Sermon for November 23, 2008

                                      Scripture:       Ezekiel 35:11-16

                                         Christopher Fazel     “Hope”

            Earlier this week, one of you pranced through the church door and announced to me as in a greeting saying, “You know what I’ve noticed?  I’ve been waking up more hopeful lately!”  Now, if that’s not the essence of the good news, then I don’t know what is.  Now, I know this person well enough to be sure that such a statement was not made naively.  He is well aware of the challenges we face, as individuals, as members of our local community, and as members of the human race.  So I must ask myself, “Where is he getting this hope, and what is its power to put such a prance in his step?”

            Well, as I reflect on that question, I surmise that the answer is revealed in layers, as in the onion metaphor that Sharon introduced last week.  On the surface, to be sure, the hope is attached to the winning team of the last election.  This person is very pleased with the outcome as, I confess, I am also.  I think I can say that now, right?   And in that way, I share his hope as it is connected to the new administration. 

            But even in the election, the hope goes deeper than that.  The symbolic power of America electing the son of a black African is immense.  The whole world held its breath so see if we could achieve such a victory over prejudice and bigotry.  And we did.  And that cannot be taken away, regardless of how Barak Obama’s administration turns out.  We accomplished something that the whole world – and all of history – noticed.  And that accomplishment is terrific reason for hope.  And I think we all feel it. 

            That is not to say, however, that this kind of hope promises immediate prosperity and the leisure to enjoy it.  Granted, the human race is tempted to take it there.  The Israelites danced out of Egypt expecting the Promised Land to be the next stop.  It was instead forty years in the wilderness.   And electing this or that person doesn’t change the fact that I’ve lost my job, or I have cancer, or a beloved is dying.  Hope has to be grounded in something deeper, more substantial than, as Eboo Patel said after the election, “There’s been a chance in the weather.”    Real hope has to endure all changes of weather, because all changes of weather is what we all get.

            Is there really a power called hope that can strengthen us in the greatest of trial, comfort us in the deepest of grief, and guide us through the darkest of shadow?  Well, the answer to that question may need to be answered in the depths of your own soul, but I can say that there is evidence for it.  It was remarkable this week, every convalescing person we visited, commented on the vital importance of a positive, hopeful attitude in the healing process.  They pointed out that medical professionals had stressed to them this power of positive attitudes, but for me, it was their own demeanor that provided the evidence of its truth.  Because we all know the people who live in hope day in and day out, regardless of the weather.  They radiate peace and strength and encouragement.  And that’s why we are drawn to them.   And so the question becomes, “How do you get and keep such hope?” And the first step in that quest is to understand what hope is and what it isn’t.  Our scripture warns against vain hope.  Albert Speer in his book, “Inside the Third Reich” tells of the last days when Hitler and his entourage were bunkered, and the Allies were closing in on Berlin.  He tells of rumors that constantly circulated about a death ray just invented by their scientists that would sweep them victory.  That was a vain hope, not just because it failed, but because it equated hope with worldly victory.  And if the cross teaches us anything, it teaches us that such a hope is vain.  For hope to be an effective ally, it must be rooted in a faith in a power of Goodness that is bigger than death.  In other words, we must say with Dr. Martin Luther King, “‘The Arc of the Moral Universe is long, but it bends toward justice.’  In other words, in order for hope to do its work, it must be rooted in the conviction that the universe is not neutral, but bends toward the good.”   Or as Job cries out in his darkest hour, “I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that at the last he will stand upon the earth.”

            Now it is hard to find such a hope at the darkest of hours, but, of course, that is when it is needed the most.  So, we ask again, “How do we get this hope, and how do we keep it?”  And in fact, every one of us here has already made a good start.  Because we have gotten up and made the effort to gather together in the name of the Good.  Hope is among those miraculous commodities that actually increase the more you share them.  Hope is like courage and kindness.  If one would have courage, encourage another.  If one would have kindness, be kind to another.  If one would find the hope that endures, be a reason for hope in another. 

            Such actions by individuals build communities like ours here at First Congregational UCC in Anoka,  where we gather to sing and pray and share our joys and concerns – where we gather to knit and drum and raise children and share resources with each other and with the world beyond our doors.

            Such is the ground – the holy ground – out of which hope can grow and flourish – hope to sustain us in all changes of weather because it is grounded in our shared experience of the promise fulfilled, “Lo I am with thee always, e’en unto the end of time.  Thanks be to God.  Let us pray.

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