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The show Ted Lasso deals with something many sport fans can relate to: a struggling franchise. Ted Lasso, the lovable former American football coach, gets asked to come to England to coach soccer, international football, for the fictional team Richmond that is at risk of being relegated from the British Premier League.
At the end of the season, everyone Ted talks with seem to hold pretty low expectations. They don’t seem to have a lot of hope. This all leads to Ted’s pep talk with the team before their final match:
“So I’ve been hearing this phrase y’all got over here that I ain’t too crazy about. ‘It’s the hope that kills you.’ Y’all know that? I disagree. You know, I think it’s that lack of hope that comes and gets ya. See, I believe in hope. I believe in belief. Now where I’m from, we got a saying too. Yeah? It’s a question actually. ‘Do you believe in miracles?’ Now I don’t need y’all to answer that question for me, but I do want you to answer that question for yourselves, right now. Do you believe in miracles? And if you do, I want y’all to circle up with me right now.”
Now, spoiler alert, as close as they get, Richmond fails that first season with Ted. Yet they do come back, spoiler alert again, to the Premier League for their next season. There’s still a long way for them to go, but it’s a start.
It may be hard for us to see hope in the world. Whether it is with our favorite sports teams or just the news in general, things at time can be very bleak. We, like the Richmond fans, may not want to hope out of fear of disappointment.
Yet hope is what we are called to do because, as Paul tells us in Romans today, “Whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, so that by steadfastness and by the encouragement of the scriptures we might have hope.”
The point of everything we read here every Sunday is to give us hope. Hope in what is beyond this day, this world even. Hope in what God has made possible. Hope that things can be better.
Isaiah illustrates that hope in our reading this morning. We hear that “The wolf shall live with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the kid, the calf and the lion and the fatling together”. These are not animals that get along. These are animals that eat each other. Yet we are given hope that one day they will be found doing something we have never seen them do ever in Creation: living peacefully with one another. All this occurs because “a little child shall lead them.” This child is the new Adam, the one who will not fail to reign well over Creation as God intended. This is child is the one who will even make things better than they have ever been before. This child is Jesus.
The hope our Psalm gives us is the hope Isaiah, and many of the other prophets, as we saw last season, tired to tell the people of Israel. Things may look dire without. Everything maybe crumbling around us. Our own lives may look bleak. Yet God is there with us to guide us through the dark times. Even when things look bad, God will be there to help us to the other side.
The hope Romans gives is that this hope is not limited but made available to all. God’s promise is extending beyond Jerusalem into the Heavenly Jerusalem we heard of last week. Christ’s Salvation proceeds forth from God’s Chosen People to now encompass them and all people. As Paul says, Jesus’ work of salvation has been done that “He might confirm the promises given to the patriarchs, and in order that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy.” That includes us. We get to receive God’s mercy, God’s hope, too.
Even the words of wrath from John the Baptist carry hope. While he chastises the Pharisees and Sadducees around him, he also reminds all listening that “God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham.” This mirrors the hope Paul gives, that God reaches out to all people both to confirm the promises of old and to give mercy to all others. It also is a reminder to us that no matter what happens to our individual parishes, God will always provide a way to raise those up to do God’s will in this world.
It is easy to let go of hope. It is understandable not to seek disappointment. Yet the Word of God is there to give us hope, as Paul reminds us. Even in the darkest of moments, God’s servants throughout time have reminded us that this is not the way things have to be. Even the lion and the fatling can live together, if only we will let our Lord Jesus guide us to the place where that can happen, and if only we will give Him the time in our hearts to do so.