Hope is a participation in the very life of God. It has nothing to do with circumstances or events going well. It can even thrive in the midst of adversity and trial. True faith, which always includes hope and love, is a predisposition to “yes.” I would go so far as to say that a foundational “yes” is the most distinguishing element between an ego- and fear-based agenda and a Spirit-guided one.
— Richard Rohr on "participatory hope."
Last Sunday, at Reedwood Friends Church, Mark Condo spoke on "The Magical Mystery Tour of Hope." He quoted the underlined part of Richard Rohr's paragraph above. The whole message is well worth hearing, but I was especially struck by two aspects of this kind of hope.
First is the point that Richard Rohr's words emphasize: Hope is not dependent on favorable circumstances. As Mark put it,
Hope isn't a mood we work up when the road is smooth. It is God's own life moving through us, even through life’s potholes, unexpected detours, and the long stretches of road in the night of our lives.
The second point Mark made is that hope can sometimes be hard to see, but we don't have to seek it alone.
Whenever that’s the case, perhaps we know it's time to get others involved. If hope is what I’ve said, a spiritual gift, and what Scripture describes as something “poured into us”, right?—In my life, whenever I’ve been poured into, it's been through relationships.... It's my relationships that help ... churn up hope within me. That's been true to my experience. It's like I'm not strong enough on my own to do it myself, but I need others to help me see hope, to define hope, and to experience hope. Relationships through people who believe in me.
If I look back on my own life, I can now notice how those relationships include people I may never have met before they appeared at moments of crisis with the direction and support I needed. I can't help but call them angels. My whole time in Russia, when things looked impossible (including trying to follow the rules to keep our work permits!), someone would appear with unanticipated guidance. And in some cases, that person would actually be a government official, trying to look appropriately stern, but with a twinkle in the eye.... Ask me sometime offline what happened when we tried to get our work visas renewed without a crucial health insurance document.
These two aspects of hope—its validity and power in hopeless times, and the community's crucial role, are embedded in George Fox's letter to Friends in 1663, during a time of persecution. I'm following Ben Richmond's formatting of this letter in The Poetry and Passion of the Lamb's War. Notice that Fox's letter starts out with a greeting and advice that assumes community relationships, addressing "... ye children of the day and of the light."
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| Yes, it's shamelessly sentimental, but I like it! (AI generated the graphic from my prompts and Fox's text.) |
[I.]
Sing and rejoice,
ye children of the day and of the light;
for the Lord is at work
in this thick night of darkness
that may be felt.And truth doth flourish as the rose,
and the lilies do grow among the thorns,
and the plants atop of the hills,
and upon them the lambs do skip
and play.And never heed the tempests
nor the storms, floods nor rains,
for the seed Christ is over all,
and doth reign.And so be of good faith and valiant for the truth:
for the truth can live in the jails.
And fear not the loss of the fleece,
for it will grow again;and follow the lamb,
if it be under the beast's horns,
or under the beast's heels;
for the lamb shall have the victory
over them all.[II.]
And so all live in the seed Christ,
your way, that never fell;
and you do see over all the ways
of Adam's and Eve's sons and daughters
in the fall.And in the seed Christ, your way,
you have life and peace;
and there you do see
over all the ways of Adam in the fall,
in which there is no peace.So in the seed Christ stand and dwell,
in whom you have life and peace;
the life that was with the Father
before the world began.
Mark Condo's queries to us last Sunday:
Queries on Hope
1 Do I treat hope as something I have to work up on my own, or can I receive it as the life of God poured into my heart?
2 Who has poured hope into your life by believing in you? How might you be able to pour hope into someone else this week?
Looking back on old posts, I can see there's been a certain preoccupation with hope.
Hope is not just for eternity, part one.
"You can never learn that Christ is all you need...."
"The mere sound of his name will signal hope."
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| RUSSIA. BOMBS. UKRAINE. Novaya gazeta's first issue after Russia's full-scale invasion began. |
Three days ago, a Russian newspaper, simply called "The New Newspaper," published its last issue. Here's an article in the Kyiv Independent.
Novaya gazeta had a tagline I admired: "We use the same alphabet but different words."
A related publication based outside Russia, Novaya gazeta Europe, continues.
Peter Wehner on the U.S. midterm election as "A Good Night for the Christian Faith."
Jemar Tisby wonders if we can truly understand "Why Scott Colom's Victory Feels Like 145 Years of Blood, Tears, and Hope." See Tisby's video on Instagram, too. He reminds us: "The joy of this moment cannot be separated from the suffering that preceded it."
Tina Blohm and Yvonne Bloss: Is there a "Mission Possible" at COP31?
If we're wondering whether Anthropic's genial usher Claude has a soul, Shadi Hamid advises us to "Ask God, Not Anthropic."
"Lean On Me" (Luke Winslow-King) performed by Playing for Change's transoceanic band.
[Verse 1]
You can lean on me brother
I believe you’ve carried too long
You can lean on me brother
I believe you’ve carried too long
You can lean on me brother
I believe you’ve carried too long
It’s such a long, long way, back home
[Verse 2]
You can lean on me stranger
I believe you’ve carried too long
You can lean on me stranger
I believe you’ve carried too long
You can lean on me stranger, I believe you’ve carried too long
It’s such a long, long way, back home
[Chorus]
We’re just leaning (leaning) leaning (leaning)
On the everlasting arms
I’ve been leaning (leaning) leaning (leaning)
On the everlasting arms
We still leaning (leaning) leaning (leaning)
On the everlasting arms
It’s such a long, long way, back home
