Defiant Hope

Devotional

Day 1: Advent begins with longing and wakeful seeing

Advent does not invite escape; it invites honest notice of our world’s wounds. Longing is the doorway to God’s future, not a failure of faith. Isaiah offers a vision that holds our broken present in one hand and the possibility of transformed peace in the other. This is defiant hope—clear-eyed, un-naive, and stubbornly expectant. Choose to look steadily at what hurts and still imagine what God can yet make new, right here and now [01:46].

Isaiah 2:2–4: In the days to come, God’s presence will be lifted up like a mountain, and peoples from everywhere will come to learn a different way of living. God will teach paths of wisdom and make right judgments between nations. Tools of violence will be refashioned into tools that grow life, and people will retire from training for conflict to practice the ways of peace.

Reflection: Where in your neighborhood do you usually look away from pain, and what daily practice this week could help you gently keep your eyes open to it?

Day 2: Stay awake: prophetic attentiveness, not punishment

“Stay awake” is not a threat; it is an invitation to live alert to God’s movement. In a culture numbed by distraction and slogans, you are called to notice: the neighbor who is going without, the child whose table is bare, the family living in fear of detention. Scripture asks us to wake up—not to shame us, but to free us for love. Wakefulness expects God’s kingdom and gets ready to participate in it. Let this week be one of watchful prayer, watchful listening, and watchful action [03:15].

Mark 13:33–37: Be alert, because you don’t know when the decisive moment will arrive. It’s like a homeowner who travels and assigns each servant a task, asking the one at the door to keep watch. So keep awake—whether evening or midnight or dawn—so that when the owner returns, you are found faithfully doing the work entrusted to you.

Reflection: In what daily setting do you most easily go numb (news feed, commute, workplace), and how will you practice gentle, watchful attention there this week?

Day 3: Defiant hope refuses neutrality; speak and act

Defiant hope will not sit on the sidelines while neighbors suffer. Jesus does not model neutrality; he confronts privilege that harms and power that oppresses, and he moves toward those carrying the cost of unjust decisions. When prices rise, benefits shrink, and communities are pushed aside, love calls us to name what is happening and to hold leaders accountable. Hope does not fuel division for its own sake; it seeks a just peace that includes those most affected. Let your voice, time, and influence become instruments of mercy and truth [07:57].

Proverbs 31:8–9: Use your voice for those who have no platform. Stand up for the vulnerable; defend the rights of people who are poor and mistreated, and make sure their case is heard with fairness.

Reflection: Whose burden have you been tempted to label “not my business,” and what one respectful step—call, email, conversation, or visit—will you take this week to stand with them?

Day 4: Ordinary wakefulness: mercy in small, hidden deeds

Hope looks like everyday courage—quiet acts that push back against cynicism. Think of the person who bought food not to profit but to feed those without homes, choosing love over the fear of other people’s opinions. When tempted to ask, “Why do they get help?” remember that Jesus did not center the question, “What about me?” He centered the hungry, the stranger, the overlooked. Let your ordinary day be a place where someone’s need meets your unadvertised kindness [10:54].

Matthew 25:35–40: I was hungry and you gave me something to eat; I was a stranger and you welcomed me; I was in need and you cared for me. Whenever you served one of the least noticeable people among my family, you were actually serving me.

Reflection: What simple, specific act of unseen mercy—a meal, a ride, a visit, a gift—can you offer this week, and when will you do it?

Day 5: Begin again together; hope is communal and courageous

Advent is a new year for the soul, a chance to begin again with God and with one another. Hope is not a solo project; it grows where people serve side by side—volunteering, advocating, mentoring, and standing with communities under threat. Use whatever privilege or access you carry—not to elevate yourself, but to open doors for others. Prepare the way by choosing one concrete practice that embodies justice, mercy, and peace in your daily rhythms. Start small, start together, and start now [16:59].

Luke 4:18–19: God’s Spirit rests on me, sending me to bring good news to the poor, to announce freedom to those bound up, recovery of sight to those who cannot see, release for the oppressed, and to declare that now is the season when God’s favor arrives.

Reflection: Which resource or privilege—skills, connections, finances, time—can you place at the service of others this month, and what is your first step to steward it faithfully?

Sermon Summary

This Advent, we do not gather to escape the wounds of our world. We gather to notice them, to name them, and to imagine something different. Isaiah gives us a vision where weapons become tools for cultivation and nations learn peace—a vision not of naïve optimism but of defiant hope: hope that stares empire and injustice in the face and refuses to concede the final word. Mark adds a simple, urgent charge: stay awake. Not in anxiety, but in prophetic attentiveness. Awake enough to see the children without food, neighbors in our pews who are struggling, families torn apart by detention and deportation, and communities left behind by neglect in housing, healthcare, and education.

Defiant hope refuses to be neutral. Neutrality always favors the status quo and leaves the vulnerable to carry the cost. Jesus is not neutral; he speaks clearly to the powerful and stands with the exploited. So we cannot stand on the sidelines, especially when policies we once thought wouldn’t touch us now reach our own homes and budgets. We are called to accountability, to name what harms, and to labor for what heals.

Staying awake is a discipline—practiced in a distracted world through ordinary acts of faithfulness. A neighbor who supports an immigrant family. A volunteer who feeds children at an under-resourced school. A person who buys a cart of rotisserie chickens and, without fanfare, turns them into hot meals for those without homes. These are not grand gestures; they are awake lives—defiant acts against apathy.

Advent is not spiritual escape. It is preparation to co-create the kingdom: volunteering, advocating for just policies, mentoring youth, standing in solidarity, and refusing the idolatry of Christian nationalism that confuses flag with cross. Advent is the church’s New Year—the invitation to begin again. Begin with courage. Use whatever privilege you carry not to center yourself but to shield others and open doors they cannot yet open. This is how we dream awake. This is how hope takes on flesh among us.

Key Takeaways

1. Stay awake to real wounds Awake is not a slogan; it’s a posture that trains our hearts to pay attention to what is painful and who is missing. We resist the numbness of distraction by choosing proximity to suffering and clarity about causes, not just symptoms. Wakefulness is how hope keeps its eyes open long enough to recognize where God is already moving. [08:27]
2. Defiant hope refuses neutrality Neutrality is a luxury of the comfortable; it is never a refuge for the harmed. Jesus does not hover above the fray—he names injustice and confronts the powers that exploit. Defiant hope takes a side: the side of the vulnerable, even when it costs us convenience, reputation, or control. [07:57]
3. Use privilege for others’ good Privilege is not a sin; hoarding it is. Stewarded well, it becomes a shield for those without one and a lever that opens doors others cannot reach. This is not saviorism; it’s solidarity that spends social capital for the common good. [17:46]
4. Practice small, concrete courage The kingdom often arrives in simple, unfilmed acts—meals shared, rides offered, letters written, neighbors defended. Courage grows when we risk doing the next right thing without needing applause or certainty. These acts push back the night and teach our souls what hope feels like in the body. [10:16]
5. Advent is our communal new beginning Hope is not a solo project; it is nurtured in communities that act, pray, and persist together. Advent resets our imagination: we start again, together, in the direction of justice, mercy, and peace. The question is not “What about me?” but “What can we become for one another?” [15:18]

Youtube Chapters

[00:00] - Welcome
[01:46] - Wakefulness defined: see and name harm
[03:15] - Defiant hope versus neutrality
[04:55] - When indifference boomerangs at home
[06:23] - Rising costs and daily strain
[07:57] - Speak up; name what is wrong
[08:27] - Vigilance as spiritual discipline
[08:49] - Ordinary acts of being awake
[09:14] - The Costco chicken story
[11:54] - Hope is communal participation
[12:14] - Practical pathways to justice
[13:20] - Confronting Christian nationalism
[14:50] - Advent: begin again with God
[17:46] - Using privilege to protect others
[19:17] - Prayer of defiant hope

Bible Study Guide

Bible reading
- Isaiah 2:2-4
- Mark 13:33-37

Observation questions (3–4)

Read Isaiah 2:2-4. What concrete images does the passage use for the coming peace, and which image felt most striking or challenging to you?
Read Mark 13:33-37. What does the command to “stay awake / keep watch” imply about the attitudes and habits of a faith community?
The text says, "To be awake is to be able to watch the things around you. To be awake is to see the injustice... To be awake is to see the children without food..." [01:46] What specific injustices named here jump out to you, and why do they feel urgent in your context?
Consider the story about buying rotisserie chickens and handing out plates to people without homes: "She took the chicken and made plates for those who are without home." [10:16] What assumptions did people make about that action, and what does the story teach about quick judgments and ordinary acts of compassion?

Interpretation questions (3–4)

How does the vision of swords turned to plowshares (Isaiah 2:2-4) reorient assumptions about power, security, and how God brings change in the world?
In what ways does the call to “stay awake” (Mark 13:33-37) shift responsibility from private belief to public attentiveness and corporate practice?
"Defiant hope refuses to be neutral." [03:15] What does refusing neutrality look like when systems of power are involved, and where might choosing a side involve cost or risk?
"Privilege is not a sin; hoarding it is." [17:46] How can privilege be stewarded so that it shields others rather than centers the one who has it? Give concrete examples.

Application questions (4–7)

Staying awake is described as a discipline practiced in ordinary acts of faithfulness. [08:27] What is one specific, practical way you can practice wakefulness this week (who will you notice, where will you go, what will you listen for)?
Defiant hope requires speaking up and naming what harms. [07:57] What is one public or civic step you can take in the next month—e.g., a letter, a call, a meeting—to name an injustice that affects your neighbors? Be concrete about whom you will contact and when.
Use whatever privilege you carry to shield others and open doors. [17:46] Identify one privilege you have (time, relationships, money, education, social position). How will you spend that privilege this Advent to protect or empower someone else? Name one specific action and a date to start.
Ordinary acts—meals, rides, letters, mentoring—are where hope becomes flesh. [09:14] Which one small, repeatable act of service can you commit to for the Advent season (weekly or monthly)? How will you measure whether it’s sustaining your compassion rather than feeding your ego?
Advent is the church’s new year—an invitation to begin again together. [15:18] As a small group, what one communal commitment can you adopt this Advent that advances mercy or justice in your neighborhood? Who will be responsible for coordinating it?
Refusing the idolatry of nationalism means keeping the cross central. [13:20] When conversations about flag, politics, or identity rise in your circles, what question can you learn to ask that reorients the discussion toward faithfulness to the gospel (write one or two sample questions you will use)?

(End of guide)

Sermon Clips

This Advent, we do not gather to escape the wounds of our world. We gather to notice them, to name them, to imagine something different. Advent begins not with certainty, but with longing.Isaiah opens the season with a vision that means both the brokenness of the present and the radical possibility of a different future. Swords turn into plowshares, nations learning peace, not naive optimism, not wishful thinking.This is defiant hope. Hope that emerges in the shadow of empire, in the midst of injustice, and insists that another way is possible.And Mark reminds us, stay awake, keep watch. [00:00:12] (56 seconds) #DefiantAdvent

This is not a warning about punishment. It is an invitation to prophetic attentiveness, to notice, to expect, and to participate in the unfolding kingdom of God.How many times have we not heard in our current society and political atmosphere, how many people are anti-woke? Yet our scripture asks us to be awake, to wake up.So we have so many of these people claiming their Christianity and are anti-voke. Are they really listening to the scripture they supposedly follow? [00:01:12] (48 seconds) #PropheticWakefulness

Are they really listening to the scripture they supposedly follow? To be awake is to be awake. To be awake is to be able to watch the things around you. To be awake is to see the injustice that has occurred. To be awake is to see the oppression around you.To be awake is to see the children without food on the table. To be awake is to see your neighbor, even here in church, sitting next to you, go without. [00:01:54] (37 seconds) #WakeToInjustice

There is pain in our country and in our communities. Families are torn apart by ICE, detentions, and deportations, living in fear for their loved ones.Children and seniors suffer as government benefits are cut or restricted, leaving basic needs unmet.Communities are left behind by systematic neglect in housing, health care, and education.ICE's vision does not pretend these injustices do not exist. Hope does not ignore the wounds. It sees them clearly. And yet, in seeing them, it chooses to dream awake.Defying hope refuses to be neutral. It refuses to be paralyzed. [00:02:39] (58 seconds) #HopeSeesWounds

Hope does not ignore the wounds. It sees them clearly. And yet, in seeing them, it chooses to dream awake.Defying hope refuses to be neutral. It refuses to be paralyzed. It confronts the pain and insists another way is possible. A different world is coming.Think about that. Defying hope refuses to be neutral. How many times have you not heard somebody say, Well, I just don't want to get involved. Well, it's none of my business. Well, I don't want to take a side.And for those who think that Jesus is neutral, I don't know what version of the Bible they are reading.Because Jesus is not neutral. [00:03:19] (66 seconds) #DreamAwake

Jesus speaks against those in power. Repeatedly, those of privilege. Think about that for a moment.He confronts it. He doesn't say, Well, let's see how it plays out. See, because every time you wait on the sidelines,just like with our current country's dilemmas, people said, Well, it won't affect me. Well, it's not part of my family.Months later, almost a year later, after our national election, how many people who voted the way they did have not been harmed by the own policies they voted for?Yet, they didn't think it applied to them. [00:04:26] (67 seconds) #SpeakTruthToPower

And it was not because, as some of them thought, she resold the chicken for profit.Or made plates to sell to get more money off of them.Or that she was being stingy.Can anybody guess what she did with that?She took the chicken and made plates for those who are without home.For those who are hungry and did not ask for a penny.She just had her family helping her pass out plates and drinks for them.No questions asked.Just on a random corner set up a couple of tables and gave out those plates.Now, don't you think all those people who were fighting and belittling her before they knew anything over an apology? [00:09:49] (60 seconds) #ServeWithoutJudgment

Holy God, we bring before you our longing hearts.We confess the pain we see in our country, the fear and suffering of immigrants, the struggles of children and seniors whose needs are ignored, and the divisions that fracture our communities.And yet we choose hope.Help us to stay awake, to notice your movement, and to participate in your kingdom of justice.Mercy and peace.Teach us to drink boldly, to act courageously, and to work together to make your vision real.Bless our words, our hands, and our hearts, so that this Advent we may embody defiant hope in our homes, our neighborhoods, and in the world you love. Amen. [00:19:13] (43 seconds) #PrayForJustice

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