How Can a Religious Leader Have No Hope to Offer?

God’s not dead, but He might as well be for all the hope that some religious people offer this world

The church is a universal symbol of hope, a beacon for people when they’re at their lowest.

Many who never darken the door of a church will reach out when they’re in a desperate situation.

My husband attended his Catholic aunt’s Jubilee — her 50-year nun anniversary.

The priest presiding over the celebration told a story about a single mom who came to his church for help. She was desperate. She had no money or food to feed her children.

She was scared and in need of physical and spiritual sustenance.

The priest bought several bags of groceries and necessities and delivered them to her house.

But then he said something my husband was shocked to hear. He said that he had no hope to offer this woman. That all he could do was bring her bags of groceries.

I listened, in disbelief, as my husband retold this story.

What kind of message was he offering to his audience and how had he missed the message of the gospel along with the key bullet point of his job description: impart hope to the world.

Bill Johnson, the author of The Way of Life, says we should be “leaking hope” into the world.

Hope

It’s the anchor of the Christian faith. Without hope what are we doing except playing at religion?

A basic Psalm we all learn even before we choose to know and follow God, and surely one this priest must have memorized and recited many times, is Psalm 23.

The Lord is my Shepherd; I lack nothing. (Psalm 23:1, NIV)

That would have been a good place to start to infuse hope into this woman’s mind and heart. There are some basic instructions about this in the New Testament:

Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. (1 Peter 3:15, NIV)

There is no shortage of bible verses to call on for hope. It’s the defining message of the gospel, the good news that we are supposed to be sharing with those who haven’t found Hope yet.

But the eyes of the Lord are on those who fear him, on those whose hope is in his unfailing love. (Psalm 33:18, NIV)

I’m not saying this priest did the wrong thing by bringing her groceries. He did exactly what James says we should do. And what Jesus did when a large crowd came to hear him talk.

But after their stomachs were filled, Jesus gave them more. We’ve got to be ready to meet the physical needs so we can then impart hope for the spiritual needs.

This priest isn’t the first religious leader to lose the forest for the trees

Nicodemus came to Jesus, sincerely seeking, but sincerely clueless about the ways of God.

Jesus basically said, Hey, Nic, you’ve been studying the scriptures all your life but you’re clueless about how God interacts with His creation?

How can this be?

Dallas Willard, in the book, Life Without Lack, says,

“It is a sad but true fact that many of our 'rulers of Israel’ today — those who have taken on the duties and responsibilities of teaching, preaching, and manifesting the Word of God — have a diminished concept of the nature of God.” — Dallas Willard

He goes on to say that “their knowledge of God and his nature does not carry the weight of experience. Consequently, when they are faced with the need to help others …they have no more experience of God and his kingdom than Nicodemus and simply have nothing helpful to offer. For all practical purposes, God might as well not exist.”

Ouch. That last line pierced my heart. God forbid that anyone ever leaves my presence and is less certain about the existence of God. Or, as Bebo Norman sings in Disappear, “I would rather be cast away, separated from the human race, if I don’t bring you glory.”

They are clouds without rain, blown along by the wind; autumn trees, without fruit and uprooted — twice dead. (Jude 1:12, NIV)

Preaching Christ without the life of Christ in us is like a rain cloud that brings the promise of much-needed rain but passes by without delivering. As the Bible says,

It’s “hope deferred that makes the heart sick.”(Proverbs 13:12, NIV)

Yes, the woman came to the priest for groceries, but I think we all know her deeper motivation was more than a bag of apples and toilet paper.

The woman at the well was looking for water to quench her thirst — she lived in a dry and arid land, she was well acquainted with what cool, clean water meant to her body.

But Jesus knew her need was that of spiritual water, the springs of life that flow through us when we choose to believe the reality of all God is in our lives.

Have you ever been so engrossed in a project that you ignored the hunger pains in your stomach? Do you remember having so much fun playing outside as a kid that you could skip lunch or dinner to stay in that moment with your friends?

The desperate woman could tolerate poverty if she had been given the gift of hope.

She could have seen those bags of groceries as not just physical nourishment but as a sign of God’s provision, sparking a hope in her to seek Him again and again until she could say without hesitation or doubt “The Lord is my Shepherd, I lack nothing.”

Oh, Lord, may I never miss the opportunity to bring hope into any situation. Amen.

Always be assured that your small kindnesses do count but also be prepared to impart the hope that sustains you to a hopeless and hungry world.