Twenty-one-year-old Matthew had been homeless for three years – sleeping rough on the streets of London. Mark Russell (who was appointed head of the Church Army while still in his twenties) met him on the streets of Charing Cross in London, bought him some food and led him to Christ.
As he was getting up to leave he said, ‘Matthew, over the next month I am going to be on platforms speaking to thousands of people. One of the sessions I’m going to be speaking at is the whole General Synod about mission... what piece of advice do you want me to give to the Church of England today?’
Matthew replied, ‘The church’s job is to stop arguing and to bring people hope.’
Mark Russell commented, ‘I have never heard a better definition of what we should be about: “Stop arguing about all kinds of stuff and bring hope.” Don’t we have a gospel of hope? A gospel that brings hope? A gospel of life, a gospel of transformation, a gospel of joy and a gospel of grace, and above all a hope of eternal life, the hope of Jesus.’ Many people see only a hopeless end; but with Jesus you can enjoy an endless hope.
Hope is one of the three great theological virtues – the others being love and faith. As Raniero Cantalamessa writes, ‘They are like three sisters. Two of them are grown and the other is a small child. They go forward together hand in hand with the child hope in the middle. Looking at them it would seem that the bigger ones are pulling the child, but it is the other way around; it is the little girl who is pulling the two bigger ones. It is hope that pulls faith and love. Without hope everything would stop.’