When Hope is Hard to Find
Sermon | December 13, 2020 | Rev. Julie Lombard
While having a lunch with a ministerial colleague (before the pandemic) at a market cafe another friend saw us there and stopped to sit with us for a while. The friend who joined us was not a minister. She’s a parishioner of a Unitarian Universalist Church in Concord, NH.
I was surprised to hear that she had just come from the Emergency Room. She looked healthy making me wonder if she’d been there with her child who has been in the hospital countless times. After all, she found me in the market while buying groceries.
She told me that she had woken up that morning thinking she was dying. After getting her child off to school, she drove herself to the ER. It turned out she had a panic attack. It’s not the first one she’s had, but she said this one felt different. She has had a complicated life, as we all do. She does well to live life, most days. She’s a single mom of an autistic transgender child. She’s one of the best moms I know. But to hear her admit that she thought she was dying when I don’t think she was even forty years old was difficult to hear just before the holidays.
Have any of you, like her, felt that out of sorts?
Is there anywhere we can feel safe these days? We are living in a pandemic that seems to change our lives on a daily basis. Three thousand people a day are dying making every day a new September 11th.
So, when another friend who has been the Board Chair of that same UU church in Concord, asked me on Thanksgiving Day, “How are things in Midland, Julie?” I responded, “It appears that the world is falling apart, but things are good in Midland.”
And they are. Have you noticed the positive spirit that has been pulsing in our church community? Maybe you felt it at the Fall Annual Meetings or at last week’s annual Mitten Tree Event.
Good things are happening here! And I am not just saying that because a few of our true friends dressed up like elves or that the Director of Religious Education pulled the Mitten Tree event together with grace. I thank goodness for our leaders because as the world aches with a pandemic fever, and it feels as if we can’t breathe… but here, we can breathe here in the hope that comes from being a part of a beloved community.
Harry Nutter’s song reminded us this morning that ” the way to beyond begins with you”. He was referring to the hard times the pandemic has brought us and how his true friends at church have brought him hope found in this sacred oasis.
Last Saturday, I found hope in this community from another direction. I was invited to join a Zoom meeting with Mayor Payton and other faith leaders. We were to discuss communicating a respectful and peaceful message of care for one another, one full of support for our hospital and the crisis they are fighting and to become a unified front laboring together.
Mayor Payton was seeking support from the churches to lead in this effort for December and I believe, beyond. So, I joined the Zoom call on Tuesday and I was in awe of the size of the group- nearly 50 faith leaders were gathered. I think the mayor was rather impressed, too. It humbled me, knowing for every faith leader that was there, there were others who could not attend. The size of the group was truly amazing.
He called upon us – the churches – to live out one simple message: “love your neighbor”.
This invitation to go beyond the leftover strife from the election and to love one another was why he gathered us. The hospital needs us to take all the pandemic precautions we can, the food bank and other support organizations desperately needs us to give generously, the schools need more substitute teachers, and retired heath care workers are being called back into service.
City Hall is aching since the recent death of our former city manager. This is the formal statement: The City of Midland is heartbroken to hear of the passing of former City Manager Courtney Sharp. Mr. Sharp served as City Manager for over 12 years and led Midland through many tough challenges. Through his legacy of public service Mr. Sharp acted as a leader, friend, and mentor for the employees of the City, as well as many Midland residents. 1https://www.cbs7.com/2020/12/06/former-midland-city-manager-dies/12/12/2020
The voices from opposing sides now showing up at City Hall and the anger that goes with it is not helping us to unite as needed, said the mayor. So, he called upon Midland’s people of faith to lead us beyond where we are. He didn’t tell us how to do it, but he is looking to us to be his partner.
This was not my first charge to ‘Love Your Neighbor’. In Concord, NH, I joined leaders to unite in solidarity after a hate crime had unjustly impacted a refugee family. Because of that hate, it inspired The Greater Concord Interfaith Council to start the “Love Your Neighbor” Coalition. 2https://www.facebook.com/Concord-NH-Love-YOUR-Neighbor-Coalition-138046059627561/12/12/2020
Before you knew it, bright yellow and black signs, saying “Love Your Neighbor”, were spread throughout the city taped to windows and doors in businesses on Main Street and homes in cul-de-sacs; one even made it to Midland with me.
Folks, we have been called to spread love abundantly this holiday season- a love that will help Midlanders overcome any difference of opinion. We must not be idle.
Despite hearing on the radio: “It’s the most wonderful time of the year!” We know that it is not for all. Adding to those who usually struggle with this season, they are joined by those challenged by the pandemic. This pandemic is real, y’all, and Midland’s mayor knows it.
So, when I found today’s reading titled: Advent Apocalypse I thought, “Now that sounds about right for what we’ve been experiencing.” And with the anniversary of the Bombing of Pearl Harbor on December 7 th, we know this is not the first time it seemed like the world as we know it is coming to an end.
For those who do not consider themselves anywhere remotely Christian, the merriness of this season can impede on one’s core values and leave a sour aftertaste of Capitalism that hides under a thin vale called faith. So, for any of you who experience this season of hope as challenging, you have extra company this year. You are not alone.
It can be wicked hard to find hope now. What do you do when hope is hard to find? It’s a struggle to live in these two worlds at once; one of uncertainty and one of hope.
That’s the entire point of Advent, it’s a time sets aside for us to live in these two paradoxical worlds. We are meant to be challenged by it. Another song begins to play in my head, this time it’s by the Moody Blues and they’re singing their song called ‘The Voice’. In that song they ask us, “And how many times will it be this way? With your arms around the future and your back up against the past? You’re already falling. It’s calling you on to face the music and the song that is coming through. You’re already falling. The one it is calling is you.”
That is the through line in the season of hope. It makes us question: What can we do in time like this? Where can we find hope when sadness and isolation overwhelms us as the days grow shorter and we slip into a darkness that seems to last longer than we think we can bear? This is no time to go it alone; we must unite.
Vulnerability expert, bestselling author, Brene Brown teaches us that it is human for us to pull back when we feel vulnerable and at our weakest moments. It’s natural, but she urges us to instead lean in. That is where hope can be found- by leaning into the promise a beloved community can offer. That is also why the mayor called upon us to join him to lean in the charge: Love Your Neighbor.
I believe being a part of a faith community offers an extra special element of hope throughout the year especially in a pandemic year because it offers those who gather a much needed dose of certainty and confidence that we will get through these toughest times together.
A prime example of this comes from our Judeo side of our Unitarian Universalist tradition; from the story of the Maccabees – the Hanukkah story. We remember when Jews were being oppressed by an over-powering empire. The leaders were cruel; thousands of Jews were killed after a series of harsh decrees were enacted. Their worship was forbidden; their scrolls confiscated, burned, and rituals were prohibited under penalty of death.
There was no guarantee that everything would be alright just because they did their best to survive, same here and now for us. That’s why the Hanukkah message of the oil that kept burning is so important. It assures us that hope remains alive and it might even surprise us.
The old story of a lamp that kept burning says something new to us today; “Hold on to your light. The spark within us will shine brightly. Our world needs our gathered light. Have faith that there is enough light to get us through these darkest times. Fear not, all that is holy shines through us when we unite.”
You may not feel the warmth of your own spark, but that is why we gather to share the warmth of love with one another. We cannot alone love Midland beyond the present day challenges. We must join together with Mayor Payton to Love Your Neighbor.
The Maccabees’ story is one that tells of a community’s strength – one that could bring hope when hope is hard to find. They endured and so will we. Their story of the oil that kept burning is a story of hope for us to receive and share.
Advent does not deny that uncertainty is in our lives. It reminds us in the midst of that uncertainty, life still goes on and that we can find comfort in the hope found in a beloved community. Together, we are stronger and when we share our light, our light will brighten a darkened world.
May it be so. Amen.
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