Dear Faith Family:
Please be safe in your travels. Keep watching your e-mail and TV announcements in relation to the Christmas Eve Services. If we think it would not be safe to gather for worship we will cancel the services. I will continue to send out devotions to those who have e-mail so you can worship as a family in the safety of your homes.
Have a Merry and Blessed Christmas,
Pastor Ken
December 22, 2009
Another Kind of Hope
Excerpt from Romans 8:18-30
"By hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what is seen?"
Reflection by William C. Green
Hope is not easy. How often we say, "The world is a mess. I can't see any hope." Or, "I always run into the same problems. I can't see any hope." "My partner is never going to change," or "I'm never going to change. I can't see any hope for this relationship." We can feel this way about much that we face. Plenty of people have plenty of faith and a great attitude and bad stuff still happens. More believing and more praying isn't always of much help.
Faith is no denial of hopelessness. It's no denial of despair. Maybe our problem is the notion that faith means believing in prayer, or believing in hope, when instead it means believing in God. This can seem vague until brought into focus in Jesus. With him we don't turn away -- we can't -- from error and tragedy, the risks of love, and the agony of suffering and injustice.
In the birth of Jesus a much different kind of hope is born, challenging what we're used to. We learn what Luther called "confident despair." This means looking beyond what we can see and control. It's the abandonment of self-assurance for the assurance of God's presence. We can't see in the dark anymore than we can always see hope. But we're not alone. A strong hand holds ours. We're loved and led in the way to go.
Prayer
Lord of light and darkness, you give us hope beyond our own that leads us in the way ahead. Amen
Another Kind of Hope
Excerpt from Romans 8:18-30
"By hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what is seen?"
Reflection by William C. Green
Hope is not easy. How often we say, "The world is a mess. I can't see any hope." Or, "I always run into the same problems. I can't see any hope." "My partner is never going to change," or "I'm never going to change. I can't see any hope for this relationship." We can feel this way about much that we face. Plenty of people have plenty of faith and a great attitude and bad stuff still happens. More believing and more praying isn't always of much help.
Faith is no denial of hopelessness. It's no denial of despair. Maybe our problem is the notion that faith means believing in prayer, or believing in hope, when instead it means believing in God. This can seem vague until brought into focus in Jesus. With him we don't turn away -- we can't -- from error and tragedy, the risks of love, and the agony of suffering and injustice.
In the birth of Jesus a much different kind of hope is born, challenging what we're used to. We learn what Luther called "confident despair." This means looking beyond what we can see and control. It's the abandonment of self-assurance for the assurance of God's presence. We can't see in the dark anymore than we can always see hope. But we're not alone. A strong hand holds ours. We're loved and led in the way to go.
Prayer
Lord of light and darkness, you give us hope beyond our own that leads us in the way ahead. Amen
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