By: Dr. Steven K. Parker
“My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus’ blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest frame but wholly lean on Jesus’ name.” Those words were penned by Edward Mote, a Baptist minister in England, back in the 1800s, but they’ve been bouncing around in my head all week as I’ve had conversations with people about the current political turmoil in which our nation is mired. In this polarizing climate, opinions are held strongly and shared passionately. In the midst of these conversations a phrase slipped out of my mouth before I realized fully what I was saying, “I’m glad my hope is not based on any of this stuff, because it’s a mess.”
Walking away from those conversations, it seemed that the words of Mote’s hymn kept ringing in my ears: “In every rough and stormy gale, my anchor holds within the vale. When all around my soul gives way, he then is all my hope and stay. On Christ the solid rock, I stand; all other ground is sinking sand.” I’m glad those words got stuck in my head, because I’ve needed that comforting message.
These are trying times and the debates we’re having are important. How do we work toward racial reconciliation to our broken land? What does it take to ensure a safe and fair election at a national level? What does an atmosphere that fosters the freedom of speech look like in a digital / social media age? How do we deal with deep seated disagreements about the direction of our nation and recover from violence that has boiled over the surface throughout our country and even in the center of our government? Those are just a few of the many important questions that we need to wrestle through, and I have to admit I don’t have all the answers and if I did, we likely wouldn’t agree on many of them. The seriousness of these problems and my own tendency to be skeptical about the possibility of them being solved makes me all the more grateful that our hope is not in any political party or politician.
While I don’t know the answers to many of the questions that plague us, I am convinced that it would be a good start for us to live with the love, grace, mercy, forgiveness, and reconciling Spirit of Jesus on full display, looking toward his sure and certain return, trusting that, even now when it might not seem like it, He is in fact “making all things new.” May the last verse of Mote’s song keep our hearts set in the right direction as we seek to live as Christ’s hands and feet in all the messiness and brokenness of this world: “When he shall come with trumpet sound, oh, may I then in him be found, dressed in his righteousness alone, faultless to stand before the throne.”
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.” (1 Peter 1:3-9)