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"Hope Springs Eternal”


I have a favorite picture of dogged determination, indomitable spirit, tenacious single mindedness: it is a photo I took when Susie and I were on a hike in China on Huangshan Mountain: a small, stunted yellow pine, about 2 1/2 feet high and as much as 25 to 30 years old. It is clinging, all by itself, to the side of a vertical granite face, eking its existence against the rock with the tenacious spirit imbued to it by our Creator.

I was reminded of the pine tree this weekend when I came across a small pot in the corner of our sun deck, dried desiccated soil with a resilient little hyacinth pushing through the dirt. I had given it to Susie three Easters ago. Every year it pushes through the dried dirt, doing exactly what God had designed it to do…Hope Springs Eternal… In both of these snapshots you see two simple but stunning examples of unwavering persistence: the lone Yellow Pine tree and the Spring Hyacinth both fulfilling their God given destinies in spite of seemingly overwhelming, crushing adversity.

In the last three weeks, the COVID-19 pandemic has changed the World on a scale that most of us have never experienced. The world is facing global adversity that it hasn’t seen since the last World War. Only a few of our congregation can tell us of those horrors. We are witnessing the collapse of our secure world order. Our family, local and world economies have collapsed, our jobs are uncertain, our health is uncertain, we worry about the safety of our distant loved ones, we are fearful for our future.


In this time of uncertainty, apprehension and fear, brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic, we are looking for our truly inspirational World Leader, one who will draw us together in a unified front in what has been called a war against this enemy virus. We are looking for our Winston Churchill to unite the leaders of the nations of the world, someone to take the helm of this seemingly rudderless ship: will it be our Justin Trudeau, or France’s Emmanuel Macron (aptly named ?), 2019 G7 President, maybe it will be New York’s Andrew Cuomo. We long to hear inspiration like Churchill’s famous “We will Fight…” speech or “If you’re going through hell, keep going.” or “We shall draw from the heart of suffering itself the means of inspiration and survival.” (read these quotes with the characteristically gravelly smokey Churchill voice that boomer and boomer parents are all so familiar with).


But even Churchill humbly opined: ““I have never accepted what many people have kindly said, namely that I have inspired the nation. It was the nation and the race dwelling all around the globe that had the lion heart. I had the luck to be called upon to give the roar.”

So, while we wait for our “Wartime leader” we realize that the task is likely to be left to each of us, individually, with God’s help. We must each lean in to God and in to each other for our strength “The COVID-19 pandemic makes clear our global human interconnectedness and the responsibilities we have to one another. We have no precedent for its challenges, but we do know that our best response relies on…global empathy, cooperation, and community building.” These words are well said by Katherine Maher, the Executive Director, Wikimedia Foundation but Jesus mandated them first:


35 For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, 36 I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’ Matthew 25:35-40

In times of chaos and trial, I have learned to rely on two scriptures and a phrase that, although not scripture, I am sure that it should be. These are:

  1.  Be still and know that I am God. Psalm 46-10. God is in control. He is the God of serenity and the God of the storm. He knew you before you were even born, even before the foundation of the world (John 17:24). He had you in mind at the Beginning…don’t you know that He will take care of you now? Be sure of it, He will.
  2. Nothing, absolutely nothing, happens in God’s world by mistake. Not scripture but should be. See #1 above…God is in control. He is in control of the good and the bad, that is the Mystery…I wish I could explain it but I find peace when I accept it.
    Our Primate ABp Linda Nichols, explained the chaos: “Where is God? We have not been abandoned. God is here in the very midst of joys and sorrows of daily life…available to any and all who know the world as the place within which God makes known the transformative possibilities of grace, mercy and love.”
  3. There is no fear in love, but perfect love drives out all fear 1John 4-18. I become fearful in spite of my firm belief in the above. At such times I remember who is “Perfect Love” but Jesus. And I call on Him once again….He drives out all fear and leaves in its place Hope….

  4. Hope Springs Eternal

 

 

https://imgur.com/EogdR0b