Hope

John's Gospel speaks of Jesus as "the true light coming into the world". To remind ourselves of His entrance into history, we light candles for the four weeks leading to up Christmas Day, and reflect on the meaning of Christ’s coming for us and for the world. 

We live in a dark and broken world. So it is fitting that the first candle we light in our Advent wreath is known as the candle of Hope - an expression our longing for the healing of hearts and the restoration of all creation.

The prophet Micah writes:

as for me, I watch in hope for the Lord, I wait for God my Savior;
my God will hear me.

German Reformed theologian Jurgen Moltmann is known for his development of a theology of Hope and helps us to gain an understanding of why this is a central aspect of our faith:

       For a Christian theology of hope, this hope is not a modern phenomenon which must be interpreted religiously, but the subject and the motivation of theology itself. It is not grounded in optimism, but in faith. It is not a theology about hope, but a theology growing out of hope in God. These promises of God have been incarnated in the promissory history of Israel and in the promissory history of Jesus of Nazareth. The writings of the Old and New Testament comprise the history book of God's promises. The Bible tells the story of God's hope which will be fulfilled in the whole world. It does not relate its story in the manner of a teller of fairytales -- "once upon a time . . . " - or of a modern historian who wants to know how it "really was then" (Ranke). It recounts the past in such a way that through it a new future and freedom for the hearers are inaugurated. It reveals the future in the past and makes God's hope present by means of the remembrance of his historical association with Israel, the covenant, and with Jesus Christ, the incarnation. It recounts the story of the anticipations of God's future in this past a matter of real concern again.
- Jurgen Moltmann, The Experiment Hope, Fortress Press, 1975, p. 45

To walk in hope, as a follower of Christ, is not simply to be optimistic. Instead, it is to live with a sense of purpose, knowing that we walk in the presence of the living God, revealed in the person of Jesus Christ.