Pastor's Corner: The sound of Hope

I lift up my eyes to the mountains - where does my help come from?

My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth. - Psalm 121

As we head into the Season of Thanksgiving, it feels like we have more to complain about than to be thankful for; that we have more reasons to be afraid than to hope; that we are more divided than we are united. The good news is that we are not alone. The message of a dying Messiah on a cross communicates suffering, and brokenness is an intrinsic component of the life that Jesus lived and that we do, too. We are all broken, and that's all right. In the ache of our broken hearts and the company of unrelenting grief, we may also experience that life is full of expectation and joy.

There is a liberating truth when our hearts are broken open; we may replace the brokenness with love, compassion and hope, rather than fill it with self-pity and bitterness. Right now in this moment in human history, we have to hold on to hope and that our call as Christians is still the same. Our hope and confidence is in our loving God, and it is for us to place our trust in God and to stay focused on love and service. The results of the election and the restrictions of the pandemic do not change where our hope is rooted. We are united in Christ - we belong to God and to one another, and in good faith, we must show up for one other despite our differences. We must learn to have difficult conversations and listen to one another's heart.

The cross of history represents everything wrong and evil in the world. It shoulders the pain of suffering, hatred, and anger toward God. It constitutes the injustice and crime perpetrated on innocent humanity. It represents the death of our dreams, hopes, and aspirations for our lives. It symbolizes the darkness where there is no light. It enlightens the unanswerable questions of "why did this happen to me." It is the location that pure love took our place on a cross to die, so there is hope in a hopeless world. The message of the cross proclaims there is hope beyond all our suffering and pain, division and despair. On the cross, love without need is revealed to humanity, and Christ claims suffering and death do not win.

After the elections are over, your neighbors will still be your neighbors. Trump won't be there to ring up your groceries; Biden won't be there to fix your car or help you out with yard work. Your neighbors will. Both Trump and Biden will still be doing their thing, while you and I live together, work together, learn together, shop together, eat together, worship together, and pump our gas next to one another. We are the ones who choose to be decent, loving, caring and compassionate human beings. We vote for whomever we choose, but we, the people, choose to shape our communities, not them. So let us rejoice and be glad, that our help comes from the Lord, who does not leave us alone in our times of greatest need. Listen for the sound of hope in the beautiful and the broken.

--

The Rev. Maggie Lewis

Chinook Presbyterian Church

First Presbyterian Church, Havre