Hope Can’t Wait, a poem by the Rev. Sarah
Are:
Someone
once told me that hope was naive—
A
foolish game that children play
When
they pray that summer won’t
end,
And
bedtime won’t come.
Someone
once told me that hope was naive as they
Cradled
pessimism in their lap like a sleeping cat,
Stroking
their ego while they stoked a fire within me.
Unfortunately
for them, I’m allergic to cats.
And
unfortunately for them, those who deny hope
Will
never know vulnerability;
For
hope requires us to believe in a better day—
Even
when this one is falling apart.
Hope
looks the 24-hour news cycle in the face,
Hope
looks our broken relationships in the face,
Hope
looks our low self-esteem in the face,
And
declares at low tide that the water will return.
Hope
is exhaling, trusting that your body will inhale again.
Hope
is watching the sunset and setting an alarm.
Hope
is planting seeds in the winter,
Assuming summer will
come.
I
never said it would be easy.
The
ground is frozen, you are thirsty,
and
the night is long.
But I
will say this—
I
have found hope to be the rhythm of love
And the fiber
of faith;
For
to hope is to believe in God’s ability
to
bring about a better day,
And
like a child with an Advent calendar,
I
will always be counting down the days.
So to
those who cradle pessimism and fear,
You
can find me outside—with the kids—wishing on stars,
Praying
to the God of today
That
tomorrow will be just as beautiful.
Set
your alarm.
We’d
like for you to join us.
The
sunrise won’t wait.
Hope
can’t wait. That sounds a little antithetical, doesn’t it? I mean if we don’t
have to wait for something, what’s the point of hope? Let’s start with what it
means to hope. Scripture reminds us that we hope for things unseen, and we wait
for them with patience. Hoping is not the same thing as wishing. A wish is a
possibility. A hope is an expectation.
This
time of year, this Advent Season, reminds us that while we hope, there is work
to do. Sarah’s poem puts it in the simplest terms. We go to sleep as an
expression of hope that the sun will rise tomorrow, but if we want to see the
sunrise, we must set an alarm to wake up. I would say that the same is true of
our faith – that we need some kind of spiritual alarm to see God in our midst
– except that there is so much in our world that is alarming today.
The
mistreatment of children along our southern border is alarming – or at least it
should be. The rending of families and the profiteering of private prisons with
no consideration of penalty for the employers of immigrants with fake IDs or
the burden of care placed on small communities is alarming – or it should be.
Racial bias in policing and sentencing like that described by San Francisco
Public Defender Danielle Harris is alarming – or it should be. She recently
went to twitter to describe the story of a young black man arrested for looking
similar to another man and enduring 2 weeks of jail time for being black in the
wrong place at the wrong time. That place happened to be a shopping mall, by
the way. It’s alarming to know that these things still happen in the US in
2019.
Likewise,
it is alarming to see those experiencing homelessness in our community, knowing
that there is more to the issue than being able-bodied and unemployed. When you
are experiencing homelessness you are more vulnerable in many ways. There are
unkind souls in our community who target them for violence, egg them in their
sleep and act as though arresting them would be a kind thing to do. While
there are those working to help the experience of homelessness be brief and not
repeated, there are many in our city who live on the margins of poverty who
often go unseen or cared for by anyone until their needs become perceived as a problem for others.
Depressing
as that may sound, I believe that seeing the needs of others and not turning
away is the alarm that should awaken us to hope. While that should be true at
any time, today’s scripture readings call us to become, dare I say it,
“woke.” That’s a term that gets thrown about these days for those who are more
socially conscious, and I admit it can be a little pretentious. At the same
time, I think it’s important to realize that it also comes from a place of
utter frustration when it seems that people are hurting, and no one really
seems to care. If anything, it’s a way to say, “I see the problem. I see the
pain and suffering, and I’m trying to do something about it.”
Whether
you like it or not, being “woke” is nothing new. In fact, the same concept has
been a part of Christian faith from the very beginning, and perhaps even from
the prophets of old. Isaiah proclaimed that judgment was coming, and the result
would be that weapons of war would be turned into tools for common work and
care for the earth and for one another. Paul announced that the judgment had
already come, and that salvation was at hand, so wake up and don’t miss it!
I
admit that we’re still struggling with his claims that all government is
actually based on the agency of God, but it makes sense that he puts the
emphasis on us. It’s like when two kids fight, and you talk to one and they
blame the other. As the parent, you have to redirect and say, “This isn’t about
what they did. This is about you.”
In a
similar fashion, Paul tells us not to be consumed with self-gratification but
to protect our very souls with the “armor of light” by “putting on Jesus
Christ.” In other letters, Paul says to “clothe yourself with Christ Jesus.”
This same Christ Jesus is the one who tells us to be prepared because judgment
will come like a flood at a time when no one really expects. As terrifying and
confusing as all that sounds, I think the thing to remember is that this
judgment is actually what we are hoping for. Our hope is based on the idea that
God has a future in mind, and we are not sitting by idly waiting for it to pass
us by.
We
are actively living into the salvation that God has in mind when we deliver
meals to the elderly. We are actively living in the future that God has in
mind when we offer hospitality to the community by providing a safe space where
all are welcome, by collecting food for the UCO, holding blood drives, and
supporting the work of Evergreen Life Services for those with special needs!
We, as a congregation, are not simply waiting around like there is nothing to
do. No, it’s more like we are madly cleaning the house while we wait for family
to arrive!
I
don’t know how “woke” we are, but I think we see the pain and suffering of the
world and I think we are trying to do something about it. I think we are able
to see the pain and suffering that we all bear, and we’re doing our best to bear
it together. Sure, we are a community of forgiven sinners, and we can always do
better. Fortunately for us, we have time. We have Advent. We have the promise
of the Christ who might return any minute and upset all of our plans, but we at
least have plans and the hope that we have more to do as we live into the
justice and judgment of God that bends our assault rifles into farm
tools.
You
know, there are actually people doing that right now. Go to rawtools.org if you
want to know more, but the point is that when the world’s problems seem too big
to handle, we still have hope. Our hope is not based on human might, but in the
expectation that God is active and present and moving us toward a better day.
This
is the witness of the prophets of old, and the epistles of Paul, and even the
gospel of Jesus, but I believe another, more modern prophet also spoke of hope
in a way that inspired action. That prophet is Fred Rogers, and since he’s
being given a lot of attention these days, I thought I might share some of his
wisdom with you today.
First,
in regard to all these alarming and awkward social ills, I think he would
advise that we simply talk about them. He once said, “Anything that’s human is
mentionable, and anything that is mentionable can be more manageable. When we
can talk about our feelings, they become less overwhelming, less upsetting, and
less scary. The people we trust with that important talk can help us know that
we are not alone.”
In
regard to what we do with our “not aloneness,” especially when we realize that
we might not all agree on how we feel about the pain and suffering of others
and how to respond to it, I think these
words might apply:
“There
are three ways to ultimate success:
The
first way is to be kind.
The
second way is to be kind.
The
third way is to be kind.”
Finally,
I think he would agree that the things that alarm us also give us hope and that
hope fuels our purpose as God’s people, but he said it this way, “We live in a
world in which we need to share responsibility. It’s easy to say, ‘It’s not my
child, not my community, not my world, not my problem.’ Then there are those
who see the need and respond. I consider those people my heroes.”
Fred
Rogers was a hero to many during his day, though he rarely was recognized for
it. Then again, I don’t think that was his goal. As a Presbyterian Minister, he
realized that the way to change the world was through the innocence and
vulnerability of children. He did not simply mean to program children to act in a
certain way. He hoped we might all be moved to reclaim innocence and
vulnerability in a way that we might live into the hope of the salvation Jesus
brings.
That
offer stands, and Advent is the season to celebrate our hope in the future that
God has in mind. This hope requires our action in order to participate in what
God has in mind. This hope anticipates love like our bodies expect our next
breath, but it doesn’t wait for it. As a people of faith, our hope is grounded
in the future that God has in mind, and our work is centered around that hope.
The hope we share and the care we offer one another that extends through all
the earth is the type of thing that our friend, Mr. Rogers hoped to lift up in
all of us when he said:
“When
I say it’s you, I like, I’m talking about that part of you that knows that life
is far more than anything you can ever see or hear or touch. That deep part of
you that allows you to stand for those things without which humankind cannot
survive. Love that conquers hate, peace that rises triumphant over war, and
justice that proves more powerful than greed.”
Hear
the words of the prophet and rejoice, my friends, for now, you know that hope
can’t wait. I encourage you this advent to continue thinking and praying about
the things that can’t wait, even as the future that God has in mind unfolds
before us. What is it that God is calling you to do, or say, or come to
understand so that we might live into the hope of God’s justice and mercy? What
alarms have you been snoozing that have kept you from caring for yourself as
God’s beloved or seeing someone else as the same?
May it be that in this
season that we find the courage to live into the hope that simply can’t wait to
be expressed as love and light, as breath exhaled, as the sunrise on a new day,
and all to the glory of God. Amen!
Comments