Future belongs to people of hope

In the life of Christian churches, we are now in early January completing the seasons of Advent and Christmas. Baptists are not known for a lot of ritual. We specialize in singing, reading the Bible and sermonizing. We do not do incense. We do not do much with fancy garments. Reading liturgies out of a book is quite foreign.

But in Church of the Covenant, especially during the Advent/Christmas seasons, we do light a few candles. Jesus said that his followers were to be the light of the world, so we regularly light one or two candles every Sunday as our witness that we will be a light in the darkest of the world’s rooms. Then during the Advent and Christmas season, we take candle lighting to a higher level. We light five candles as a reminder of basic Christian virtues.

In order, we light a candle for hope, then one for peace, then joy. We follow with the faith candle and finally light a candle as a witness to love.

Hope, peace, joy, faith and love. If it takes lighting a few candles to remind us of what it means to follow Jesus, I am all for lighting candles.

The ardent evangelist Paul from Tarsus, when writing to his friends in the city of Corinth, called faith, hope and love the big three. Just now, I am especially intrigued by hope and the transformation that takes place with people who practice hope. What does it mean to hope?

I recently read a quote about hope from the Czech playwright, novelist and poet, Vaclav Havel. This is what he said: “Hope is definitely not the same as optimism. Hope is not the conviction that something will turn out well, but the certainty that something makes sense regardless of how it turns out.”

I was so intrigued by the quote I did a little homework about Vaclav Havel. He is still alive and still writing. He has written out of a context that is very troubled. He was born in 1936 and so was a very young child when Hitler annexed Czechoslovakia to the Third Reich. Following World War II, his homeland fell under the control of the Soviet Union. Czechoslovakia became a part of the Warsaw Pact and found itself behind the Iron Curtain of Soviet-style communism.

Vaclav and his family were not cooperators with the systems under which they lived. Vaclav was denied educational opportunities and was imprisoned four different times. No matter where he was, he continued writing. Hope as optimism does not work in such circumstances. Havel’s kind of hope does.

Havel survived the years of darkness and, though he had no great interest in politics, after the demise of the Soviet Union he became the president of the Czech Republic. He worked diligently on undoing the Warsaw Pact and shepherded his country into new relationships with the European family of nations. For his writings and for his political activities, Vaclav Havel has been honored by Amnesty International and was awarded the prestigious Gandhi Peace Prize.

I owe a great debt to Havel for reminding me that hope is not to be equated with optimism. As I ponder hope, I realize my key heroes lived confidently in terrible circumstances. Jesus granted pardon to those who were executing him. I love the Bible story of Joseph, who suffered horribly but found purpose in his plight. I think of prophets like Isaiah and Jeremiah, of Francis from Assisi, Martin Luther King Jr. and Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Every one of them lived in horrible circumstances, but lived lives with hope and confidence that could never be quenched.

As we enter the New Year, I confess I do not have a lot of optimism. I grieve for our world. I grieve for our environment. I grieve for the oceans, the lakes, the rivers and the streams. I grieve for a humanity that is incredibly greedy to the demise of kindness. I grieve for my nation that believes peace, freedom and security can be attained by killing.

During 2008, I will make an honest effort to treat our environment more kindly. I will make an honest effort to be a kind and loving person in all my relationships. I will make an honest effort to be a good steward of all the resources placed in my hands. I will do my very best because it is right to do so.

As I do my best in 2008, I will do so with little optimism about the outcomes. I will, however, live with the confidence that comes from genuine hope.

I will keep lighting candles as a reminder.

The Rev. Howard Bess is pastor of Church of the Covenant, an American Baptist church in Palmer. His e-mail address is hdbss@mtaonline.net.