Welcome Hope
What is Christmas? It is tenderness for the past, courage for the present, hope for the future…a fervent wish…that every path may lead to peace.” ~ Agnes M. Pahro
With each day’s dose of dismal economic realities, allegations of corruption and the usual policial controversies, America is having a hard and harder time feeling the Christmas spirit. Even with Barak Obama’s promise of Hope, the American mood seems to be more like Hopelessness. It is not just a national sensibility; we are seeing it at a personal level:
Someone on our Christmas card list has lost their job.
Someone in our neighborhood is about to lose their home or already has.
Someone in line with us at the drug store has lost their retirement savings.
Or maybe all this is happening to us!
Times are hard; there is no doubt about it. It is difficult to feel hopeful. Instead, we feel all sorts of other emotions: anger, disappointment, fear, embarrassment, exhaustion. How can we think about celebrating the holidays when things are so bad?
In fact, this is what Christmas and Hannukah and Kwanzaa and New Year’s Eve are all about: hope in the face of hopelessness, peace in the absence of joy, faith in things unseen, light in a world of darkness. This is the time to be affirmed by our families and our friends and to affirm them in return. This is the time to recognize our blessings and find ways to bless others. This is the time to take stock of our lives and our faith. This is the time to get back to what matters most (and it won’t be something we can’t afford to buy).
This past week I spoke at a Hospice Tree Lighting Memorial service. Having worked with hospice folks for years, I can tell you they are a special group of people who know that no one has a harder time at Christmas than those who have recently lost loved ones. And yet, even this year, as I looked out on those people who were facing not just the economic struggle of the rest of us but also extraordinary loss, I found in them, a way forward. The family members at that Hospice service gathered accepting each other’s burdens. They sat together sharing the tenderness of recalling childhood memories. They were smiling or crying as they squeezed the hand of those next to them. They were summoning the courage for life to go on. They were wishing with all their hearts for things to get better. Their faces glowed with the healing power of hope in the future. As I spoke to them in the flickering light of hundreds of candles lit in memory of their loved ones, I realized while I was offering my message, they were offering me wisdom.
So this Christmas, whatever you are facing, realize that you are not alone. Like those Hospice families and like Agnes Pahro’s quote that began this post:
This Christmas…
Share tender stories of the past with those you love
Find within you strength and courage for the present
Let your faith light a candle a hope for the future
And speak to all you know a fervent wish for Peace.
When we look beyond our own situations
to welcome hope in our shared future,
we can be a blessing!
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December 31st, 2008 at 7:47 am
In the last few weeks our congregation has prayed for people who are losing jobs and homes, but it’s yet to get really bad here in New Zealand. We pray that the government can do something about it, but see what we can do as well. (Which reminds me of the saying, ‘Trust in God, but tie your camel first’.)