Sharing from the Congregation – David Petty
Advent Lighting – Light the first two candles, hope and peace.
And not only that, but we also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope; and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love is poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us. — Romans 5:3-5
The Bible says a lot of outrageous things. Granted, those of us who have attended church and read the Bible frequently may have become numb to the outrageousness. If we step back and take a fresh look, though, the shocking nature of the claims is apparent.
This beautifully written passage from Romans contains two outrageous claims. First, it claims that suffering leads to hope. Really? Apparently Paul’s thinking is this: Hope is not something we can make ourselves feel. It only comes when it is an outgrowth of our character, a character forged by surviving hardship (the Greek word for character also can be used for metal tempered by heat).
I can’t honestly say that have experienced “suffering” because of the pandemic — boredom certainly, and frustration, and perhaps discomfort. But some people have actually suffered; some physically if they had the disease, and many more that have had true emotional suffering. To cite just one statistic, a recent study reported a depression rate of 24.3 per cent in June, 2020, versus a rate of 6.5 per cent for a similar period in 2019. That’s not very hopeful sounding in the short run. Yet Paul, who surely knew something about suffering, assures us that in the long run it will strengthen us and give us hope.
A similar line of thought is presented, although not as eloquently, in James 1:2-4 and 1 Peter 1:6-7. If you’re interested, the literary device here — stringing together parallel statements, with each picking up the last word of the one before it — is called anadiplosis. Another fine example of anadiplosis (also called a cadena) is found in 2 Peter 1:5–7.
The second outrageous claim is that our hope will not be disappointed. It may be helpful here to recall that the Greek word for hope has a stronger meaning than our word. For us hope means, roughly, that we would like for a thing to happen, and we’re optimistic enough to believe that it could. In Greek the word means “expectation,” or near certainty.
I have no proof, here and now, that our hope for the future will be fulfilled, but clearly Paul had no doubt. Let us pray for that kind of faith.
Gracefully submitted,
David Petty