This year, University Lutheran is engaging with our annual focus, “Done by Hope”. The name of the focus comes from Martin Luther’s quote, “Everything that is done in the world is done by hope. No merchant or tradesman would set himself to work if he did not hope to reap benefit thereby.” As with many quotes by Martin Luther, this one ends up being misappropriated to the civil rights leader, Martin Luther King Jr, who has a pretty good quote about hope himself – “We must accept finite disappointment, but never infinite hope.” 
Hope is an interesting thing. It is a process of the imagination, but it is not mere wishing. It is a function of the will, but doesn’t rely upon the will alone. Hope drives us to look for possibility, but it grounds that possibility in the reality of our current experience. Hope looks for good without turning “good” into “magic”. Hope needs and trusts that there is a way that things will get worked out. It is possible to think of hope as an attitude, but it is probably clearer to think of it as a skill.
This year, University Lutheran is asking you to engage in hope. This is challenging for us. We are afraid, especially after a difficult year, to engage in hope. After all, while hope is powerful, it is no guarantor. If it was, it wouldn’t be hope. Nonetheless, we are asking you to rise to the challenge of hope. We are asking you to hope. We are asking you this because if Luther is right, nothing will get done without your hope.
We are asking you to hope around 3 specific hopes: hopes for yourself, hopes for the Church, and hopes for your neighbor. We will spend some time unpacking these more later, but here is a quick illustration of what those hopes might look like.
Hopes for yourself – These are likely the easiest ones to think of and the hardest ones to commit to hoping for. What are the hopes that you hold out for your life? Do you hope for a better connection with God? Do you hope for more security in your personal life? Do you hope for something else? What is it that you hope for (keep in mind, not wish for, but hope for)?
Hopes for the Church – Where do your hopes and the Church connect? What are your hopes for our local church? And what are your hopes for the universal Church?
Hopes for your neighbor – Scripturally, your neighbor is everyone. Nevertheless, do not neglect your hopes for your next door neighbor just because you can hope for an end to the worldwide COVID crisis. Engage in hopes for everyone God has connected you to.
In all of this, realize that our hopes are always tied to what God has done for us in Jesus Christ. Whether we are hoping for ourselves, for the Church, or for our neighbor – God gives us possibilities for our hopes. Our God can do all and is all, He provides us a renewal of hope even when we sin and dash the progress of our hopes to the ground. “I will hope continually, and praise God yet more and more” (Psalm 71).