Bosch, Paul

English

Wilfrid Laurier University

ConsensusVolume 11 | Issue 2 Article 34-1-1985A hope that doesn't wait, a hope that waitsPaul BoschFollow this and additional works at: http://scholars.wlu.ca/consensusThis Articles is brought to you for free and open access by Scholars Commons @ Laurier. It has been accepted for inclusion in Consensus by anauthorized editor of Scholars Commons @ Laurier. For more information, please contact scholarscommons@wlu.ca.Recommended CitationBosch, Paul (1985) "A hope that doesn't wait, a hope that waits," Consensus: Vol. 11 : Iss. 2 , Article 3.Available at: http://scholars.wlu.ca/consensus/vol11/iss2/3A HOPE THAT DOESN’T WAIT;A HOPE THAT WAITSPaul F. BoschOne of the enduring contributions to pop culture, in my view, has been the TVshow, AH in the Family. In one memorable episode, Archie Bunker and his son-in-law, Mike, are in a furious argument. When Archie leaves, his wife Edith tells Mikewhy Archie gets mad. Archie gets mad at Mike, says Edith, because Mike representseverything Archie never had; Education, and the opening of options. Edith remindsMike that his own life is just beginning: it’s filled with possibility. But Archie knowsthat his life is pretty well settled. His own options are not open, but closed; thepossibilities are not there. The studio audience gave Edith an extended ovation atthat speech. It seemed to me — and apparently to the studio audience as well — tobe an especially sensitive and loving statement.That brings me to this occasion; Baccalaureate. For the sake of this sermon, let’ssuppose you’re like Mike in the TV show. And let’s suppose I’m more like Archie.Those of us who are adults have pretty much made our commitments, for good orbad. We’ve committed ourselves to one spouse; one job; one faith. And for the mostpart, we’re engaged now in living out those commitments. But by and large youhaven’t made those commitments yet. Your options are still relatively open.For the sake of this sermon, then, let’s say I represent the Archie Bunker genera-tion, with some significant qualifications. And let’s say that you represent, also withsome significant qualifications, the Mike generation.Let me confess to you, then, my own single most troubling fear about you andyour future. My single most troubling fear about you, the one thing I would hate to2122 Consensussee happen, over almost anything else, would be for you to leave here, having lost,somewhere along the way, your idealism; your sense of vision for the future; yoursense of enthusiasm for the splendid possibility.That’s a terrible prospect, living as we all have through these recent years together— to see the mess our world is in: our institutions of law and government; our institu-tions of education, of science and medicine; our institutions of family and of religion— as I say, to go through what all these institutions have gone through in recentyears, and to give up on them; to become cynical and soured on life; to lose a senseof resilience and hope and enthusiasm for what the future might hold.I think this is at least part of John’s motive in the Gospel today, when he puts thesewords into Jesus’ mouth: “I am the way, the truth, the life.” He’s saying somethinghere about hope, about the future; your individual future and the future of thecosmos. If the forgiveness of sins means anything, for instance, it means at least anew chance, a new beginning. And that’s perhaps the finest gift that faith can give: avision of things that is not closed; not final; but full of direction and movement andmeaning, sometimes in spite of the evidence.There’s that marvelous hymn to Love in / Corinthians which we read today, inwhich the Apostle Paul cites a kind of hierarchy of values. He says, “Faith, hope,love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.”I like that, because it’s a reminder to me of love’s absolute priority. But Paul hadsome great things to say about faith too, remember; and some incredibly valuable ad-vice about hope.And it’s my prayer for you that you retain all three: faith, and hope, and love, inequal measure. Direction; movement; meaning; purpose; a sense that it’s all beenworth it: that’s the Christian hope. That’s the substance of my prayer for you today:that you do not lose hope.I don’t see you losing love, quite frankly. You impress me as loving people, as peo-ple who perhaps know more about love than my own generation.I don’t see you as losing faith necessarily; although that too, is always a humanpossibility.But I do fear your losing hope, in a crazy, disappointing world. And I don’t wantyou to; I don’t want you to lose your zest for life in all its fullness, even against theevidence.A couple of years ago, some public-spirited private company sponsored an inter-national conference on religion and the world of the future.They called together church people, pastors, bishops, theologians, lay leaders,along with eminent scholars and thinkers from a wide variety of backgrounds — an-thropology, technology, medicine, the human potential movement — and they setabout the task of trying to second-guess what the future would hold for the churches,for the religious enterprise.One of the most stirring presentations at that conference was apparently a speechby a German theologian who contrasted two different ways of viewing the future. Heused the Latin-German designations, Futurum and Adventus, to describe these twodifferent views.He said it’s possible, for example, to think of the years to come in terms of what hecalled Futurum. That is to say, you project what the future will be like by ex-23trapolating from the present. You gather data in the present, and you say, if presenttrends continue, then the future will be like this.Now that’s a legitimate enough way to look at things.But he said there’s a second way to imagine the future, and that’s the way ofAduentus, what he called the biblical way. And according to this view, you begin withthe future, not the present. You say, this is what I want the future to look like; andthen you work backwards, and say, if this is what we want the future to be, then this iswhat we have to do today, to make it happen tomorrow.You may not be aware, for example, that one of the sources of scandal in Jesus’teaching for the religious leaders of his day was Jesus’ boldness, his authoritativecreativity, in dealing with the future.Jesus came among the people of his day and simply announced that he was notgoing to wait for the Kingdom of God to be established in its fullness: He announcedthe reign of God beginning now, beginning here, beginning with him. For instance, itwas a commonplace assumption, in Jesus’ day, that only God could forgive sins; andfurther, that that forgiveness would have to wait for heaven. And Jesus challengesboth these assumptions.Only God can forgive sins? Well, Fm forgiving sins, here and now, in God’s name.We have to wait for heaven? For the fullness of the kingdom, before people of differ-ing backgrounds can be reconciled? Well, no. Fm announcing that reconciliationnow, here, today, and acting on it. And Jesus eats with outcasts and prostitutes.Most of us, with Jesus, have a vision of what heaven will be like; of what the worldwould be like, at its best. Okay, says Jesus, act on it. Do it now. Don’t wait. An-ticipate the coming of the Kingdom of God.So Christian people, following Jesus down through the years, have done just that,and they’ve turned the world upside down. And you could interpret everything fromthe invention of hospitals and universities; to the rise of technology; to the abolition ofslavery; to the various contemporary movements for human liberaton; all as aspectsof that same impulse: Christian people, following Jesus in not waiting; followingJesus in acting now to anticipate the Kingdom of God; improvising and shaping thefuture; literally shaping what the future will be, by daring to make a difference today.1 have a preacher friend named Harold Jansen, and he says he was praying oneday, asking God what he should do with his life. And, he says, God answered him“Oh, I don’t know, Harold; surprise me!’’I love that way of looking at life: Being able, and willing, to surprise God by myown improvisations today, which by God’s grace can give shape to tomorrow.So my prayer for you, today, is that you may not lose hope; and further, that thehope you have may be, so to speak, an impatient hope, impatient like Jesus’ impa-tience, not waiting for heaven, not waiting for the Kingdom of God in its fullness, butinstead daring to shape the future by what you do today.Let me urge on you the kind of hope we celebrate every Sunday in our Eucharist,our Holy Communion, a hope that anticipates the Kingdom’s rule, when peace andjustice and intimacy are not just a sneer on the lips of a cynic, but a human reality. 1pray for you a hope not paralyzed by cynicism; a hope that's properly impatient; ahope that doesn’t wait for Messiah’s second coming, but gets in on Messiah’s actioneven now.24 ConsensusBut I pray for you, also, a hope with a long view of things. That’s, paradoxicallyenough, a hope that is willing to wait. The Kingdom of God has been set in motion byJesus Christ — that’s the Good News of our Gospel. Jesus invites us in on the action.He invites you to begin today to improvise a better future. But that vision, thatdream, grows little by little, sometimes imperceptibly, sometimes against theevidence. So paradoxically, the hope that doesn’t wait is also the hope that waits, pa-tiently doing its thing, until the harvest.Have you seen that Public Service Announcement on TV, produced by the Fran-ciscans? The scene opens on a room in a nursing home, where an old woman sits asthe phone across the room begins to ring. The camera follows her as she stands uppainfully, and then moves across the room with her walker — closeups of her feetshuffling across the floor — until you begin to ache for her; will she answer the phonein time, before the caller hangs up? She finally reaches for the phone, puts it to herear; and the voice on the other end says: “Hello, Grandma?” Her face lights up in asmile, and there’s a freeze frame with the words: HOPE IS WHEN LOVE WAITS.THEGOODSAMARITANSOCIETY(A LUTHERAN SOCIAL SERVICE ORGANIZATION)4TH FLOOR, 4225 - 107 STREET, EDMONTON, ALBERTA TEL. 436-0806MAILING ADDRESS: BOX 8190, STATION “F”, EDMONTON, ALBERTA T6H 5A2Community Social Service Projects Owned and Operated by the Society:Good Samaritan Auxiliary Hospital9649 - 71 Avenue, EdmontonGood Samaritan (Mt. Pleasant) Care Centre10530 - 56 Avenue, EdmontonGood Samaritan (Southgate) Care Centre4225 - 107 Street, EdmontonGood Samaritan Care CentreStony Plain, AlbertaGood Samaritan Place8425 - 83 Street, EdmontonGood Samaritan Pineview Residence8770 - 165 Street, EdmontonGood Samaritan Manor10555 - 83 Avenue, EdmontonGood Samaritan Central Services9350 - 47 Street, EdmontonGood Samaritan Group Home #19445-47 - 150 Street, EdmontonThe Good Samaritan Cared — and so do we.

A hope that doesn\u27t wait, a hope that waits

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A hope that doesn\u27t wait, a hope that waits

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