LAKEWOOD UNITED CHURCH OF CHRIST
2601 54th Avenue South St. Petersburg, FL 33712
On land originally inhabited by the Tocabaga
727-867-7961
lakewooducc.org
lakewooducc@gmail.com
Date: June 11, 2023
Scripture Lesson: Jeremiah 32:1-15, 42-44
Sermon: History and Hope
Pastor: Rev. Kim P. Wells
This is a season for graduations and weddings and other celebrations. We attended a baby shower recently. It is wonderful to celebrate these events that point to the future with hope.
We might send a card with a message like, ‘Congratulations! May all your hopes and dreams come true.’ Or ‘With all hope and good wishes for a wonderful future together.’ These celebrations call for excitement about what is ahead.
We don’t sent a card to a college grad saying something like, ‘We hope you enjoyed your last 4 years at school.’ No. We say something about hope for the future, not looking back to the past.
So how do we maintain hope in dark times? As we look around today, much of what we see does not point to a better future but seems like more of an erosion of the gains that were being made toward peace and security and well-being for all. We seem to be backsliding. On voting rights. On gay rights. On trans rights. On reproductive rights. On freedom of speech. On economic justice. And so much more.
So how do we hold on to hope?
Our faith has much to say about hope. Yes, hope is about a better future. It has a future orientation. But our faith tradition teaches us that hope is rooted in the past. Our faith teaches us that hope is about looking back and seeing what has happened, how far we have come, seeing the workings of Divine Love in the past, which then gives us the courage and faith to face the future with hope.
Again and again and again in the Hebrew scriptures there are references to the Exodus. This is the story of the Hebrew people being brought out of slavery in Egypt into the Promised Land. This is the story that involves Moses confronting the Egyptian Pharaoh. The plagues. The river of blood. The angel of death passing over the houses with lamb’s blood on the lintel. Going through the Red Sea. Wandering in the wilderness. And then finally being brought into the land of milk and honey.
That story is referenced again and again in the Bible because it is a source of hope; especially when people are going through hard times. People look back and see what God has done, what they have come through. And they know that the perils and pains they are experiencing are not the end of the story. There is a brighter future awaiting them. As God brought the people out of Egypt, so God will bring us out of whatever hardship we are currently facing.
The Psalms, especially, which are regularly repeated in worship, are full of heartfelt pleas to God and affirmations of trust in God’s saving power, including specific references to the Exodus. In worship, on a regular basis, people recount past experiences and this gives them hope in the power of God to see them through current travails to a more promising future. People have hope in the future because of what they believe has happened in the past. Rooted in that history, they face the future with hope.
So, how do we maintain hope in dark times? We look back. We take a long view. Even back to Exodus.
Just in our country, let’s look back. Despite intentional efforts to eliminate indigenous peoples and cultures, there are still native peoples and cultures in this land. That is a reason for hope. Slavery is over. That is a reason for hope. The centuries old vendetta against the Jews has not resulted in their eradication. Even with the recent rise in incidents of antisemitism in this country, there is still reason for hope. Assault weapons were banned for 10 years in the US. If we did it before, we can do it again. That is reason for hope. There was safe, legal access to abortion for decades. It can be that way again. That is reason for hope. There was a moratorium on the death penalty for decades. It can happen again. Again, reason for hope. We have had a Black president. And a Black vice president. That is reason for hope. Look back.
My spouse Jeff was listening to an audio book about Teddy Roosevelt and Howard Taft. Roosevelt was an adamant trust buster. He fought the power of big money in American society. He wanted a fair shot for the average worker. He called it a square deal. And he was a millionaire. And a Republican. Look back.
Just a side bar. This looking back is not encouraged in our country. We like to stay oriented to the future. We are trained to look ahead. We don’t think we need the past. We only like to remember the past when it serves our purposes as we pursue something in the future. Gore Vidal has said that we are the United States of Amnesia.
But our faith teaches us that to maintain hope, especially in dark times, we must look back and remember and recite the ways that Divine Love has been made manifest in our history and in our lives. Take a long view.
This is also the case not only with society, and the human community, and cosmic history, but also in our personal lives. To maintain hope, we must remember. Think of the health crisis that you have come through. Or the grief that knocked you down, but you are standing, if shakily, once again. Think of how you or someone you are close to has faced addiction with courage and has come through. Think of the tragedy you have experienced, or someone close to you, something beyond horrific. And somehow, life is still going on. And there can still be joy. Think of what you and your loved ones have come through. That, too, fosters our hope in the future. Because of what we have come through, we do not give up.
When I saw this sermon topic request, Hope in dark times, I immediately thought of the story of Jeremiah and buying the field at Anathoth. Here is Jeremiah. In the worst of times. He is in prison for delivering the word of God, that was not to the liking of the king. His country is being ravaged by the Babylonians and Chaldeans. Their land is being devastated. They will be taken away as the spoils of war. So, in jail, about to be overrun and deported or worse, Jeremiah buys a piece of land. It is a prophetic symbolic gesture. He makes sure everything is done legally and in good order. Then, the deeds are put in an earthenware jar where they can be preserved for decades? Centuries? Millenia? Who knows? But Jeremiah is declaring his trust in the promise of God that they will once again inhabit the land and be a flourishing community though everything else at the moment is pointing in a different direction.
The most important part of any real estate transaction is location, location, location. And the prophet Jeremiah wants everyone to know that he is buying a piece of utterly worthless land, putting good money down, making a public display so that everyone knows what he is doing, preserving the documents related to the sale – because this location, location, location will once again be a place where the community of the faithful will flourish and thrive. He is making a scene. Based on the faithfulness of God in the past, Jeremiah buys the field. And puts everyone on notice that change is gonna come. Based on the past, the Exodus, for example, this prophet is making a down payment on a bright future. He is demonstrating hope.
We can look around us and see that things are pretty bleak. There is global warming and the horrific weather, fires, and floods that are happening. There is an impending presidential election with the continuous barrage of lies and blame and rancor. There will be more Supreme Court decisions that curtail our liberties. There is the continuing rise in racism, jingoism. There are the backward strides in education. There is the continuing escalation of violence. A gun has more rights than a person it seems. There is the continued erosion of voting rights.
But there are prophets in our midst who tell us that these are the last, desperate, fearful gasps of those who are threatened by a more open, compassionate, egalitarian society. They are scaling up because they see the way things have been going. They see the progress that has been made. And they are rising up.
But we are looking back. In a speech delivered before the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Convention on January 29, 1858, Theodore Parker, a Unitarian minister, declared: “I do not pretend to understand the moral universe; the arc is a long one, my eye reaches but little ways; I cannot calculate the curve and complete the figure by the experience of sight, I can divine it by conscience. And from what I see I am sure it bends towards justice.” We are familiar with this from Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.: The moral arc of the universe is long but it bends towards justice.
How do we maintain hope? Our faith teaches us to look back. For the Jews, this involves continually revisiting the story of the Exodus and other stories. For Christians, this also involves revisiting the story of the crucifixion and resurrection. We are told that from the cross Jesus is remembered quoting Psalm 22: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” This is a plea uttered at a very dark moment. And if Jesus knew the first verse of the Psalm, surely it is implied that the knew the 4th and 5th verses. He would know them from reciting them in worship settings. They are:
“In you our ancestors trusted;
they trusted, and you delivered them.
To you they cried, and were saved;
in you they trusted, and were not put to shame.”
This is a direct reference to the Exodus event.
Just as we are describing, Jesus, too, looked back to the Jewish experience of the saving power of God in his darkest hour and that sustained his hope.
How do we maintain hope in dark times? Look back and see the wider reality of the purposes of God. Look back a decade. A century. A millennia. Eons. Look back. Take a long view. See what has been done. See the progress that has been made. Trust in the power of Divine Love. And what love can do.
And then, like Jeremiah, invest in the future. Invest all you can, all you have, in a future of justice and peace and well-being for all, especially for our dear mother Earth. Invest in a future that you may never see. Look back. Then invest. And that investment will give your life, right here and right now, meaning and purpose so that you will not only survive but thrive. Amen.
A reasonable effort has been made to appropriately cite materials referenced in this sermon. For additional information, please contact Lakewood United Church of Christ.
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