Hope remains , hope
persists … the people who will walk through these dark times will know joy and
light even in the midst of them … God does not abandon us.
I think if I go back in my sermons over the last twenty
plus years that I have been privileged to stand in pulpits from Ontario to BC
to Manitoba and back here in Ontario, I actually would find that the dominant
themes I’ve preached on are hope and joy …
And not shallow “be happy” joy, or hope that is about
pretending that things are NOT a struggle at times, but a deep guttural hope
that KNOWS that no matter what happens we will survive, we will endure and we
will overcome …
Hope that says “This moment is NOT the end of the story …” And
Joy that faces the fullness of life and unflinchingly, says “we celebrate LIFE
in all its fullness …”
Having moved out of the Advent and Christmas seasons where
we celebrate Hope, Love, Joy and Peace in the waiting for the Christ Child, we
carry those values with us, even in the face of what is unfolding around us
today …
It’s interesting, this week the themes of darkness and
light have popped into the headlines around the world … I can’t imagine why … but
on the eve of the Inauguration a video of the National Moral Revival Poor
People’s Campaign Watch Night Service on December 31st in Washington,
D.C.’s historic Metropolitan AME Church, circulated with American Sikh
Activist, Author and filmmaker Valarie Kaur speaking and asking the question: "What if this darkness is not the darkness of the tomb –
but the darkness of the womb?"
Kaur recounts the journey her
grandfather made a century ago from India to The US in pursuit of a dream of
freedom and equality … she inventories the reality her family has faced, that
she has faced, and no that her own son faces today … that as a child with brown
skin, he will forever be viewed as a potential terrorist … as someone different
… someone other …
BUT, what if … what if she is right …
that this place of darkness we find ourselves in … and we find ourselves there
often and in a myriad of ways .. what if, that darkness is NOT the darkness of
the tomb, but the darkness of the womb as we await the birthing that will bring
something new and something faithful …
Kaur throws out the query and amid the
applause and vocal support of the ecumenical congregation around her, pushes
her example pondering if American society is standing on the edge of a rebirth
… she cites the counsel of a midwife who says “breath …””focus …” and then
“push …”
In the darkness we need to breath …
I’ve often counselled people
struggling to “just breath …” take this breath … take the next breath … be
present to THIS moment and this breath and let the next moment and next breath
happen …
Then we need to focus … focus on what
is important … focus on what goals we seek to attain … focus on what lies ahead
and what WE NEED TO DO to reach them …
But then, if we are in a time and
place of darkness that is the darkness of the womb, the pause and the push is
crucial … a push for equality, justice, respect, fairness and inclusion of all
people … a push for things that embrace and celebrate the diversity of God’s
children … a push against fear and ignorance … a push for HOPE – true hope that
embraces and embodies the light …
Much of the darkness today arises from
fear … a primal, guttural fear that has been focused on the mysterious ‘other’
… our leaders religious and political have done a masterful job of objectifying
those who are different from ourselves into a role where they become an ‘other’
that we fear …
This past week on CBC there was a
documentary about Sinclair Lewis’ 1935 novel “It can’t happen here” that looked
at the eerie parallels between that work of fiction, and today’s political
climate … the rise of the right and the spectre of fascist administrations are
part of our present reality, and much of the fuel feeding that movement is FEAR
… fear of the other who is so objectified and so removed from you and I, that
they lack a common humanity and can be easily vilified for political, religious,
economic and moral gains …
Since 9/11 we have witnessed the
‘othering’ of huge segments of our global society on a massive and truly
frightening scale … the rise of Islamophobia and the acts of violence against –
not just Muslims, but anyone who has brown skin … the systematic battle against
equal rights for Gay, Lesbian, Bi-sexual, transgendered and people who are just
different … the rise of sexism, racism, and almost every type of ism and phobia
imaginable – ALL of it is an expression of the othering … the vilifying of
those who are different … answering fear not with curiousity and
inquisitiveness and the very real possibility of growth in experience and
understanding, but answering fear with entrenchment and bigotry … and where
there is fear there is no room for joy.
Ms Kaur, in her reciting of her family
history also notes the difficulties her son will face simply because of his
skin colour … he will be regarded as suspect even though he was born in the US
… he will be considered a potential threat simply because of his skin colour …
he will face a lifetime of being looked at in a less than inclusive way simply
because of his genetic background … he has brown skin, so to a large swath of
American society he will be “one of them” and will be labeled as a possible
ISIS supporter even though he is Sikh … hatred, ignorance and bigotry doesn’t
understand such subtleties … hatred, ignorance and bigotry feeds off of, and
fuels the othering that objectifies and vilifies those we fear … and fear is
about darkness and cowering in our corner …
Hope counters fear …
Light drives back the darkness and
pushes back the fear … with the
As people of faith, called to go and
be fishers of people, we cannot be about fear … we are people of hope … people
of light … people who are to go into the world and welcome in the other, not
fear them …
We are truly in a time of darkness …
but like the dark ages of Europe (I just hope they don’t last so long …) the
dark ages gave way to the renaissance where science and philosophy and religion
experienced an awakening and a renewal that brought with it great scientific
and intellectual understandings and experiences … with the end of the dark ages
there was a sudden and almost explosive awakening of the human spirit and the world
expanded exponentially.
Scholars tell us that there have
periods of enlightenment and awakening throughout human history where great
thinkers and great spirits arose and helped guide and renew humanity … and each
of those periods was preceded by a time of darkness …
In a world filled with stories of
violence and conflict … in a world shifting to a political stance that is
intolerant and harsh … in a world where fear runs rampant … in our world, we
dare to hold up the light of faith …
A light that is about justice … grace
… hope
A light that says “the darkness shall
not win” … we the people of faith will hold to the light …
And so, we are being challenged to
breath … to focus … and to push …
The light we yearn for is not the
light of the tomb … it is the light of the womb that will break upon us a new
day … a day that overflows with the things that we as people of faith value and
cherish and celebrate …
We breath … focus … and push knowing that
God is with us always …
