Fear and Hope

Text: 

Romans 5:3-5

Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.

Gospel John 3:1-42 The woman at the well

Rome; Lockdown. Washington; Emergency Travel Ban; Paris curfew. London – shortage of loo paper and people washing their hands a bit more. But we are concerned and there is fear in the air. Fear is the path to the Dark Side. Fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate, hate leads to suffering. So Yoda, the wise Jedi of the Star Wars movies. But Paul says that suffering produces perseverance, perseverance, character, and character, hope. 

Yoda

So if you are a bit afraid this morning, or a bit more afraid than usual, or if you are not afraid, but see people all around you who are, know this – it is not the path to the dark side, but to hope.

This third Sunday of Lent asks us to explore what that hope might mean in a world which is full of fear. Proximate fears, such as “will I get ill?” or “will I run out of loo paper?” And deeper existential fears with which we live all the time – fears about life and death and the meaning and purpose of the world. In the face of such fears we offer hope in salvation, salvation which comes from Jesus Christ and means that we do not need to be afraid. Sure hope, which does not put us to shame – it does not let us down.

Having quoted Star Wars now let me go to the writer of the Lord of the Rings. JRR Tolkien said that there are two types of hope: what he called Amdir‘an expectation of good which though uncertain has some foundation in what is known.’ This is the kind of hope which says 'the bus will be along in a minute' because I have evidence from the time table and from seeing the last bus go past that the next one is coming. In a world perennially afflicted by war and famine and plague and ultimate death there is no foundation for hope in what is known, no evidence for hope.

Tolkien went on to say that Amdir, this hope which needs evidence, is not the only sort of hope. There is another sort of hope which comes from trust, from ‘our nature and first being. If we are children of God He will not be deprived of His own, not by any enemy, not even by ourselves… of all His designs the issue must be for His children’s joy.’

 

JRR Tolkien

This is the hope which springs from what S Paul calls character. It is that hope with comes from the deep sense hard wired into every one of us, that there is more to it than this, that we are more than simply an animal declining towards death, that we are important and loved. This is the sense that as S Paul put it, the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts.

This Tolkien called Estel, hope born of trust; and that was one of the names for the figure in his book who is the type of Christ, the King who will come again to bring salvation and new life to the world.

This deep sense of purpose meaning and life which wells up in us is the living water of which Christ spoke to the Woman at the Well. Their long conversation begins with her contempt for Him, a Jewish man so down on His luck that in contravention of every social taboo He is willing  to ask help at Jacob’s well of a Samaritan woman. She sees only His physical need of a drink, but He asserts His ability to quench the deep thirsts of the human soul: if you knew who it was who was speaking to you, you would ask of Him a drink of living water.

Christ’s willingness to engage with the Woman in order to include her in His offer of salvation calls her to change. Change both of her external life – the one you have now is not your husband – and internally – the hour is coming when you will worship in spirit and in truth. Inclusion for Christ is not about affirming the woman in what she is, but in giving her hope for what He will make her. Hope which does not put us to shame.

Christ with the Woman at the Well - Rembrant

The woman becomes then an evangelist, not keeping this hope to herself, but going to the village: He couldn’t be the Christ could He? Meanwhile the disciples come back. They are, like many of us, His followers. But they are just the like woman, focusing on the needs of the world: eat something, they say, have a sandwich. When he says He has food the know nothing of they assume He must have a hidden picnic. But He tells them that His meat is to do the will of Him that sent me, and to finish His work.

We are not ascetics  - we know that we need to care for the body as also for the soul. But our hope leads us to new ways of approaching the world. The great Oxford preacher Austin Farrer speaking to students said, ‘If I do the will of my Creator I won’t be saying, “I suppose I must do God’s will, what a bore, never mind, I suppose I shall have some time to console myself with light reading or games or social pleasures. I do not want to learn to do without relaxation, I want to learn to find delight in the service of my Creator. If I do, perhaps I shall need less relaxation. But that is a secondary point. The main thing is to delight in God and not be a reluctant slavish worker in His service.’

Austin Farrer

The Living water which springs up in us is a gift of Grace. It is called forth from us when like the woman at the well we recognise the hope that is set in us welling up from our very creation; trusting in God, filled with hope we are called to respond wholeheartedly.

This Lent there is much to challenge our hope, but hope is not defeated. Fear leads to anger, and anger to hate and hate to suffering; but suffering to endurance and endurance to character and character to hope. And from hope spring the great actions which lead to salvation. Let tribulation come as it has before and will again; for the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts, and we have a true hope for salvation, a hope which does not put us to shame.