I think we could all use some hope these days. It’s been a very difficult year as we have faced dreadful bushfires and are now suffering through a global pandemic that has completely upended our lives. Just when we thought things were getting better, we had an outbreak, and we were locked down to give the authorities a chance to deal with it. I don’t know about you, but I’m hoping for the long-awaited vaccine that might give us a chance to return to normality. And there is good news on this front with stories in the news about pharmaceutical companies getting closer to producing one. This sort of news can give us hope that we can all look forward to in our current situation with the promise of life returning to something approaching normality soon.
The first Sunday of Advent is associated with hope. As we prepare to celebrate the birth of Jesus, we remember the hope we have in Him. Our reading today comes from Paul’s letter to the Corinthians where Paul spells out a particular form of hope that he wants them to remember. While most of the letter deals with their failures to be good Christians, at the outset, Paul reminds them that they have received gifts from the Spirit. While they are not using them properly, the fact they have them is evidence that God is with them. Furthermore, Paul reminds them that they are not yet holy but are called by God to become holy. God who has begun the work of making them holy will not stop the process until the end when they will be declared holy. This is their hope, that while they are not yet perfect, by continuing to work at it and allow themselves to be transformed, they will become holy.
There is a tendency among Christians to think that they have “made it” and are “good Christians”. Paul’s opinion is that this is impossible. To say we are already made holy is to deny the need for grace, and I don’t think any of us are in that position. We have to guard against this attitude and continue to reflect on our flaws and failings and allow ourselves to be transformed into the holy people God has called us to be. We have to accept we are not yet perfect but that one day we will be. We have the same hope, that God will not give up on us and will continue to work in us to make this happen. This reminder ought to be a message of hope, that in our complex and pressure filled world most of us struggle with our lives, with sin, with inadequacy and immaturity yet God remains faithful. It also gives us hope that the way the world currently is will not be the way it will always be. May this knowledge give you hope as we struggle in our current times.