Thornton Wilder said ‘Hope is a projection of the imagination; so is despair. Despair all too readily embraces the ills it foresees; hope is an energy and arouses the mind to explore every possibility to combat them…‘

As someone who is pessimistic by nature and who finds it all too easy to ’embrace the ills’ my vivid imagination can conceive, it has taken me a long time to realise the truths of this statement. Essentially, I have to choose between hope and despair on a daily basis, which largely means learning to train my imagination to meditate on truth and believe what God says, rather than dwelling on what my gloomy outlook can readily embellish.

Despair feels rather like being out of your depth and panicking that you will drown. But once you’ve learned to swim, being out of your depth doesn’t necessarily lead to drowning! Even if you’re tired and weary, you can tread water until you find a second wind; you don’t automatically glug down to the bottom and die…

You can’t just ‘hope’ to order. But by focussing attention on who God is (rather than on who we are, who other people are, on situations beyond our control), we can learn to hope in God. The best way I’ve found to do this is to meditate on who God says He is.

The revelation we have in Ps 130 focuses on key characteristics of God:

God’s unfailing love:

• Save me because of your unfailing love. (Ps 6:4)
• …for I have always been mindful of your unfailing love and have lived in reliance on your faithfulness (Ps 26:3)
• The Lord’s unfailing love surrounds the one who trusts in him. (Ps 32:10)
• The earth is full of his unfailing love. (Ps 33:5)
• How priceless is your unfailing love, O God! (Ps 36:7)
• Rescue us because of your unfailing love. (Ps 44:26)
• Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions. (Ps 51:1)
• Show us your unfailing love, Lord, and grant us your salvation. (Ps 85:7)

God as our Redeemer:

• I know that my redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand on the earth. (Job 19:25)
• Do not be afraid, you worm Jacob, little Israel, do not fear, for I myself will help you,” declares the Lord, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel. (Is 41:14)
• Our Redeemer—the Lord Almighty is his name— is the Holy One of Israel. (Is 47:14)
• For your Maker is your husband— the Lord Almighty is his name— the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer; he is called the God of all the earth. (Is 54:4)
• For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors, 19 but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. (1 Pet 1:18-19)

God’s forgiveness:

• God forgives all our sins (Ps 103:2)
• Who is a God like you, who pardons sin and forgives the transgression of the remnant of his inheritance? (Micah 7:18)
• God has come to give his people the knowledge of salvation through the forgiveness of their sins (Luke 1:77)
• In Christ we have redemption through the forgiveness of sins (Col 1:14)

As we dwell on these things, we find despair dissipates, because we know that nothing can now separate us from God’s love (see Rom 8:38-39).

Ps 130 is a psalm which talks of hoping and waiting. It begins ‘out of the depths I cry to you, Lord’ (Ps 130:1), and there will always be times when we feel out of our depth and in danger of despairing. The key in these times is to keep the channels of communication with God open, aware that He is always listening and is attentive to us (Ps 130:2) and is both merciful and forgiving, even if we feel abandoned and forsaken by Him (see Ps 77:7-9).

Learning to trust God in the difficult times is rather like treading water when we are out of our depth. We have to hold on to all we know to be true of God’s character; in this psalm, mercy, unfailing love, forgiveness and redemption are all mentioned. God is the God of second chances who picks us up from failures and forgives our sins. His love does not end or fail (see Ps 32:10, Ps 44:26, Ps 33:5). The challenge for us is to hold on to our knowledge of God’s character even when we feel we are alone, for as Eugene Peterson says, ‘Suffering can never be ultimate. It can never constitute the bottom line. God is at the foundation and God is at the boundaries. God seeks the hurt, maimed, wandering and lost. God woos the rebellious and confused. Because of who God is, we stand in confident awe before Him, not in terrorised despair.’ (‘The Journey’,  P 127)

Our response is to hope and wait, words which are from the Hebrew qavah, meaning ‘to bind together strands as in making a rope.’ Making a rope involves taking several strands and binding them into something which is strong and tough:

As we learn to wait and hope in God, our faith is strengthened, for we see that ‘our place in the depths is not out of bounds from God.’ (Eugene Peterson, ‘The Journey, P 131)  and ‘hope fortifies faith.’ (Eugene Peterson, ‘Praying With the Psalms’). Waiting is not a waste of time; hoping is an act of faith.

Polarity is defined as having to do with the poles (e.g. the North Pole and South Pole), is often connected with the direction of a magnetic or electric field and has a derived meaning from these: ‘the state of having two opposite or contradictory tendencies, opinions, or aspects.’

Living at either the North or South Pole is not easy; the North Pole is located in the middle of the Arctic Ocean amid waters that are almost permanently covered with constantly shifting sea ice, whereas the South Pole sits atop a featureless, barren, windswept and icy plateau. Yet in metaphorical terms, it seems we are drawn to live at extremes, rather than in the middle. We hover around the excitement of religious experience or believe only the monotony of mundane routine is available to us; as Eugene Peterson puts it, ‘we flutter like butterflies around the pole of charisma, or congeal soddenly around the pole of routine.’ (‘Reversed Thunder’, P xi) There is the tendency either to flit from church to church seeking spiritual highs… or a lack of faith, trudging along in the same old routines without ever really expecting God to do anything much at all (‘He’s saved us, that’ll have to do for now...’)

Max Weber says that ‘the religious life is placed between the poles of charisma and routine, between spontaneous, excited outpouring of new life in the spirit and the dogged institutionalization of truth in everyday responsibilities.’ (Quoted by Eugene Peterson in ‘Reversed Thunder’, P x-x1) The mature life of faith ‘is lived between the poles, not around either of them’ (ibid., P x1) Just as it’s virtually impossible to live at the North or South Poles, it’s not healthy to think we can live permanently on the highs of the mountain-top experience or in the depths of the valleys. We need to find a healthy balance between constantly seeking new experiences and never expecting God to speak to us; we need to know what Casting Crowns describe as ‘reckless abandon wrapped in common sense.’ (‘Somewhere In The Middle’)

There is more to life than our daily routines, but we cannot escape the repetition and routine that God has put into His creation. There are moments when God steps into those routines decisively and we’re never the same again: those PPI moments (pivotal point incidents) when God speaks and acts in ways that change everything for us, yet the Bible makes it clear that these moments are not happening every single day. The life of faith involves the balance of ‘both…and‘, rather than the extremes of ‘either…or’ in so many ways.

Ralph reminded us on Sunday night of an alternative verse to ‘Happy Birthday’ which goes:

‘Happy Birthday to you,

Only one will not do.

Take the gift of salvation,

And then you’ll have two!’

It was good to celebrate his birthday:

However, as he pointed out, all of us can have a second birthday: the day when we are born again! That second birthday gives us access to dual citizenship (Phil 3:20). We are no longer simply citizens of earth (and there is much discussion about nationality and identity at the moment in the UK as the debate about the EU referendum continues), but also citizens of heaven. This dual citizenship will at times create tension, but as citizens of the kingdom of heaven, our allegiance is not only to our earthly country but to our heavenly King.

Garry spoke on the power of the cross tonight. The way of the cross involves following Jesus (Mk 8:34); it involves a full commitment (since denying ourselves does not come naturally but must be a conscious choice.) A disciple cannot be half-hearted (Luke 18:28); we must be willing to give up our own interests, desires, plans and thoughts and replace these with Christ’s. Christ shows us the way to go; He leads from the front: the way of the cross is established by the One who went that way Himself.

The cost of the cross involves death (see Matt 10:37-38). We are called to a radical discipleship, to re-evaluate our lives and re-prioritise according to God’s values. During the Second World War, the allied forces came across a totally different mindset in the Japanese, who were prepared to lose their own lives for their cause; for them, the individual was not of supreme importance and this can be difficult to comprehend when we value individualism so highly. Jesus’ disciples are called to live by a different value system to the world’s and to clothe ourselves with Christ’s values (which involves putting the Father’s will before His own, as Matt 26:36-43 makes clear.)

The way of the cross will always cost us: it will cost our time, our wealth, our plans, our dreams, our comfort and our reputation. Ultimately, it costs us our lives.

The power of the cross demonstrates, however, that there is power to save (see 1 Cor 1:17-18). We are saved from death and given new life (Eph 2:1-3); we have the chance to leave behind our old way of living and embrace an endless, amazing life.

Through the cross, there is also power to liberate (Rom 6:1-7); we are set free from death, bondage and all the things that would enslave us and given new power to live as God wants us to  (Gal 2:19-20).

There is power to witness (Acts 1:6-8), to be an ambassador for Christ, with Christ living through us by the power of His Spirit.

All that we need to live is available to us by faith. So often, we live by our own resource and find, as a result, life rather monotonous and irrelevant. We need to go beyond the ordinary and live our lives wholly dependent on God, and then we will find a power that achieves for us more than we could ever do on our own!

Picture the scene: an old lady, dying in a small, darkened room, thinking back…

Born in Magdala of a well-to-do family connected with textiles, my life really was not very successful initially, despite the convenience of wealth. There was a gnawing fear inside me which led to inappropriate behaviour on more than one occasion; people shunned me, avoided me, did their best to have nothing to do with me… until I met Jesus.

He was not afraid to talk with me, to look me in the eye… and the deliverance He brought changed me forever. I became a devoted follower, like so many other women, seeking to support Him in whatever ways I could. But then, that spring so many years ago… He was killed like a common criminal and His body was laid to rest in a tomb, sealed and abandoned.

Was it all for nothing? Why had this happened? What had my Lord done? Soldiers were guarding the tomb, huddling round to ensure none of His followers would steal the body. Steal the body? We were utterly devastated. Terrified. The fear of arrest hung over the other disciples, any talk of riots and revolution gone now that our leader had been dealt with so ruthlessly.

So much hope, so many promises lay in tatters. Jesus was dead.

But that Sunday morning, very early, I went to the tomb. There were last rites to be performed, though how we were going to get past the stone blocking the tomb was anyone’s guess. I just knew I wanted to perform this last service for my Lord. No man had ever treated me with such love, respect and kindness. This was the least I could do.

When I arrived, the stone was not in place… the seal was gone… on the shelf inside, the grave clothes lay, neatly folded, but there was no sign of His body. I ran to find Peter and John and tell them what had happened… they came back to see… but I could not keep up with their pace and was too confused to know what to do now. By the time I arrived back at the tomb, they had gone and two men in bright white clothes were inside the tomb. They asked me why I was crying.

I tried to explain, to find out where His body had been taken. Then I saw the gardener. Surely he would know! But as I approached, he spoke. Just the one word. My name. ‘Mary.’

I’d heard that voice so many times before. It was Jesus! JESUS! Not dead, but alive again! How could this be?

Defying reason and nature, Jesus had been raised from the dead. His sacrifice for us was authenticated by the Father. All the things He had ever said were true; I really was forgiven and free!

As I look back, I remember Peter preaching to the crowds and thousands coming to believe in the Lord; I see that that one day changed history forever, for mortality was defeated and death no longer has the last word. I may die and leave this life, but Jesus, the Resurrection and the Life, will welcome me into His presence. Because He lives, I too will live. Hallelujah!