Hope in Challenging Times

I rarely post "sermons" here... but last Sunday a couple of those who were present at the Grosvenor Hall suggested that I might do so... so here it is, in its un-edited glory... Please forgive the inevitable typos...

OLD TESTAMENT READING: Jeremiah 33:14-16

GOSPEL READING:  Luke 21: 25-36

On Thursday morning, with a hard frost on the ground I came down to breakfast to have Sally tell me that having let the cat out, and swiftly back in again after her morning necessities, a little robin that regularly follows her round the garden when she is working, flew across the patio and perched on the back of one of our chairs sitting there, looking through the doorway, waiting for her to come out with the mealworms that she regularly puts out for it…

And it reminded me of the famous poem “Hope” by Emily Dickinson,

        Hope is the thing with feathers

        That perches in the soul,

        And sings the tune without the words,

        And never stops at all,

        And sweetest in the gale is heard;
        And sore must be the storm
        That could abash the little bird
        That kept so many warm.

        I've heard it in the chillest land,
        And on the strangest sea;
        Yet, never, in extremity,
        It asked a crumb of me.

Emily Dickinson

Hope seems to be a fragile thing... Hard to maintain in the face of all that is going on in the world around us... But actually, depending on where we place our hope this “thing with feathers” is remarkably robust and can be found in the “chilliest land.” 

Luke in today’s reading is reporting Jesus’ words to his disciples, telling them that
they will see “the Son of Man coming in a cloud” with power and great glory.

Luke 21: 27 (NRSVA)

And that their

redemption is drawing near.

Luke 21: 28 (NRSVA)

But that was around 30 years before Luke wrote his gospel... a thirty year wait for the fulfilment of a promise is a long time... Then again in this passage this Jesus was drawing on a range of prophetic promises going back another 600 years and more that, in the words we read from Jeremiah today:

The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will fulfil the promise I made to the house of Israel and the house of Judah.

Jeremiah 33:14 (NRSVA)

And 2000 years on from Jesus’ words, in many ways we are still waiting for the fulfilment of the promise... Yet some of what he says seems as if he could be reading the current news headlines... He says that

There will be... distress among nations confused by the roaring of the sea and the waves.

Luke 21: 25 (NRSVA)

And in recent months we have seen devastating hurricanes in the US, and last week storms Barry and Conall battered us last week in quick succession, causing flooding all across the UK... With more to come next week from storm Darragh so we are told...

In the next verse Jesus tells us that

People will faint from fear and foreboding of what is coming upon the world.

Luke 21: 26 (NRSVA)

And psychologists tell us that the current generation of young people in the west are coping with existential angst in the face of job insecurity, inability to make lasting relationships, uncertainty about housing, and to continue the previous point, potential climate collapse. Some may mock "Gen-Z" as a generation of "snowflakes", but these are genuine fears and where is the hope in any of that? Where is the redemption Jeremiah and Jesus promised 2000 years ago and more? How much longer must we wait for the fulfilment of that promise? Or has it been fulfilled and we have simply missed it in the fog, like that icy mist that descended on Belfast on Wednesday in the aftermath of the earlier storms?

Last weekend Sally and I were in London and on the Friday night we went with friends to see a production of Samuel Beckett’s “Waiting for Godot” starring Ben Wishaw who is perhaps more famous at the moment for being the voice of Paddington Bear... But Godot is as far from a Paddington movie is as far as you can get... The last time I saw a production of it was back in the 80s in Edinburgh when I watched a really depressing version of it performed by a Russian company in a combination of English, its original French and Russian, an honestly I barely understood any of it... even the bits in English... This production was much more understandable, but still relatively grim...

For those who don’t know it is the story of two vagrants, Vladimir and Estragon, waiting for someone called Godot, in a grey wasteland under a leafless tree. This seems to have been going on for ages, but on the two days we witness they encounter the same 3 people on both days... An unpleasant character called Pozzo using a whip and a rope around his neck to drive another with the ironic name of Lucky ahead of him carrying his baggage... and, towards the end of each day, a young boy, telling them that Godot will not be coming that night after all...

But on the second day the barren tree has sprouted a few green leaves and whilst Pozzo and Lucky return, on the second day Pozzo is blinded and Lucky has lost his voice entirely, and both collapse in the middle of the stage... And despite the fact that Pozzo repeatedly calls for help, Vladimir and Estragon are so caught up in their own concerns, including whether Godot is going to come that night, that they are ignored...

Is it possible that they were so busy waiting for Godot, and their feelings about the unpleasant Pozzo and the unpredictable Lucky that they actually missed the arrival of "God"-ot?

Jesus in another apocalyptic discourse in Matthew 25 reminds his disciples that "the King" may actually come disguised, and that what we do for the needy... the hungry, the thirsty, the naked, the sick and the imprisoned, we do for him... Does that apply even when the needy are as objectionable as Pozzo and Lucky?

Beckett, the author of the play, never explains this strange plot, either within the play or elsewhere...

And there is an extent to which the author of creation has never explained the plot of the drama we are living through... Jesus simply tells us as his disciples to:

Look at the fig tree and all the trees; as soon as they sprout leaves you can see for yourselves and know that summer is already near... when you see these things taking place, you know that the kingdom of God is near.

Luke 21: 29-32 (NRSVA)

These days, because of the undeniable effects of climate change, the seasons are somewhat mixed up... but as we sit here with winter setting in, are there any signs that spring is on the way? Any fig trees budding that might give us hope?

In the face of all of the devastation of the middle east conflicts we might look to the ceasefire announced in Lebanon between Israel and Hezbollah forces... There is still more to be done with regard to the situation in Gaza, but this is, perhaps a beginning... a reminder that this world is not doomed and God-forsaken... least of all that land which Jesus himself walked. We believe that God is at work in the world and cares deeply about all who live here, particularly those who are experiencing pain and despair because of the actions of evil men and women... and evil is not restricted to one side in all the conflicts that plague this world. And indeed we need to look with compassion even on those who may have been oppressors in the past and hear their cries for help when their actions rebound on them... like the cries of Pozzo in the second half of Waiting for Godot... Because, as the old Graham Kendrick song puts it “everyone needs compassion.”

Any sign of the pursuit of peace or the application of compassion is a green shoot of hope that should be celebrated.

But no political initiative is perfect, as we know only too well here in Northern Ireland in the wake of the Belfast Good Friday Agreement.

And some supposedly compassionate actions can be wrong-headed and short-sighted as I believe the currently proposed end of life legislation at Westminster is, although it is seeking to address some heart-rending situations. But our hope is not based on any earthly kingdom or political regime or scheme... Our hope is ultimately in God alone... the author of the story who knows the end from the beginning.

Jesus says:

Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.

Luke 21: 33 (NRSVA)

Because he is THE Word the brought creation into being, the Word made flesh and blood for us and for our salvation... The Word in which we trust and put our hope...