Emmanuel Lutheran Church

December 2022

There was a professional football team back in the late 70’s and early 80’s whose nickname was “the cardiac kids.” I’m talking, of course, about the Cleveland Browns for those of you who aren’t football fans or weren’t around in that era. This was a team that always seemed to find a way to scratch out a win at the last minute and would have fans on the edge of their seats, hearts racing. They were exciting to watch. This is when I first got hooked on Cleveland Browns football.

The Bernie Kosar era was equally exciting. Then the team moved to Baltimore. No football in Cleveland for several years. Finally, a new team with the same name and colors, with a new owner and a new stadium; a fresh start. Every year the team flopped and it was called a “rebuilding” year. Every year the diehard fan comes back with anticipation – is this THE year? Two decades later and the diehard Cleveland Browns fan is still waiting with great anticipation – is this THE year only to watch the season unravel before their eyes yet again. Anticipation and excitement end up with discouragement and frustration. And yet the fans come back. Why? Hope.

Israel in Jesus’ day was ripe with hope for a Messiah, a savior king, whom God would anoint to lead Israel back to the glory days of King David. I imagine as time passed, many gave up hope and many clung to the hope of a promised Messiah. This is evident in the question posed by disciples of John the Baptist who came to Jesus asking, “are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?” Jesus tells them to look around and see what is going on. The blind see. The lame walk. The leper is cleansed. The deaf hear. The dead are raised. Signs of the Messiah. The once hoped for Messiah is indeed here in Jesus!

And now we wait in hope once again, this time for Christ’s promised return. As time goes by, I think the world is losing hope. The Christian proclaims Christ will come again, yet time comes and goes and the world is deeper in despair and Christ has not come. Many Christians don’t seem to be living in this hope anymore. By the testament of scripture, we who wait in hope wait with confidence because we know that God does not break promises. Christ will come again. We wait, kind of like the diehard Browns fan.

Advent is a season that helps us to regain that hope. It is a time when we can focus on the promise once only hoped for but fulfilled in a manger and be encouraged by the fulfillment of a long awaited promise. Unlike a professional football team, that may never put a winning product on the field and make it to the Super Bowl, as hopes are dashed year after year and promises are broken, “we have our hope set on the living God, who is the Savior of all people, especially of those who believe.” (1 Timothy 4:10) The hope of Advent is upon us. Rekindle your hope in the coming of the Messiah. He will not disappoint you (unlike some football team that I’ve already mentioned J). Can you tell that I’ve written this on the Monday after another disappointing Browns loss?

Have a blessed and hope-filled Advent everyone!

Pastor Alan