225: Hope Now!

"Hope" is a term often associated with Christmas. "A thrill of hope, a weary world rejoices..." "The hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee tonight." But what is "hope"? And how is it tied to Jesus's birth and life? Is hope an expectation of a particular outcome, or is it something deeper--perhaps a quality manifest in the character of God as displayed by Jesus. So often in Christian culture, hope is tied to the hope for salvation and life with God after we've died. But that makes hope mostly a "then" thing rather than a character trait for the "nows" of our lives. We want hope "now"! In this episode, LDF host Dan Wotherspoon and his friend and one of his partners in the Faith Journey Foundation, Mark Crego, discuss hope from multiple angles. What is disclosed about God in the nativity narratives? Would "liberation" be a better word than "salvation" when discussing the power of Jesus's example in our lives (here and now without worries about life after this one)? Their discussion might be a bit difficult for some Latter-day Saints who want Jesus to be "Christ" right from birth and someone who who rescues us from our pain and travail? But both Mark and Dan work from the perspectives inherent in LDS sensibilities about ourselves as already divine, as another introduction of God into the world. They find that emphasizing Jesus of "humble birth" and a very human life to be much more powerful than Jesus as categorically different than the rest of us humans. Ultimately, it feels more hopeful that understanding Jesus as totally "other" than us. We think you will enjoy this discussion and its connections to "hope" throughout! Listen in!