Hope, Here and Now

Sermon | December 6, 2020 | Rev. Julie Lombard

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After the death of her husband, Jo had no idea how she would keep herself together and be strong for her children. The holiday season was fast approaching and she was not in the mood to deal with it or much else.  

She was feeling as though life was being held together by some sort of fragile silk that might tear at any moment. Her eldest, a teenage son, was seldom home by curfew or any other time. Her youngest, a daughter, was non-stop badgering her about when they would get their Christmas tree. Jo didn’t have the heart to tell them that she ran over and flattened their Christmas Tree stand. It was conveniently hiding out of sight, flat as a pancake under the family car in their garage.  

Jo tried to shop, but her heart wasn’t in it. She knew her children deserved a good holiday, but being a single parent, taking care of them, the meals, the shopping, going to work, and the shear amount of grief that comes months after the loss of a spouse was mounting some sort of evil plot to hi-jack their holidays.  

She was tired. It could have been because she was sleeping on the couch since her husband died in their bed. She couldn’t return to their bed, their bedroom became a tomb she avoided. She was exhausted in ways she didn’t know could exist, but she kept on going for her family.  

When I say she kept going it was far from business as usual… she stopped questioning her eldest when he came home late, she forgot to make cupcakes for the holiday party at school for her youngest. She knew she was not being the mother she ought to be, but she had no idea how to deal.

Twelve days before Christmas, presents began appearing on their doorstep with notes from their “True Friends.” The first gift was a poinsettia that was left at their back door. As her daughter got swept up in its unexpected arrival, Jo could care less. Well, she was a little curious who left it. As her daughter stared over the plant studying the card that came with it, Jo set off to find out who was the secret Santa.  

Each night another gift appeared and it came with a note saying it was from their “true friends”. The cards were different, but similar. The gift items were also different, but their numbers grew just like the twelve days of Christmas song. They didn’t receive the same items in the song, no 5 golden rings, but the playful parody was changing their lives day by day.  

As the family came together to solve the mystery of who the gifts were from, they began to thaw from their grief.  The greater miracle that happened was the gifts helped them to come together again as a family.  

Theirs is a true story about the power of random acts of kindness in the darkest of days. It’s a beautiful reminder of the miracles that appear during this season. Joanne Huist Smith authored this true story titled: The 13th Gift: A True Story of a Christmas Miracle. It’s a heartwarming story about how kindness transformed the bleakest winter in a family’s life into a time of strength, love, and hope, here and now.¹Joanne Huist Smith, The 13th Gift: A True Story of a Christmas Miracle (New York :Penguin Random House Company, 2014), 12/03/2020  

When I read this story, I was in a bit of a humbug-mood myself. I haven’t had a great loss like Jo. But this is my first holiday season away from my family. They’re all home in NH, huckering down as the pandemic ramps up.   In challenging times like these, I think of Francesca McCall, the single Black mother in Alabama who took in her sister’s five children after both parents died of covid. You may think, who does that? Takes in five children? 

Here’s the really surprising part, Francesca has seven children of her own and now she is taking care of all 12 in order to keep the family together. She’s no super hero or millionaire. She’s just an aunt who doesn’t want these kids to lose anything else. She works from home while she tries to get the kids connected to remote schooling on-line. If you can imagine, all the boys share one bedroom while the girls share two rooms. The youngest is just a toddler and the older kids, teens. She says it’s chaotic at times, her mother is helping out, and she wouldn’t want it any other way.²https://www.news.meredithlmg.com/general/alabama-woman-raising-12-kids-after-her-sister-and-brother-in-law-died-from-covid/article_3b343982-c3f3-5e99-b55a-2bddfbdee61c.html, 12/03/2020  

Francesca is the face of hope, here and now. And if you want to help them, there’s a go fund me page³https://www.gofundme.com/f/sister-vows-to-care-for-deceased-sister039s-children, 12/03/2020 where you can be one of their “true friends”. Look for the go fund me page titled: sister-vows-to-care-for-deceased-sister’s-children or get the link from this sermon after it is posted on our website.  

For me, I’ve got it easy compared to Jo or Francesca. Life will be different for my family at home without me being there for much of the holiday season. My humbug attitude is me resisting all of the change. This is what I call a fancy problem after thinking about others. I am not a single mother. I did not lose my husband or avoid sleeping in my husband’s death bed. I ought to have no trouble remaining open to the everyday miracles that occur in this great giving universe. Miracles like Francesca caring for twelve children or the ‘true friends’ that brought gifts to Jo’s family to cheer them up.  

That doesn’t mean we do not struggle this time of year. Every one of us waits for a renewed sense of hope that is suppose to arrive in the holiday season. But trying to find hope in the midst of a pandemic is trying. We are waiting… waiting for hope, here and now.   

November brought me some surprising challenges and that can happen to all of us.  And when the ‘perfect storm’ occurs in our lives, we can easily feel overwhelmed by the sheer amount of what’s happening. We go in search of lifelines to keep us tethered and connected through the toughest storms. Recently, I have been shown all sorts of amazing lifelines. They come like small miracles in the shape friends staying connected with me and a much needed week with my family over Thanksgiving.  

These things have no shape at all, really, but come as miracles just the same and help me to remember that hope is present. A few years back, while I was sermonating, a parishioner called me. “Is it a good time to talk?” she asked, “I have an incredible story I’d like to share with you.”  

She interrupted my sermon writing to tell me about a miracle. It turns out that a gift giver had been searching for her and it had been quite the ordeal just to locate her since her move. When the gift arrived, she could hardly believe it. She had been a part of a lawsuit she didn’t even know existed and received a settlement as a part of some great social justice scheme that the universe brought forth. She humbly received the gift, and knew that it must be shared. Her call helped to remind me that miracles do happen and angels are everywhere.  

In the Children’s Parable titled: The Little Soul and The Sun, by Neale Donald Walsch, from Conversations With God, the Little Soul anxiously waits to experience life, ready to give thanks to whatever other soul might share in that experience.  

Whenever a new soul appeared, whether that new soul brought joy or sadness–and especially if it brought sadness–the Little Soul thought of what God had once said to them, “Always remember,” God said with a smile, “I have sent you nothing but angels.”⁴http://www.sapphyr.net/largegems/littlesoul-thesun.htm, 12/03/2018  

Today we have witnessed miracles and angels. We shine brighter because of it. We acknowledge that we, too, have an obligation to brighten one another’s lives. We may not know what the gift will be, whether we will be the giver or receiver, but let us have faith in one another – our ‘True friends”.  

No matter if you are suffering from a loss like Francesca or Jo and families who face the holidays without loved ones, or you are that special someone who is facing the holidays after receiving an unexpected joyful miracle that arrived in the mail making your life a lot easier, know that hope does arrive, even here and now.  

Let us give thanks and praise that there will be more hope to come. Like a seed deeply planted, let us be fully alive as the wait for hope begins. And when the wait is over, let it be a dance we do.