If your faith flows out of what your hope is focussed upon, what is it that you look to and anticipate? Sad thing if its just a matter of religious consumerism: of what you can get out of life for you and those you care about. Biblical faith is a different matter. It points us toward what God has Promised and intends to bring about. And in the light of the brilliance and beauty of God's self revealing in and through Jesus Christ, it brings us to focus on the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
And that means starting with our understanding that, where are lives are called to belong to Jesus Christ, it is to be witnesses - martyrs. Those who accept death in the present world as inevitable, as we seek to live our patterns of purposeful living for Jesus Christ. Lives reflecting His values and priorities - or at least ever seeking to realign ourselves again and again in order that we might do so.
The early Moravians in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, saw it that way. They realised that to die because they had sought to live for Christ meant passing into the physical presence of the Resurrected and Ascended Jesus. To greet Him and to be embraced by Him. Death is a terrible thing and must not be sought by us. But when it comes, we need to realise that the power of Jesus's vicarious death and resurrection is for us all. He makes the worst day into the best day of our lives.
