Perceiving and cooperating with the good things God "is getting up to" in and around our parish.
Do not remember the former things, or consider the things of old. I am about to do a new thing; now it springs forth, do you see it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert. Isaiah 43:18-19
A Very Present HOPE
Hope is being able to see that there is light despite all of the darkness.
Desmond Tutu
As votes are cast throughout the nation at this hour, we may, regardless of our political affiliation, not know how to feel. In fact, we may be waiting until it's over to decide how we will feel.
As Christians, we are called to live and be a certain way in the world that doesn't come naturally. Jesus commands us to love one another, whether or not we feel particularly loving.
In his address to the Diocese of Olympia, Bishop Phillip reminds us that we are all called into the love of God that banishes all fear and that our hope is to be found in the living presence and ongoing work of Jesus Christ. I commend his brief address. It did my heart and soul good to listen to his words of wisdom: Fear Not, Embracing the Call to Love
So too, we are called to hope even, and especially, in the face of uncertainty and darkness. Desmond Tutu embodied a fierce hope that God and love would win out over the fear and oppression of Apartheid. So too, are we called to live in hope.
Saint John's: A Community for Hope.
For us, "Christian Hope is to live with confidence in newness and fullness of life, and to await the coming of Christ in glory, and the completion of God's purpose for the world." -Book of Common Prayer, p. 861. It is the inner conviction that whispers, "Even though it seems like all is lost, there is still life to be found, and I will do everything in my power to protect it."
Cynicism is the currency of despair - that dark belief that nothing we do matters, and that who we are is really not much. This leads us to also conclude that others don't really matter. Leaving us with hearts so withered that we become unable to experience, let alone see goodness.
Hope is not passive; it's an active participation in the unfolding of God's kingdom here on earth. It's the belief that God's ways—love, justice, and peace—are not confined to some distant future but are breaking into our world right now. It's a refusal to be limited by what we see with our own eyes, recognizing, as Saint Paul reminds us, that we only "see through a glass darkly." Hope trusts in the unseen, that "help is already on its way," as Elizabeth Barrett Browning so beautifully wrote. It's a fierce hope that refuses to be consumed by despair, proclaiming that light exists, that love will prevail, and that darkness will ultimately be overcome.
We gather at Saint John's because we hold onto the audacious belief that God became one of us so that we might become partakers in the divine nature. We strive to be one with each other and one with God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Some may scoff at this and say it's foolish, naive, even dangerous. We hear "The world is the way it is, get used to it," or "People never change." But we choose hope. We choose love. We choose to believe in the possibility of transformation both within ourselves and the world around us.
Blessings and peace,
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