A CANDLE FOR HOPE

Matthew 24:38-39a, 42

For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark;  and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away....Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come into your life.
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Today is the first Sunday in Advent – the first Sunday in this new liturgical year -- and the theme for today is HOPE.  This is such an important time for us – being that it lays the foundation for all that is to follow in the church year. 

As most of us know by now, there are four weeks in Advent, each with its own theme – HOPE, PEACE, JOY, and LOVE.  Because Advent is all about the coming of the Christ Child into our human world, it can begin to feel as if these are very important, weighty topics that belong in the Bible and the church and should only be spoken of with “church-y” words. 

Well, yes, of course, they are important, and we do take them seriously, but they are supposed to tell us about God living and being and acting in our world – right here in the confusion and messy-ness of humankind, so occasionally they need to come out of the heavenly realms and interact with us here – just here.

That’s why I want to share something that a friend shared on-line this week.  It’s just a story – actually, it’s a story about a story:

• Somewhere in the 1930’s, in the depths of the Great Depression, a man named Bob May was at least one of the more fortunate ones in that he was employed when so many others were not.  He worked for Montgomery Ward  but even though he had a job most of his slight income went to pay for medical care for his wife, who was dying of cancer.  While he worked and cared as best he could for his wife, he was also left to be the sole caregiver for his four-year old daughter. 
• Broke and exhausted and heartbroken as he was, he still wanted to give the best could to his little girl.  He loved her so much that he somehow found it in him to want to give her Hope (even though he most likely didn’t really have much of that for himself at this time.)
• So one evening as he was putting her to bed, when she asked for a story, having no money for story books for her, he made up a story about a small reindeer with a bright red nose, who most unexpectedly found himself working with Santa Claus.   The child loved the story so she asked for it over and over again, and as he repeated it night after night he began embroidering it, adding a little here and a little there, and the story grew.  Since there was no money for buying gifts, the man decided to make a hand-made book of “the story” for his daughter’s Christmas gift.  He even shared it with a few of his co-workers.
• Sadly, shortly before Christmas that year, the long-suffering wife and mother passed away from her illness.  Truly alone now, except for his child and his work, May reluctantly attended his company’s Christmas party where he was urged by friends to share his story – which met with party-wide acclaim – so much so that Montgomery Ward bought the rights to the story, which enabled the man to pay off the huge debts that had piled up due to his wife’s illness.
• Over the next six years Wards gave away more than six million copies of Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer to shoppers.  It became so popular that major publishing houses were bidding for the publishing rights.  It was a major public relations move by the store – and – in the most extraordinary part of this story – they returned the publishing rights to May at no charge.
• In a handful of years, the bereft father became a millionaire.  But there’s more – Mays’ brother-in-law was a budding songwriter who later set the story to music.  The song was pitched to such big names as Bing Crosby but no was seemed interested until Gene Autry’s wife heard it and urged him to record it.  The rest is history.  The story of the plucky little reindeer who didn’t give up on hope has become an inseparable part of Christmas for children and families everywhere.
  

This is not a story from the Bible – Jesus and Mary and Joseph don’t appear in it anywhere (at least not by name).  There are no choirs of angels (that we can see or hear), and yet it may be a perfect story for this first week in Advent.  A perfect story to show us how Hope works in this world we live in today. 

Somehow – in the midst of a worldwide financial depression – with the loss of someone as dear as a young child’s mother – when everything looks pretty darn hopeless – hope is still here.  God is still here in our midst with a promise that God is always here with us – in grief, in worry, in failure, in fear – we can hold to hope because – somehow – God is always here right where we are. 

Hope doesn’t come when we decide it should come.  Like the people in our opening scripture, we must be ready all the time, because we never know when hope will show up – it just appears when God choses.  So be ready.  Hope can break into our lives when it’s least expected.