the incarnation. Everything changes there and goes on to become Infinity. A mortal family makes room for an immortal change brought about through the mortality and death of One Man through the seed of that woman, Eve by the fiat – the YES of Mary. (Sunday is the Feast of the Holy Family!)
Our Hope was and is and will be that Incarnation. Everything before that moment anticipated it, but did not fulfill it. Everything after that moment fulfilled it and eternally confirmed it.
From 1442AFC101714 – Hope Revisited – Job 14:7-9 – For a tree there is hope תִּקְוָה (tiqvah) {tik-vaw’}, if it be cut down, that it will sprout again and that its tender shoots will not cease. Even though its root grow old in the earth, and its stump die in the dust, yet at the first whiff of water it may flourish again and put forth branches like a young plant. Think of the sprig that sprouted from the stump of Jesse (Isaiah 11:1). That sprig is the Hope of All Israel – Jesus! Isaiah 40:31 – They that hope in the LORD will renew their strength, they will soar as with eagles’ wings; they will run and not grow weary, walk and not grow faint. Jeremiah 29:11 – For I know well the plans I have in mind for you, says the LORD, plans for your welfare, not for woe! Plans to give you a future full of hope.
From 1950AFC121319 – The Power of Patience – “Patience is power. Patience is not an absence of action; rather it is ‘timing.’ It waits on the right time to act, for the right principles, and in the right way.” ― Fulton J. Sheen
In today’s world, feelings are more important than truth. The World takes delight in shaming and persecuting us; nonetheless, we can – and must – endure in firmly declared and patient Truth. DO we want to be liked more than we want to be truthful? How easily we have forgotten that nothing, nothing in this World is worth dying for! Only that which is beyond the muck and smut of the World is worth dying for because only those things are worth living for.
James 5:7 – 7 Be patient,* therefore, beloved, until the coming of the Lord. The farmer waits for the precious crop from the earth, being patient with it until it receives the early and the late rains.
*Μακροθυμήσατε (Makrothymēsate) from μακροθυμέω (makrothumeó) {mak-roth-oo-meh’-o} to persevere, to be patient – I am longsuffering, I have patience, I am forbearing, I have perseverance. James uses this word in a way that is unusual when coupled with the image of a farmer waiting for crops to come in. He directs the Church to wait as God waits – with divine longsuffering. In the six verses before this, James is describing how the rich have abused the poor, thinking they could set aside the wages owed to their workers thereby enriching themselves even more through fraud. James urges his flock to be patient in these trials because “the coming of the Lord is near.”
Psalm 39:7 – 7 “And now, O Lord, what do I wait for? My hope is in you.
1 Timothy 1:1-2 – Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the command of God our Savior and of Christ Jesus our hope, 2 To Timothy, my loyal child in the faith: Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 5: 3-5 – 3 And not only that, but we also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, 4 and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 5 and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.
Romans 8:38-39 – 38 For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
For me, that is hope. When I look around the world and see loved-ones suffering; innocents being murdered, persecuted, tormented, and terrorized; natural disasters overwhelming the great and the small alike; the oceans, the lands, and the very sky above us polluted and dying; then I turn my eyes toward Jesus, and I see HOPE. It is such a great and wonderful Hope that I don’t mind waiting because what I’m waiting for will be Great and Wonderful!
This is the meaning behind Jesus’ words, “… these are the ones who, when they hear the word, hold it fast in an honest and good heart, and bear fruit with patient endurance.” When I think of that idea, I am often reminded of a story about the effectiveness of cramming before exams. If one fails to study and then hopes to gain enough understanding the night before the exam by staying up all night, it’s a bit like the farmer who sows his crops the month before harvest begins. He probably won’t garner much of a harvest. We who hope wait actively and are well prepared to receive that for which we anticipate in Hope. I love the way the Apostle Paul put it in Romans 15:13 – 13 May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. So, Belovéd, let me ask you – WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?
I can’t think of anyone or anything better to wait for than God! My HOPE is to spend my eternity with, in, and for him as intimately as possible. The most intimate parts of our lives center on Love: God, family, friends, country, the Eucharist. We are vigilant because we want what we have and it is – or should be – enough. If we grow impatient and let our vigilance lapse, we may miss out and be caught unprepared – like the people in Noah’s time, we might miss the boat. Our “boat” in this series is the Hope we have in Christ Jesus which was made possible for us by his Incarnation – a plan God himself fashioned for us out of the curse our First Parents brought on us through sin. We are restored to God’s presence through the seed of The Woman because … since death came through a human being, the resurrection of the dead has also come through a human being; 22 for as all die in Adam, so all will be made alive in Christ. (See 1 Corinthians 15:21-22). Do NOT miss the Boat, Belovéd!
Remember our Hope is the source of the Circle of Life (not the one in Lion King):
1632AFC080516 – Ready or Not
Circle of Life (← Check it out!)
Where there is life, there is hope.
Where there is hope, there is love.
Where there is love, there is integrity.
Where there is integrity, there is truth.
Where there is truth, there is justice.
Where there is justice, there is mercy.
Where there is mercy, there is freedom.
Where there is freedom, there is life.
Our Hope is Life.
Special thanks to John and Nick for their help with this series.
Whatever, whenever, wherever, whoever, however, if ever, forever —
at your service, Belovéd!
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Unless otherwise indicated, all scripture passages are from the New Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition (NRSVCE) New Revised Standard Version Bible: Catholic Edition, copyright © 1989, 1993 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Biblical languages inserts from Bible Hub (Bible Hub: Search, Read, Study the Bible in Many Languages) Visit at http://biblehub.com
Aloha Friday Messages by Charles O. Todd, III is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License
