Bishop’s News - A Living Hope
Maybe it’s because we as Bishops have spent the last two years dwelling in the short letter of 1 Peter (which – product placement! - will also be our Lent Studies text for 2023), that the phrase ‘a living hope’ (1 Peter 1:3) has come back to be a lot in the last few weeks.
As I said at the Cathedral’s Nine Lessons and Carols service recently, a year ago we ended 2021 largely feeling hopeful: Covid might now be behind us, and we can move forward. Only a few weeks later, the Cathedral found itself in the middle of some of the biggest acts of civil unrest we had seen as a nation. And since then, Russia has invaded Ukraine; COP27 largely failed to deliver the changes needed to combat climate change, and all manner of things that cause us perhaps to feel less hopeful than we did in 2021.
But (and there has to be a but)…the darkness has not overcome the light.
When the Hebrew people were held captive in Egypt, the darkness did not overcome the light.
Despite 40 years in the desert, the darkness did not overcome the light.
During exile in Babylon, the darkness did not overcome the light.
In spite of Herod’s infanticide, the darkness did not overcome the light.
When Jesus was crucified, the darkness did not overcome the light.
The early church was persecuted by the Empire, but the darkness did not overcome the light.
Although the Church went on crusade, the darkness did not overcome the light.
We fought against one another in the Reformation, and the darkness did not overcome the light.
The world went to war twice, and the darkness did not overcome the light.
Tangata whenua were colonised, and the darkness did not overcome the light.
The hope that we have – that living hope that the darkness has not overcome the light – is not a placebo or a fairy tale that we tell to our children and grandchildren at bedtime. It’s based on historical fact and reality.
We as Jesus’ people here and now, and more than ever, need to embody and enact that hope for our generation too, just as the people of God have done in their frailty and brokenness since the beginning.
Let’s take up the challenge to be a living hope for our world this Advent and Christmas. It is so worth it, and we don’t do it in our own strength and power, but through the might and generosity of the incarnate Jesus.
