Living Hope

“By his great mercy he has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead…” 1 Peter 1:3-9

It’s only been a couple weeks since we celebrated Easter in one of the most unusual of ways, away from one another and those we love in a time when we should be celebrating. Sitting in this period of unknown, locked away like the first disciples, wondering about an uncertain future. Yet to those hidden from a threatening world, the resurrected Jesus enters their struggle leading them to a vastly different future, but they aren’t there yet. They need to live with something for awhile and that is “Hope”.

Most of us hope for things that we think we know about. We hope for that perfect Christmas gift we asked Santa for, we hope for the time when our beloved asks us to marry them, or we hope for the day we will retire after all the hard work. For the most part, this is a kind of hope we can control. Yet there is a deeper hope that is much different, a hope that is not tied our expectations or the world’s assurances, but one that is instead tied to the promises of a risen savior that brings us the gift of grace, a hope that is often surprising and not what we expected.

The Easter mystery was never what those first followers of Jesus anticipated, but when they experienced and embraced their risen savior they were given “a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ”. This living hope is also what the first communities held on to in the world that wanted to reject them, and it is the same living hope that will guide us into the future. A future that may seem uncertain, but one filled with promise that not even death could get in the way of God’s love, grace, and blessing for us. In the meantime, we wait for that hope to emerge in ways we don’t yet understand, and sometimes that waiting can be the hardest part. Trust in the resurrection my friends. New birth is coming and with it some amazing promises. I look forward to seeing how God’s kingdom of hope emerges around and through you.