HOPE IN OUR WORLD

Scripture: Isaiah 9:2-7; Luke 2:8-20; John 1:1-14

INTRODUCTION

A bright young boy in the fourth grade chose to write his end of the year December essay on the theme “The Mystery of Life.” He did his research in the library and on the Internet, but he also thought it would be helpful to get some first-hand information at home.

So he asked his mother who was reading in the living room, “Mom, where did I come from”? His mother was surprised. Her son had never asked that question before, and she wasn’t quite ready to give him the full answer. So she replied, “A stork brought you dear.” The boy knew that wasn’t true, so he pressed her further: “Then where did you come from, Mom”? His mother stuck to her story and said, “Well, a stork brought me too, dear.”

In frustration, the boy went into the kitchen where his grandmother was baking Christmas cookies. He looked her straight in the eye and inquired, “Grandma, where did you come from”? Evasively, like her daughter, the older woman replied, “Well, a stork brought me into the world, child.”

Totally unsatisfied, the boy went up to his room, sat down and began the essay with this line: “There hasn’t been a normal birth in our family for three generations.”

On this Christmas Even, 2003, it is important to remember that we Christians believe in a great mystery. We believe that at a moment in time, God invaded history and became one of us – Divinity was born in the form of humanity and that little child in Bethlehem was named Jesus.

No one, not even Mary His mother and Joseph, understood it fully back then, any more than we can completely comprehend it tonight. But something wonderful, awesome and miraculous did happen in that stable long ago, something and someone who has been the source of our hope ever since.

Our sermons during the Advent season have focused on the theme of Hope – Hope in Our Hearts, Hope in Our Homes, Hope in Our Church, Hope in Our City, and on this silent, holy night, Hope in Our World. The familiar lines from the Gospel of John proclaim it this way:

For God so loved the world that He gave us His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life (John 3:16)

So the question I ask on this Christmas Eve is “Are you hopeful tonight”?

To be honest, there are those who would probably answer “No.” They identify with old Isaiah who prophesied long ago about “the people who walked in the darkness,” and that is how they see and perceive the world today – full of darkness and despair, confusion and fear, just the way the poet W. H. Auden described it when he wrote that we live in an “age of anxiety.”

And who could blame those people for not being hopeful? Since September 11, 2001, our lives have been turned upside down and right now in America we are living under the cloud of a code orange alert. Over in the Middle East, the fear of terrorism has swept the entire region. Even though we have captured Saddam Hussein, Osama Bin Laden and Al Qaeda are still on the loose and the weekly reports about the Palestinian-Israeli conflict are almost always bad news. What we see and hear about Afghanistan isn’t much better, and the tragic struggle between Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland has recently turned more bitter.

Last Saturday night, as our daughter Aly flew in from New York, driving back from the airport she handed me this slip of paper. It’s a UPS info notice, dated December 4, indicating that they had tried to deliver a package to her front door in Harlem. The package, which contained a Christmas wreath sent by our youth minister Allison Per-Lee, finally arrived. But the info notice earlier that week was misspelled. They left out the “E,” so that it read “Holiday Wrath.”

For far too many people, that’s what it feels like tonight. Instead of joy in our hearts, love in our families and peace amongst the nations, it seems that our world continues to deliver wrath, hatred and retaliation. In fact, that’s what it felt like to Mark Twain years ago as he sat down one day in December to write a letter to a friend:

“I have been reading the morning paper. I do it every morning … well knowing that I shall find in it the usual depravities and baseness and hypocrisies and cruelties that make up civilization and cause me to put in the rest of the day pleading for the damnation of the whole human race.”

II.

Well, thanks be to God that it has not and will never turn out that way! How do we know? Because God has promised to go the distance with us in person, in the person of His Son our Savior Jesus. Isaiah prophesied that The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light (Isaiah 9:2), and John proclaimed that the light finally came into the world through The Word made flesh … and the darkness has not overcome it (John 1).

Luke reports that an angel appeared in the dark of night and told the shepherds Do not fear as the light radiated all around them. And then a whole chorus of angels joined in the glad refrain, singing Glory to God in the highest, and peace on earth among all people! (Luke 2)

Matthew tells us that the Wise Men followed the star in the sky which led them to Bethlehem where they found the Holy Child and offered their gifts to Him (Matthew 2). And if we are willing to open our hearts and our eyes, we too can catch a glimpse of that dazzling light and take hold of the gift of hope which is offered once more to the world tonight.

A doctor emerges from the operating room, looks into the anxious eyes and worried faces of the family members and says, “We got it all.” The light shines in the darkness – that’s hope!

A prodigal son, estranged from his parents for far too long, calls on the telephone and says the words they’ve been waiting to hear for years, “I’m coming home for Christmas.” The light shines in the darkness – that’s hope!

Someone shopping at Lenox Square, surrounded by a crowd of people pushing and shoving one another to get to the cash registers, someone saw a little girl standing quietly by a Christmas tree and she was wearing a sweatshirt that said “Jesus is the reason for the season.” The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. That’s hope!

CONCLUSION

My friends, what the world needs now is hope, and that is the gift which God gave to us long ago when a little baby was born in Bethlehem. And because of Him, Jesus Christ, we Christians can receive that gift tonight, believing that the light still shines in the darkness – that hope is greater than despair, that love is stronger than hatred and that faith can overcome our fear.

Do you believe that is true? If you do, or if you want to – if you came here tonight looking for hope – then you are in the right place to find it. Open your hearts and your eyes, open your hands and your arms, open your entire life and receive the gift of hope which God wants to give you.

A woman named Gwen began to find it here last Sunday morning. Right after the benediction at 11:15, standing here, we saw her up there in the balcony and she shouted out, “Dr. Wirth, I need help!” She was in trouble and those of you who were here and witnessed that sacred moment, saw how people of this congregation and staff circled around her and held onto her and began to show her that hope can be hers this Christmas. Do you believe that is possible?

The Presbyterian poet Ann Weems found it in her life and in closing, she shares that gift with each of us and all of us tonight:

“The whole world waits in December darkness

for a glimpse of the light of God.

Even those who snarl ‘Humbug!’

and chase away the carolers

have been seen looking toward the skies.

The one who declared he never would forgive

has forgiven,

and those who left home

have returned,

and even wars are halted,

if briefly,

as the whole world looks starward.

In the December darkness

we peer from our windows

watching for an angel with rainbow wings

to announce the hope of the world.”

(From “Kneeling in Bethlehem” by Ann Weems,

The Westminster Press, 1980)

In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

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