What Can We Hope For?
Joel 2:23-32
When I think of what would make the world better today I immediately think about how there is so much war and violence happening all over the place. At Lakewood UMC we pray for peace in so many different places of war every sunday. Ukraine, Palestine, Sudan, Yemen… we even occasionally find ourselves praying for our own nation when the sheer volume of gun violence makes it feel like our own neighborhoods are war zones.
I also think about just how angry we are. I think about how rage feels like it is underneath everything and is boiling over in our politics. We are in a government shut down right now and there don’t seem to be any reasons to believe it will end soon—but its length is ensured by how divided and enraged the political parties are against one another in our government. We are ready to fight people who believe differently than us, believing they are the enemy. We have forgotten to give ourselves time and space to rest from our anger.
And I think about how much suffering there is. With the government shut down, we are facing a reality where the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, in the US will cease providing funding in November, leading to tens of thousands of the poorest of the poor losing access to food they rely on to stay alive. Our housing market and a rising wealth gap alongside runaway drug addiction and an inaccessible healthcare system in the US has resulted in rampant homelessness. And this suffering doesn’t sit still, it causes crime and decay in our communities, too.
How can I begin to even organize my thoughts about what to hope for? It’s all too overwhelming.
We have to give it to God—which sounds like a cliché thing for a pastor to say, to be honest. “Giving it to God” sounds a whole lot like giving up and twiddling our thumbs while we wait for someone else to solve these unsolvable problems.
But we do have to give it to God first. I believe that when we do, God gives it back in a way that inspires us, strengthens us, and turns us into miracle workers. The Prophet Joel around the 5th century BC shared words of hope for the people of Jerusalem in the aftermath of a devastating plague of locusts that led to famine. And his words of hope weren’t just in the restoration of crops, God also promised to “pour out my spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions.”
In the absolute worst times, when nothing feels under control and chaos dominates our attention, we can still hope for God to join us, to inspire us, to strengthen us, and remind us that we are a part of the miracles that God works in the world.
We can’t wait for God to suddenly turn swords into plowshares and end our warring, we have to proclaim a gospel of peace and get to forging.
We can’t wait for a word of God to calm our rage, we have to proclaim a gospel of joy and get to loving our neighbor no matter what they believe.
We can’t wait for God to wave a magic wand to end hunger, we have to proclaim a gospel of abundance and share what God has given each and every one of us with those who are in need.
We can hope for these things! And that hope is not in vain. Thanks be to God.
