Faith, Hope & Love

Faith, hope, and love: We often find these three words together, but they were not found together in recorded literature until the apostle Paul. 

These three virtues encompass the most critical human longings. 

Faith addresses the universal longing for security in life and for our lives to have meaning.  Without faith, life is marked by distrust, noncommitment, and meaninglessness.  Bertrand Russell sums up well the emptiness of life without faith: “We stand on the shore of an ocean, crying to the night, and the emptiness; sometimes a voice answers out of the darkness.  But it is a voice of one drowning; and in a moment the silence returns.”

Faith provides the strength we need and which we long for in the dark times of our lives.  While speaking out against Nazism in Germany during the reign of the Third Reich, Dietrich Bonhoeffer stated, “I believe that God can and will bring good out of evil, even out of the greatest evil.  I believe that God will give us all the strength we need to help us to resist in all times of distress. But He never gives it in advance, lest we should rely on ourselves and not on Him alone.”    

Oswald Chambers adds, “Faith is deliberate confidence in the character of God whose ways you may not understand at the time.”

Faith that is grounded on the character of God gets us through the toughest of challenges.

Hope addresses the universal longing for significance, contentment, purpose, and destiny to life.  Without hope, life is marked by despair and discouragement.  Without a hope that is grounded in the presence of and the goodness of God, Documentary filmmaker Sheila Nevins said in an interview on NPR, “I don’t know where we came from.  I don’t know where we’re—well, I know I came from a fish, but I don’t really know where I’m going…. It’s a terrifying thing to be alive and human and not know why you’re here, who put you here, don’t you think?”

Hope in the goodness of God and the presence of God lifts our souls up from despair.  As Emily Dickinson points out, “Hope is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul and sings the tune without the words and never stops at all.”  Hebrews 11:1 puts faith and hope together in a wonderful way: “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.”

Love brings a sense of joy and fulfillment to life.

Love addresses our universal longing for acceptance, belonging, and community.  Without love, life is marked by apathy, hostility, and loneliness. Mother Teresa points out, “The most terrible poverty is loneliness, and the feeling of being unloved.”  Larry Crabb adds, “Because we were wired to breathe the life-giving air of community, we cannot endure the thought of isolation.  We fear aloneness—life without connection, achievement without companionship, existence without friendship, forever wandering in lonely despair.  Loneliness is a taste of hell.”  

Love, however, brings fulfillment.  C. Neil Strait comments, “Love is the ingredient that makes every relationship in life, whatever it is, a little better.  Love has a capacity to mend the broken, heal the hurting, and inspire the despairing.  Love that reaches beyond the misunderstandings and the failures is a love that unites and encourages.  Such a love is one of our world’s greatest needs.”

No wonder Paul wrote so often about faith, hope and love.  No wonder God calls us to practice these three virtues. 

Good News to All People

On the night of Jesus’ birth, a common Palestinian tradition was nearly missed. 

In Palestine, during the time of Jesus, when a baby was due to be born, it was traditional for friends and family and local musicians to gather near the home.  When the birth was announced, the musicians would break into music and song.  There would be great rejoicing, with many congratulations extended to the parents. 

But when the time care for Jesus to be born, Mary and Joseph were far away from their home in Nazareth.  No family gathered around them.  No friends waited outside the home.  No local musicians showed up to join in celebrating the birth of their baby. 

The traditional Palestinian songfest was nearly missed at the birth of Jesus… but not quite.  Luke tells us what happened: “In that region there were shepherds living in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night.  Then an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified.  But the angel said to them, ‘Do not be afraid; for see—I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people: to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord.  This will be a sign to you: you will find a child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger.’  And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying, ‘Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace among those whom He favors!'”

Though their family and friends were far away, and though no musicians gathered to await the birth of this baby, God sent His own singers to celebrate the birth of Jesus!  By divine intervention, the tradition of singing at the birth of a child was preserved… but with at least one important difference:

It wasn’t just hometown singers who celebrated the birth of Jesus; it was heavenly musicians, for the significance of Jesus’ birth extended far beyond the town limits of Nazareth, or of Bethlehem, or even of Palestine, or of the Middle East.  Local musicians would have been sufficient for welcoming into this world a baby who was born to be a ‘hometown kid.’  Nazareth’s singers would have been adequate for the birth of any boy who would grow up in Nazareth, and make his career in Nazareth, and raise his family in Nazareth.  But Jesus was not born to be merely a hometown kid.  As John 3:16 points out, Jesus was born on Christmas day because God so loved the entire world! 

Since Jesus came for the whole world, a band of local musicians was not enough.  A proper celebration of His birth would require a choir composed of people from every nation on earth—or it would require a multitude of angels representing all of heaven and all of earth.

No wonder the Christmas carol emphasizes, “Joy to the world!  The Lord is come: Let earth receive her King; Let every heart prepare Him room, And heaven and nature sing!”

Two Scenarios

Imagine two scenarios:

Imagine a faithful, loyal, trustworthy servant of a king—a servant whom the king knows he can depend upon.  Imagine that this servant has been assigned to stand at the gate of the city to wait for the arrival of the king’s beloved son.  The servant stands at the gate to the city through the long, hot days of summer.  And the servant stands at the gate to the city throughout the bitterly cold nights of winter.  Knowing that the king’s son will arrive one day, but not knowing when that day will arrive, the servant stays there waiting, and waiting, and waiting, anxious to welcome the king’s son as soon as he appears.  Years come, and years go, and the servant remains at his post.  Finally the son arrives.  The servant throws his arms around the king’s son and welcomes him to the castle.  He shouts out the good news of the arrival.  Then the faithful servant asks permission to go home, at last, to rest.

That’s the picture Luke gives of an old man named Simeon.  He had been waiting and waiting and waiting for the Messiah—the King’s Son—to arrive.  He had been standing at his post, waiting faithfully throughout the years.  Now, at last, when Mary and Joseph bring their baby to the temple to be dedicated, Simeon takes the baby into his arms, welcoming the King’s Son.  Then Simeon asks permission to go home.  Simeon greets the arrival of Jesus with a song of great joy!  (Luke 2:25-32)

Now, imagine a young man—we’ll call him Jack—who is in love with a wonderful young woman—we’ll call her Janet.  Though they live for away from each other, they write the most heart-touching letters back and forth, and both have promised their undying love to one another.  Closer to Jack’s home, though, is another young woman—we’ll call her Kathy.  Jack enjoys the company of Kathy.  He enjoys the beauty of her face, her beautiful eyes, her lovely smile, her attractive figure.  It thrills him when she touches his hand or puts her arms around him, or when they press their lips together.  Jack and Kathy have been getting serious and have begun to talk about moving in together.  As it so happens, though, Janet suddenly, and surprisingly, shows up at Jack’s door one afternoon—just as Jack is heading out on a date with Kathy.  Suddenly Jack faces a dilemma.  So long as Kathy was here and Janet was far away, Jack could get by.  He could enjoy his heart-touching love letters with Janet and his kisses with Kathy.  But as soon as Janet arrives at his home, Jack must make a choice.  He has to choose between the two of them. 

In a rough way, that’s what Simeon addresses when he says of Jesus, “This child is destined for the falling and rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be opposed so that the inner thoughts of many will be revealed” (Luke 2:33-35).  So long as God stays in heaven, we can send lovely prayers upward, promising our undying devotion to God, while enjoying on earth whatever sins we want to engage in, but when God suddenly appears on earth—or in our lives—we have to make a choice.  Will we live faithfully or unfaithfully?  Jesus’ arrival causes the thoughts of many hearts to be revealed.  In this way, Jesus causes the falling and the rising of many people.

Will we live as faithfully as Simeon?  Or as unfaithfully as “Jack”?

God Remembers!

Zechariah.  His name means, “Jehovah (God) Remembers.”

Why would parents choose such a name for their child?  And why do we come upon so many references in the Hebrew Scriptures to the fact that God remembers? 

Could it be that God is growing old and struggling with His memory?  Or could it be that God is scatterbrained and not always remembering things?  Or could it be something else?

The “remember” part of Zechariah’s name is the Hebrew word zakar (or zechar).  Most literally, it means “to leave a mark,” or “to make an impact.”  Larry Crabb adds, “In ancient Near East culture, the word referred to a king’s assistant, to a man charged with the important privilege of reminding the king of matters that required his royal attention.  Zakar came to mean someone who remembers something important that moves him to do something important.” (Fully Alive, p. 67-68)

When the Bible speaks of God remembering it is not suggesting that a clarity of recall has suddenly burst through a prevailing fog of forgetfulness, but that God is about to take action on that which He has been holding in His heart.  For example, Genesis 8:1 tells us that “God remembered” Noah and the animals on the ark, and the next line tells us that “God made a wind blow over the earth, and the waters subsided.”  When Rachel is grieving over her lack of children, Genesis 30:22 reports that “God remembered Rachel,” and goes on to tell us “and God heeded her and opened her womb.”    As the Hebrew people suffered as slaves in Egypt, Exodus 2:24 records that “God heard their groaning, and God remembered His covenant with Abraham;” immediately after that God speaks to Moses from a burning bush and sends him to Egypt to deliver His people.

When Zechariah’s wife Elizabeth gives birth to a son who will grow up to become John the Baptist, Zechariah (whose name means “God Remembers”) sings a song about God remembering His people.  Luke 1:72 stresses, “Thus He has shown the mercy promised to our ancestors, and has remembered His holy covenant.” 

Holding to Biblical precedent, Zechariah is stressing that God is about to take significant action on behalf of those whom He has been holding in His heart.  The action here is that John the Baptist has been born, and He will prepare the way for Jesus.  Salvation is on the way! 

The reason the Bible speaks so often about God remembering is for our sake: We need to remember that God always remembers us and always holds us in His heart. 

I greatly appreciate Erik Raymond’s explanation of this: “We forget to remember.  But God never does.  You can feel the weight of this truth in a passage like Psalm 9 where the Psalmist is feeling the sting of persecution.  Through the eyes of faith he is confident in God’s ultimate victory, and he even boasts of as much (verses 4-6).  But in the midst of his rehearsal of who God is and what He will do, the Psalmist is reminded that God remembers them.  ‘Sing praises to the Lord, who sits enthroned in Zion!  Tell among the peoples His deeds!  For He who avenges blood is mindful of them; He does not forget the cry of the afflicted’ (Psalm 9:11-13).  Consider the beautiful irony of this passage.  The King of kings, whose deeds are worthy of being proclaimed among the nations, remembers the weak.  He never forgets.  His mind is a veritable steel-trap.  He knows the conditions and concerns of His people.  How encouraging is this?  Amid acknowledging your own personal weakness, you find such a castle of strength.  The existence and needs of God’s people never escapes God’s mind.” 

I have been told that when Martin Luther struggled with discouragement he would say to himself over and over again, “I am baptized; I am baptized.”  It was his way of reminding himself that he was remembered by God, that he belonged to God, that he was held securely in covenant relationship with God. 

That’s how it is for us.  We need to remember that God remembers us, that God will never forget us, and that God will take action on our behalf.