The theme that we hear over and over in these closing Sundays of the church year is hope. Our attention keeps getting drawn to the promised fulfillment of our expectations. God is going to do something to resolve our human predicament, to relieve our despair.

But what is it? What is God going to do? What do we dare hope for? There was a story in the news not too long ago of a 13-year-old girl dying of a degenerative brain disease. Her doctors wanted to end life-support and let her die, to release her from her unrelievable pain. Her parents refused permission, because they were praying for a miracle. The doctors hoped for a merciful death, the parents hoped for a miraculous cure. Nobody got what they hoped for: the girl died, but her parents' insistence on waiting for a cure prolonged her s…