10.20.10 Remembering Hope

A new theme music in my ear:
“God has not lost hope”.

When I read the prophetic books of the Old Testament and see the enthusiasm and hope found in both God and humanity that loves and trusts God, I am encouraged. Conversely, when I see most church altar calls, and salvation sermons, I am disappointed that we are stuck 2,000 years ago as if the fullness of God ended at the cross. The emphasis on this statement is “ended” not “fullness” because I believe that all can come under grace and are available at the communion table of both the Father and Community of Faith.

I love the passages in Isaiah and other prophets that declare that 'God sees no one to help him, so he/she has to do it himself and reach down to save” and David in the Psalms repeats often a doubt-full trust that God is not too weak to save, but then again, when? Many evangelicals (myself, for a long time) are somehow corrupting the Old and New Testaments by making them the last and final word of God, as if the Resurrection and Ascention was a bandana tied around the mouth of God so she would shut up finally, and we can go about being 'obedient to new laws' we create in churches we build!

Where did hope go?

Ezekiel 9 tells a story about God calling a man who has a writing kit to go and write on the foreheads of people who mourned in Israel for those bullied and living out destruction, those that managed to still have a heart after there was so much reason to trade your heart for symbolism or degrees or status or wealth. The people with real pain going on because of oppression. We focus on the dead idolaters in this story too often, and not on the people that are saved. God starts in the temple, a place that was supposed to be to meet God in, but it wasn't because there were people making money and destroying things even in that holy place.

This is not often seen as “hopeful” but it is a call for us to remember to be compassionate. To put humanity on a love-pedestal no matter how whore-ish she (we) are. That God will remember our mourning and our fists in the ground in anger for the destruction of the creation that God blessed.

ARE WE NOT REQUIRED BY GOD TO SEEK JUSTICE, LOVE KINDNESS, AND WALK HUMBLY WITH HIM/HER? 
Humility is more powerful when it is not our first reaction, and it shows who a person is in the face of their own discrimination and hatred.


We need to let things affect us.
God is involved in humanity.

On a day that is meant to remember those who killed themselves because of bullying, I cannot help but wonder if there was a pastor in miles that would just love them and pray and seek their safety! Isn't that our job, beyond creating 'righteous richards” just to protect the innocent and hurt and broken folks? That we can create spaces for artists to come and bleed on canvas, and say “Damn this, this sucks!”, or people to be healed because we are all here to listen and respond with a God who IS love?

GOD HAS NOT LOST HOPE, PLEASE MY FRIENDS, DON'T LOSE HOPE EITHER. THERE IS A COMMUNITY THAT LOVES YOU AND (most importantly) A GOD WHO RESPONDS IN LOVE (period)!