Holding Fast to Hope

“Hold only love, only peace in your heart, knowing that the battle of good to overcome
evil is already won.” John Lewis

Reading: Romans 5.1-5

On July 17th John Lewis, US congressman and civil rights activist, passed away in the
United States, saying to his sister that he was at peace that now was his time to go. He
will be missed in these turbulent times, but he leaves behind him, a lifetime spent
hoping for the dream of racial equality and justice to continue to transform the United
States. John Lewis was a young firebrand in 1965, when he marched onto the Pettus
Bridge in Selma, Alabama, and was nearly killed by those who opposed the march. Out
of his discipleship with Martin Luther King, this young man would learn to walk the ways
of a peacemaker all of his life. In his 33 years of service in the US Congress, he was
known as the “conscience of the Congress” as he continued the battle of justice for all.
As I pondered his life and the current unrest in my country this week, I have come back
repeatedly to the word “hope” and how its shaped John Lewis and his whole life. In
Hebrews 6: 18 – 19, scripture says “Therefore, we who have fled to him for refuge can
have great confidence as we hold to the hope that lies before us. This hope is a strong
and trustworthy anchor for our souls.” John Lewis was anchored in the hope that says
God will make all things right, and we are called to live in that hope through prayer and
actions to bring change in our world. Hope holds us steady in life especially in conflicted
times.

Hope is a word that gives vision and is at the center of God’s love for his world and our
salvation. It isn’t just optimism that things will get better, but a word that speaks of God’s
vision to set things right. In the pain and suffering of COVID 19 and its consequences
for our health, our livelihoods and the confusion of political voices, we need to dust off
“Hope” and ground ourselves in this word..

The biblical picture of our world is that we live in a fallen world where pandemics
happen, injustice happens, death happens, and we can lose hope in desperate times
and fall into despair. Jesus’s ministry echoed the words of Isaiah, Jeremiah and the
other prophets as they described the Kingdom that our God wants for his children. A
world in which there is good news for the poor, release for the captives, where the blind
would see, and the lame would walk and the oppressed would be set free. A picture of
God’s shalom for his world. A place of restored justice and peace. Jesus brought hope
that God had not forgotten his people or his world. And as Jesus taught about the
Kingdom, he brought HOPE. Hope that is anchored in the reality of Jesus’ death and
resurrection. We stand on the promises of renewed life now and eternally.

Like the eulogies of John Lewis have stated so powerfully, John lived with the hope that
he would see greater changes in racial justice. He prayed for it, he worked for it, and he
hoped for it. A man of hope who could inspire others to work for greater change. He was
a realist knowing that he was dying with his life’s work unfinished, but that the cause of
justice had been advanced during his life. His legacy is the investment in others who
carry on this fight.

As believers each time we pray, we are daring to hope that God’s dreams will change
the situation we are praying for. In relation to the coronavirus, we pray with hope for a
vaccine, and we hope for the recovery of all who are struggling with the disease. And
even as we lose loved ones to the disease, we hold on to the hope that they are now
with God. In that place of prayer and hope, we learn who God is as a loving Father who
is walking through this painful time with us and for us.

And out of being with God in prayer, we will then find the courage and hope to be able
to rebuild our town and our economy together. All of this while holding tightly to the
hope that God will guide us and give us the strength to face the difficulties together. His
vision for the well-being of our community to prosper united in purpose.
John Lewis lived as a man of hope and full of God’s grace and wisdom filled with a
vision of God’s reconciled world. So now let us as people who also work as people of
peace, let us pray, let us continue to press in to rebuild, and let us be anchored in Hope.

“Hold only love, only peace in your heart, knowing that the battle of good to
overcome evil is already won.” John Lewis