Christian Hope? Really? If I didn’t know any better, I’d think Christians were the world’s most pessimistic people.

The world is always ending. But not in that good way. In the hold-off-the-armies-of-satan way.

The depictions of Christians in the news are often our most deplorable people. The ones always after minorities to change their behavior (and their nature). Or speaking endlessly about morality while showing little love.

Or we find spaces on Facebook where Christians congregate and slam each other and bemoan that the whole thing is going to hell.

The fake War on Christmas and the sudden affection for blue laws where we can’t have any fun on Sundays but gollee! Chick-fil-A and Hobby Lobby are closed! What faith!

If you were to observe Christianity from the outside, you would hear the phrase Christian Hope and find it laughable. There’s virtually no evidence in the public square that we have any hope at all.

It would seem we don’t have any hope.

We know hope as how we deal with uncertainty. So Christian hope must be looking at the situation, rolling the dice and hoping it turns out.

Christian Hope is only half like that.

It’s rolling the dice when God has made a promise that we’ll roll two sixes.

But since God hasn’t promised us big gambling wins, we’re talking about other stuff. Stuff that has nothing to do with dice.

We’re talking about community-building and dealing with adversity. We’re talking about heaven on earth and words coming to us at a fateful hour.

And hope in Jesus.

The difference between how we think of hope in our culture and Christian Hope is in how we know trust.

God won’t pay your electric bill.

When the vestry cut my position at a previous church, my family was living paycheck to paycheck on my wife’s income for several months. And while friends told us we just needed to pray because “God will provide,” it was hard to say We do pray, thank you. We prayed before and we’re praying now. But God isn’t giving us free cash to pay our electric bill.

Several months later, we moved to a church which had a history of serving each other in times of great need. Job loss, divorce; they raised money to pay rent and utilities and help others get back on their feet. I see that same generous spirit where I am now.

That’s how God provides.

Not because I prayed super, duper hard and God is some narcissist. That God needs to soak up that love. Or because God expects us to surpass a certain threshold of prayer juju before acting.

God provides family and community and hope in the midst of chaos when we’re all at it. When we’re all building the Kin-dom together.

We don’t speak of Christian Hope because we’re selfish.

Part of the reason we don’t speak of Christian Hope is we’ve got the wrong idea about the word. But the other part is because we’re so freaking selfish.

We want the glory for ourselves. We want to be the one who’s saved. Not that other dude; he made his own mess! Or for our church to be the biggest, most glorious church of them all! We want to win at Christianity. {Hint: the first shall be last.}

How about being right, eh? Oh man! That’s our favorite right there! We don’t need to have hope when we have the market cornered on the real stuff! Why are you fakers even trying? Just come over to our tradition where the real stuff is at. They’re all false prophets with their worldly concerns!

And sometimes we just can’t be bothered with that junk. I mean, between soccer practice, job stress, and the 24-hour news cycle with yet another tragic shooting and the blatant racism and paranoia in our election; where the moral equivalent of a dung beetle is a major party nominee; how can we be woke and still have hope?

It feels like surviving in the now with any cultural awareness, a scrap of decency toward other people, and hint of the love of Christ in our hearts requires heavy medication or some really well-honed coping strategies.

And some dude on the internet talking about hope just isn’t gonna cut it.

Hope is the substance of love.

That’s the part we struggle to see when life sucks the most. That love is built out of hope.

When I’m deep, down that tunnel of sadness, the only thing I’m hungry for is feeling. And nothing gets us there faster than music.

Like the sage line from High Fidelity:

Did I listen to pop music because I was miserable? Or was I miserable because I listened to pop music?

And yet, I want all the feels. Including love. I want to want blue skies again. I don’t want to stay miserable forever.

Hope is the certainty that our love is secured and our participation is not in question.

And we live that out by helping people feel secured and becoming full participants.

As Christians, we know God is love. And we reflect the love of God out because we are blessed to know that love. We have the fortune of being Christ’s hands and feet in the world. To be the way God’s love is felt and understood.

Christian Hope is known by our trust. Not in wish-fulfillment or that things magically happen because we’re good or did the right things.

Hope is knowing that God is good, we are loved, and the best part of all, is that we get to take part in transforming the world. Hope is how we know love.

And that’s stuff worth talking about.

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This is from a series on Choices. We have plenty more choices to make!