Howdy
Well, we've been looking we are starting our first week of Advent and as we are doing so
We have different themes for these four weeks of Advent
Each week will be lighting a different candle as we lead up to Christmas Eve and celebrate the coming of Christ Jesus
Advent meaning the coming
The time for Jesus to arrive
So with that is today with our different themes. We celebrate the theme of hope
Now one of the things that I oftentimes think about is what brings ideas of hope to mind
What brings the images of hope? But sometimes we know hope
better at times when we have felt
Hopeless and the time that I remember seeing hopelessness the most was when I watched
Groundhog Day
Bill Murray Bill Murray at his best I swear it was a fascinating that apparently
Bill Murray and Harold Ramis argued so much about this movie that they refused to make any more movies together
After that the guys that put together ghostbusters and this movie ended up breaking them apparently
Now one of the things with this movie for those who haven't seen it is that
Groundhog Day, it's that this person named Phil Connors
He goes to this place called Punxsutani and they're supposed to see if the groundhog comes out
Well, he has absolutely no regard for the town or any of their traditions. He's just annoyed at being there
But there was a blizzard that's coming into the area
So what ends up happening is in the morning he hears I got you babe
Sonny and Cher and he goes through the whole day of
entering the town and looking at the groundhog and seeing that there's going to be more winter and then the blizzard strikes
And he wakes up and he hears I got you babe playing again and
As he leaves his room
He starts having the same conversations with people that he knows he already had and then he looks he says
Where's everybody going where they're going to see the groundhog?
That was yesterday and the entire day has played again
But he goes to bed
And it wakes up and again
It's groundhog day all over again and it keeps happening over and over and over and after a bit instead of just being confused
He just decides well
I'm stuck in this. I must be some form of a God
So therefore I'm going to ignore all the usual rules and do whatever I want
But with that is he eats what he wants. He does what he wants. He takes what he wants
But as he does that over and over he starts to realize why can predict what's going to happen?
So with this is he knows how to everything will play out which means he can start manipulating things the way he wants
He's going to decide how everything will play out
except for this one person that he really wants to impress and
Somehow nothing that he does ever manages to be the exact formula to win her heart
He can't seem to quite find the right formula to win her over
But then he decides maybe I just need the formula to escape this cycle
But nothing he does even times whenever he gives up hope and tries to end it
nothing seems to stop the cycle and
Nothing ever seems to change
It is easy to lose hope
Whenever time and time again no matter what you have tried to do nothing feels like it ever changes
Whenever things feel like they are stuck it is easy to lose hope
Whenever we look at our gospel passage
I can't help but wonder if that's the way that it was for the people of Israel
Time and time again
They kept losing themselves and they had lost hope in who they were
They had gotten to a point where they no longer had a nation that they could actually claim to be their own in
722 BC
The northern part got conquered by Assyria 586 BC the southern part got conquered by Babylon
Then later on they were under the oppression of the Persians in 538
Later they got conquered by the Greeks in 322 BC
They did have a little window of
independence in 167 BC with the Maccabeean revoles
But it was not very long lived
Because then the Romans came and conquered them in 63 BC
The thing is is that when Jesus came on the scene they'd been waiting around
for around 70 years or so and they were wondering if it was time for their true freedom to finally arrive
But everyone had different ways that they reacted
Some people just ignored the rules did whatever they wished whatever they felt like doing
And they didn't really think that God was paying attention to them anymore
Others were trying to figure out the exact formula for how to convince God to give them exactly what they wanted and
To let them escape the madness of the Roman world around them and others
Just gave up
They didn't really believe anything would change and they just kind of changed themselves to fit into the life of their Roman occupied country
Whatever it was that people felt that they needed to endure
They were struggling with a feeling of hope and that how they couldn't seem to find it anymore
But here comes Jesus
But with Jesus it's time for something to change
And it says behold your king is coming
Now Jesus ends up telling the disciples go get this cult go get the full of a donkey that is over here and
They end up walking over there and not only finding exactly what he said they would find a cult that no one had ever written before
But then they just tell the people there
The Lord has need of it
That's it and then they're able to take it and bring it to Jesus
How was that even a thing? How did Jesus know what was going to happen?
Well, there were prophecies that had happened in Genesis 49
Whenever Jacob was speaking
Futures over each of his sons and he got to Judah the ancestor of Jesus and he says
Binding his fall to the vine and his donkey's colt to the choice vine
He has washed his garments and wine and his vesture in the blood of grapes
So realizing that the donkey's colt will end up bringing the one whose clothing will have
the fruit of the vine
The grapes the wine that would point to his death the blood of the grapes
But even in Zechariah 9 and it says rejoice greatly oh daughter of Zion shout aloud
Oh daughter of Jerusalem behold your king is coming to you
Righteous and having salvation is he humble and mounted on a donkey on a colt the full of a donkey
So we could reasonably say well Jesus had the prophecies
He he would be able to see and know that this would happen, but that's not what we actually end up seeing truly happening
This isn't just that Jesus knows how everything will play out because he's able to look forward at it
It's because he is God
authoring the story himself
guiding it
Knowing exactly what his purposes are and making them happen
And isn't that something that we oftentimes struggle to get our mind around is that Jesus?
Is it just in a set of circumstances?
He doesn't just happen to know what's going to happen is that he's the one guiding and directing
Because oftentimes we lose hope whenever we forget that God is still the author and the perfecter of our faith
and our future
Whenever we forget that our hope is not in circumstance and hoping that things work out and wondering if they will
But rather our hope is in the one who has actually determined the future
Who knows what will happen because he's created it
Who has done it not just by wishing but by his own blood and sacrifice
Because the future is not something that just happens
It has to be something that is one and it was one on the cross and
done by Christ Jesus
See the thing is is that whatever that future might be
God knows what it is
But we are oftentimes not expecting what God is going to do
And that's part of why it is so difficult to have hope because what God has intended is not the thing that we were looking for
See in the movie Phil Connors. He wasn't expecting
The actual solution he kept trying to manipulate it to try to get to where he wanted to be
Trying to decide what it was that he wanted
And then when he didn't get it or he got it and it didn't meet what he wanted. He became even more hopeless
That's the thing about the people of Israel
They weren't expecting who Jesus is
They were looking for the victory against their overlords. They were looking for a different kind of king
Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord
But this isn't the one that they were looking for
This isn't the one that they were hoping for people were excited to see him
They were you could see them singing you could see them laying the palms and the blankets and preparing away
But the problem was
They were preparing the way for who they thought he was
But he was nowhere near what they expected him to be
See they were hoping for a victory against the rulers, but he wasn't planning that kind of victory
See rather the victory in Christ was one that came through humiliation
Something that appeared
Hopeless what we oftentimes hope for in our life and in our faith is much more shallow than what God
actually
intends
What we hope for is
Meaningless compared to what God has truly intended
Because the king was meant to be on the cross to go through humiliation and death
For our blessing the hope was only able to come through the hopelessness
And even after Jesus came to Jerusalem
He still had to go to the temple and cleanse it and refocus everyone so that he could proclaim what he had come to do
But he still didn't know what to do
So that he could proclaim what he had come to do, but he still didn't allow things to go the way people hoped
Because that's the thing about the true hope that comes in God is
That it does lead to a cross
The thing is is that hope is not easy
And don't mean the things that we wish for the things that would make life easy the things that would somehow make sense
I mean true hope
Something lasting
Something meaningful it is never
easy
God's path does not come simply it does not come without struggle
Even as Jesus is coming into Jerusalem look finally they're acknowledging who he is and what he has come to do
Only to hear them say crucify him within a week
As they discover who he truly is
But you see the thing about hope is that it is real
It's not just something that we wish for
See one of the things about the movie
Was to realize that there wasn't a magic setting
There wasn't something where Phil Connors ends up going through the right steps to somehow fix things and get what he wanted
But he had to grow and he had to change
At some point he finally had to realize that the things that he was pursuing or wishing or hoping for
were meaningless
And even knowing that he wasn't going to escape from this cycle
How could he actually help people but also become who he was meant to be
He ends up taking piano lessons he ends up walking around discovering who needs what when where and how
And making sure he's right there at the right time to help them person choking at dinner walks up gives them the high amount of money
ends up gives them the Heimlich person falling from a tree branch and catches them
And ends up discovering more about himself so that while people wondered who is this person who came in that magically knows piano and seems to fit each need that we have
They didn't realize everything that it had taken for him to finally get there
Because he had to finally let go of what he was trying to get in order to become who he was truly meant to be
And that was when he was finally able to find love and to escape into the life that he was meant to live
And so when it finally played again
Even with the same song
It was finally February 3rd
And a chance to move forward
You see there was no magic formula with Jesus coming in on that donkey
Just because he was on the right animal just because they were shouting the right cheer just because he ended up giving the appearance of what they wanted
It wasn't a magic formula to change hearts
It wasn't great now we see him now we're all going to become exactly who we're meant to be
Jesus still had to suffer
And people still needed to wrestle with what it meant for him to be the true Messiah
Instead of just what they had wanted him to be
Because that's the thing
Hope is meant to be real
It's not just a wish
Hope is meant to be real
Not just your wish
The reason that hope matters so much is because it's not just meant to be an idea
But it's something of substance
It takes time
It takes struggle
It takes effort
It takes the time to push through
In order to find hope on the other side
It isn't just waiting for your circumstances to fit what you're hoping for
It is for you to grow in Christ
In order to change the cycle that you find yourself stuck in
Because with resurrection
It requires death
Death to the old
But death does lead to resurrection
But only in Christ
As we are in this season
And there are so many people that are struggling and wondering
What does the new year have to offer?
What do I have to look forward to with this time of Christmas?
What is Advent even for?
It will be a time of struggle
And there will be times of darkness
And wondering what it's all for
But what we know from a Messiah
Who goes to the hopelessness
And pulls through
Is that He is there with you
To give you true hope
A hope of life everlasting
A hope of true transformation by His Spirit
And a hope of discovering
That we're not just meant to focus on the wishes that we have
But rather to take joy in the journey
Than to take joy in the journey
That we have
To take joy in the journey
That gets us to where we're meant to be
Not to get what we want
But to become
Who God has intended us to be
May we each discover hope
As we see what God is doing
To change us into the people
He has called us to be
Thanks be to God.