Lighting Hope

Tonight is our annual Community Tree Lighting!! Please join us and pass along the word. We’ll sing. We’ll brighten the dark, night sky. We’ll feed the birds. We’ll enjoy hot chocolate and cookies. 5pm on the Park.

This has been a week of illness and grief, of disappointment and sickness, of cancellations and changes, of anger and name-calling, of shopping grumpiness and impatience, of meanness and hate. This has been a week of loss.

Seems like a lot of “stuff” to be brining into December, which is supposed to be a time of rejoicing and happiness. A time of Christmas carols and Christmas lights and Christmas baking and Christmas shopping. Happy Christmas movies.

At the same time…it seems right to be carrying all of what actually is into this Sunday. The first Sunday of Advent. The Sunday of…Hope.

To quote Cornelius Snow: “Hope. It is the only thing stronger than fear.” A Hunger Games reference? Really Charlotte? Anyway…According to Snow, a little bit of hope is a good thing to control people and keep them down (just enough to not be real capital “H” Hope). That hope is like the dangling carrot in front of a horse, always just out of reach. By the way, Snow is the “bad guy” in the Hunger Games. According to Snow, a lot of hope is a dangerous thing, because a lot of hope can change the world to the better…for all.

Hope and loss are inextricably entangled. Loss has an incredible amount of power, but like hope, and maybe with hope, it needs direction. Loss can lead us toward or away. Sometimes it leads us seemingly away and then back. And it can be messy. Really messy. That’s okay. Feel loss. Be messy. It’s okay. It’s okay to not be okay.

Loss can lead us toward or away from Hope. Toward one another and toward God. Or away from one another and away from God.

Toward love, connection, creativity, a greater work, a greater Good.
Away to fear, anger, greed, hate, disconnection and distortion.

Grief and loss destroys and it creates.

We’re a long way from the cross, but perhaps the cross is a symbol of this possibility in each of us. This idea that there is both the worst of us and the best of us in each of us. The worst in us can torture horribly; let’s not pretend that the cross isn’t a terrible, horrible torture device. The best in us can be compassionate and forgiving under the worst of circumstances—horrible torture.

Pain and loss both destroys and creates. Its creativity and growth is imbedded in Hope. Hope is the very beginning to the Christian Journey and calendar. Hope begins the season in the midst of Darkness and even though things are dark and in despair and we wonder where God is and if God will come or if God is even there…we hold tight to hope. We light the first candle of Hope today to mark the beginning of this dark season with one single, lonely light. Hope.

In many ways, Advent is a season of loss and in that loss waiting and building faith. Hope is not passive. Passive hope leads to what Snow is hoping for. A subdued and oppressed people. People mired in despair waiting for someone else to do something. Active hope leads toward a better world despite and maybe because of what is. Advent asks something of us. Risk in loss. To trust in the darkness. To have hope when it feels impossible. To have hope when we’re not sure where God is…or if God even exists.

Hope is then and now and to come. Notice all the tenses in the readings that carry us back and forward and then into now. These words are beautifully grounded in the the here and now. Hope as action is asked of us in the here and now.

This week (and each week) with all the messiness and ugliness and sadness opened opportunities to tend and to care and to be and to be with one another. PAUSE. It was a week to remind us of the Great Work of ministering to one another. Of Loving one another. And you ALL did it in one way or another. We set aside calendars and to-dos and let the days unfold with trust and hope. We tended to what was most important.

This first Sunday of Hope asks us to be alert. Alert to the coming of Christ, of Light, of God…but perhaps also to be alert to life. There’s the then/before, and the to come, but grounded in that is the here and now. Alert to opportunities to Hope and to Tend. To help and bear witness.

Be alert that we don’t turn away, but turn toward. Toward God and Good Work. Toward one another and those who needs us the most. Our work is to process loss with the help of hope in our own way (kids story shows us the ways we manage the darkness in our own ways—there’s no one “right” way). We’re all in different places.

We see this in the circles of grief. Have you heard of the circle of grief? At the center of the circle, there is The Loss. There are those circles closest to the center and those encircling those closest to the center. The farther out you are in the rings, the bigger your job to support and hugging inward (which is actually outward toward another person or persons). The more the work is to show up and tend. The closer in your are to the inner rings, the less supporting you are responsible for. That work is to heal and be supported by those outer rings. And if you’re at the very center…the rules go out the window. It’s okay to not be okay. But remember you are encircled by one another and by grace and with hope.

Our Work is to be alert to tend to the Light in the darkness and to not be swallowed up by the darkness: John 1

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning. 3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. 4 In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

We are small, individual beings. So fragile and so precious. Loss highlights this with big bold messy highlighters! Hope highlights this.

Tend to the light in your own heart and each other. Lean toward one another and Grace, even and maybe especially in the sharp points of life. Lean in. Hug in. Hold tight. Keep Hope. Keep the Light. Pass it on….