Hope is a Four-Letter Word!
2/24/13 FAB Edwards Church
Rev. Dr. Frances A. Bogle
Hebrews 11:1
1 Corinthians 13:11-13
Gentle amber eyes look at me with longing. A furry tail wags and one big paw is raised. Jeannie is filled with hope…hope that her favorite bacon treat will appear and she will be happy. When I hand it to her, her hope is fulfilled.
Worried blue eyes watch carefully as three small children check out the lobby of the motel. She says quietly “I hope we can have a home of our own by Christmas.” The social worker nods and promises to do his best.
Courageous brown eyes smile with joy as he takes his new husband’s hand and whispers “I hope our marriage lasts forever.” Their families cry. Hope fills the sanctuary.
Tired hazel eyes look toward loved ones as she says “I am ready to die. I know God loves me. I just hope I won’t have too much pain.” Strong hands hold hers.
Hope is a four letter word. We use it all the time. It can be a sacred celebration, a calling out to God, a prayer, a need, or just a wish. Sometimes it’s as simple as a wagging tail or hands linked in love.
Often we don’t even seem to hear ourselves as we say it.
“I hope it doesn’t snow again.”
“I hope I get the X box for my birthday.”
“I hope the people in Congress learn to work together.”
Hope springs from our deepest longing, our shallowest wanting and a myriad of other places.
Jeannie hopes for a treat, with simple longing. She is thrilled when she gets it…We all know that hope don’t we?
My friend at the motel hopes for something as simple and much more complex. She hopes for a home for her family. For her hope to be fulfilled many, many things need to happen. And yet, when she shares this hope, her social worker is there to be her ally. She is no longer alone in her hoping.
Steve and Matt’s hope is as new as their right to get married and as old as the hope that has been part of every loving relationship since the beginning of time. They remind us that we need each other and the people who love us to walk with us throughout our lives.
The lady from the hospital is joined in her hope by her loved ones, whose strong hands promise that she will not be alone…whatever happens.
We all know what hope is, and yet I can’t quite define it.
I feel a little like Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart who, when he was trying to define obscenity, said “Perhaps I could never succeed in intelligibly doing so. But I know it when I see it.”
We know hope when we see it, when we feel it, when we are filled with it…and it’s hard to define.
Take a moment and think about what hope means to you.
What came to mind? A rosy moment when your hope was fulfilled or something more intangible for which you are still hoping? The good thing about hope is that there is no right or wrong as we are doing it!
We also know hope when we don’t have it. Sometimes what feels like the absence of hope is overwhelming and we sink into despair. When I went through a time like that every day was joyless. I wanted to run and hide and curl up in a ball and quit. I didn’t…but I wanted to.
It was love that kept me going…Debbie’s love, the love of Marshmallow and Snowflake the cats, and the love of friends who sat with me, listened and held my hands. Medicine and therapy helped too. Slowly I began to experience hope again. Through their love I was able to feel God’s love when I most needed it. They watered the tree of life in my soul. As that tree became green and growing, I was able to hope again.
In our reading from Corinthians Paul links faith and hope and love. He says “And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love.” While he says that love it the greatest, faith, hope and love are inseparably connected.
In fact, in author of Hebrews, who was probably not Paul, believes that “faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.”
These writers seem to be saying that you can’t have one without the others. Faith, hope and love nurture each other and keep the cycles of our lives moving in harmony.
When we are filled with hope and faith and love we are empowered. Some of us are hopeful that we can save our planet from the ravages of climate change. We use our power to create just relationships. Our hope is that people will work together to make changes in their daily lives and call on leaders around the world to save our planet. We have faith that the love we have for creation will inspire others to care for the world as we do.
We are convinced, perhaps convicted, that we must try to make a difference before the polar bears are gone. We don’t actually know what will happen, and yet we have faith that we can make a difference. It is sacred work.
Last week, our sanctuary was filled with love as we gathered to celebrate the life of Susan Dickerman and share our sadness. There were people in tears being held by friends, people sharing memories with strangers, and people arriving with plates of lovingly prepared food.
Sue loved hors d’oeuvres and dessert. As we mourned, we munched. Our kitchen team hoped that we would have enough to eat and we did. We also hoped that people would feel loved. Most of all, our faith helped us believe that Sue was at peace. We were filled with faith and hope and love. It was a sacred day.
Hope lives on in this community of faith as we are filled with love and believe that out of our mourning new things will grow. The tree of life and love that is so deeply rooted here will bloom again. Easter is coming.
Hope lives on in God’s love made real when two friends share their struggles and find support. Hope lives on when a wonderful treat drops into our lives. Hope never dies.
That’s one of the best things about hope! While we can never know if we will get what we hope for, especially for the big things like world peace, we can’t ever stop hoping for them.
And when we open ourselves to the connections between faith, hope and love, a world of possibilities unfolds before us. Perhaps this is what our authors had in mind when they shared these connections with us. Maybe they wanted us to know that with hope and faith and love we can do amazing things, and God is with us as we do them.
Anne B. Day and Donna Engbert, Nancy Krody, Bill Johnson and many others hoped that one day the United Church of Christ would welcome lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered and same gender loving people into the full life and ministry of our denomination. They worked to create a network of loving relationships, and slowly our church changed. Today we are an Open and Affirming denomination. We are a beacon of hope for people from around the world. We are a witness to the power of hope and love and faith working together.
Next month the Supreme Court will hear a landmark case in which people from across our country seek to have the federal Defense of Marriage Act declared unconstitutional. When I came out 30 years ago, I didn’t even dare hope that we would see this kind of change in our society. But other people were not afraid to hope. Their courage created a movement that is making change possible.
Tomorrow as we celebrate International Women’s Day, let’s give thanks for the hope and faith and love that empowered women and men to begin campaigning for equal rights in our society. The movement began in a formal sense at Seneca Falls in the mid 1840‘s. Then people hoped and worked for change for a long time.
In 1908, 15,000 women marched through New York City demanding shorter hours at work, better pay and voting rights. The first National Women’s Day was observed across the United States on February 28 of that year.
It became International Women’s Day the following year as women from around the world gathered in Copenhagen to unite in a global struggle for women’s rights.
Here at home one hope was strengthened in 1912 when Theodore Roosevelt’s Progressive Bull Moose Party became the first national political party to have a plank supporting women’s suffrage.
As men and women united in hope and love and a call for justice, the political climate changed. Eight years later, in 1920, the 19th amendment was ratified giving women the right to vote. Hope was realized, even if it took almost 50 years to happen.
Today, over 100 years later, International Women’s Day continues. It is a reminder that we still must advocate for women and marginalized people around the world.
When hope and faith and love are linked, they can change the world, and help us change our lives as well.
When a friend realized that she was powerless over alcohol and hoped she could change, she found a community of support in AA. Today she has been clean and sober for 23 years and is an active member of her church. Hope and faith and tough love changed her life.
My dad planted old zinnia seeds from their home garden in his new garden when they moved into their life care community. A neighboring gardener loaned him a shovel. Another gave him fertilizer. Dad hoped the seeds would grow. Mom had faith that “everything would be fine” and cried when the first armful of flowers was carried into their new home. “I just kept hoping they would bloom” she admitted.
Hope is a four letter. Simple and sacred. Remember its power, especially when linked with love and faith. Let’s use it all the time and change our lives and the world. Amen.