Day Thirty One - Joyful in hope

I stopped being interested in pop music when it became impossible to distinguish the name of the group from their song. (Also, when they stopped being groups and became bands!) So, I have never heard of “The Vaccines” – an indie rock band formed in 2010. Imagine my surprise, therefore, when – seeking inspiration for this piece – I put “Hope … Vaccine” into a popular search engine and discovered that The Vaccines had a song called NO HOPE!

What is hope? The Cambridge online dictionary offers: “to want something to happen or to be true, and usually have a good reason to think that it might”. However, to “hope against hope” is defined as: “to hope very strongly that something will happen, although you know it is not likely”. I’m fairly sure that some of us confuse those two definitions. For example, I was playing a word game on my phone and I hoped that the word JAPERY existed. I hoped it was a real word because those were the letters I had; but I was fairly certain that it was NOT a real word. Yet it is. (Although, curiously, the Cambridge online dictionary does not accept it.)

Of course, our topical link to HOPE must be that it appears many vaccines will be effective against Covid-19 and that some will be available early in 2021. Also, that many of us HOPE to be reunited with family over Christmas. These are both something we want to happen and have good reason to think they might.

Do we, as Christians, hope in a different way to others or do we just hope for different things?

Paul’s letter to the Romans urges us to be “joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer” and to “share with the Lord’s people who are in need” (12:12-3a NIV). Linking this to our topic, most people are joyful in the hope that the vaccine will enable life to return to normal; many are not patient in affliction, few are faithful in prayer; and some will resent the vaccines being made available to all countries around the world. There are indeed differences in the way we as Christians hope and behave, as well as the fact that we hope for different things.

I think there are two characteristics of Christianity. The first is that we have a religion which is a relationship. The second is the hope we have for life after death. Has this latter enabled us to cope better with the Covid-19 threat? Can we join wholeheartedly with Paul’s words to the Philippians: “For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. If I am to go on living in the body, this will mean fruitful labour for me. Yet what shall I choose? I do not know! I am torn between the two” (Phil 1:21-23a NIV). If we genuinely have hope in eternal life, we don’t need to pin all our hopes on a vaccine, do we?

Elaine Kinchin