We read in 1st Corinthians 13:13 that three most important
qualities of religious life are “faith, hope, and charity.” We
open ourselves to the experience of peace and hope in the
Lord Jesus when what we believe connects with how we live.
Here now, is Rev. Donald Rose’s “take” on the subject:
“Let Thy mercy, 0 Lord, be upon us according as we
hope in Thee” (Psalm 33:22). Why are you cast down? Hope
in God. The gift of hope makes life’s other gifts sparkle.
Hope makes the good things of life enjoyable, and it makes
adversities bearable. It makes the disappointments and
apparent failures endurable. We have hope. And we note that
hope is ranked with the two elements of charity and faith.
Now abide these three: “faith, hope and charity” (I Cor.
13:13). Love bears all things, hopes all things, endures all
things (v. 7).
The early Christians knew this well. The Christians
who first endured in the city of Rome received word from
the Apostle saying, “The sufferings of the present time are
not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be
revealed in us … Who shall separate us from the love of
Christ? Shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine
or nakedness or peril or sword? … I am persuaded that
neither … principalities nor powers, nor things present nor
things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created
thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God
which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:35,38,39).
Perhaps we appreciate hope especially in contrast to its
absence. If you don’t have any hope, your plight is grievous.
It is the state of despair. Every temptation we experience
is attended, the Writings say, with some kind of
despair (see AC 1787). It is a diminishing of hope. And in
despair, particulars that might otherwise cheer us hold no
joy for us. On the other hand, when we have hope it seems
to have many particular facets. We have hopes for country,
community and family, hopes for the church and hopes for
specific uses. We look upon other people, and our love for
them has specific hopes. The things they need are present
with us when we are praying.
There is something special about our hopes for children,
whether our own children or others. Because their
life stretches out before them, we look on them with hope.
We have hope for their success, overcoming their problems,
healing their woes. When children are very young
our hopes for them are often much better than their own
hopes for themselves.
That helps us appreciate the Lord’s view of our hopes.
It helps us when we pray that the Lord’s will be done rather
than our own. For His will for us is better than our own.
In one place the Writings speak of “the hope of becoming
an angel” (HH 517:2). What a hope for us of finding a life
in which what we do is useful for others and makes a difference
for good. We should all be stirred by the doctrinal
knowledge that the Lord’s purpose is a heaven from the
human race, and that our life is related to that purpose. The
elderly who seem to have lost much in terms of worldly
hopes should in particular know the benefit of the hope that
is from the Lord. It is part of our identity, our destiny. An
angel is not always in an intense state of joy. Swedenborg
was given to observe at close hand a whole spectrum of angelic
states, states compared to the time of day, morning,
noon, and evening. He was allowed to talk to angels when
zest for life was at its lowest. And it is remarkable that in
that state they spoke about hope. “But they said that they
hoped to return soon to their former state, and thus into
heaven again, as it were” (HH 160).
We know something similar to this. We converse with
each other about our disappointments, and we can do so
with a smile. We are even able to say to each other, “I have
been very depressed lately. I have been feeling so low.” But
we can say even that cheerfully, because we have hope.
There is a beautiful passage in True Marriage Love that says,
“When the partners tenderly love each other, they think of
their covenant as being eternal and have no thought whatever
concerning its end by death; and if they do think of this,
they grieve; yet, at the thought of its continuance after death,
they are revived by hope” (CL 216). They are revived or
strengthened by hope.
The mention of true marriage love may remind us of our
wondering on the grand scale about the future of true love in
this world. So much comes to our attention that can make us
regard the human race in a declining plight. Once an angel
spoke of the way the precious gift of true marriage love has declined.
But note his final words: “Yet, I am nourished by the
hope that this love will be resuscitated by the God of heaven,
who is the Lord; for its resuscitation is possible” (ML 78). “I
am sustained by the hope that the God of heaven, who is the
Lord, will revive this love, because it is possible for it to be
revived.”
Let us be willing that the Lord shall cheer us with His
gift of hope. Remember the phrase “but still, if he suffers
himself to be cheered by hope, he stands fast in what is af-
firmative” (AC 2338). “I will hope continually. And I will
praise You yet, more and more.” Amen.
May our lives be a testament to these words of the Psalmist:
“Let Thy mercy, 0 Lord, be upon us according as we hope in
Thee” (Psalm 33:22).
Your friend, Pastor Ethan
