Hope Rises

That peace

will rise like bread

we can always hope

 

That justice

will flow like wine

we can always hope

 

That the table

will make strangers kin

we can always hope

 

That our hope

will rise like bread

we can always pray

                     Jan Richardson  In Wisdom’s Path

_____________________

 

we stumble dazedly out of a demented year

like crazed teenagers in a horror movie

having made every bad choice available

 

we have chosen individual freedom over common good

Chosen retribution instead of reconciliation

Chosen domination instead of servanthood

Chosen violence instead of dialog

 

and now

we stumble toward a new year

uncertain of whether we

are running away from danger or into danger

 

“ya’ll better hold on tight” one sage proclaimed

“2020 is fixin’ to turn 21 and start drinking”

 

but we want to hope

we are built, I think, for hope

 

we hope as people have always hoped

for peace, and justice and equity

we hope that people will learn to live together

 

in a world where all are valued

all are welcomed

all are accepted

where all gather, together, at the table of Love

 

but where do we find true reason for hope?

 

the Instagram poet Atticus once wrote

“some say

the sun is god –

and you don’t see

the sun

minding

who it warms”  (The Truth About Magic)

 

we find hope in the sun

we find hope in the sun rise

we find hope in the snowcapped mountain

that looms in the light of a full moon

 

we find hope in the light

 

not just the light of the sun

but in the light was incarnation

in the light that was Jesus

 

we find hope in the fact that the light came into the darkness

and was not overcome

we find hope in the reality that the light comes, and come, and come again

into the dark corners of our hearts

into our lives

and is not overcome

 

We find hope in the fact that when we believe in, and embrace Love,

believe in the incarnate presence that was (Jesus)

and believe (ongoing) in the incarnate presence that is (the Spirit)

we have the “power” to be Sacred Children, all of us

 

Believing is not a belief

It is not intellectual assent

 

It is the active ongoing embracing of love

of hope

 

it is trust, intimacy

commitment, passion

 

it is opening, letting go

it is being taken over

by the yeast of heaven

 

so that hope rises

like bread