“Morning, David**. Great ‘Word’ last week, really enjoyed it.”
“Good morning, Dudley. Most kind. I see you are down for this coming week yourself.”
“Yup. Thought I’d major on ‘Hope’. The sermon title is God with us – His banner is over us and if that doesn’t give us hope then what will? After all, what with The Donald and Brexit and Putin we need a bit of hope, don’t we? I mean, we all hope it’ll all work out OK, and the Isaiah passage for Sunday goes on about wolves milking goats and suchlike.’
“Er, yes, Dudley, but I’m not sure that Isaiah had quite that sort of hope in mind. I think you might be taking a slightly too ... modern an interpretation of ‘hope’. I suspect that Isaiah might have had a rather more... significant idea in mind, more eschatological, perhaps.”
“Eschata... Oh, you mean about the end times, God’s Big Plan and all that?”
“Yes, Dudley. Quite so. And I commend the Romans passage to you also as it speaks about ‘the God of hope’. I think it becomes clear that ‘hope’ is spiritual and future, substantial and something to hold on to in times of trouble, rather than just wishful thinking.”
“Ah... I think I need to get back to my keyboard, David. Bye for now...”
“Goodbye, Dudley. [sotto voce And good luck ... I think you’ll need it!]”
**David Mace – wrote last week’s Word (well worth reading if you haven’t already seen it).