This past weekend, our worship focused on hope and how we see the future, and not only that, but how we fight for it.  Because hope, or lack thereof, affects our relationship to the future.  There are times when I get discouraged - times when what’s happening to the earth, how people are treating each other and the prospects of the future seem to be getting worse rather than better.   This feeling is nothing new – people throughout history have had times of losing hope and finding hope, times of feeling hopeless and being hope-filled, times of looking down and looking up.   When I need help, I turn to scripture and the writings of those who have been tested themselves.  I confess to being unable to conjure up hope all on my own – I need the help of others…and the help of God.  Here are a few thoughts that are helping me right now.

The psalmist possesses a faith that is not just eternal but imminent. It is a faith that does not just hope for the best; it is a faith that anticipates the realization of hope. What keeps the psalmist faithful is the anticipation of hopes and dreams that are expected to be realized in this life. No pie in the sky bye and bye when we die, but something sound on the ground while we’re still around – this is the faith of the psalmist.

Dr. Kenneth L. Samuel, UCC Pastor in Georgia

And not only that, but we also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance,  and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.

Romans 5:3-5

Hope

by Lisel Mueller    

It hovers in dark corners
before the lights are turned on,
it shakes sleep from its eyes
and drops from mushroom gills,
It explodes in the starry heads
of dandelions turned sages,
it sticks to the wings of green angels
that sail from the tops of maples.

 It sprouts in each occluded eye
of the many-eyed potato,
it lives in each earthworm segment
surviving cruelty,
it is the motion that runs the tail of a dog,
it is the mouth that inflates the lungs
of the child that has just been born. 

It is the singular gift
we cannot destroy in ourselves,
the argument that refutes death,
the genius that invents the future,
all we know of God.

 It is the serum which makes us swear
not to betray one another;
it is in this poem, trying to speak.

 My hope is that we might all find renewed hope and light in the midst of the current pandemic, turmoil, tragedies and injustices all around.  Even on the worst of days, God will not abandon us and God will nudge us forward.

With hope in God…and the future…

Rev. Dr. David D. Young
Senior Minister