Tag: Hopelessness

Hope Comes to the Hopeless

“‘Dear Lord God, I wish to preach in your honor. I wish to speak about you, glorify you, praise your name. Although I can’t do this well of myself, I pray that you may make it good.’”[i]

Introduction

Hope. Peace. Joy. Love. These are the words that define Advent. These are the words that define the Christmas season. These are the words that represent to us the very characteristics of God: God is hope; God is peace; God is joy; and, of course, God is love. And if these words tell us who God is and how God is toward us, then these words should be fundamentally definitive for humanity who wis made in the image of God. These words should describe us and define our activity in the world; we should not only have hope but bring hope, not only have peace but perform peace, not only have joy but be joy, and not only experience love but share love in the way it is so desperate to be shared from one human being to another no matter sex, class, race, age, identity in the world.

Sadly, these four words don’t often define humanity…especially now in this moment and at this time. We’re more hopeless than ever, we are downright peaceless, our joy is suffocated by grief and fatigue, and love seems too risky, so we bury it under resentment, anger, and fear as we divide and pull apart from each other. How do we have hope when every other time we’ve had hope it’s been thrown to the ground and smashed into thousands of pieces? I can’t have hope because I’m submerged in the waters of hopelessness and I’m tired of being let down again and again and again by this fickle friend. And to be honest, I don’t want hope; I’m too fatigued to have hope.

But, yet: Advent.

Advent slips in through the back door and dares to suggest Hope, Peace, Joy, and Love. The first Sunday in Advent is an interruption to our normal, day-to-day decent into chaos and tumult, where hopelessness reigns. And I think this is why the first Sunday of Advent carries hope with it; the first Sunday in Advent is the manger of Hope and thus we must come face to face and contend with it as it speaks to us and illuminates our hopelessness.

Isaiah 2:1-5

In days to come
the mountain of the Lord’s house
shall be established as the highest of the mountains,
and shall be raised above the hills;
all the nations shall stream to it. (v2)

Isaiah declares to all of God’s people God is on God’s way and among them God will build God’s house. God’s house will be built in such a way it will be visible and accessible to all and not reserved for a privileged few. It is in and through this divine house that all will be one, the unity of humanity made known by the dwelling of divinity.[ii]

Isaiah continues,

Many peoples shall come and say,
‘Come, let us go up to the mountain of Abba God,
to the house of the God of Jacob;
that [Abba God] may teach us [Abba God’s] ways
and that we may walk in [God’s] paths.’
For out of Zion shall go forth instruction,
and the word of [Abba God] from Jerusalem. (v3)

As Isaiah paints a vision of God’ house dwelling among God’s people instigating unity within humanity, he exposes God’s desire for all of God’s people to be with God, to learn from God directly, and walk (humbly) with God. God’s house and God’s presence among the people will draw the people unto God and by being drawn unto God the people inwardly digest God’s love, God’s life, and God’s liberation becoming one with God and with each other—on the whole earth[iii] as it is in the entire heavens.

Then Isaiah says,

[Abba God] shall judge between the nations,
and shall arbitrate for many peoples;
they shall beat their swords into ploughshares,
and their spears into pruning-hooks;
nation shall not lift up sword against nation,
neither shall they learn war any more. (v4)

The instruction and guidance mentioned before turns toward judging and arbitration. God’s judgment and arbitration will be that which brings tangible and material peace among the people. By God’s presence, God’s righteousness will expose the people and illuminate their crooked pathways and straighten them, guiding them into what is true and right.[iv] God’s righteousness will be their righteousness; God’s justice will be their justice for they have learned the ways of God, the ways of divine justice informed by mercy. [v] Human ingenuity will transform by the exposure of God’s righteousness and justice; it will turn away from making weapons for war out of the metal forged from the earth and the greediness from the heart. Rather, they will make tools of love, life, and liberation out of those instruments meant to reinforce indifference and bring death and captivity. No longer will humanity worship its power in terms of arsenals and treasuries; [vi] God will be their all in all.[vii] God will be theirs and they will be God’s, and they will walk in God’s ways all their days knowing nothing any longer of the horrors and carnage and absurdity[viii] of war[ix] and obscene violence[x] knowing only the love of God and the love that binds them to each other. Power and might beaten into mercy and peace. [xi]

Isaiah finishes,

O house of Jacob,
come, let us walk
in the light of [Abba God]! (v5)

Isaiah exhorts the people of God to walk in the light of Abba God, they are to grow and rejoice in this light, becoming more and more, day by day, like their Abba God. This light is God’s light; this light is God in God’s self; this light is divine hope given to the entire earth and all the people. And it is good.

Conclusion

Hope isn’t something we cause ourselves to have or something we drum up from the depths of our souls. It’s a gift. It’s the light. It’s God. Hope comes to us. Hope comes low to us, to seek us as we are, wherever we are even when we are absolutely hopeless. Hope takes our hand to guide us into its light. Hope will even come down so low that it will be born into fleshy vulnerability, among dirty animals and unclean people, in straw and hay, wrapped in meager swaddling clothes, laying in the lap of an unwed, woman of color without a proper place to lay her head. He, Jesus the Christ, Immanuel—God with us—is our hope, is our hope for right now, in the darkness of late fall, in the tumult of our lives, in the fatigue of our bodies and minds, and dwells with us transforming our hopelessness—part by part—into hope. Incarnated hope knowing God is with us and God is faithful.

God comes, Beloved, bringing hope to the hopeless.

[i] LW 54:157-158; Table Talk 1590.

[ii] Abraham K. Heschel, The Prophets, (New York: JPS, 1962), 169. “The prophet may be regarded as the first universal man in history; he is concerned with, and addresses himself to, all men. It was not an emperor, but a prophet, who first conceived of the unity of all men.”

[iii] Heschel, Prophets, 169. “Isaiah proclaimed God’s purpose and design ‘concerning the whole earth’ (14:26), and actually addressed himself to ‘all you inhabitants of the world, you who dwell on the earth’ (Isa. 18:3…) delivering special prophecies concerning Babylon, Moab, Damascus, Egypt, Tyre, and others…”

[iv] Heschel, Prophets, 169. “It is the God of Israel Who summons the mighty men to execute His designs (Isa. 13:3, 5), Who calls the nations of the world into judgment, and it is He Whom one day all nations shall worship in Zion (Isa. 2:2 ff….”

[v] Heschel, Prophets, 96. “Zion is where at the end of days all the nations shall go to learn the ways of God.”

[vi] Heschel, Prophets, 183. “The sword is the pride of man; arsenals, forts, and chariots lend supremacy to nations. War is the climax of human ingenuity, the object of supreme efforts: men slaughtering each other, cities battered into ruins. What is left behind is agony, death, and desolation. At the same time, men think very highly of themselves….Idols of silver and gold are what they worship.”

[vii] Heschel, Prophets, 183. “Into a world fascinated with idolatry, drunk with power, bloated with arrogance, enters Isaiah’s word that the swords will be beaten into plowshares, that nations will search, not for gold, power or harlotries, but for God’s word.”

[viii] Heschel, Prophets, 160. “The prophets, questioning man’s infatuation with might, insisted not only on the immortality but also on the futility and absurdity of war.”

[ix] Heschel, Prophets, 73. “…Isaiah was horrified by the brutalities and carnage which war entails. In his boundless yearning he had a vision of the day when ‘nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more’ (2:4). War spawns death. But Isaiah was looking to the time when the Lord ‘will swallow up death for ever, and the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces…Israel’s security lies int eh covenant with God, not in covenants with Egypt of other nations.”

[x] Heschel, Prophets, 160. “When the prophets appeared, they proclaimed that might is not supreme, that the sword is an abomination, that violence is obscene. The sword, they said, shall be destroyed.”

[xi] Heschel, Prophets, 207-208. “God not only asks for justice; He demands of man ‘to regard the deeds of the Lord, to see the work of His hands’… ‘to walk in His paths…”

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“Buried in the Past; Captive to What Was”: National Chaos

For the audio and visual of this sermon:

Psalm 22:22-23  Praise God, you that fear God; stand in awe of Abba God, O offspring of Israel; all you of Jacob’s line, give glory. For God does not despise nor abhor the poor in their poverty; neither does Abba God hide God’s face from them; but when they cry to Abba God, God hears them.

Introduction

Last week our focus was on the world and its mess. In this global chaos and tumult, it’s easy to lose sight of our own national crises. Sometimes, we will find some sort of macabre comfort casting our gazes outward toward wars located across the planet because we it allows us to ignore what’s going on here within our own boarders (or just outside of them). We’re eager to support causes and advocate for cease-fire, we quickly gather money and supplies and send them across oceans, and we pray and plea for an end to the loss of life and carnage. We throw our weight in the ring backing organizations uphold our personal values, sending aid and assistance to war-torn countries.

None of this is wrong; and I am not criticizing it. However, the error comes when our attention is so solidly fixed elsewhere that we forget our nation is also quite chaotic right now. All I have to say is, “election year”; I bet I solicited a cornucopia of feelings and sensations as 2024 begins to draw its political battle lines—each side suiting up to take the victor’s seat. Each election draws these lines darker and deeper. Each election creates new mythologies and falsehoods burying the truth—whatever that is—deeper in the ground. An election year reminds all of us that our bodies and our lives do not really matter in battles for the seat; many of our bodies are just collateral damage in the debates about legitimacy and alterity. Anyone here feel certain they’re seen, heard, and truly represented? Or are we just chips in a wager on the political poker table where winner takes all?

So much feels hopeless. Anyone feel safe? Our classrooms (from preschools to universities) aren’t safe, not with easy access to military weapons. School bathrooms aren’t safe, not with antiqueer and homophobic rhetoric inspiring violence against our queer children. Grocery stores aren’t safe; roads aren’t safe either. We live in a world that is caught on a seesaw of anger and fear; each time one side drops to the ground it sends out tumultuous waves and ripples of violence, death, and chaos killing, maiming, and disorienting everyone. Every day feels like a gamble, will we all come home tonight or will sorrow and grief darken my door? I feel as if I’m striving to cling to anything, but it’s all slipping away from under my fingers. There’s a pit in my stomach that yells and screams: Go back! Run back to what was! Go back to that shore that was once comfort! Go back to not knowing, go back to when it was easier, go back to when things were better…I don’t care where, just go back to where it’s safe to just live…

Human beings have a hard time fighting against this lure and seduction of the romanticized past; the more we fight the more stuck we become. We are buried in the past, captive to what was.

Genesis 17:1-7, 15-16

…God said to him, “As for me, this is my covenant with you: You shall be the ancestor of a multitude of nations. No longer shall your name be Abram, but your name shall be Abraham; for I have made you the ancestor of a multitude of nations. I will make you exceedingly fruitful; and I will make nations of you, and kings shall come from you.’…“As for Sarai your wife, you shall not call her Sarai, but Sarah shall be her name. I will bless her, and moreover I will give you a son by her. I will bless her, and she shall give rise to nations; kings of peoples shall come from her.”

In our story in Genesis, Moses tells us about the third statement of the covenant between God and Abraham. The first one takes place in Genesis 12 where God initially summons Abram to follow God and God will bless him making him into a great nation. The second time is when this covenant is made more specific in chapter 15. Then our text in chapter 17 is another statement with no reference to the previous statements but incorporating two new aspects to the covenant: a sign will accompany this covenant (circumcision) and a direct mention of Sarai.[1] This iteration of the covenant between Abram and God bears more resemblance to God’s covenant with Noah than it does to the other two summons and covenants.[2]

Moses records God’s discourse to Abram opening with “‘I am El Shaddai.’” This name may appear out of nowhere, but it illuminates the dating of the text. There is some belief that this name means, “‘God, the One of the Mountain,’”[3] and is the way the patriarchs (not Moses) would have experienced God; YHWH—the four-letter word translated as the Lord—would be the word for God known among Moses’s era.[4] So, El Shaddai shows up and speaks to Abram. Abram, at 99, throws himself on his face in the presence of God. And God continues to speak by restating the previous pacts with Abraham. However, this time God changes Abraham’s name because of the future fulfillment of this pact; thus, Abram’s name change to Abraham and Sarai’s change to Sarah mark out their shared destiny: they who are childless will be the progenitors of nations and royal dynasties.[5] This is God’s eternal covenant with Abraham and Sarah and all their offspring and this everlasting covenant will not only bless Abraham and Sarah and their descendants but also all the nations.

God summons Abram and Sarai to walk in a new way, to follow God and walk in God’s ways. This is not a backwards motion. They are called further forward and further into the covenant with God. “Abraham threw himself on his face and laughed, as he said to himself, ‘Can a child be born to a man a hundred year sold, or can Sarah bear a child at ninety?’” (v. 17). They are asked to walk forward by faith and love, to take hold of God’s hand and descend into the mysteriously impossibile so that God can birth divine possibility through them. They are summoned to die to what they know, all that is comfortable and familiar, even die to that which is scientifically possible, so that they can proceed headfirst into the void of uncomfortable and unfamiliar, into the unknown. Abraham and Sarah must cling to God and descend into this profound mystery.

Conclusion

God is not stuck in the past; God is not captive to what was. God summons and coaxes forward God’s beloved—all creation, from the teensiest, weensiest critter to the biggest, ziggest beast; from the ones that live deep in the oceanic abyss to the ones residing on the peakiest of mountains. God woos the beloved forward, into something NEW, into something new and of God because backward is the stuff of humanity that has long ago expired, gone sour, become septic. For Abram and Sarai, the only way is forward by faith with God as Abraham and Sarah. God does not desire to do an old thing with God’s people; God desires to do new things with his people in a new way and to have them be known by new names.

For us, in our situation, facing what we are facing in our land, the chaos and tumults, the death and destruction, the fear and the anger, we who follow Christ, follow a new and different way of God. Our land is deeply threatened by the old narratives, desperately trying to keep themselves relevant; but they’re not. To follow in these ways is to walk in the way of hopelessness. Rather, we are exhorted to walk with God, to follow in God’s ways, to follow Christ, to live according to the Spirit of love, life, and liberation so that we can bring God’s liberation, life, and love to everyone caught in captivity, death, and indifference as if their lives were expendable (both young and old). However, we cannot do it if we are dead set on going backward, desperately clinging to our comforts and ease. We must let faith lead us down into the darkness, into the impossible so that God may bear through us God’s divine possibility.

Beloved, God calls, may our ears perk up. God comforts, may our souls be soothed. God speaks, may our ears delight in comforting words. God comes, may we run to Abba God. God is doing a new thing in this man from Nazareth, Jesus, the beloved, in whom, by whom, and through whom we are being coaxed forward, released from the past and liberated from what was…

[1] Jon D. Levenson, “Genesis,” The Jewish Study Bible Jewish Publication Society Tanakh Translation, eds. Adele Berlin and Marc Zvi Brettler (Oxford: OUP, 2004), 37. “Nothing in ch 17 indicates any awareness that the covenant mandated therein has, in fact, already been established two chapter earlier. In our chapter, the two chief innovations are that the covenant acquires a sign (circumcision, v. 10) and that it is Sarah who, despite her advanced age, shall bear the promised son (vv. 15-16, 19).”

[2] Leveson, “Genesis,” 37. “The closest parallel to ch 17 in style and diction is 9.1-17, the account of the covenant with Noah.”

[3] Leveson, “Genesis,” 37. , “El Shaddai is believed to have originally meant ‘God, the One of the Mountain’ and thus to have expressed the association of a deity with his mountain abode well known in Canaanite literature.”

[4] Leveson, “Genesis,” 37. “…the four-letter name translated as Lord was disclosed only in the time of Moses (Exod. 6.2-3), and El Shaddai was the name by which God revealed Himself to the patriarchs.”

[5] Leveson, “Genesis,” 37-38. “The change of name here and in v. 15 signifies change in destiny: The Childless couple will become the ancestors of many nations, including royal dynasties (v. 6).”

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