Audacious Hope in Hot-Mess Times
Learning How to See
14 The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will fulfill the promise I made to the house of Israel and the house of Judah. 15 In those days and at that time I will cause a righteous Branch to spring up for David, and he shall execute justice and righteousness in the land.16 In those days Judah will be saved, and Jerusalem will live in safety. And this is the name by which it will be called: “The Lord is our righteousness.” Jeremiah 33.14-16 NRSVUE
Before those words above, the picture Jeremiah paints in this 33rd chapter of his prophecy looks like the destruction and devastation I see in my social media feeds. It looks like Gaza. It looks like Congo or Sudan. It looks like Haiti or Ukraine. It looks like California after fires, it looks like the Carolinas after storms. Where there has been dancing and laughter, now there is weeping and mourning. Where there used to be children playing in the streets, now they are climbing over the rubble, trying to find food, or remnants of their loved ones. Gone are livestock and pets, gone are the fruits of the earth and the fruit of the wine.
There is no proof of life; the stench of death is strong in the air. And as was true for many ancient peoples, these people believe the only answer as to “Why?” is that they have displeased God and God has punished them. They believed that when good things happened, God was responsible, as a reward for their goodness. AND when trouble came, God was responsible, giving them what they deserved.
Sadly, this theology permeates much of our modern understandings. And to be honest, I don’t believe in it. If it were true, so many people doing despicable things and causing harm to communities and the planet would not be flourishing. They would be the ones searching for food on garbage heaps and they are not. If that theology was true, amazing humans doing incredibly loving things for their communities would not be struggling to make ends meet. Do you see what I mean? It is difficult to make a direct correlation between good people getting good things and bad people getting bad things.
The issue I am raising is theodicy: Does a good God allow bad things to happen to good people? Does a good God allow good things to happen to bad people? I’ve got lots of thoughts on this topic that I’ll continue to share in this space, some of it shaped by a book by Rabbi Harold Kushner, When Bad Things Happen to Good People.
For now, no matter the ‘why’; having suffered a devastating loss to the Chaldeans; with their best and brightest exiled to Babylon; surrounded by death and destruction: Jeremiah reminds these people of God's covenant-keeping faithfulness. God will restore, God will repair, God will reclaim the people. God is a promise-keeper, Jeremiah is saying. And as sure as day follows night, humans should not doubt God's intention, power and ability to not only repair what's broken BUT to raise up people—a righteous branch—to partner with God to fix what's broken and make sure it stays fixed.
Jeremiah writes to give hope to the people, even amid their sorrow.
How do we hope in hot-mess times? I think it is about learning how to see. Learning how to see in the distance, in the future; to be far-sighted enough to perceive the moral arc of the universe bending toward justice. To see and to recognize that God is faithful and has what C.S. Lewis calls an “unbounded now”—an eternal, kairos kind of time—to keep God’s promises.
I think hope is also about hindsight. To be able to turn around and look over our shoulders—like a Sankofa—and see what God has been up to. See God healing broken systems, see God working with humans to ensure human rights. See God in the protests, in the community organizing, in the discovery of medications that cure diseases, in the fierce love.
Hope is learning how to see. To see a Holy Partner at work in the world, moving against injustice with love, equipping authors, artists, activists, parents, poets and preachers to work with the power of Spirit to bring dead places back to life. To end wars and enmity. To cause justice to roll down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.
Civil rights theologian, mystic and minister Howard Thurman wrote,
Look well to the growing edge! All around us worlds are dying, and new worlds are being born; all around us life is dying, and life is being born. The fruit ripens on the tree, the roots are silently at work in the darkness of the earth against a time when there shall be new leaves, fresh blossoms, green fruit. Such is the growing edge! It is the extra breath from the exhausted lung, the one more thing to try when all else has failed, the upward reach of life when weariness closes in upon all endeavor. This is the basis of hope in moments of despair, the incentive to carry on when times are out of joint and men have lost their reason, the source of confidence when worlds crash and dreams whiten into ash. The birth of the child — life’s most dramatic answer to death — this is the growing edge incarnate. Look well to the growing edge!
This is a rough time, friends, a hot-mess time. But see that child, that love incarnate? Hope is there.
For more thoughts on hope, listen to my podcast, Love.Period.
And my Advent sermon on hope is here.
P.S. Come hear some amazing music on Sunday at 5:00p (doors open at 5, music begins at 5:30p) from bad-ass Broadway singers warming our hearts for the holidays. Mosaic tickets are only $20 and help Middle Church rise and return to our sacred site.