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S1-E21 | Everyday Eurasia | Jason Nike · Eurasia Region Podcast

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  Welcome to the special Advent series of the Everyday Eurasia
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  podcast, Inspiring Fate or Everyday.
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  In the coming weeks, they'll be journeying together toward
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  Christmas. A season of anticipation,
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  reflection, and light in the darker days.
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  During this special season of Advent, we will journey through
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  the Advent themes of hope, peace, joy and love.
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  This first week of Advent, we will join Pastor Jason Nike.
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  Jason is the lead pastor at Fresh Ground, a Nest, wind
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  church, cafe and community hub based in Bettersea, southwest
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  London. He also serves as the Greater
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  London Assistant District Superintendent.
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  Jason will speak this week about the team Advent Hope.
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  Hi, my name is Jason Nike, I'm the pastor from Fresh Ground in
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  London and privilege to bring you these devotions over the
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  next few days in our house growing up.
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  And I've tried to make a tradition now with my family
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  every year, the week between Christmas and New Year, that
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  kind of dead time, if you like, we had a bit of a family
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  tradition where as well as all the usual things that are
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  happening, parties, visiting family, going to church and all
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  that sort of stuff. Without fail, every evening we
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  would sit down as a family and watch a film together.
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  And somehow over the years, Christmas for me has become
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  woven together in my mind with the birth of Jesus and good
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  movies. They're all wrapped up together
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  now in one big festive memory. So this week I thought as we
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  reflect on the theme of hope, yes, I want to root our our
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  thoughts and our devotions in Scripture, but also I'm going to
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  draw on a favorite film of mine each day.
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  Think of them as little signposts that point us to
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  different aspects of what true hope looks like.
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  So before we get to today's film, let's hear our reading.
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  I'm reading from Romans chapter 5, verses one to five.
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  Therefore, since we've been justified by faith, we have
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  peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
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  Through Him we have also obtained access by faith into
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  this grace into which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the
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  glory of God. Not only that, but we rejoice in
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  our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance,
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  and endurance produces character, and character
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  produces hope. And hope does not put us to
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  shame because God's love has been poured into our hearts
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  through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.
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  May God bless His Word to us today.
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  Today's film, then, is a slightly obscure 1, but I
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  absolutely love it. It's a it's a film called
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  Clockwise from 1986. It stars John Cleese, who's one
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  of the Monty Python cast. And if you've ever seen it, it's
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  the sort of tragicomic journey of a school headmaster who is
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  obsessed, absolutely obsessed with running his school to
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  absolute order. He's he's runs it with
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  punctuality and order. And anyway, then the film he's
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  been invited to to give a speech on running a good school at a
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  head teachers conference. And it's not a difficult journey
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  to get there. But on the way, absolutely
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  everything goes wrong. Every plan collapses.
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  Every attempt to him to get back on track and get to his
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  appointment. Get to this this conference of
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  head teachers is spoiled. Everything goes from worse to
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  worse. It's the perfect film for anyone
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  who's tried to hold life together with sheer willpower
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  and found it slipping through their fingers anyway.
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  So most of us, right? And there's this line that runs
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  throughout the film. Klees mutters it several times
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  with increasing desperation. And he says this.
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  He says it's the hope that kills you.
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  It's the hope that kills you, the chance that you might get
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  somewhere, that you might be able to make it.
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  And we laugh because it rings true.
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  There's a kind of hope, isn't there, that feels almost
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  painful. Fragile hope, circumstantial
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  hope. Hope that depends on a series of
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  things happening and falling into place.
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  And when those things don't happen, it hurts.
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  And that kind of hope is painful in one sense that the people of
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  God, they knew that feeling. Generations have been waiting
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  for the Messiah, waiting under occupation, waiting under
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  disappointment, waiting through silence.
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  Their hopes have been delayed so many times that they were
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  tempted to give up on them all together.
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  And yet they kept hoping. Not because their circumstances
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  look promising, but because God had promised.
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  Their hope wasn't built on things going smoothly.
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  It was built on the character of God.
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  And that's precisely Paul's point in that the passage we
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  just read together from Romans. He says our hope is not the
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  fragile, easily disappointed optimism that we sometimes carry
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  around. This hope, he says, does not put
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  us to shame. In other words, this hope won't
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  let you down because it isn't grounded in you.
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  It isn't grounded in your circumstances.
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  It's grounded in the one who came at Christmas faithfully,
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  quietly, unexpectedly. Christian hope is not a
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  desperate wish for things to improve.
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  Christian hope is the settled confidence that God is and will
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  be faithful in all things, even when life goes wrong, even when
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  life goes badly wrong, even when life goes clockwise level wrong.
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  And perhaps that's the word some of us need to hear this Advent
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  week. We look at our circumstances,
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  which might not be perfect. We look at the news.
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  We look at the state of the world and we find plenty of
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  reasons to sigh the way John Cleese's character sighs in the
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  film and say it's the hope that kills you, We should stop
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  hoping. But Advan tells us the opposite.
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  Hope doesn't kill you. Hope keeps you alive while you
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  wait for the promise to be fulfilled.
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  Jesus has come. Jesus is with us now.
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  Jesus will come again. That is why we dare to hope even
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  when the world looks bleak. Let's pray together.
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  Lord, we thank you that the hope that you offer is not fragile.
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  The hope that you offer is not uncertain.
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  Thank you, Lord, that it rests in your character.
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  Thank You that it rests in your faithfulness, Your goodness,
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  your promise. Lord, when our circumstances
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  feel overwhelming, may we lift our eyes to you.
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  Lord, teach us to trust, teach us what it means to persevere,
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  and teach us what it means to hope with confidence in Christ.
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  Amen. Thank you for listening to the
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  Everyday Eurasia podcast, Inspiring Fate for everyday.
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  For more Everyday Stories, subscribe on this podcast
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  newsletter Snapshots. For our newsletter and further
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  information about the Eurasia region, visit our website,
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  eurasiaregion.org.