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In the name of Christ, our hope.

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Amen.

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The passage that engages us is a portion of the reading from 1 Peter chapter 1 read earlier.

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Dear sisters and brothers in the Lord.

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A year ago, Psychology Today magazine featured an article by a cultural psychiatrist, Dr. Charles Johnston,

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entitled, Today's Epidemic of Hopelessness and the Inescapable Fact of Societal Regression.

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Today's Epidemic of Hopelessness.

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And Johnston argued that with the waning of the coronavirus epidemic,

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there was now a rising of another epidemic that was much more pervasive, pernicious, and perilous.

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And that was an epidemic of hopelessness.

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This is what he writes.

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I find the degree of cynicism that permeates our world today striking and troubling.

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As a psychiatrist who often works with young people, I find it particularly concerning.

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It is rare that a young person I work with expresses real hope about what lies ahead.

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I'm not in fact sure whether hope is warranted.

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Our times confront us with an array of truly existential challenges.

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Climate change, nuclear proliferation, the specter of pandemic, and digital technologies that could run amok.

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And so he says, this epidemic of hopelessness has grounds.

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He sees the reason for it.

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And his opinion that there is this epidemic of hopelessness is demonstrated in poll after poll surveys of Americans.

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For example, very recently a poll taken by Penn State University revealed that 84% of those surveyed are either very or extremely worried about the future.

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84%.

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Well we are gathered here today for this symposium that has as its theme, Living by Hope in a Secular Age.

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And we see here that the secular age does not hold out much hope.

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But we live by hope.

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As Christians, we live by hope.

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Why?

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I think our text provides us here with three reasons why we can live by hope.

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The first reason, Christianity offers real hope because it is realistic.

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It is realistic.

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And you see, the secular hope held out that with progress, the increase of knowledge, human knowledge, especially in the sciences, whether they be hard sciences or the social sciences or technology, with those increases, we would eliminate the problems.

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We would arrive at a kind of utopia.

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But the assumption was that that would take place because human nature is inherently good.

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And that we would use the increase in knowledge as humans only for good.

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Only for benevolent purposes.

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But that's not realistic.

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That's not reality.

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The reality is that with the increase of knowledge, it's not just that our problems have declined, they've actually increased, intensified, and become more acute.

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And that these problems are truly perilous because this technology and this knowledge is used not only for good, for benevolent purposes, but also for bad, for malevolent purposes.

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And so we see the proliferation of nuclear warheads.

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We see biological sciences weaponized biological warfare.

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We see the internet, which was supposed to unite us.

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The world wide web, which has brought about more division, polarization, partisanship, incivility.

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And now the latest development of artificial intelligence, many fear, will bring an end to our existence.

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So much so that this year, in 2023, a group of world renowned scientists, including ten Nobel Laureates,

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moved the doomsday clock closer to midnight, 90 seconds from midnight, 90 seconds from doomsday.

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The closest it's ever been in their calculation.

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Unrealistic. But we as Christians, because of our scriptural understanding, are realistic about the situation.

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The situation of human nature.

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It's not that human nature is good and so as knowledge increases it will all be used for benevolent purposes.

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No! Human nature is corrupt.

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It is bent towards evil.

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It is sinful.

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It is curved in on itself.

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Selfish.

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And so it aspires that which I benefit, but you lose.

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That's human nature.

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And Christianity acknowledges that.

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Christianity names that.

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It recognizes that.

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Jeremiah said, the heart is deceitful beyond all things and beyond any cure.

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That's reality.

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That's realistic.

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And so we're not surprised when there are all these problems in the world and they don't seem to be solved by our human abilities.

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We see suffering. We see trials. We see grief in the world.

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In fact, our text here, Peter names them.

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He says, now for a little while you have to suffer grief in all kinds of trials.

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He says, you'll have to suffer.

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You'll have to grieve.

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You'll have to go through trials.

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This is reality.

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The world is broken and we can't fix it.

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We can't dig ourselves out.

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We can't restore humanity.

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Left to ourselves, the end is only destruction and death.

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That's reality.

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But that's not the only truth that Christianity proclaims.

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Because not only does Christianity provide us with a reality check, but it also provides us with real, wise hope.

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Christianity offers real hope because it offers us a realized hope.

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And when I say realized, I mean by that, it's here, now, already, ours, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.

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Peter writes these words.

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Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

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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.

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Notice this is all past tense.

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He has caused this to happen.

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It's already a reality.

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It is ours.

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It's realized already.

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But notice, we didn't do it.

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We didn't pull ourselves up by our own bootstraps with that.

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No, God had to intervene.

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Blessed be our God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

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He, in His mercy, has caused us to be born again to a living hope.

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Extranos, outside of us.

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God has brought this realized hope.

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And this realized hope is not just an improvement, like the secular world offers.

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It's not just progress.

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It's a new birth.

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It's a new life.

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It's rebirth.

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He has caused us to be born again to a living hope.

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A hope that is alive.

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A hope that gives us life.

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And it's all by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.

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It's because of that event, the Easter event, that changes everything.

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Changes eternity.

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Changes our reality right now as well.

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Because at the cross, Jesus took our corrupt, sin-filled hearts and cleansed it.

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And in the inauguration of his new covenant, He has replaced our heart of stone with a living heart.

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A heart filled with the living spirit.

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And by His resurrection, he has brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.

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Here. Now. For us.

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So Paul could say, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creation.

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The old has passed. The new has come.

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This is the realized hope that we have in Jesus Christ.

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But there is still one more hope that our text promises here.

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That Christianity delivers.

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That Christ's resurrection provides to us.

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And that is a remaining hope.

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A hope that remains to the future.

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The secular world now is in an epidemic of hopelessness.

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People fear for the future. They are worried about the future.

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The doomsday clock is ticking.

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But for us as Christians, we have hope for the future.

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For what remains in the future.

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The final culmination and fulfillment of God's promises for us.

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And our text calls that our inheritance.

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An inheritance that we await.

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He said in our text here in verse 4,

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We look to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you.

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Who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be delivered at the last time.

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We look forward to that.

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Christ's past day of resurrection gives us hope for the last day of our resurrection.

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Our inheritance. Our glorification.

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As Paul promises,

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We await from heaven a Savior who when he comes will transform our lonely bodies to be like His glorified body, His resurrection body.

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By the power that enables Him to subdue all things to himself.

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That's our future.

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That's our remaining hope.

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And it's not just the resurrection of our bodies, but the restoration of all things.

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Peter would say in another epistle,

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We look forward to a new heaven and a new earth wherein dwells righteousness.

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And wherein we will dwell made righteous by the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

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That's our future hope.

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It's a remaining hope.

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But there's more.

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Because it's remaining in the sense of ongoing.

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Something remains. It abides. It endures.

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This hope is abiding. It is enduring. It is eternal.

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It's not like the secular hope that here today, gone tomorrow, fast fleeting.

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Oh no. This hope is permanent.

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And that's why Peter says this is an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading.

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Kept for you.

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Kept for you a remaining hope.

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One that abides forever.

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We gather here these days around this theme of Living by Hope in a Secular Age.

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Well we see that the secular age doesn't offer much hope.

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At best, an epidemic of hopelessness.

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But in Christ and in his resurrection, we have hope.

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We have hope that is realistic.

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We have hope that is realized now in our lives.

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We have hope that remains for the future, that remains forever.

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That, my friends, is real hope.

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In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

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Amen.