I remember sitting and having a cup of coffee in Cascades park in July of 2020. As I sat there, I watched workers construct the new hotels that are now functioning around Cascades. As I watched them, Martin Luther’s quote, “everything that is done in the world is done by hope,” came to mind. That led to prayer and investigation, and finally an annual focus named “Done by Hope”.
We are now 3/4ths of our way through the “Done by Hope” annual focus. For about 9 months now, we have been talking about hope. We have talked about where our hope comes from, some of how hope behaves, and how knowing Jesus gives us hope even in the midst of dark times.
As I think back to that moment in Cascades, something still resonates with me: hope doesn’t just wait around, hope does something. All of the people who made that hotel happen had a part in that hope, but if they were just sitting around talking about what the hotel would look like or could look like, nothing would have happened. They didn’t just wait around, they drew plans, they found funding, they mixed concrete, they trained employees, they DID because hope DOES.
This coming Sunday, we’re starting off a sermon series called “Hope Does”. In it, we’re going to consider what hope does. The Lutheran Confessions state clearly that “good works follow from true faith (when it is not a dead faith but a living faith)” [Epitome of the Formula of Concord, IV]. So while hope does, it is not the doing that makes the difference – the hope makes the difference and the doing follows.
Over the course of the beginning of this semester, let us consider where hope comes from and what our hope is in, but let us also consider what actions may follow from that living hope that we have in Jesus Christ. He has forgiven us. He has included us in His Kingdom and made us His disciples. He has assured us of eternal life despite our being unfit for it by ourselves. Now that we have that hope assured by what Christ has done, what will that hope do?