ADVENT
A CANDLE FOR HOPE
DR. JIM DIXON
ROMANS 8:24-25, ROMANS 8:28
DECEMBER 2, 2007
On May 13, 1939, 937 German Jewish refugees boarded a ship called the S.S. St. Louis. They were bound for Cuba and then they hoped for a new life in the United States. They had all suffered under the Nazi Regime. These Jewish people, all 937 of them, had suffered. Many of them had lost their jobs simply because they were Jews. Many of them had lost their homes and most of them had used their last few dollars to buy their way onto this ship for this transatlantic voyage to a new place and a new hope.
As the voyage began and as they left Germany bound for Cuba, they were having a good time. The food was good. The rooms were nice. There was lots of entertainment. Movies were available and life was good. They did not know, they could not know, that their voyage would be referred to by historians as the “Voyage of the Damned.” You see, the government of Cuba, in discussion with Adolph Hitler, had arranged in advance that this ship would never reach its destination, that it would never be allowed access to Cuba, that it would never be able to take these people to their freedom—that ultimately, they would have to come back to Germany. When they waited in the harbor in the region of Havana and they could not access Cuba and when they were told finally that they would have to return to Germany, many of the Jews attempted mutiny, but they failed. On the voyage back, some committed suicide. When that ship, the S.S. St. Louis, returned to Germany, many of those Jews were ultimately placed in concentration camps. They were gassed in Nazi ovens and became part of the tragedy that was the Holocaust. It was the “Voyage of the Damned.”
We live in a world where a lot of people feel that way about life. We live in a world where there are a lot of people who view life itself as a kind of voyage of the damned. Life starts out and they are just little kids and they are playing and they have hope. But soon, as kids grow, they learn that death awaits, that it’s all prearranged, that the death rate is 100% and that everybody is going to die. Ultimately people figure that out and they also realize, as they begin to live this life and proceed in this journey, that life is not always easy. This isn’t a cruise ship. There are pirates in the Caribbean, war at sea, storms at sea, and on this voyage, people struggle with addictions. People struggle with disease. People struggle with rejection. People struggle with failure and with poverty. For some people, life in this world is viewed as a voyage of the damned.
This is Advent, and we are approaching Christmas. Jesus has come into the world. The word “advent” comes from the Latin “atventus,” and it means, “coming.” We celebrate the coming of Jesus Christ into the world. We celebrate His advent, His birth in Bethlehem. And He has brought light into the darkness. He has brought hope into the despair. Today we want, as we begin this advent season, to light a candle for hope.
Now strangely, I have rarely spoken on the subject of hope. I’ve pastored this church for more than 25 years, and yet I’ve almost never spoken on the subject of hope even though hope is part of the Pauline Triad—Faith, Hope and Love. I did write a chapter on Hope in my book on the Cardinal Virtues and I do want to take the rough outline from that as we find a prescription for hope this morning. The Bible gives us a prescription that enables us to light a candle for hope. I have three teachings and the first is this: If we would light a candle for hope we need to set our hope on Christ.
We look at 1 Peter, chapter 1, verse 13, and the Bible tells us to set our hope on the grace that is coming to us at the revelation of Jesus Christ. So the Bible says we’re to set our hope on Christ and on His grace. We live in a world where people set their hopes on false things. We live in a world where people set their hopes on the wrong things and on the wrong person. People don’t know how to set their hope.
When I was in elementary school a long time ago, Montrose Elementary School in Montrose, California, I remember we had this nursery rhyme that we sang as we went around in a circle. My guess is many of you had this same experience with the same nursery rhyme. It was, “Ring around the rosie, pocket full of posies, ashes, ashes, we all fall down.” Of course, we’d go around in a circle and we’d all fall down. We had no clue what it meant. Historians have traced it back to Europe and England and the Bubonic Plague and the Black Death. They show that that nursery rhyme was sung in London, England, in 1665 when millions of people were dying of the Bubonic Plague and the Black Death.
When people acquired the plague, their skin broke out in rashes that looked like rose-colored circles. In that time and that era, people didn’t understand disease and they did not have advanced medicine and knowledge of advanced medicine. They believed that the Bubonic Plague and the Black Death was actually caused by demonic powers and the hideous breath of demons coming upon you and so they tried to protect themselves from demonic breath. They believed that if they could walk through rose gardens and have the fragrance of the roses it would ward off the odorous demonic breath. Historians tell us that some people literally held hands and danced and circled through rose gardens seeking to ward off the Black Death. They would take rose petals that were fragrant and they would put them in their pockets and they were “pockets of posies” because they called these rose petals posies and they believed that they could pull them out at any time when the smell was not good in the air and it would ward off demonic breath.
Of course, in some of the ancient versions it was “a ring of rosies, pocket full of posies, achew, achew, we all fall down,” like sneezing, but they would take ashes to induce sneezing because they believed that if they snuffed in the ashes and they forced themselves to sneeze, they would blow out any impurities and any possible demonic influence. Rosies, posies, ashes. It’s hard to believe, but there was actually once upon a time when people set their hopes on rosies, posies, and ashes thinking, that it could somehow ward off death and the Bubonic Plague. Rosies, posies, and ashes.
Of course, we’re more advanced today. We have a better knowledge of disease and infection. We have advanced medical knowledge. And yet I think for many people they still set their hopes on roses, posies, and ashes. There are a lot of people in the world who set their hopes on money, sex, and power. For a lot of people that’s what life is all about. That’s what the journey is all about, money, sex, and power. And ultimately, it’s all rosies, posies, and ashes.
Over the course of the last few decades, I’ve read a lot of scientific books because I love the world of science. I’ve read a lot of books by secular Darwinists who actually believe the hope of mankind is evolution. I’ve read secular Darwinists who believe that the hope of humankind is that we might evolve into a kind of super being. This was the premise of Arthur Clark’s book, “Childhood’s End,” which was a classic in the sci-fi genre of literature. It was a well written and entertaining book, but a false hope that the human race is just going to evolve into blessedness and the blessedness of the super man. Of course, most scientists know better.
I’m currently reading a book called “The Singularity is Near.” The Singularity is Near is a book that is written by Ray Kurzweil. Ray Kurzweil has received 13 honorary doctorates. He’s been honored by three United States presidents. He’s been honored by MIT. He’s a brilliant futurist and Ray Kurzweil believes that evolution needs a little help. And so he has written this book on the Singularity. What is the Singularity? The Singularity is the combining of man and machine. It’s the combining of biology and technology. So he thinks this world is near where we’re going to be able to put nanobots in the bloodstream and nanotechnology in the human brain and we’re going to be able to combine biology and technology. And with the speed of thought your synapse patterns in the brain are going to be able to access information equal to vast libraries. You won’t need to go to college anymore. You just put the right computer chip in there, the right microchip, the right nanobot, and you’ve got it all right there—super man. And that’s the hope that some have set for the human race. And its rosies, poses, and ashes.
A lot of people out there, just everyday people, are more like you and me. There are a lot of people out there who just think, “Hey, you know, if I can find true love… If I can find the right girl… If I can find the right guy… If I can get my dream house… If I can find a fulfilling career… the voyage will be great.” And they set their hopes on true love, the dream house, the fulfilling career. But it ultimately is also rosies, posies, and ashes. It won’t ward off disease. True love, the dream house, the great career doesn’t ward off disease, death, and illness and tragedy. It doesn’t remove the storms of life. It doesn’t ward off death. It doesn’t even ward off depression. There are countless depressed people in the United States of America today who have found true love. There are countless depressed people in the United States of America today living in their dream house. They’re living in wonderful houses but are depressed. There are countless depressed people in our nation who have found great success in their careers.
Where do you set your hope? The Bible says you’ve got to set it on Jesus. Set your hope on the grace that is coming to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Jesus has come. We’ve sent His advent. He is here. Set your hope on Him because He can clean your soul. He can forgive my sin. He can give me victory over death. He alone promises a resurrection body, eternal and indestructible. He offers heaven. He offers His kingdom, worth living for, worth dying for. He offers purpose and meaning in life. Set your hope on Jesus Christ. If you’re going to light a candle for hope, you ought to know where to set your hope. Set it on Jesus.
The second teaching this morning is if you’re going to light a candle for hope you’ve got to seize your hope—a little bit of alliteration here. You can’t just set your hope. You’re going to have to seize your hope. So we come to Hebrews 6, verse 18. “Seize the hope that is set before you,” the Bible says. There are a lot of Christians I think in this world who have set their hope on Christ but it’s kind of just wishful thinking. They’ve not seized the hope they have in Christ. You’ve got to seize your hope.
In Africa there is a peninsula one hundred miles northwest of the southernmost tip of the African continent, a peninsula called The Cape of Good Hope. I think most of you have heard of that Cape, that peninsula. It was not originally so named. It was named in 1488 by Bartholomew Diaz. He was a Portuguese explorer and as he sailed around that peninsula near the southernmost tip of the African continent, he encountered a storm and he turned around and went back to Portugal and he named the peninsula The Cape of Storms. And that made sense, but two years later, King John II, King of Portugal, renamed the peninsula and he named it the Cape of Good Hope.
Why did he do that? He did that because he believed that if you sailed around that peninsula and around the southernmost tip of the African continent and if you proceeded on you could come to the wealth and wonder and the mystery of India and Asia. He set his hope on navigating around the southernmost tip of Africa, and he named that peninsula The Cape of Good Hope. But it was Vasco da Gama who seized the hope. It was Vasco da Gama who, in 1497, sailed around the Cape and around the peninsula and proceeded on to Calcutta and India and Asia and saw the wonders of Asia. Vasco da Gama seized the hope that was set before him.
How do we do that? How do we seize the hope that is set before us? In the Bible you look in Titus, chapter 2, verse 13, and the second coming of Jesus Christ, the second advent, is called the blessed hope. How do you seize that? How can you seize the hope that is set before you? You can’t speed up the second coming. You can’t make it happen tomorrow. You can’t make it happen in your lifetime. You can wait. How do you seize it? The Bible is really very clear here. We seize our hope in Christ through faith. Faith, we read in Hebrews, chapter 11, is “the assurance of things hoped for.” There is this link between hope and faith. Hope without faith is just kind of like wishing. It’s like wishful thinking. You seize your hope through faith. Faith is the assurance of things hoped for. In Hebrews 6 it says, “Seize the faith set before you.” It gives the illustration there in verses 11-20 of Hebrew 6 of Abraham, who seized his hope by faith. You’ve got to believe the promises. If you want to have a good journey … If you want this voyage to have joy, you’ve got to have faith. You’ve got to believe the promises.
You come to 2 Thessalonians, chapter 2, verse 16, and the Bible speaks of “the good hope.” The word for hope is “elpis” in the Greek. The word for good in the Greek is “agathos.” And this is one of a number of words that could be used, but agathos specifically means, “beneficial in its effect.” So you hope for the good. You hope for what is beneficial in its effects.
You come to our scripture for today, Romans 8, verse 28, and Paul writes, “We know that in everything God works for good.” Again, the Greek word is agathos. God works for that which is beneficial in its effects in everything. We know that in everything God works for agathos. “God works for good with those who love Him and who are called according to His purpose.” You seize that hope by faith and it transforms your life if you really believe that no matter what you’re going through. In the midst of whatever, you know He’s working for agathos, for something beneficial in its effects. And that just puts a new light on everything. You seize your hope by means of faith.
I don’t know what you’re going through. You might have experienced rejection this very week. Maybe somebody told you this past week that they don’t love you, somebody that you DO love. Maybe it was your wife. Maybe it was your husband. Maybe it was your kids. Maybe it was somebody you thought was your friend. Maybe they didn’t say, “Oh, I don’t love you,” they didn’t say it specifically with those words, but by their actions they said it and you felt the rejection. Maybe you lost your job just this past week and maybe you’re worried about making ends meet. Maybe a doctor told you this past week that you have cancer. In our congregation in a church this size, every week these things are happening. The Bible says, “In everything God works for good,” and you’ve got to have faith. You’ve got to live life that way. You’ve got to believe that there’s no meaningless pain, not in the life of a Christian, no meaningless pain. God is redemptive. God has a way of taking my situation and your situation and bringing good. Maybe we won’t fully understand it this side of heaven but someday He’ll show us. He’s always working for good, and you’ve got to live like that and you’ve got to have the joy and the confidence of this.
Barb and I went with some of you this past year to Rome, Italy. We went down in the Catacombs. Barb and I had been in the Catacombs before. Down in the Catacombs you see where Christians once worshipped in the time of the early church, and you see where Christians were buried. Some historians believe Christians lived in the Catacombs during great waves of Roman persecution. Down in the Catacombs you see Christian symbols. They’re everywhere. They’re on the walls. They’re on the floor. They’re on the rocks. You see three major symbols. You see the dove. The dove is a Christian symbol representing the Holy Spirit and you see that carved in stone or painted. Then you see the fish, a major Christian symbol because the Greek for fish is the word “ichthus,” and ichthus became an acronym for Jesus Christ, Son of God, Savior, so that, combined with the fact that Jesus promised to make us “fishers of men,” the fish became a symbol of Christianity. You can see that on the floor and on the wall.
But there’s another symbol you see more than the rest, more than the doves and more than the fish. You see the symbol of an anchor. Did you know that? In the early church, one of the great primary symbols was an anchor. In the Catacombs, anchors are seen everywhere, carved into stone and painted on rocks. Why? Because it was the anchor of hope. It says that “our hope in Christ is the anchor of our soul.” Hebrews 6:19. In the early church, in the midst of persecution, Christians lived in the hope of Christ. It was the anchor of their soul in the midst of their storms. In the midst of their persecution, they never let go of their faith. They seized their hope by faith and the anchor was the symbol of all that.
I think we need the anchor as a symbol today. We’ve got to believe the promises of God. James, chapter 1, verses 2-4: “Count it all joy when you experience various trials.” Who wants to do that? “Count it all joy, for you know that the testing of our faith produces steadfastness.” God’s at work. He’s working for agathos. He’s working for good.
There’s a story… It’s an old story. I’ve always liked it. I was given it some years ago. Some of you I’m sure have read it or seen it. It’s just a short letter allegedly written by a construction worker, a bricklayer, writing to his boss. He writes this. “I arrived at the job after the storm. I checked the building out and saw that the top needed repairs. I rigged a hoist and a boom, attached the rope to a barrel, and pulled bricks to the top. When I pulled the barrel to the top, I secured the rope at the bottom. After repairing the building, I went back to fill the barrel with leftover bricks.
“I went down and released the rope to lower the bricks and the barrel was heavier than I and it jerked me off the ground. I decided to hang on and halfway up I met the barrel coming down and received a blow to the shoulder. I hung on and went to the top, where I hit my head on the boom and caught my fingers in the pulley. In the meantime, the barrel hit the ground and burst open, throwing bricks all over. This made the barrel lighter than I and I started going down at high speed. Halfway down I met the barrel coming up and received a blow to my shins. I continued down and fell on the bricks, receiving cuts and bruises, and at this time I must have lost my presence of mind because I let go of the rope and the barrel came down yet again and hit me on the head. I respectfully request sick leave.” It’s hard to believe. The story is allegedly true, the letter allegedly genuine. It’s hard to believe, but it is true that we have bad days, isn’t it? I mean, that’s true.
Do you ever have a bad day? Is there ever a day when you just think, “Man, nothing is going right.” Sometimes by mid-morning you already know this is not a good day. Some days are just like that. How do you get through days like that and how do you get through seasons of life like that? How do you live life? You live it in hope, and you set your hope on Christ and you seize that hope through faith, faith that there is no meaningless pain and that God is always at work.
I love the story J.R.R. Tolkien tells. Most of you I think have heard of J.R.R. Tolkien. Our bookstore is called The Inklings and Rusty and her staff do such a wonderful job serving people in that bookstore. It’s a real ministry for them. We have wonderful books and gifts in there. We named it The Inklings years ago because of the Christian book club at Oxford University. That Christian book club met at a pub called The Eagle and the Child, which they called the Bird and the Baby. They met there every week to discuss the books that they were reading and the books that they were writing.
That Christian book club consisted of C.S. Lewis, who wrote “The Chronicles of Narnia” and countless books, some fantasy genre literature, some straight theology; it also consisted of Charles Williams and Dorothy Sayers and J.R.R. Tolkien, all of them Christians. They loved each other and they were friends. J.R.R. Tolkien was a Catholic who loved Christ and he found it difficult… Even though C.S. Lewis for many years was Tolkien’s best friend, Tolkien found it very difficult to openly talk about Jesus and to share his faith and to write about it. He sometimes thought that C.S. Lewis, though he loved him, wrote too much. But J.R.R. Tolkien found it very difficult to speak of these things, but on one occasion he did. When Charles Williams died, a member of the Inklings, the rest of the Inklings decided, “Let’s write a book and print it in a tribute to Charles and let’s each of us write a chapter on our faith in Christ.”
J.R.R. Tolkien wrote a chapter on his faith in Christ. I have that book. And the chapter that Tolkien wrote he called “Eucatastrophos.” Eucatastrophos is a made-up Greek word. The prefix “eu-” means, “good,” and “catastrophos” means, “catastrophe.” So eucatastrophos is “a good catastrophe.” That’s what he called his chapter on the Christian faith, “good catastrophe.” Tolkien believed… and he wasn’t a shallow man. He lived life and he knew death and pain and suffering, but he really believed in the promises of Jesus, that there’s no meaningless pain and that God is always working for good. So he just viewed all catastrophes as good for the Christian. The ultimate example, he said, is our Lord Jesus. He died and the disciples wept. The followers of Christ said, “What a catastrophe.” God brought the greatest good to the world that the world has ever seen, a eucatastrophos. We’ve got to live with that faith. We’ve got to seize the hope. We’ve got to live like that.
One final point is that if we’re going to light a candle for hope, we need to set our hope on Christ. We need to seize that hope through faith and then finally we need to share the hope. We can’t just set the hope and seize the hope. We’ve got to share the hope. Of course, we have this in 1 Peter, chapter 3, verse 15: “Always be ready to share the hope that is in you. Always be ready to give an account,”—an apologia, a defense, an explanation, a rational apologetic—“for your faith in Jesus.” Always be ready to share the hope.
I would like you to just see a real brief film clip from “Flight of the Phoenix.”
“Why give people false hope? Come on, man. Most people spend their whole lives hanging on to hope and dreams that are never going to come true, but they hold on to them. How are you going to give up on them now when you need them most?” “You’re assuming I’m one of those people who has hopes and dreams.” “I find it hard to believe that a man never had a dream.” “Look! How can I let those people build that plane when I don’t believe it will work? Every day they waste trying to build it brings them one day closer to dying.” “I think a man only needs one thing in life. He just needs someone to love. If you can’t give him that, give him something to hope for. If you can’t give him that, give him something to do.”
Is that not true? I mean, do not the people of the world need someone to love? Something to hope for? Something to do? Everybody needs that, and here’s the deal. Christ offers all of that. Christ offers all of that—someone to love, and in fact someone who loves you more than anyone else. Something to hope for? Heaven itself. Something to do? His kingdom. The cause of heaven on earth. It’s worth living for and dying for. It’s something to do and it’s all in Christ. So share Christ. Take Christ to the world, to your neighborhood, to your community, to your place of work. Be light. Light a candle in the midst of the darkness.
I want to conclude with a story. The story, as I tell it, I think the person I’m talking about many of you will figure it out. The person was born in the year 1866 and her name was Annie. They called her “Little Annie.” She was little. She was born half blind. Her sight was very poor. She was born into abject poverty. Life wasn’t so good for Little Annie.
In the year 1875 when Annie was 9 years old, they put her in the Boston Institute for the Criminally Insane. They put her down in the basement in a dungeon in a cell. You might be thinking, “Well, what had she done?” She really hadn’t done that much. She just ignored people mostly, didn’t like people, didn’t engage people. She just ignored them. Every once in a while, she would notice somebody and she would just attack them. People couldn’t figure her out. What was wrong with this girl? She was partly blind and impoverished. Yes, her mother had recently died. Maybe she just snapped, just lost it. So there she was at the Boston Institute for the Criminally Insane at the age of 9 in the basement, in a dungeon, in her own inner world.
There was a Christian nurse who worked at the Boston Institute for the Criminally Insane and she loved Jesus and she loved people. She decided and she felt led of God to go down in the basement every day and just hang out with Little Annie. Annie didn’t want anybody and didn’t engage anybody but this Christian nurse went down every day and just sat by Annie’s cell. She sat outside the cell and sometimes she would try to say words of encouragement. She never got a response. Sometimes she would pray for Annie out loud so Annie could hear. And then the Lord kind of prompted her to bring cookies and brownies. She did that every day. She would bake cookies and brownies each day and she would bring a couple of cookies and brownies down to Annie. There was a hole in the cell in the dungeon and she would slip the cookies and the brownies through that hole. Every day when she would come back, she would see that the cookies were gone and the brownies were gone.
Finally, the love of God broke through and Annie spoke. She talked to this Christian nurse a little bit and they began to talk and Annie began to heal through the love of Christ. Annie began to get better, began to socialize, and she moved upstairs at the Boston Institute for the Criminally Insane. She was in a different room then. She continued to have this Christian nurse as her good friend.
In 1880 Annie was 14 and Annie was released from the Boston Institute for the Criminally Insane. The next year, 1881, she had surgery at the Perkins Institute for the Blind and they restored some of her sight. In 1887, when Annie was 21, they had additional surgery at the Perkins Institute for the Blind and Annie had more sight restored. Annie grew to love the Perkins Institute for the Blind. She served there and she worked there trying to help other people just like this Christian nurse had helped her.
It was that year, 1887, when Annie was 21 that a 7-year-old girl was brought to the Perkins Institute for the Blind. She’d been recommended by Alexander Graham Bell, who invented the telephone. This other girl, age 7, who came to the Perkins Institute for the Blind couldn’t see at all. She was totally blind, and she couldn’t hear at all. She was totally deaf. She could not speak. She was a mute. She was completely shut off from the world, 7 years old and nobody knew what her thoughts were or even if she could think. She was just shut off from the world. Her name was Helen Keller. At age 7 she came to the Perkins Institute for the Blind, and who was there to take care of her? Annie. It was Annie Sullivan, 21 years old. She decided she would love Helen Keller as this Christian nurse had loved her.
The months and the years passed. Incredibly, Annie Sullivan reached into that inner hidden world of Helen Keller and gradually was able to teach her how to read Braille. That’s an amazing story. There’s no time for telling it, but she taught her to read Braille and ultimately taught her to speak. Helen Keller began to engage the world. Annie Sullivan was always there, from 1896 to 1900. When Helen Keller went to the Cambridge for Girls, Annie Sullivan went with her every day. From 1900 to 1904 when Helen Keller went to Radcliffe College, Annie Sullivan went with her every day. That’s why Helen Keller graduated cum laude, because Annie Sullivan was there in every class every day. For 49 years Annie Sullivan was Helen Keller’s best friend.
In 1936 Annie Sullivan died and Helen Keller prayed, “Lord, give me the strength and the courage to endure the dark until I see Annie again.” Helen Keller died in 1968 and was buried at the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C., her body placed right next to Annie Sullivan. And there they lie in death, although their souls are long gone.
People say to me, “Well, were Annie Sullivan and Helen Keller Christians? Did they know Christ?” Of course, that’s not for me to judge. I do know that Annie Sullivan and Helen Keller throughout their lives said that they wanted to please Jesus. I also know that Phillips Brooks, who wrote that great Christmas carol, “Oh, Little Town of Bethlehem” in 1868 after being in Jerusalem and Bethlehem on Christmas Eve in 1893 met with Helen Keller and Annie Sullivan at the Perkins Institute for the Blind. This Anglican minister wanted to tell Helen Keller the story of Jesus. Helen Keller, by the work of Annie Sullivan, had begun to understand and was able to communicate with the help of Braille and Annie Sullivan’s gestures. Annie and Phillips Brooks helped Helen Keller hear the story of Jesus. Phillips Brooks records that Helen Keller asked Jesus into her heart.
That’s really not my point today. The point is that a Christian nurse gave hope to a girl in the Boston Institute for the Criminally Insane. She lit a candle of hope. She was light in the darkness. Then Annie Sullivan did the same for Helen Keller, lit a candle for hope and was light in her darkness. Phillips Brooks lit a candle, too, telling Helen Keller about Jesus. And we’re supposed to do those things. We’re supposed to share the light. We’re supposed to share the hope. We’re supposed to share Jesus. We’re supposed to get up every day and ask ourselves, “Who’s in darkness that I could bring some light? Who’s in despair that I could give some hope? Who doesn’t know Jesus and I could maybe show them Jesus through my word and deed?”
We’ve got to share the hope. Jesus said, “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hid nor does one light a lamp and hide it under a bushel basket but looks at the lamp stand that it might give light to all who are in the place. Let your light shine amongst mankind.” You’ve got to share the hope. So you set your hope on Jesus, you seize that hope through faith, and you share the hope every day. That’s how we light a candle for hope. Let’s close with a word of prayer.