Where Hope is Found

March 16, 2003

The Rev. Carol DiBiasio-Snyder

Introduction to the scriptures

The Bible is full of hope . . . literally and figuratively! Dennis and Bridget are about to read a series of verses in which the word "hope" in found. As they read, let's listen both for the individual meaning of each verse, and also attend to the overall sense you get about hope in the Bible. Let's listen with - for - and about - hope.

A couple in our church is moving to a new home soon and in the inevitable sorting that goes with packing the wife came across an old sermon of mine she had saved. She brought it to church this week, amazed that while it was preached 12 years ago it was quite relevant today . . . this disturbed her. It disturbed me too.

The sermon was preached on January 20, 1991, the Sunday following the beginning of the Gulf War. There is eerie similarity between then and now. Here are a few sentences from the opening paragraphs:

I had hoped this would never happen, but since it has, I hope that it is only a once-in-a-lifetime experience. I hope that it is only once in a preacher's lifetime that she or he must stand in the pulpit to speak the Sunday after our country has gone to war . . . And I don't mind telling you I have struggled greatly with what to say.

The sermon goes on from there to talk about several other things . . . I spoke about how we still hadn't learned even after Vietnam how to understand that those who protest against the government's policies can be as patriotic as those who agree with the policies. I talked about our need for unity and that despite our different political ideas of how we best should get there, our common goal is world peace.

Well, as I said, there is an eerie similarity. Over the last months, I have heard many people talk about how powerless they feel, how anxious they are about the ramifications of what might happen, how hard it is to have any hope.

It is a challenging time to find hope. Where is hope found? I always find hope in our children, but I also worry about the kind of liabilities we are giving them as we hand the future to them. I look to scripture and expect to find hope there, and I do, in a way. I do put my hope in God, but admittedly that trust wavers as I watch our human inclination to solve problems globally like we did on the school playground.

I asked some church members why there is any reason for hope. They made some great points. "We have to hope in each person," one woman said. "We have to have the hope that even one person can make a difference. Think of Ghandi, or Martin Luther King, Jr., or Jesus, or . . ." and the list went on.

Another person said that hope for the future can come by looking to the past. When in the 50's we were practicing "duck and cover", who would have thought the Soviet Union would ever collapse? Before the Berlin Wall came down, who would have believed it would? Who would have ever imagined that apartheid would end in South Africa? And not only that, but who would have believed that after it ended there would be truth-telling and forgiveness and no bloodshed? Well the answer is, of course, many did not hope for these things, but despite the odds, some folks did hope and that hope drove them to action and that action changed history. So in a way that circles back to the idea that each person needs to have hope and can make a difference.

In an even more bold and optimistic statement, one person said that even if we go to war, perhaps we will learn from this. Perhaps we will see that even though we were not successful in finding an alternative to peace this time, perhaps we will another time.

Another person saw hope in a world made smaller and connected through the internet. The peace vigil tonight was organized in a few days and will involved huge numbers of people around the globe thanks to the internet.

Still another person said, sometimes, maybe more often than not, hope demands a decision. Hope is believing that the thing hoped for just might come to pass. Hope is making a decision to be part of bringing that thing to pass in whatever way, no matter now small your part may seem. Hope is trusting that God, who holds the future, is at work even when we cannot see it.

I'd like to end these thoughts today the same way I ended that sermon 12 years ago. I want to end with a prayer. It is a prayer that I hope will not only be a true prayer we send this morning to God, but I hope that it will also provide the opportunity for hope to grow in our hearts and minds. The prayer is a guided imagery prayer. In some recent children's messages, and just last week during communion, we have been trying this form of prayer. It is prayer made with images in your mind. I called it a "picture prayer" with the children.

Boys and girls, I've been talking more to the grown ups for the past few minutes, but now I hope you will join us now as we pray a special picture prayer for peace. With whatever measure of hope each of us has, no matter how weak, no matter how deep, let us open ourselves to the possibility of peace as we pray now together. Let us close our eyes and join our hearts and minds in prayer.

See in your mind's eye a nice neighborhood. Comfortable houses line the street, gardens blossom with flowers and the area is free of danger. People mingle together as caring neighbors, helping one another, laughing and sharing life. The rich smells of ethnic dishes being prepared mingle in the air. In one house is an American family, in another a Chinese family. Across the street is an Iraqi couple and next door live some Israelis. There are Palestinians, Germans and Turks, Russians and Africans, Indonesians, Pakistanis, Hispanics, and Native Americans. There is respect for one another's differences and genuine appreciation for each other and acknowledgment of our common humanity. Now ask God to make this image a reality.

Oh God, it is you in whom we find our hope. Do not disappoint us, we beg you. Amen.