Hope Floats? ? ?

Today is the first Sunday of Advent. 

While I grew up in a family that honored Christian and patriotic traditions, I did not grow up in a Liturgical church so Advent (or Lent or Pentecost) is not something that we recognized or celebrated. However, from my first observance of lighting an Advent candle in 1989 when worshipping at The University Blvd. Church of the Nazarene I have been a strong proponent of the value of this.

In the event that you are like I was and didn't know what a Liturgical church is, here's a little explanation.

The word liturgy means "the work of the people".   When Protestants broke from the roots of the Catholic Church, some of them brought the importance of the traditional, ritualized, formally structured way of worshiping.  Some things are repetitive throughout the service, particularly Eucharist (which means a time of Thanksgiving for what God has done for us by sending us Jesus to be our Saviour). And the people are very involved in the worship.  We stand when we sing, kneel when we pray, and sit while we listen (except when the Gospel is read).

I have found liturgical worship to resonate with me in a powerful, deeply inspiring way.

And I celebrate Advent by placing a wreath with a white candle in the center surrounded by four purple candles - representing Hope, Peace, Love and Joy on my dining room table.  This morning, I lit the candle of Hope.  For the next three Sundays that precede Christmas Day, I will light a second, third and fourth candle.  And on Christmas Day, I'll light the center or Christ candle.

And each week I will write a blog with a theme connected to that week's "candle".

Advent One – the candle of Hope.

Did you see the movie "Hope Floats" starring Sandra Bulloch and Harry Connick, Jr.?  It's the typical wife gets scorned, leaves husband, brings child to live with her parents, child cannot adjust to her mother's new life, is just sure her daddy really wants her and devastated when he doesn't scenario.  It's all about adjusting. 

And when I remembered that movie today, I wondered why in the world was the title "Hope Floats".

Actually HOPE can be a very positive word.  It's a feeling of expectation.  Webster lists 11 synonyms that are positive words - optimism, expectation, confidence, trust, belief, conviction, assurance, promise.

Hence the reason for the title in the Sandra Bullock movie.

Life is filled with uncertainty.  That's why it's good that hope floats.

I remember when I was learning to swim.  First I had to learn to float.

That involved relaxing my body in the water.

That's what we do with hope.

We trust that we will not sink.  We have faith to believe that although it's a frightening situation, we will survive.  We have assurance, confidence, a conviction that when we relax and let ourselves float we will be okay.

As a Christian my hope is in Jesus Christ – Who doesn't float – but is the source of mine.

"Happy is he whose hope is in the Lord his God."  

Psalm 146:5