I will admit to frequently quoting from the American Theologian and social activist Jim Wallis. Jim has repeatedly used the statement – “hope is belieiving in spite of the evidence, and watching the evidence change” in his writings and in his appearances. He even says – “it’s my best line.” In a video of his key note address at a Conference in Toronto in the year 2000, he said it was the first thing he said to his new born son because “it is my best line.”
It’s also speaking an eternal truth ... hope is believing in spite of the evidence, and watching the evidence change. It’s true – that’s what we are called to be when it comes to living our faith ...
BUT more than just being passive observers, we are also called to be part of the process. We are called to embody, proclaim, live and share that hope and be part of the transformative action that comes as hope changes the evidence ...
Our reading from the book of Jeremiah is one of those scriptural passages that reinforced and informs the notion of being a people of hope. The prophet Jeremiah is in a time and place where there is an abundance of almost every emotion BUT hope. They are an occupied and oppressed people. The heavy heel of a foreign army is grinding the people and the country into the dirt ... there is absolutely nothing to be hopeful about, and there is every reason to be fearful and hopeless.
Yet the prophet stands up and buys a field in territory firmly controlled by the enemy ... this would be like someone from the US heading over to Iran or North Korea and buying a business, or a tract of land ... it is unthinkable and it is unheard of ... yet, Jeremiah not only does it, he dares to point at his action as an example of being faithful.
How can buying a field in enemy territory in the middle of a war be regarded as faithful ?
As I considered this text a few examples came to mind ... the first was that of American activist Greg Mortenson who has penned the books Three Cups of Tea and Stones into Schools about his life long journey to build schools in some of the most remote and isolated corners of the world.
Over the last two decades Mortenson has been quietly building schools in the cast mountainous regions that border and include the Himalayan mountains in Afghanistan, Pakistan, India and Iraq. Over and over Mortenson has gone into areas where aid agencies and government ministries fear to tread and has built schools where young boys and girls recieve an education thanks to the courageous actions of their village elders, and those who support and back Mortenson in his work.
One story Mortenson relates about his work embodies the very hope that Jeremiah offered so many centuries ago ... Mortenson tells of being approached by a group of men from an area in Afghanistan that was historically a strong hold of the Taliban. These rough, bearded horseman – essentially medieval warriors with modern semi-automatic weapons called on Mortenson and asked him to meet with them to discuss building a school ... Mortenson’s one condition in building a school is that the girls of the village MUST be educated there too ... and against the backdrop of the Taliban and all of the oppressive and repressive things it did to women and girls came this meeting ...
The elders from the region in question and Mortenson agreed to meet at a school that was already constructed and running. In an interview last year on CBC Mortenson described the moment of meeting these tough desert men at the school. They were armed with an assortment of AK-47’s and other semi-automatics. They were dressed in dark black robes, and stood with scowls on their faces ... then they noticed the playground equipment ...
For the next 45 minutes the men laid down their weapons and clamoured on the swings and play structures like little boys ... when it was finally time to meet Mortenson laid out his expectations for the school and was met with an enthusiastic “yes, yes ... will it have that?” one of the elders motioned to the playground structure ...
In that moment, these men who had likely spent almost ALL of their adult life fighting ... first the Russians, then then various Mujahadeen forces that lead to the rise of the Taliban, and more recently the NATO lead forces, had perhaps for the first time been able to PLAY ... really play ... play like little kids ... and it not only offered hope ... it began to change them ... Like a biblical Jeremiah, Greg Mortenson’s decision to honour his sister, and thank a Himalayan village for saving his life, has one school at a time transformed village after village ... all because he has dared literally – to buy a field and build a school in what many would regard as enemy territory.
Such is the embodiment of hope ... Hope is about seeing past the values of this moment, and committing to what is right ...
Our New Testament and Gospel readings pick up another thread of this notion by challenging us to look for what is TRULY important as we live our lives ...
In our reading from 1 Timothy, it begins with a warning to be content in our lives ... the trap of riches is that we want more and more and more, and in the process we are less and less content.
Then Paul shifts to the powerful call of fighting the good fight of faith ...
The same call runs through the parable Jesus tells of the poor beggar Lazarus and the rich man who ignored him sitting by his front door ... when the beggar and the rich man die they find themselves in the afterlife ... the beggar is in heaven, and the rich man is in a less paradise-like place ... The Rich Man begs for someone to go and warn his brothers, lest they share his fate ... the reply to his appeal is telling ... They need only listen to the teachings of Moses and the prophets and they will be saved. Even the appearance of ‘one risen from the dead’ will not change their hearts.
It’s a telling story ... it’s an uncomfortable story ...
What has the rich man gained from all his wealth and power? But more importantly is the question – what have WE learned about our lives from this story ?
What is important to us as we live and move through this life of ours?
We can amass all the wealth in the world, but if in our quest to protect it, we become reclusive and paranoid like Howard Hughes reportedly did, what have we really gained?
We are called to be a people of hope ... to use the time, the talents, and the treasures we’ve been entrusted with, to transform the world. We are called to not only passively watch the evidence around us change, but to be part of the process ... we can point to folks like Greg Mortenson, and countless others who are doing their small bits to bring about change and feel ourselves inadequate to the task, or we can start doing what we can one action at a time ...
I’ve always been fond of the story about a young girl and her grandfather walking along a beach after a big storm passed by. Scattered across the sand are hundreds and hundreds of star fish that are slowly drying out in the sun ... the little girls runs from star fish to star fish picking them up and tossing them back into the deeper water ... “Oh honey,” the grandfather finally says after watching her actions, “why are you bothering? There are so many starfish washed up on the beach,” his hand motions over the countless starfish scattered across the sans, “what difference can you possibly make?” The little girl smiles, picks up a star fish and tosses it back into the water ... “Made a difference to THAT ONE,” she says triumphantly as she picks up another and repeats the action ...
It might not seem like much, but each action makes a difference, and together, enough small actions CAN bring about enormous change ... even when the actions might seem borderline crazy:
In the movie Evan Almighty, there is a scene where Evan’s wife is struggling with the absurdity of Evan building an ark like Noah’s not far from Washington DC. After being elected to the Congress, Evan Baxter a former broadcaster from Buffalo has been told by God to prepare for a pending flood by building an ark.
Evan’s wife has finally decided for the good of their children she needs to leave – she needs to get away from her husband who been mockingly called the New York Noah because f the massive wooden ark he has been building beside their home. The Biblical appearance of Evan with his long flowing beard, and expansive robes and cloaks isn’t helping much either ...
So, in the scene Evan’s wife is sitting in a diner and has a conversation with the waiter who also happens to be “God”.
After confessing to who her husband is, God replies that he likes New York Noah and thinks what he is doing is a love story about believing in each other ... he explains by asking: “If someone prayers for patience, do you think God gives them patience, or does he give them the opportunity to be patience? If he prays for courage, does God give them courage or does he give them opportunity to be courageous? If someone prayed for family to be closer, do you think God zaps them with warm fuzzy feelings, or does he give them opportunities to love each other?”
As a people of faith – a people of hope, we are called to be about more than just maintaining the status quo ... we are called to have the boldness and courage to buy fields in enemy territory, to build schools in remote corners of the world, to build arks and prepare for the pending floods ... we are called to heed the whisper of faith that asks us – that challenges us to live our lives following God’s will and God’s plan.
It may not be easy, and God knows sometimes it might cause people to look at us funny ... but taking a risk in faith, and living our lives as people of hope. It is as Joan Chittister says:
“Life is not one road. It is many roads, the walking of which provides the raw material out of which we find hope in the midst of despair. Every dimension of the process of stuggle is a call to draw from a well of new understandings. It is in these understandings that hope dwells. It is that wisdom that carries us beyond the dark night of struggle to the dawn of new wisdom and new strength.” (p. 107)
May it be so, thanks be to God, let us pray ...
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