Our intention was to invite the congregation to join us as if we were having a conversation around the kitchen table.
For the two of us (David and Susan), we first thought hope might be the capacity to help change out an optical drive on the computer because the Dell warranty person says, it’s a “customer install”. As David says, “I sure need hope to believe I could do that!” Susan was content to have hope if there are enough facts and proof. We both agreed that while each of these examples are light-hearted and a bit humorous, neither of these examples are about hope.
As we began our conversation, we spoke of hope as transcendent. Hope is much bigger than us. It rests within and all around us. We can participate in transcendence. To do so will transform us—change us. But, we can’t control it. For the Apostle Paul, the deep sense of hope and its wider meaning is its power to embrace us—to move within and all around us. Our job is to create room for it. This is a choice we are invited to make. As Paul says, we can diminish our life to the point of choosing only to eat and drink and be merry, then tomorrow die. Or, we can allow the “imperishable” (God’s presence) to wash over the “perishable” (our bodies) so that we are transformed. Fierce and ferocious hope creates the courage to live fully, compassionately in a way that is framed by God’s transcendent hope and justice. As Martin Luther King said, “The moral arc is long, but it bends towards justice and good.” This is about God’s transcendent process that we embrace as a people of faith and ferocious hope.