Hope is complicated

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What’s the right thing to do?  What does this earth require of us if we want to live on it

          Wendell Berry

 

I don’t want your hope.  I don’t want you to be hopeful.  I want you to panic… and act as if the house is on fire because it is.

          Greta Thunberg

 

“Give justice to the weak and the fatherless; maintain the right of the afflicted and the destitute,” (Psalm 82:3).

 

“Learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, and please the widow’s cause,” (Isaiah 1:17).

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The world is burning

lightening like Devil forks rain down from the sky

igniting

forests gasping for water

 

people gather

not to worship or pray

but to scream rage and listen to rage

word salad

lies

promises of power and retribution

drop like pebbles

into empty hearts

heavy

leaving bent people

 

bullets fly

desperation and hopelessness

free floating anger

displaced

misplaced

as politicians duck and children die

 

some stand aside

and watch

powerful enough, rich enough

detached

content

powerful people don’t want regime change

rich people don’t want equity

the privileged don’t care about justice

 

and in this burning, dangerous world

sliding into chaos and destruction

we stand

 

hoping

 

Why?

Because God has this?

Because love wins?

Because someday, one day it will all be over

and we will walk streets of gold?

 

some dare to hope because they are shielded by privilege

some do not dare hope for anything

on this side of death

so look beyond

 

But is it that simple?

That God is in control,?

That resolution lies on “the other side”?

 

Hope is complicated (Brian McLaren, Life after Doom p. 73ff)

Hope cannot simply be “hope-ium… palliative care to the oppressed

between now and their death.” (p. 75)

 

Hope is not an anesthetic.

Hope is something we live.

 

It is fighting for justice and equity

feeding the hungry

giving water to the thirsty

It is resisting empire

and building community

 

It is the antithesis

of complacency

and despair

 

It is believing that we must do

what we can do

and that we can do

something

 

because we are Sacred Children

and in each of us

the Spirit has pitched a tent

and we are filled

to overflowing

 

Hope is seeing that the world is good

It is seeing God in the mountains

it is seeing God in the person next to us

it is believing that we can do small things

that matter

 

It is believing (as Brian McLaren puts it)

“We are really, really f@(ked  and at the same time that

life is really, really good”  p. 77

 

So today

I am going to have hope

and I am going to plot good

and then I am going to go to bed

and get up

and do it again!

 

(even if nothing changes)