Hope and Promise

Hope and Promise 

For those of us who are people of faith, people who believe that God, or a Higher Power, cares about what happens in this world and inspires us to do something about it, hope and promise are a key to our existence and to our relationships with all people.  We live in a world in which “bad things happen to good people,” and just as certainly, “good things happen to bad people.”  At the same time we see and experience a life that is also filled with joy, love, and life giving relationships.  In short, we have faith that life is a journey filled with hope and promise for all. 

The fifth century BCE Hebrew Prophet, Isaiah proclaimed this hope to the people of Israel at a time of exile when they saw and experienced very little hope or even the promise of hope. 

“A shoot shall come out from the stock of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots. . . .The spirit of the Lord shall rest on him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord. . . . He shall not judge by what his eyes see, or decide by what his ears hear; but with righteousness he shall judge the poor, and decide with equity for the meek of the earth. . . .

The wolf shall live with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the kid, the calf and the lion and the fatling together, and a little child shall lead them. The cow and the bear shall graze, their young shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.

The nursing child shall play over the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put its hand on the adder’s den. They will not hurt or destroy on all my holy mountain; for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. “(Isaiah 11:1-9) 

The first time I heard this scripture, I was around six years old, standing on my front porch with my mother and father, listening to a nice man share with us what the Kingdom of God could and would look like.  I found out later that the man was a Jehovah’s Witness and that they, in fact, spent a lot of time knocking on doors and sharing their message.  God uses us all to touch people in ways we may never know or recognize.  My Dad had served in the Second World War and we were in the middle of “The Cold War,” and for a six year old, this message of peace, promise and hope was nothing less than a miracle. 

Sixty years later (as of this past Tuesday, but who’s counting), the world is still torn by “wars and rumors of wars.”   With politics and civil debate in this country more hostile than ever, with everyone believing their side is right and the other wrong, it is time to open our eyes and ears, to hear and see this message again and to hear and see others, all others, whether we agree with them or not, and for us to find this long awaited hope and promise.  Righteousness wins! 

Several years ago, Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa wrote a book, No Hope Without Forgiveness, in which he described his work with the “Truth and Reconciliation Commission” after the end of Apartheid in that country.  Apologies for horrendous acts were made by the perpetrators and accepted by the victims or by their families in the case of the many murders that had taken place.  Very few people in the world gave this effort much hope for success. Thankfully most of the world was to be proven wrong.  This may well be one of the greatest examples of hope and promise that has taken place in our world to date.  “The wolf shall live with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the kid, the calf and the lion and the fatling together, and a little child shall lead them.” 

If this can happen in South Africa, it can happen in nuclear negations between the West and Iran.  It can happen in negations with Israel and Palestine, and it can even happen in negations between Democrats and Republicans in Congress.  After all, as Jim Wallis of Sojourners Magazines states, “God is not a Democrat or a Republican.”  Some may suggest that this is naïve, but lots of people suggested that Desmond Tutu was naïve as well.   

What can you and I do to help bring about this hope and promise?  We can read, study and stay informed about history as well as current events.  We can assume, rightly or wrongly, that those with whom we disagree are as diligent as we in staying informed.  We can acknowledge that we do not have all the truth or all the answers and admit that we may even be wrong, and we can engage in dialogue with others, preferable in conversation rather than on social media.  I have discovered, the hard way, that throwing Facebook posts at each other is not really a conversation, changes no one, and often passes on opinion, incorrect information and closes down any real, and dare I say, intelligent conversation.  And just as an aside, it would probably be good to refrain from calling any of our nation’s leaders Fascists or Communists or Satan or Idiots (feel free to add your own list of unhelpful epithets. 

So; hope, promise, new beginnings, knowledge and honest, open conversation.  Do we believe this? Do we believe it will bring about change in our world?  Isaiah did, Desmond Tutu certainly did.  This might just be a time for us to join with all that is Holy and bring about “Peace on Earth and good will to those whom God favors.”