December 4

Hebrews 10:23

²³ Let us hold fast to the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who has promised is faithful.

Hope in the Lord

by Elise Edwards, Ph.D.

The tenth chapter of Hebrews speaks to followers of Jesus who have “endured a hard struggle with sufferings” (10:32). These are people who were enlightened with the truth about who Jesus is but were taunted and ridiculed for it. Some of them were persecuted, but others who managed to avoid that affliction took on the suffering of those who were targeted. These Christians ministered to prisoners and willingly let their possessions be taken because they knew that what they had through Jesus was more significant (Hebrews 10:33-34). They were able to endure hardships by holding on to faith and hope.

When facing a significant loss like a health crisis, financial hardship, political defeat, or death of a loved one, many people reject hope, seeing it as a dangerous form of naïveté. It will only lead to discouragement and defeat, they say, choosing cynicism as a more realistic and honest approach instead. Surely, the world’s problems are too much for us to fix! And some things are just too complex and inscrutable, so why get our hopes up about possibilities for change? Yet, our Advent Scripture readings give us a response: because we have a “new and living way” made possible by Jesus (Hebrews 10:20). Our hope is grounded in our need for a Savior who is also our high priest, not in our own abilities or the earthly leaders we have with us now.

Let us hold fast to the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who has promised is faithful. (Hebrews 10:23, NRSVUE)

When the writer of Hebrews tells us to hold on to our statement of hope without wavering, he is encouraging us to reckon with hardship—to really see it and acknowledge it—but refuse to let it defeat us. The Christian mystic Howard Thurman has an evocative illustration describing this experience. In a meditation called “To Him That Waits” in The Mood of Christmas, a series of Christmas and Advent reflections, Thurman talks about the kind of waiting that we experience when life knocks us down, and we must try to regain our balance: 

“It is to watch a gathering darkness until all light is swallowed up completely without the power to interfere or bring a halt. Then to continue one’s journey in the darkness with one’s footsteps guided by the illumination of remembered radiance is to know courage of a peculiar kind—the courage to demand that light continue to be light even in the surrounding darkness.”

This is what it means to hope in the Lord. We confess our continual need for a Savior and anticipate His coming. The season of Advent is a reminder that a mature Christian faith is lived with sensitivity to sufferings around us and the longings in our own hearts. We don’t deny the presence of darkness; instead, we sit in it and light candles to make our way through it. 

About the Author

Elise Edwards, Ph.D.

Elise Edwards, Ph.D., serves at Baylor University as an assistant professor of Religion within the College of Arts & Sciences. In the classroom, Dr. Edwards strives to help her students realize the diversity of perspectives within Christian thought and to improve their critical thinking and writing skills.  Through deliberative dialogue and contemplative exercises, her classes dive into difficult and complex topics. Her research is interdisciplinary, moving between fields of theology, ethics, architectural theory, and aesthetics to examine issues of civic engagement and to question how Christian beliefs and commitments are expressed publicly. As a black feminist, Dr. Edwards focuses her research on cultural expressions by, for, and about women and marginalized communities. She is co-editor (with Katie Day) of The Routledge Handbook of Religion and Cities and author of Architecture, Theology, and Ethics: Making Architectural Design More Just, which is about how design acts as prophetic action with the power to shape our world.

Dr. Edwards is a native of Maryland, but she moved to Waco to begin her teaching career at Baylor in fall 2013.  Dr. Edwards teaches courses in Christian ethics and theology in Baylor’s Department of Religion.  She earned her Ph.D. in Religion at Claremont Graduate University in California, where she studied Theology, Ethics, and Culture.  Prior to pursuing a Ph.D. in theology, Dr. Edwards worked as an architect in Washington D.C. and she still maintains her license to practice architecture.  She earned her Bachelor of Science and Master of Architecture degrees at Florida A&M University, and a Master of Theological Studies at the John Leland Center for Theological Studies, a Baptist seminary.  In her architectural career, Dr. Edwards focused on college and university buildings, which is now where she spends most of her days teaching and doing research.