Anchors Away!

Anyone familiar with Boy Scouts knows that in order to be awarded the rank of Eagle Scout, one must complete (at the time of my Eagle Scout) twenty-one merit badges and a number of them were Eagle-required badges.  These badges included First Aid, Citizenship in the Community/Nation/World, Communications, Personal Finance, Family Life, and the list continues.  A boy was also required to earn a certain number of elective merit badges.  If my memory is accurate, some of the elective badges I earned were basket-weaving, shotgun-shooting, firemanship, and small boat sailing.


The minimal amount of boating required to complete the small-boat sailing merit badge was done one summer at Scout camp.  Those completing the badge would go to the lake each day at the assigned time and, with a partner, climb into a sailboat and take to the "open waters" of Lake John Sabotta.  Funny as it may sound, I can still hear my instructor yelling out to us from his kayak, "Harness the wind, boys!  Harness the wind!"  (What may be funnier is the fact that I think he was serious.)  I don't remember much about sailing techniques and skills from that summer.  But I do remember one thing: the anchor.

The anchor is heavy and strong.  The anchor stays on the side of the boat until ready to be dropped.  Once the anchor is dropped, the likelihood of the boat moving is slim at best.  The anchor keeps the boat secure and the boat then comes to rely on the anchor.

During this first week of Advent, the week of hope, my mind and heart have not been able to escape the image of the anchor.  The image comes from the words of the writer of the letter to the Hebrews in what we call the New Testament.

Because God wanted to make the unchanging nature of his promise very clear to the heirs of what was promised, he confirmed it with an oath.  God did this so that, by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled to take hold of the hope offered to us may be greatly encouraged.  We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure.  It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain, where Jesus, who went before us, has entered on our behalf.  He has become a high priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek.  -Hebrews 6:17-20

Our lives are much like the life of a sailboat on the open waters.  While the sailboat is floating on top of the water, there is a whole other world below the surface.  What we know and see from the deck of the boat pails in comparison to the reality beneath the surface of the water.  We can see from the deck of the boat that a storm is brewing.  Not too long after seeing the storm, we begin to feel the wind picking up and the rain starting to fall.  Before long we are hunkered down in the boat because the winds have become violent and the rains torrential.  Yet, below the surface of the water, down very deep where the anchor is holding, there is calm and stillness.

This is the hope of Advent.  We see the storms of life coming our way and then begin feeling the presence of the storm.  As all of us know too well, the storms we encounter on the waters of life are things from the loss of a job, to fears and troubles at home, to the ultimate fear; the fear of death.  These storms can pop up from what seems like nowhere.  We thought things were going well at work then the boss walks in and in his hand is a pink slip and he says, "I am sorry.  I tried."  The stories like this are many.

When the waters of life are raging and there is nothing we can do, the anchor of hope is holding us in one place.  Though the waves are crashing and the winds are violent, the anchor of hope is strong and secure.  The psalmist encourages us with these words:

God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble.  Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging.  -Psalm 46:1-3

Let's be honest.  This world is a broken place.  There are crimes & wars, hate & death, suffering & injustice.  These things constitute the rain and wind of the storms on the sea of life.  We cannot escape it. As we read the story of God's activity and work on the earth (found in the Bible) we find that no one knew this truth any better than the prophets.  They saw the injustice of the world & the exaltation of pagan rituals and were filled with a holy anger and an unstoppable hunger for the truth of God to be proclaimed.

Now some will surely say, "What does this have to do with hope?"  It has everything to do with hope!  Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel writes:

The things that horrified the prophets are even now daily occurrences all over the world (The Prophets: Two Volumes in One. Hendrickson: Peabody, Mass., 2009, p.3).  

This makes our world a place in desperate need of hope.  A hope that is stronger than the problems we see around us.  A hope that can overcome the darkest of the darkness!  All of this sounds great, right?  I mean, we talk about hope for the hopeless.  We proclaim healing to the hurting.  We bring beauty to the broken.  But do we really?

The hope of Advent is that God has broken into this world and announced that unto you is born this day, in the City of David, a Savior, who is Christ the Lord....and he will save his people from their sins (Luke 2:11 & Matthew 1:21 respectively).  Some will look at Jesus and respond with an open heart to receive the promise of eternal life.  This truly is the heart of the gospel.  Yet there is something here that begs a greater question.

What about hope for life on earth?  Is there hope for life on earth?  I hold to the firm conviction that the work of the church is to bring the hope of God made alive in the person of Jesus to the earth and to life here and now.  What good is a hopeful message if it is only about tomorrow?  What about a hopeful message for today?  What about a hope that is strong enough to anchor us today on the eternal promises of tomorrow?

If you and I have spent any amount of time in theological discussion, you know I read a lot of N.T. Wright.  Dr. Wright is known as one of the world's leading New Testament scholars.  He is a pastor & professor.  He is a speaker & writer.  He writes:

Hope is the settled, unwavering confidence that this God will not leave us or forsake us, but will always have more in store for us than we could ask or think.... Learning to hope in the present time is learning not just to hope for a better place than we currently find ourselves in, but learning to trust the God who is and will remain the God of the future (After You Believe: Why Christian Character Matters. HarperCollins: New York, 2010, pp. 2-3-204).

This is the hope of Advent!  This is the hope of God!  This is the hope for our world!  Our world that is broken has been pronounced beautiful by the God of hope.  Those who hurt at the hand of death or of another person have healing brought into today by the God of hope.  God has done something remarkable in our world.  God has brought a hope worth holding on to.

This Advent, may each of us find the hope of God that is sure and strong.  May each of us hold to this hope with and unwavering grip.  May each of us help those around us to live in a way holds to this hope for today and tomorrow.

ANCHORS AWAY!
-ASR