Hope - The Promise Kept

by Rev. Gina Johnson

I'm going to, throughout this Advent season, tell you all a story.

And we're going to go ahead and start that story. So if you miss a Sunday, you'll have to go online and get the missing pieces to the story. But the story is about a woman named Ella.

It was a cold December evening. And Ella sat at her kitchen table, staring at a stack of bills she couldn't pay. The small apartment she shared with her six-year-old daughter, Lila, was drafty.

And she had just received another notice on the heating bill that is overdue and she was trying hard to catch up on. The Christmas lights from a neighboring window twinkled faintly through her curtain. But for Ella, the season didn't feel bright.

It felt heavy. Mommy, can we put up the Christmas tree tonight? Lila's small voice interrupted Ella's thoughts. Ella looked up and forced a smile.

Maybe tomorrow. It's a little late tonight, sweetie. Just go on to bed.

Lila nodded, but ignored her mother's order to go to bed and went back to coloring in her book. Ella could see that there was disappointment in her eyes and she hated feeling this way. She was feeling overwhelmed, exhausted, and far from the joy that she wanted to give to her daughter.

Later that night, after Lila was asleep, Ella curled up on the couch with an old quilt her grandmother had made. She remembered her grandmother's words spoken so many times during her childhood. God's light shines brightest in the darkest times.

Ella decided that she wanted to believe that and not let her circumstances rob her of her hope. With tears in her eyes and a whisper in her voice, she spoke to the empty room. I'm trying to believe that, Grandma, but it's so hard right now.

Ella knew that she could not mark this despair for herself and pass it on to Lila. She said tomorrow she's going to take a step forward. There was a Christmas market in town and though she didn't have much to spend, she thought this is a chance.

I'm going to take Lila and we're going to create some Christmas joy. As she drifted off to sleep, Ella held on to her grandmother's words like a lifeline. She didn't know how things would change, but something stirred in her heart.

It was a flicker of hope. As she closed her eyes and drifted off, she says, God's light shines brightest in the darkest of times.

Please pray with me.

God, we are so grateful to have this opportunity to sit together in community and to feel your spirit's presence and to be in your word. May this be a time where our hearts and our minds and our souls are opened to the message that you have prepared for us. Move me out of the way that I may just be a conduit of your spirit and the words that we need to hear.

We give you thanks and we glorify you in Jesus' name.

So our scripture today comes from Isaiah chapter nine, beginning in verse two.

The people walking in darkness have seen a great light.

On those living in the land of deep darkness, a light has dawned. For to us, a child is born. To us, a son is given and the government will be on his shoulders.

He will be called wonderful counselor, mighty God, everlasting father, prince of peace. Of the greatness of his government and peace, there will be no end. He will reign on David's throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever.

The zeal of the Lord almighty will accomplish this. 

And so this morning, as we begin the Advent season, as you've heard multiple times, as we're journeying and understanding what does it mean to have hope, we can look back at when Isaiah was giving that promise to the people. At that point in time, the people were walking in darkness.

They were held in captivity and then Isaiah was bringing them a message of hope. You know, the world at the time of Jesus's birth was also filled with quite a bit of oppression, fear. People were longing.

They were waiting for a coming king. They were waiting for something to help give them hope, something to change their circumstances, something to encourage them to keep going on and not just fall prey to the oppression of the government and the religious authorities that were around them. If you look at our world today, we have similar circumstances where there are people, not just in other countries, but right here among us, who feel as though they're walking through seasons of darkness, who feel as though they just need a promise to hold onto.

When Isaiah gave that promise to the people, it was a promise that can anchor us as well. It was a promise that not only tells us that God was going to deliver a child unto them that was going to be the light of the world, but that promise holds true to us years and years to come. And so I have to ask you this morning, as you are preparing for this holiday season, as we are already in it, what are the dark times in your life where you are feeling that you need a little more hope? What are the things that are challenging you? And what is it exactly that you are facing that is causing you to lose sight of the promises that we have? You see, as I mentioned, during the time of Jesus, there was an oppression taking place.

There was a fear. There was a deep yearning for deliverance. And it's important that when we look at the idea of hope, that we also understand that trust is part of that hope.

Hope and trust are like a two-sided coin. If you have hope without trust, then it's like you have an empty wish because you have to have that trust and what you're hoping for is coming to fruition. You know, the sermon title this morning was Hope the Promise Kept.

And isn't it interesting that as much as we've seen God fulfill promises, we still tend to doubt. We still tend to have fear. And I have to ask myself, like, what is that? What is that, that instead of having hope and trust, we fall back into despair? We fall back into worry? And I have to think it's part of our human condition.

You know, because we've had so many people come into our life and make promises to us. We've had so many people say they're going to do this or do that. It could be something small and it could be something big, but what happens is something happens that causes us to feel let down.

Maybe it was something they deliberately did. Maybe it was something that they couldn't help. Maybe it was a place where we've made a promise to ourselves and we've fallen short.

So then we start to program our mind that, you know, you can't really have that unconditional hope. You can't really have that blind trust in anyone because someone's going to let you down. It's a weird saying.

I don't even know where I heard it, but somebody once was telling me about not making promises, saying, you know, I don't make promises. Promises are like plates. They're made to be broken.

I thought, wow, I have never thought of a plate in that way. The only time I thought about a plate being broken is my dad said, you know, when you're 18, we're going to break your dinner plate and that's how you know it's time to move out and things. We use plastic dishes at our house.

So unless I melt the plate down, I am not sure how to do that with my kids. So who knows what's going to happen there? But you know, it's very interesting because I can understand why people have a little bit of apprehension to promises. And it's one of those things that I will never stand here in front of you and say, yes, you know, put your faith in another human being and trust that everything they say to you is going to come to fruition.

But we're not talking about another human being. We're talking about the promises that God gave us. And so one of the first things that we need to do when we are trying to hold fast to hope and trust is recognize the darkness.

You know, last week or excuse me, the week before when we were in our Wednesday Sunday school, we were talking about how light always pushes back on the darkness. We were talking about how light cannot be overcome by the darkness. And so my question is, is when you see that darkness, are you pausing to identify where is that coming from? And how much of what I'm doing right here and right now is actually being affected by that? It's amazing what happens when we have a situation before us and we start to lose hope.

We start to feel there's no way that I can get through this. There's no way that I can get around this. But if you look at hope as a compass and trust as an anchor, hope will continue to deliver you forward.

It will strengthen you. It'll give you perseverance. And that trust, that trust that you're putting into God, that trust will anchor you in place.

So it's so important that you recognize the darkness and recognize that there is nothing taking place in your life that cannot be overcome by that light that is within you. That is the light of Christ. That is the light of love.

That is the light of all of humanity that was given to us by God that we can persevere through any situation. And so when you think back on times in your life and you say, you know, this is what has occurred in the past and I see it happening all over again, how am I supposed to have hope when the same thing happens year after year after year? Then put your hope in the understanding that you are not the same person that encountered that situation in the past. You may go into this Christmas holiday and say, oh man, you know, the whole family's getting together, but oh, I know how that's gonna be.

I've seen it year after year. What if for just a moment, you look back on those memories and you say that was then, this is now. I am going into this situation with hope.

I am going into the situation with hopeful expectancy of good things to come and I am going to trust that they will be there. And recognizing that the first thing that brings hope, that brings joy into these situations is you. You cannot be responsible for how anyone else is going to move through their daily life, but you can be responsible for you.

And the most you can do to encourage the light of others is by being that hopeful, trusting, joyfully anticipating presence wherever you are. You know, during World War II, there was a group of prisoners who were in a concentration camp and they lit a small candle on Christmas Eve and the light had to be very tiny because it wasn't something that they were supposed to be doing. And so they were surrounded by suffering, but yet the candle's glow was so powerful that it gave hope to everyone in the room.

Sometimes in a situation, in a crowd, you are that candle. And you may think, well, gosh, this is huge. This circumstance is huge.

This group of people is large. This trial that I'm enduring is much larger than me, but it's amazing because if we turn down all the lights right now and just left one candle going, do you know the amount of light that it would bring to that room? These soldiers were able to look at this candle and though the darkness was all around them, that flickering flame reminded them that there is something greater than what is taking place in front of them. That light was the light that gave them that promise that the light of God cannot be extinguished.

So although they were in a time of war, a time of suffering, a time of despair, they knew that the light they had from God could not be extinguished. And that's what gave them the courage to persevere forward. When we look at the parallels of what takes place throughout history over and over again, we recognize that we constantly endure times that are times of struggle, that are times of challenge, that are times that could easily drag us into despair.

And it's in those times that we need to look to the promise of the light. When Isaiah shared with those people that we have a light coming to us, we have a savior being born unto us, it was enough. It was enough to keep them moving forward.

What promise are you holding onto that's going to give you hope and light throughout this holiday season? What promise are you holding onto that's going to be able to give you that same confidence that Ella had, where she knew that in the darkest times, God's light is going to shine even brighter. You know, another thing about hope that we have to recognize is hope will fuel our resilience. There's a lot of times where I get to that point where I'm just like, man, I don't know if I wanna do this anymore.

I don't know if I'm feeling up to it. And it falls in different categories of life. Like, why should I keep going at this? I'm feeling exhausted.

But again, when you have hope, then it promotes that resilience. When I think, you know what? Even though this is what I see right out in front of me, I know that there is a bigger picture that I am looking towards. So I can either get caught up in what's right in front of me, or I can keep movement towards that bigger picture.

When you keep your eyes on the bigger picture rather than the immediate challenges, you're like a marathon runner. You know, a marathon runner is running in that marathon, and there may be people in front of them. The sun may be beating down.

They may be thirsty, but they're not stopping with right where they're at. They know that there is a finish line that they have their eyes focused on, and that's what keeps them going. That's what keeps the endurance.

They trust that that finish line is there waiting for them, and they are hopeful that they are gonna complete the race strong, and with that, they persevere. What is it that you see at your finish line? What is that goal? What is that vision? What is that dream that is calling you forth that you can put your hope and your trust in as you move towards it? And another thing to remember when it comes to hope is it happens one step at a time, and that is also like that marathon runner. If that marathon runner was to take time and think, man, look how fast they are.

Wow, look at that guy's endurance. Wow, look how far ahead they are. I'm gonna start running and taking leaps and jumps.

Nope, they just keep going, pacing themselves one step at a time, and that's what we have to do each and every day. It's like when you stumble upon something, and instead of even stopping right there and saying, what action can I take next? You start saying, what if this happens? And what if this happens? I know many of you all are familiar with children's books in here, and it reminds me of that book, If You Give a Mouse a Cookie, or If You Give a Cat a Cupcake. You know, how many times do we do that? Before we even go and give the cupcake, we're like, but if I give a cupcake, then he might want a glass of milk, and then if I give him a glass of milk, he's gonna want a straw to drink that glass of milk, and then if he wants a straw to drink, and it goes on and on and on.

And sometimes, instead of just thinking about what else might be expected of us, we go the negative route. Well, what if he spills the milk? What if he doesn't like the milk and spits it out everywhere? What if we don't give him enough milk? And so it's one of those things where we can go down that rabbit trail, or we can take it one step at a time. You know, there's a lot of times in my life where I can look back and I can see where God's promises have continued.

I think it's one of those interesting places where sometimes I'm like, gosh, Gina, you tell the same story over and over again, but it's the story that rings probably the loudest in my ears, and that has gotta be my epilepsy, because that was 22 years, 22 years of not knowing that one day I would stop having seizures, but just knowing that no matter what, whether my seizures became to where I could no longer hold my bladder and I was having them day and night, which actually happened, or whether my seizures were calm and tame to where I was only having them in my sleep and they didn't affect me at all. It didn't matter what level the seizure activity was at. What I had was that promise that regardless, I have a God that's greater than this epilepsy, so even if I'm going to have seizures for the rest of my life, so be it.

It wasn't going to stop me. It wasn't going to limit me and put me down, and I did have hope, and that's why when a doctor came along and said, Gina, do you want to be well? There was that hope that even if the surgery didn't work, I could trust that my great physician is God, that my great physician is the Almighty, and regardless of how the surgery comes out with my hope in God and my trust in God's promises, I can move forward. Like I said, it's a story you guys hear all the time from me, but it's so powerful, because now I don't think so, but at one point in time, 22 years seemed like forever, and so whatever you're facing, you know, whether it's illness, whether it's a transition in your life, whether it's something going on with your family, whether you're praying for your great nephew's recovery, whatever it can be, just knowing that there is something bigger and better on the other side.

You know, I was talking to someone the other day about their Thanksgiving, and they said, well, it went a lot better than I thought it would, and you know, how many times have I said something like that, too? Like, ah, you know, I'm gonna go and take part of this, and I hope it goes well, but in my mind, I wasn't trusting it to go well. I hoped it would go well, but in my mind, I was replaying all the reasons it wasn't going to go well, and I had to get there and experience it to have that splash of cold water and say, you know, this was a new situation with a new Gina and a new group of people, because every time we step into an experience, it's our first time in that experience. You can walk into this sanctuary every Sunday and say, I've been here before, but you are only in this moment right here, right now, and so, yes, I'm the same Pastor Gina that gets up here week after week, but I'm constantly growing.

You guys are the same ones who are sitting here week after week, but you're constantly growing, so if you have hope and you have trust, every time you look at me, you're not locking me back there, and I'm not locking you back there. We are looking at each other with the hope and the trust, the anchor, that there are good things to come. It's really important that as we are moving through, not just this holiday season, because isn't that what happens? We get in a season, it's like, oh, through this holiday, have hope, through this holiday, have peace and have joy.

No, year round, have it, and recognize how to cultivate it, how to keep it coming. Acknowledge those dark spaces and ask yourself, are these spaces really still dark, or am I holding on to the darkness? Have these spaces gotten any better, and am I the one that's keeping myself from seeing the growth that happened? You know, it's another repeat story, right, but I had to learn the hard lesson that the only way I was going to better the relationship I have with my mother is by recognizing that she is not the same mother that I had 20 years ago, that I had 10 years ago, that I had last week, that she is constantly in a beautiful journey of life and growth, and she is evolving more and more into the beautiful person that God has created her to be. I hope she thinks the same about me because there's plenty of places where she could lock me somewhere in the past instead of having hope and trust and knowing that I'm continuing to change.

So when you find your places of darkness, ask yourself, why is this place still so dark? What do I need to do to turn on the light? Because it's amazing, we can walk into a dark room and feel like, gosh, this is so dark, this is so overwhelming, I don't know what to do about this, I'm gonna stumble, I'm gonna fall, but if we just place our hand along the wall and then all of a sudden, oh, look, there's a light there. But sometimes we just, we like to stew, we like to stir in our darkness, we like to feel hopeless, we like to feel like we have despair. And if that's something you like to do, then do it, but just don't get stuck in it because our God is so much bigger than that.

Look back in your life, this is my homework, this is my challenge for you, look back in your life and just for a moment, remember that place where you really did feel hopeless and then drop that and get present. And in this present moment, look at all that you have, look at all that you've been blessed with, look at how many times you thought to yourself, man, nothing can be worse than this, and probably some years later, you encountered something, you said, nothing can be worse than this because in this present moment, where are we? We are here together. We are here in a space of love, friendship, community.

We're hearing scriptures from a beautiful book called the Bible that God has given us to guide us through our life. We're singing songs with our beautiful piano organist who is helping us to praise God and lift up our spirits. We're sharing in communion.

So even if you have nothing else to give you hope, let this morning be that inspiration of hope. I spent my morning sitting in a room full of love. I spent my morning sitting in a room full of acceptance.

I spent my morning sitting in a room full of people that I can lock arms with and together, we can have hope and we can have trust that we have been given a mighty counselor. We have been given light in the darkness. We have been given a way to walk on this path without fear, without having to worry that we are going to be abandoned or alone.

If you remember that when it comes to times of hardship or challenge or struggle, that hope doesn't eliminate those things. Hope isn't the promise that you will never encounter something that's gonna cause you to pause and have to really dig in and remember what you're standing there for and what you're doing. But what hope does do is it gives you the strength and the confidence to know that a brighter tomorrow is coming.

And if you really have the hope and trust, then you know that a brighter moment is coming. And it's only as far away as you put it. So when you say to yourself, you know, I hope this gets better.

I hope I feel better. I hope I can finally have all that I've been praying for and wishing for. Make sure you stop and ask yourself, what is keeping that hope from being a promise fulfilled? Hope is that source and trust is that source that will guide us, that will anchor us, that will lead us into the tomorrow that God has promised us.

Let us pray. God, we are so grateful that Jesus came and displayed the hope and trust that can be found. The hope and trust that we can place in you, knowing that with you, that there is nothing, absolutely nothing, that we cannot overcome.

God, we give you thanks for the way that you have given us our spirit to continue to drive us forward, to continue to hold us in those times of darkness and light the way along the path. And God, we give you thanks for each other, that we can continue to be a constant source of hope, of grace, and of love in this season and in all seasons of life. It's in Jesus' name we pray, amen.