What are you hoping for?
What are you hoping for?
As I write this, we’re getting ready to pick up the newest addition to the Jackson household, a Labrador puppy called Poppy. I’m hoping that she will settle into her new home quickly and that our wonderful older dog, Meg, will quickly adapt to having a younger pup in the house.
Looking ahead to Christmas, I’m hoping for a great time with family and friends and a chance to see my parents, who we’ve not seen for 2 years (other than on Zoom).
In the New Year, I have a 3-month sabbatical and I’m hoping for a focussed time of writing as I try to complete several books I’m working on, as well as writing the script and lyrics for a follow on to the musical passion play that we put on in Kineton in 2015.
What are you hoping for?
We may have short term hopes for things like a successful meeting, a good day at work, a time of laughter and fun with friends and family. Or medium-term hopes for things like Christmas, holidays, travel. Or longer-term hopes for things like a new job, a promotion at work, solutions to the climate change problems we’re facing and more.
It is a great feeling when we get, or achieve, some of the things that we are hoping for. That feeling may last a moment, or for an extended period, but it rarely, if ever, lasts long.
In the busyness of life, we rarely pause to think about what is behind all these hopes. We don’t stop to reflect on the deeper longings that are behind the hopes we have.
When I think on this, I’m longing for things like happiness, peace, belonging, justice, freedom, joy, to be fully known, to be loved. Pleasure is great, but it is fleeting, what I long for is far deeper than that. And I don’t want those deeper longings just for myself, but for everyone. I don’t think we can be truly happy, whilst we know other people are suffering; so, I long for those things for everyone.
Just over 2000 years ago the people of Israel were hoping that the Messiah, God’s anointed one, would come and free them from Roman occupation and re-establish the kingdom of Israel. The Messiah would bring back the golden age of Israel, as it had been under King David. The prophets had foretold that this would happen and, yet after over 400 years of waiting, he still had not come.
And then, in a way that no-one expected, the Messiah arrived. Centuries of hoping, of expectant waiting, was fulfilled in the birth of a child to a poor couple staying in Bethlehem. And they missed it; the only Jewish people to witness that arrival were the shepherds.
Years later, when Jesus came to Jerusalem as an adult, they missed it again. He did not come to give them what they were hoping for, instead he came offering them far more. He did not come to re-instate the Kingdom of Israel, but to offer everyone the Kingdom of God. This is not some spiritual realm that we go to when we die, but a different way of living in God’s kingdom now. Jesus taught people that when they got this, when they understood that the Kingdom of God was here for all that were open to it, then they would have life to the full; that they would know happiness, peace, belonging, justice, freedom, joy, etc.
Jesus taught that the kingdom is not something that people needed to strive for, but that it was a free gift; it was for everyone if they were open enough to receive it.
Over 2000 years later in the busyness of life, with the challenge of the ongoing pandemic, with the threat of climate change, and as the usual frantic pace for the build-up to Christmas looms, that free gift is easily overlooked.
So, as we approach the end of 2021, I encourage you to pause, and to think not just of your hopes for Christmas and the New Year, but to identify your deeper longings. And then take a moment to ask God to help you to find the answers to those longings in 2022.
Rev B Jackson