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Hope That Endures – Tonight, the world marks the beginning of a New Year. Yet we recall that, as in years past, closing out one 12-month cycle to another doesn’t change the hard realities of a world broken by sin. While many search for secular solutions that disappoint, Christians have a true and lasting hope. Our trust is in the eternal, everlasting Triune God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Our salvation is found neither in technology nor human politics, but in the grace and mercy given as a free gift to all who have faith in Jesus Christ. Faith that God works within us through the Holy Spirit using the means of grace found within the Church – His Word and the Sacraments of Baptism and the Lord’s Supper. Our Lord has not left us alone. He is here, active in this world. He can, and does, open His hand, satisfying the desires of every living thing (Ps. 145:16). He offers us a lasting hope this transient world with all its sorrows can never bring – forgiveness and eternal life. So we pray, “Our Father who art in heaven … give us this day our daily bread,” placing our trust in a tender Father, rather than a mere new year. Our Father in Heaven, unlike Father Time, actually demonstrates His love in the person of His Son. In the person and work of Jesus Christ, our Father has dealt with mankind’s biggest problem, one that no amount of human resolve or will power could ever remedy. That is sin, and the human mortality that comes as the result of it. Through the sacrificial death and resurrection of God’s only Son, believers have the certainty of His grace and redemption. Christians do not lose hope because of something our Heavenly Father may, for a time, withhold. Our faith is based on what He has already given and continues to give without fail — His Son. When we realize our earthly problems are not simply inflation or weight gain, but the evils of sin, death and the devil, we know that time alone cannot address them. Yet God has not abandoned us. He sent His only begotten Son into the world to redeem what was lost. It is in the truth of what Jesus has already accomplished for us through the cross, that Christians have a reassurance that transcends time – our sins have been paid for, and Heaven has been opened. Through the saving Gospel, all things are made new, even the sinner’s heart and spirit (Ps. 51:10). This night, find peace and be comforted by the loving God who gave His only Son for you. Rejoice in the One who is both true God and true man, Jesus Christ, your Lord & Saviour, the hope of the world. Amen. Pastor Tom Steers, Christ the Saviour Lutheran Church, Toronto http://christlutherantoronto.org/beliefs