Time for Hope?

Winter can be tough.  We know the cold and the snow is coming.  Which is why it feels so odd in November on a crisp yet sunny day to go outside and hear a flock of birds chirping like nobody’s business.  They sound like they are having a good chat about all the things in life they are going through.  Not something we expect at this time of year.  The noise can be surprising.  Don’t they know that they should be heading south?  Don’t they know what weather is coming their way?  Don’t they know that blizzards are just around the corner?  And yet these perky, chirpy birds flock to the frozen berries that other birds overlook and have a picnic on the frozen Mountain Ash bushes or whatever they find.  They are the epitome of optimists.  I could use a little of their spunk and cheer.         

Unlike some humans, they thrive even when times are challenging.  Unlike birds, we have the ability to imagine, and all too often we imagine that the world is so disastrous that God must be angry at us for some reason.  It’s easy to be discouraged and depressed.  It’s easy to feel like the world is coming to an end and even the sun will stop shining, the moon will cloud over and even the stars will fall out of the sky in a cosmic disaster of untold proportions. 

When we feel like we are surrounded by disasters, when we feel like God hates us, when we feel like we are careening from one disaster to the next, it’s easy to shut down.  It’s easy to over medicate on shopping, decorations, Christmas snacks, phone games, VLTs or mindless pursuits.  One interview on CBC’s The Current this Thursday said that for many people, 2023 is the year where we are languishing rather than thriving.  Languishing is when we feel blah and lackluster but not fully depressed, and when we feel like we don’t have a purpose in life.  We go through the motions with little motivation to try anything new.

Hope seems like a ridiculous pipe dream, something that other people can have but it’s too much work and energy for us.  And so we spiral down into negativity and cynicism.  We give up on life, and we give up on the future.  But that is not what these scriptures are about.  The Psalm finishes with a plea, ‘rest your hand gently upon us.’  And the Gospel has Mark telling of Jesus striding in like some Marvel superhero or Jedi warrior coming in with their superpowers to save the day.  God will come like a magical wizard and make everything right.  Except for one thing.  This was written 2000 years ago and the community, and Mark and even Jesus expected it to happen very soon.  We are still waiting.  What do we do when it still hasn’t happened?

We are to stay alert and ready.  We are to stay smart and aware.  We are to watch for the signs.

One sign that is troubling is the lack of snow after the hottest year on record.  We had dreadful levels of forest fire smoke this summer and without snow, the forest will be even more vulnerable next year.  We struggle to lower our emissions.  We struggle to let go of plastic straws and plastic bags even though they break down into smaller and smaller pieces and we end up with microplastics impacting our environment.  Forbes Magazine wrote a few years ago that there was “an estimated 270,000 tons of plastic floating through the world’s seas.  Plastic trash is found in the guts of more than 90% of the world’s sea birds (ref), in the stomachs of more than half of the world’s sea turtles (ref), and … even … whales.”  These are troubling signs too.

We are called to see the signs around us but as Christians we are not to give up hope.  One of the signposts of thriving congregations is optimism.  One church described it this way, “We trust that God is the author of our future and trust that God is good, we celebrate successes along the way and persevere through tough times.”  Trusting God is a form of deep spirituality, one of the three United Church mission goals.  Trusting God takes practice and patience and prayer.  One minister in the states wrote that she was giving up complaining for Advent.  Not completely, as complaining has its place from time to time, but daily habitual grumping and negativity.  Cynicism is part of languishing, it assumes that the world is never going to have anything positive come, and can be a defense against action.  It’s far easier to say, “that will never work” than to roll up our sleeves and do something.

Cynicism leaves us in an apathetic and negative space.  It allows us to be passive and complacent and helpless.  It gives us permission to be stuck.  It does not lead to solutions, only more problems.

Christians choose to look for the return of Jesus.  It’s not easy, and it takes courage and character.  It recognizes that we live in uncomfortable times.  It recognizes that we don’t have all the answers.  And it recognizes that we are called to be alert for signs and remember to dream of what a God-filled world can be like.  It is like being birds that don’t fly south for the winter but choose to hang around in a cold and snowy climate waiting for spring.  Like the sparrows who stay long after humming birds and geese have taken off, who survive blizzards and -40 wind chills. They sing and chirp and fly, brightening our days.  We can be like them by choosing to dream and hope and be alert to hope.  Let us pray:  God help us to be like the sparrows and choose hope.  Help us to look for signs of your presence, your arrival.  Help us choose optimism as an action plan and a character strength.  Help us to dream of your call to care for the earth and help us remember that you are with us, we are not alone.  Amen.