Hope is not always part of our present culture in Scotland. We have tasted prosperity. We are thankful for what we have, and know that what we want , shaped as it is by the invitations of a consumer culture, is attainable if all goes well.
But this is not how it is in northwest Bulgaria. Wages, if you are working, are 50 lev (£24) for a 40 hour week in Lom. In Sofia, if you have a job in construction, you can earn 120 levs (£56) a week. But most people are unemployed. What is real is the pain of poverty, ill health and stress induced in families and relationships. Socially and economically, there is no immediate likelihood of change.
And this is where hope matters so much. Hope lifts our eyes from the depression that the present suffering and hardship brings. It gets us to look to the horizon and see that there is a journey worth embarking on and continuing with. Hope is what enables us to move forward out off the familiarity of bondage to cross a sea, a desert and travel through hostile territory towards a land unseen. Hope is what gets a people to look for a better days. When, occupied and subjugated by a foreign power, they can anticipated a new reality of freedom and prosperity.
But what makes hope more than a dream? What distinguishes hope from childish fantasy and foolish longing? The hope that God brings to us has key ingredients that make it real.
The first key ingredient is vision. A vision that the Old Testament speaks of again and again, focally expressed in Scriptures such as Isaiah 40 – 55. It is the vision of a fulfilled humanity where there is health, peace, justice, productivity and prosperity. Where God’s identity, his very character, is powerfully impressed upon and reflected among His people. Vision is something to be held onto. A reality dreamt of, longed for, talked about. Vision is to be pursued by a people who own it and who are committed to it.
The second key ingredient is taste of what is to come. A token of what has been promised. This is what the Holy Spirit bring so us. He imparts tokens. Gifts that bring fortastes of the future. Tokens of healing. Tokens of deliverance. Sprinkling of gold from the riches that are to come.
These key ingredients of vision and foretastes brought by the Holy Spirit are important because they keep us focussed on hope for the future. They inspire and strengthen us to make the journey forward. Why? Because God is calling and shaping a people who want to journey with Him into a future which belongs to us all.
And this is what Easter is about. Easter is about pursuing the journey, where it takes upon a path different from fleshly fantasy. Easter is about a man who embodies the reality of God’s character and expresses the vision, a foretaste of what is to come. And Easter is God’s assurance that the vision is worth pursuing because God will take us, along with Christ, into what we hope for.
