14 Pentecost, Proper 16
25 Aug 2024
Rebecca Solnit (b. 1961), Hope in the Dark
Hope is not like a lottery ticket you can sit on the sofa and clutch, feeling lucky. Hope is an axe you break down doors with in an emergency. Hope should shove you out
the door, because it will take everything you have to steer the future away from endless war, from the annihilation of the earth’s treasures and the grinding down of the poor and marginal. Hope just means another world might be possible, not promised, not guaranteed. Hope calls for action; action is impossible without hope. To hope is to give yourself to the future, and that commitment to the future makes the present inhabitable. 1.
Hope is where we should start and where we should finish. As I was contemplating what I felt we needed to experience today, and, for that matter, in the coming weeks as we head into our presidential election, I pondered what it is that brings us together in our common humanity. Paul speaks of faith, love, and hope. If we are to survive as a people, a nation, a world we must hold all of this in our hearts and minds and in the way we live in the world.
I asked permission of the Bishop to use Jan Latham’s Eucharistic prayer today, which many of you have heard before, because we are Iowans, gathered in the late summer on what was, and in some places still is, a prairie. As climate change affects our lives, as politics tears us apart, we search for meaning. We could retreat from the world, separating ourselves and those things we label as divine from the rest of the world. We could proclaim that the way forward is to unite church and state as Constantine did, believing it would give him victory in battle and in politics. There are people who believe we should have a government, a nation, built on the same premise: that this nation is chosen by God, favored by God, and that only Christians of a certain persuasion, should have any authority.
Or we could actually listen to Jesus and eat of his flesh and drink his blood. That is a very difficult thing; look how many of Jesus’ disciples abandoned the Way after hearing his words. Will we be among those fair-weather disciples or will we stay the course? When you come forward for Eucharist, what does it mean to you? Do you think about the Beatitudes? How far are you willing to go? Do you feel joined with Christ and with each other? Today Jesus is making a big ask. As he looks at you he is asking, “Are you in or are you out?”
Are you in for striving for justice for all humans and all of creation? Are you in, knowing it may cost you your very lives? Are you in knowing that Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life and that means loving yourself, those around you, and those whom you will never like. It also means loving all of creation. God created the world and made us caretakers. Whenever we abuse any part of creation, we violate the covenant with God.
Wendell Berry, the mad farmer, put it this way:
Wendell Berry (b. 1934), The Gift of Good Land
To live, we must daily break the body and shed the blood
of Creation. When we do this knowingly, lovingly, skillfully,
reverently, it is a sacrament. When we do it ignorantly,
greedily, clumsily, destructively, it is a desecration. In such
desecration we condemn ourselves to spiritual and moral
loneliness, and others to want. 3.
We live in a state perhaps more altered by humans than any other. We have 8x as many hogs as people and the worst water quality of any state. The rural areas of this state are being hollowed out and agriculture becomes more and more corporate. The same thing happened, believe it or not, in ancient Israel, save for the hogs, as the wealthy were able to change the whole rural economy to benefit themselves and destroy the agrarian economy. Nothing new under the sun.
We are seeing the results in our communities and our churches. People are leaving rural communities and those of us left behind can easily lose hope.
But, as Rebecca Solnit said, hope calls for action. It is not passive. Do you want a world where your children can live in peace and without fear? Jesus offers us, through his teachings, his very life and death, a way. Again: he is the way!
We need to work with one another in our communities to bring life and wholeness. I like the idea I learned years ago: think globally, act locally. I cannot stop the war in Ukraine or Palestine, but I can support peacemaking. I cannot feed all the hungry, but I can support community-based agriculture and farming practices that help, rather than hurt, the environment. Jesus had no use for those who sought profit over people. Never, ever. Do you still think it a paradox that those who lose their lives will save it?
A Reading from Hope is Here! Spiritual Practices for
Pursuing Justice and Beloved Community, Luther Smith Jr.
The Rev. Dr. Luther E. Smith Jr. is Professor Emeritus of Church and
Community, Candler School of Theology, Emory University. He is the
author and editor of influential books on Howard Thurman, Christian
community, and spiritual practices.
I hear people’s anxiety about the present and future state of the world… All this has led many to feel and say, “The times have never been this bad!” Although I understand how people come to this conclusion, I also know that every generation has faced crises that threatened to rip apart their personal, social, and political foundations… We insult our ancestors by exclaiming that we are overwhelmed and incapacitated because we live in the worst of times. This is our season! This is our time! We cannot use the increased complexity of our times and lives as an excuse to withdraw from our distinctive challenges. Every generation has dealt with confusing new realities that led
to bewildering circumstances. Every generation has had the challenges and opportunities to embrace the work of hope. This is our time! This is our season! Hope is here to enliven us to life and the practices of justice and beloved community… Each one of us can be a sign of hope for this and future seasons. 2.
Each one of us can find the words of eternal life. Peter asked to whom else could he turn, for he knew what the bread of life was and that he was part of the great and wonderful creation God made for us and with us.
This is our time and our season. As we break the body and drink the blood, make it a sacrament and not a desecration.
Lightly condensed from Rebecca Solnit, Hope in the Dark: Untold
Histories, Wild Possibilities, 3rd ed. with new foreword and afterword
(Chicago, IL: 2016), 4.
Luther E. Smith, Jr., Hope is Here!: Spiritual Practices for Pursuing
Justice and Beloved Community (Louisville, KY: Westminster John
Knox Press, 2023), 186-188.
Wendell Berry, The Gift of Good Land: Further Essays Cultural
and Agricultural, (Berkeley, CA: Counterpoint, 1981), 281.
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