By the Way: Hope needs faith and love

By Oz Lorentzen on December 24, 2022.

“This will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.” In classic fashion the heavenly visitor gives a sign, and the sign is characteristically vague. What kind of sign is a baby?

And yet, as I reflect on it, this was perhaps the best or only sign that could be given, given the circumstances of the day. For a baby, because it is sheer possibility, represents hope.

And, hope was just what the beleaguered and oppressed nation of Israel (as all oppressed peoples) needed. Of course for hope to be helpful, it must be credible, based on actual possibility: which is precisely what the Heavenly Messenger and Choir added to the sign.

As I prepare for Christmas this year, I am keenly aware of the need for hope. A credible hope for myself, for my loved ones, for our community, our province, our country and our world!

Hope is a consistent theme for this time of year with the cold and the short days (the darkness both literal and figurative). But we are pretty confident of a reversal of the cold and the shorter days, having lived through a cycle or two of seasonal changes. This “hope” is not the hope of the sign given. And, this type of hope will not meet the need of our time. There’s no help from a hope that comes from habit of thought or a mechanistic view of life. Instead, we need that raw and open longing that makes us vulnerable, that hope which allows for the sheer unpredictability but enormous commitment and investment that a baby represents. Hope, like the child, needs Faith and Love to flourish.

May the Hope and Joy of Christmas fill your hearts with Peace!

Rev. Oz Lorentzen is from St. Barnabas Anglican Church

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