Latest / Eurasia Region Podcast / S1-E23 | Everyday Eurasia | Jason Nike

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S1-E23 | 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 for every day.
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  In the coming weeks, we'll be journeying together toward
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  Christmas, a season of anticipation, reflection, and
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  light in the darker days. During this special season of
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  Advent, we will journey through the Advent themes of hope,
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  peace, joy, and love. This first week of Advent, we
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  will join Pastor Jason Nike. Jason is the lead pastor at
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  Fresh Ground and Nest Wind Church Cafe and community hub
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  based in Better Sea, southwest London.
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  He also serves as the Greater London assistant district
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  Superintendent. Jason will speak this week about
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  the team Advent Hope. Let's read from Isaiah Chapter
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  9, verses two to seven. The people who walked in
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  darkness have seen a great light, those who dwelt in the
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  land of deep darkness. On them light has shone.
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  You have multiplied the nation, You have increased its joy.
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  They rejoice before you as with joy at the harvest, as they are
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  glad when they divide the spoil for the yoke of his burden, and
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  the staff for his shoulder, the rod of his suppressor.
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  You're broken as on the day of Midian.
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  For every boot of the tramping warrior is battle to malt, And
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  every garment rolled in blood will be burned as fuel for the
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  fire. For to us a child is born, to us
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  a son is given, and the government shall be upon his
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  shoulder, and his name shall be called a wonderful councillor,
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  Mighty God, everlasting Father, Prince of Peace, of the increase
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  of his government and of peace there will be no end.
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  Amen. So far this week we've looked at
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  a couple of scriptures and we've looked at a couple of films.
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  We've looked at hope when life goes wrong with Clockwise, and
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  we've looked at hope that takes action.
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  The Martian. And today we move into another
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  dimension of hope, hope that holds on when the world feels
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  dark, when the world feels overwhelming.
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  And for that, I think we go to one of the greatest stories ever
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  to be put on film. And it's, it's The Lord of the
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  Rings, and in particular The Two Towers, the second of the Lord
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  of the Rings films. And, and here in the film we
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  have Frodo and Sam who've got this, this great task of taking
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  this ring to destroy in the, the fires of Mountain Doom.
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  But they're on the way in the Two Towers.
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  And this film shows them absolutely exhausted.
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  It shows them haunted. It shows them running out of
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  strength. And the film's got really clever
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  cinematography. It actually gets darker and
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  darker as the film goes on. Everything is getting darker
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  around them. Evil is closing in.
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  The quest they're on feels impossible.
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  And in the middle of this exhaustion, and in the middle of
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  this pane comes one of the great monologues in cinema.
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  Samwise Ganji speaks up and he says this.
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  I'm going. I'm going to read it.
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  I won't do the accent, he says. It's like the great stories, Mr.
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  Frodo, the ones that really mattered, full of darkness and
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  danger. They were.
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  And sometimes you didn't want to know the end, because how could
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  the end be happy? How could the world go back to
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  the way it was when so much bad had happened?
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  But in the end, it's only a passing thing, This shadow, even
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  darkness must pass. A new day will come, and when
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  the sun shines, it will shine out the clearer.
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  Those were the stories that stayed with you, that meant
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  something, even if you was too small to understand why.
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  But I think, Mr. Frodo, I do understand.
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  I know now folk in those stories had lots of chances of turning
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  back. Only they didn't.
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  They kept going because they were holding on to something.
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  This is Advent hope. Isaiah speaks into exactly this
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  kind of moment. God's people were not walking in
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  soft candlelight. They were walking, we're told,
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  in darkness. Political darkness, economic
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  darkness, spiritual darkness. Their hopes were wearing thin.
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  Their future looked uncertain. They were a small people living
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  in the shadow of powerful empires.
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  But into this bleak landscape, Isaiah has the audacity to
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  proclaim a great light is coming, and he speaks of it as
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  if it's already guaranteed, because the promise rests not on
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  their circumstances, but on God's faithfulness.
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  Sam's speech in In Lord of the Rings echoes that tone.
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  Sam. He doesn't deny the darkness.
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  He acknowledges it and then defies it.
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  That's Advent hope. One of the beautiful things
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  about this scene in the film is that Frodo has lost all hope.
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  He's too tired, he's too wounded.
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  So Sam holds the hope for him. And this, I think, is deeply
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  biblical. Hope in Scripture is not only
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  personal, it's shared. It's communal.
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  It's carried by the faithful when we cannot carry it
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  ourselves. Sometimes we are Frodo,
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  overwhelmed, exhausted, hopeless.
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  But sometimes we get to be Sam, speaking hope into someone
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  else's darkness. And Isaiah tells us that God
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  himself steps into our story. That way unto us, he says, a
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  child is born unto us, a son is given.
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  The light does not wait for us to pull ourselves together.
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  The light comes and shines upon us.
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  And let's be honest, as we've said these last few days, the
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  world feels bleak in many ways right now.
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  Conflict, division, anxiety. There's a mental health crisis,
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  there's weariness, there's fear about the future.
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  And sometimes our circumstances feel like the darkness of Mordor
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  is closing in. But Advent says no, the light is
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  coming and the darkness, whatever form it takes, does not
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  get the final word. And you don't have to pretend
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  that everything's OK. You don't have to manufacture
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  what they call toxic positivity. You simply hold onto the truth
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  that God is faithful even when the night feels long and when
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  your hope falters. What we're to do as Christians,
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  what we're to do as the church, is to lean on the faith and the
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  hope and the prayers of others. Because the church, like Sam,
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  reminds us there's some good in this world and it's worth
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  fighting for. And beyond that, there is a
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  Saviour who has already come and who will come again to make all
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  things new. Let's pray.
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  Lord, thank you that your light shines in the darkness, and the
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  darkness has not overcome it. Lord, when hope feels distant,
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  hold us close. When the world feels heavy, lift
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  our eyes to your coming light. Teach us to carry hope for each
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  other and to trust that your promises stand secure.
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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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  channel, follow our socials, Facebook and Instagram, or our
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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.