February 7, 2021: Provoking the Good and Beautiful – Scott Oppliger

Hope requires not only a vision and a way forward, but the resolve to stay the course. As individuals this is often called “willpower.” The writer of Hebrews points toward the same thing for the Church, writing, “Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess … And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds” (10:23,24). This is what hope needs to not just survive, but thrive in the heart of a congregation. Which means, we need each other.

Because sometimes, if left to our individual selves, hope seems too great a burden to bear. However, many hands make light work, as the saying goes and it is the same with holding onto hope. This is the importance of community, it allows for a “communal willpower” - that together we can hold on to the hope we profess, and we can do this by provoking (the literal translation of the Greek) one another toward the good and the beautiful.