The Tension Of Hope
Theologian Fleming Rutledge tells us that “Advent begins in the dark.” It is a season that encourages us to name and embrace the waiting and the longing we feel. As we begin the season of Advent, the Bible calls us to live in the tension – a tension between the darkness we see around us and the light we know is on the way.
As we walk through the Christian year together, each season will be accompanied by a guiding question – a question to wrestle with, pray through, and bring to God. During the season of Advent, as we give our attention to our longing for a Savior, we’re asking together: “What are we waiting for?”
1. Paul says we are to “wake up from sleep” because the day of salvation is near. Where in your life have you been spiritually sleepy or numb, and what would “waking up” look like in your everyday rhythms, decisions, or relationships this week?
2. Paul urges believers to “put on the Lord Jesus Christ” and to “make no provision for the flesh.” What specific habits, patterns, or environments tend to pull you toward the “old clothes” of darkness, and what intentional practices could help you dress yourself in Christ’s character instead?
1. In the message, Justin talks about two ways we forsake our hope: (1) denying the darkness or (2) giving into despair. Maybe neither of these fit your response perfectly, but which do you tend to lean towards when you are losing hope?
2. There’s a lot of darkness we face both in and around us. So it’s important to name the places we see the light breaking through! Take a minute and think about it – what is bringing you hope right now? Where do you see God breaking through the darkness with the light of His love?
“Advent is designed to show that the meaning of Christmas is diminished to the vanishing point if we are not willing to take a fearless inventory of the darkness.”
— Fleming Rutledge, Advent
What are you waiting for?
To wait is to live between the promise and the fulfillment.
Don’t owe anything to anyone, except the debt of mutual love. If you love your neighbor, you see, you have fulfilled the law. Love does no wrong to its neighbor; so love is the fulfillment of the law.
Romans 13:8, 10 NTFE
This is all the more important because you know what time it is. The hour has come for you to wake up from sleep. Our salvation, you see, is nearer now than it was when first we came to faith. The night is nearly over, the day is almost here.
Romans 13:11-12a NTFE
For the early church, the coming of Jesus was not about escape, but expectation.
The night is nearly over, the day is almost here.
Romans 13:12a NTFE
We are already living what we believe about the future right now.
“There’s a collective sense that the world is ending. It’s the only non-partisan issue.”
— Abby Richards, “Is a new kind of religion forming on the internet?” (Vox Magazine, 2021)
Our hope is not rooted in a perfect present, but a promised future.
We forsake our hope when we deny the darkness.We forsake our hope when we give in to despair.
I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.
John 16:33 NIV
“‘Take heart’ is an urgent word of courage, not to escape reality, but to face it confidently, for Jesus has already overcome the powers of the world.”
— N.T. Wright, John for Everyone
“Hope in suffering is never for a disembodied day when we can finally escape the bodies, relationships, and circumstances that have caused us so much pain. Biblical hope is expressed not in certainty but in curiosity, hearts that acknowledge and accept Jesus is already King, lives that look for the restoration of his rule right here, people propelled by a willingness to see Jesus turn every inch of creation from cursed to cured. The relationships that were broken will be made right; our relationship to our bodies, each other, the earth, and God will be fully and finally restored. The kingdom is already and not yet; living in its tension rather than panicking for release is the only way to be pulled into the trajectory of hope.”
— K.J. Ramsey, This Too Shall Last
The light is coming.