This is the first of a four-part series of Advent candle lighting liturgies based on hope, peace, joy, and love.
Of Hope
We were saved in hope. If we see what we hope for, that isn’t hope. Who hopes for what they already see? But if we hope for what we don’t see, we wait for it with patience. – Romans 8:24-25 (CEB)
Hope might be a gift of God that becomes ours the moment we draw our first breath. Hope comes from some unnamed understanding that this is not all there is; that the world is not as it should be. For some, hope might fester into some object that must be obtained, becoming something ugly that seeks to overcome itself in power, money, or things. But this is never hope fulfilled.
It is only hope lost.
As we light a candle of hope, we proclaim that God wants more for us than what we can see. God’s hope is that we would not settle for the incomplete answers of this world but seek the truth that transcends this world. This hope is not extinguished by doubt, fear, suffering, or even death. It is a hope that perseveres in all circumstances and without limitation because it is a hope founded in the One who is the life and the light of all people.[1]
[1] John 1:4
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