Revive in us new hope

Revive in us new hope

In the last week or so we’ve spent much time remembering the past, and remembering specifically some pretty horrific aspects of that past. We do need to remember those things, and to learn from those mistakes. Alongside those memories there has been a lot happening in the present that isn’t so good, particularly the economic problems we’re all facing. But it’s all too easy to get so caught up in remembering the bad things, and the current problems, that we begin to lose sight of the Christian hope. The memories of the past, and the problems we face in the present, can depress us, and rob us of our futures — the future that people fought to give us.

Christian hope doesn’t mean living in the clouds while we dream of a better life. It isn’t just a projection of what we would like to be, or what we’d like to do. Because of the identity of our God, and because of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, our Christian hope leads us to discover seeds of a new world already present today. It’s a source of energy to live differently, not according to the values of a society based on the thirst for possession and competition.

Hoping means first of all discovering in the depths of the present a life that leads forward and that nothing is able to stop. It also means welcoming this life by a “yes” spoken by our whole being. As we embark on this life, we’re lead to create signs of a different future here and now, in the midst of the difficulties of the world, seeds of renewal that will bear fruit when the time comes.

That’s the hope we pray will be revived in us in this week’s Collect, on this Second Sunday before Advent. With that hope flowing through humanity the whole of creation can be healed.

Heavenly Lord,
you long for the world’s salvation:
stir us from apathy,
restrain us from excess
and revive in us new hope
that all creation will one day be healed
in Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Additional Collect for The Second Sunday before Advent
is Copyright © The Archbishops Council