Dear Friends;
Greetings to you on this 17th day since we cancelled our worship Service in order to help stop the spread of COVID-19. We are all trying to get accustomed to “the new normal” of being largely housebound – though still able to go for walks if we keep our distance from others (at least two metres) and have no symptoms of/exposure to COVID-19. Perhaps like others, you are having trouble sleeping and are anxious during the day because of the endless news of this virus.
As I did last week, I invite you to take a “Sabbath Break” from the 24/7 news cycle on TV, tablet and cellphone. Perhaps just look at the news once or twice a day – and the rest of the time focus on gratitude – joy – and laughter. Call a friend or family member or a Senior that you think might be lonely in isolation. Read a novel. Play cards or Scrabble. Listen to good music – whatever kind you like. Pray. Be creative and share your ideas with others.
This morning I’m offering a Reflection on the word Hope
God bless you as we all continue on this unprecedented journey.
Grace and peace with pastoral love & concern,
Rev. Phil
“Hope”
Hope springs eternal within the human breast;
Man never Is, but always to be blest.
The soul, uneasy, and confin’d from home,
Rests and expatiates in a life to come.”
Alexander Pope, An Essay on Man
Alexander Pope, who wrote these words about 300 years ago, might forgive us if we changed a line or two. We could use “humanity” instead of Man – which is what I believe he meant. “Expatiate” is not a word we use every day; but it is a great word for us. Webster defines it first as “to move about freely at will.” In our present context we might want to say “confin’d at home”!
St. Paul knew that “Hope” is a need in all of us – so he ended his poem about “A Still More Excellent Way” (First Corinthians 12.31b, penned about the year 55CE) by giving his readers these words:
“Faith, Hope and Love abide, these three. . .”
We need hope more than ever when we find ourselves in circumstances that could cause us to despair. Near the beginning of his Letter, the author of the Letter to the Ephesians wrote:
“With the eyes of your hearts enlightened, may you know the hope to which Christ calls you – what are the riches of his glorious inheritance among the saints.”
In case we misinterpret the word “saints” – the author means simply “the people of God.” That means all of us. We are all included in this inheritance. The inheritance bequeathed to us in an ultimate sense is healing, wholeness, and wellbeing.
We are not blind to the reality of the brokenness of our world – demonstrated for us graphically in our current experience – the experience of the whole human family threatened by this novel coronavirus, called COVID-19.
When I was a young man in the fall of 1981, I attended the Vancouver School of Theology. Life had its challenges:
- Classes to attend during the day;
- Books to read and papers to write at night;
- Work as a Part-time Youth Minister at University Hill United Church;
- Trying to find balance with these activities while participating with Carol in the care of our little girls aged 3 and 5;
- The four of us living in a bed-sitter in the Columbian House student residence.
I began to feel overwhelmed with it all. I despaired that I would be able to keep all these balls in the air. Had I uprooted my family and brought them from Ontario to Vancouver for this? Was I even cut out for Ministry? Was God really calling me?
In the midst of all of this a wise mentor pointed me to the Book of Psalms. I found in Psalm 103, words that touched my heart and gave me hope and courage:
“Bless the Lord, O my soul; and all that is within me, bless God’s holy name!
Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all God’s benefits – who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the Pit, who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy, who satisfies you with good as long as you live so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.”
Psalm 103.1-5
Life can be demanding of us. The road we walk can be and often is precarious – with obstacles along the way. But we are not alone. We have the assurance that God is with us in the experience of life day by day – all of our experiences – ‘the good the bad and the ugly’. We are not alone – God is with us embodied for us in the members of our community.
Together we will come through this time of uncertainty, anxiety and stress. We will come through it together. We will come through it as we grasp the truth that we are all one family on this planet. We will come through it reaching out in kindness and compassion to support and care for one another. We will come through it as we recognize our confinement at home as a service to our community – the way we can help to prevent suffering. This is our hope.
I invite you to listen to and to possibly sing along with Hymn 424 in Voices United. It is a song we’ve often sung at the end of worship. “May the God of Hope Go with Us” Words – Alvin Schutmaat & Fred Kaan; Music: Argentine folk melody.
- May the God of hope go with us every day, filling all our lives with love and joy and peace. May the God of justice speed us on our way, bringing light and hope to every land and race.
Refrain: Praying, let us work for peace, singing, share our joy with all; working for a world that’s new, faithful when we hear Christ call.
- May the God of healing free the earth from fear, freeing us for peace, both treasured and pursued. May the God of love keep our commitment clear, to a world restored, to human life renewed.
Refrain:
