“If God is anything, He’s hope.” – Rev. William A. Petrillo
The year before Debi and I were married, we made what we thought would be a typical trip home from college to spend Labor Day weekend with our families. Over the course of the weekend, however, Debi’s mom suffered a seizure at her home and had to be rushed to the emergency room. In the hours that followed, there was a lot of chaos and confusion and concern as doctors ran numerous tests and asked a variety of questions to try to determine what had happened to her. After what seemed like a lifetime in the hospital waiting room, doctors returned with devastating news. She had an inoperable brain tumor and only six months to live.
My father had been with us at the hospital this whole time as well providing personal support and pastoral care to everyone who had gathered. He offered a few words here and there that I’ve lost over the years but, for the most part, he was simply present with us during those hours leading up to and following the doctor’s announcement. But as he was preparing to leave, he prayed with us and offered some words that I will never forget. He said “If God is anything, He’s hope.”
I don’t recall feel particularly comforted by those words in that moment. As a young man who was still very immature in his faith, I would have preferred my dad use his pastor credentials to call down God’s healing power and make her tumor go away. But, over the years, I’ve come to realize how powerful and profound those words were, and still are.
You see, Jesus never promised his followers a pain free or trouble free life, and He never offered to swoop down and make everything all better when we do encounter pain and suffering. He offered us salvation. He came to deliver us from our sins and their eternal consequences. That salvation is where our hope comes from.
Our small group has been studying the book of 1st Peter over the past few weeks. Peter wrote this letter to encourage suffering Christians who were being persecuted under Emperor Nero. He begins the letter by thanking God for salvation and reminding us that, in spite of our salvation, trials will still occur and will actually be used refine our faith along the way. All the while, our hope comes not from how God will protect us today but from the eternal life which is to come.
“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. In God’s great mercy he has caused us to be born again into a living hope, because Jesus Christ rose from the dead. Now we hope for the blessings God has for his children. These blessings, which cannot be destroyed or be spoiled or lose their beauty, are kept in heaven for you. God’s power protects you through your faith until salvation is shown to you at the end of time. This makes you very happy, even though now for a short time different kinds of troubles may make you sad. These troubles come to prove that your faith is pure. This purity of faith is worth more than gold, which can be proved to be pure by fire but will ruin. But the purity of your faith will bring you praise and glory and honor when Jesus Christ is shown to you.” 1 Peter 1:3-7 (NCV)
After reading the passage above and a few others, one of the questions we discussed in our group was “In what way does your hope for the future change the way you live each day?” Most everyone agreed that their hope for the future led to a more positive outlook on life and a greater sense of peace when facing life’s trials.
For Debi’s mom, her hope for the future and positive outlook had a dramatic effect on her cancer treatment. Her tumor didn’t go away but neither did her faith and she outlived her original prognosis by six months. That doesn’t sound like much but those extra months allowed her to see her grandson baptized, see her son graduate from high school, and walk Debi down the aisle at our wedding. That’s what hope can do.
Another question we discussed in our group took the opposite approach “How would your life be different if Christ had not conquered death?” The overwhelming response was that we’d feel somewhat hopeless and desperate knowing that this life was all there was. From a practical standpoint, we’d think a lot more about ourselves than others and our lives would be focused on gaining as much as we could for ourselves and our families. We’d also feel a greater sense of urgency to make things work out the way we wanted and a greater sense of fear and dread when they didn’t.
Doesn’t that sound a lot like what we see in our society today? At least the loud, pushy part of our society we see in the news, and in politics, and on social media? As a nation, we’ve become deeply divided along the lines of politics, race, economics, religion, and age just to name a few. More and more we see people shouting at or talking past one another rather than listening and engaging in civil discourse. More and more we see people committing acts of violence to get what they want or because they didn’t get what they want. More and more we see people dismissing or vilifying others who think differently than they do.
What would happen if all these people knew that Christ had conquered death on their behalf? Biologically speaking, death is one of, if not the worst thing that can ever happen to us. So if everyone knew they no longer needed to fear death, what else would remain for them to be afraid of? Maybe they too could develop a sense of hope that would overcome their sense of fear. Maybe they could start loving more, listening more, caring more, accepting more and forgiving more. Maybe our society would look a lot different than it does today.
Jesus tells us in Matthew 28:19 to “go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit”. In spite of His instructions, it can be tempting for me to bask in the hope and security that my own salvation provides and not be overly concerned about the salvation of others. After all, their salvation doesn’t really affect mine, right? And if God really wanted to spend eternity with someone, surely He could see to that without my help, right?
But as I’ve reflected on our Bible study over the past few weeks, I’m reminded that the salvation of others can improve all our lives in the here and now. And like so many things God instructs us to do, making disciples is something God requires for our benefit as much as His. God is hope, and hope changes lives, and changed lives will change the world we live in today and every day.
Peace and Blessings,
John Petrillo
09/29/2020