More lights
Bishop Julius C. Trimble advocates for lighting more, not fewer, candles during Advent as signs of hope. (Photo by Gaelle Marcel on Unsplash)
Oklahoma Contact | April, 15, 2025
“After he took his seat at the table with them, he took the bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them. Their eyes were opened and they recognized him, but he disappeared from their sight. They said to each other, ‘Weren’t our hearts on fire when he spoke to us along the road and when he explained the scriptures for us?’” (Lk. 24: 30-32 CEB).
If there is something that perhaps we can all agree on, is the fact that we are living through challenging times. Regardless of our political leanings, we can see that our country is very divided. It does not take much to start a social media war. The most vocal sides in the political spectrum argue with each other, and the vast majority of us are just exhausted by the amount of news and challenges we face on the daily basis. Then we add wars in the Middle East and Europe, the aftermath of a global pandemic, an economy that seems to leave many people behind, a climate crisis, and the daily (average) struggles of life (work, illnesses, raising a family, etc.).
We humans don’t have a great track record.
I have had many conversations where the tone about the future is at best cynical and at worst filled with despair. I have discerned an attitude that points to the fact that it seems as if all we humans can do is mess things up. Without a doubt, there is plenty of evidence and reason to be hesitant in placing too much stock on us humans. After all, we do not have that great of a track record.
Perhaps we are not that different from the disciples who were walking back home to Emmaus after Jesus’ trial and execution. These disciples just saw their master being executed in one of the most cruel and humiliating ways: death on a cross. They saw their teacher being beaten by Roman soldiers and denied by the same people who just a few days earlier were yelling, “Blessed is the One who comes in the name of the Lord!”
These disciples witnessed the humiliation of being betrayed and denied by Jesus’ closest friends. These disciples saw how Jesus was nailed to the cross, naked, while passers by and fellow convicts mocked him. They saw as the one whom they thought was the Messiah died on the cross. What was left for them? Nothing. What to do now? Return home and try to move on.
It’s easy for us to judge the disciples for leaving.
It is easy for us to judge these disciples: “Jesus told them about this! Jesus told them about his suffering, but also about his resurrection! How thick one most be to not understand this!”
Yet, if we are honest with ourselves, when things go awry, it is easy for us (at least for me it is!) to let the struggles, the challenges, the darkness take hold on us. I think that the opposite of faith is not doubt but despair. Despair is understood as the complete loss or absence of hope.
J.R.R. Tolkien, the author of The Lord Of the Rings (LOTR), wrote extensively about hope. Throughout the LOTR books, hope is mentioned almost 500 times. For Tolkien despair assumes that the outcome of any quest is foreordained. Yet, the reality is that none of us knows the future, and every day we are given the opportunity to make choices. We can continue the path we are currently on or we can surrender ourselves to hope.
We Christians don’t understand hope as optimism.
We Christians do not understand hope as optimism. “Optimism deals in probabilities: if the odds are sufficiently favorable, optimism is a reasonable attitude…Neither is optimism as stable as hope. Optimism may be here today but replaced by pessimism tomorrow.”
“Hope is not so much about what will be; rather it is anchored in the ideals of the present and even the past.”
Our hope is anchored in the conviction that we have been invited to be part of Jesus’ table. And in that table our hearts, minds and eyes have been opened. Our hearts are on fire because Jesus walks alongside us: in the good, the bad, the absurd and the ugly of life. Our hope is anchored in the fact that we believe (not with our heads, but with our hearts) that ultimately the light of Jesus Christ will overcome all the darkness of the world.
The disciples returned transformed, filled with the hope of the resurrection.
This is why the disciples ran back to Jerusalem. They returned transformed, filled with the hope of resurrection. Their choice was not to give in to despair, but to fully embrace the hope of the resurrected Jesus.
Do we choose hope in the kingdom of God?
We are facing many difficult challenges in our homes, in our congregations, in our cities, in our country and in our world. There is no denying this fact. Our God has given us a choice: do we retreat to our “safe space,” defeated, filled with cynicism, and allowing despair to flood our heart? Or do we embrace hope anchored not in our strength, not in evidence, not in probabilities, not in people (politicians, celebrities, religious leaders, etc.), but in the conviction that Jesus has defeated death and all the powers of this world; in the conviction that everyday we can choose to give the benefit of the doubt to others, seek building bridges, have compassion, humility, and truly love (seek the wellbeing of) our neighbor.
If we choose hope the kingdom of God will be that much closer on earth as it is in heaven.
The Rev. Carlos Ramirez
The Rev. Carlos Ramirez serves as director of communications and strategy for the Oklahoma Annual Conference of The United Methodist Church. This article is republished with permission from Oklahoma Contact.