Bible

Advent 2023 Day 3 – First Sunday: Hope
Image colored in “Mandala Coloring Book Adults” app in the Google Play Store. Edited in Pic Collage.

Hope

Things feel dire and hopeless in the world right now.

In my country we are struggling with more and more people, including children, experiencing houselessness. Substance use disorder is affecting more and more people, both those experiencing addiction and the people around them. People experiencing mental health, emotional, and behavioral challenges aren’t able to access necessary services and treatment. These three conditions feed into each other.

War, genocide, and human rights violations are happening throughout the world.

Where does hope come from? Who can we place our hope with? Government, institutions, and politicians? Probably not. We can hope those things have the power, willingness, and support to make changes. But it’s the kind of fatalistic hope that’s filled with doubt and scorn. It doesn’t believe in itself.

What is hope that believes in itself, what can it do, and where does it come from?

Faith shows the reality of what we hope for; it is the evidence of things we cannot see. Through their faith, the people in days of old earned a good reputation.

Hebrews 11:1-2 (NLT)

Real hope is rooted in faith. Hope rooted in faith results in constructive action. Constructive action by people with hope rooted in faith may not change the whole world all at once, but it changes the world of the people connected to them one by one.

For example, almost 10 years ago, I was enmeshed in an emotionally toxic and abusive relationship with someone I’d been in since 1996. We’d had a child together who was almost 5. My mental health was deteriorating. I had lost, some would say given up, relationships with my two adult children. On our child’s fifth birthday, there was a major conflict between this person and my visibly pregnant middle child. It didn’t get physical but the tension in the air was ripe with the potential for it. My child and their partner moved out that night and I thought I’d lost them forever.

When I went to church the next day, I felt defeated and hopeless.

There was a meeting for the children’s ministry program after service and during the meeting, conflict arose. When it was my turn to speak, I simply stated that I had too much conflict at home to be able to cope with it at church and would no longer participate.

After the meeting, one woman approached me and offered to walk through whatever I was going through with me if I was willing to let her. I didn’t have anyone else to turn to, so I said, “yes.”

Today, I have good relationships with both of my adult children. I am single-parenting my almost 15-year-old child and have a good relationship with them. I’m working a full-time job for the first time in 15 years. I have friends I can connect with and count on. Best of all, the work I do redeems all the trauma I’ve experienced since childhood and enables me to walk alongside other people who are on their healing and recovery journey.

One woman, stepping out in faith, held hope for me until I could hold it for myself. Now, I hold it for others.

I have faith that things improve. I have faith that we can and do recover. That faith grounds my hope and enables me to take action to help myself and support others.

For those of us who have faith in God the Father, Son, and Spirit our actions should be ones of hope on behalf of others. I hope more of us do exactly that.

You don’t have to have faith in the same God as I do, or any god at all, to have faith that things can and do improve. That faith is the foundation of hope that your action can change the world of one person for the better. Hope will spread and action will expand in that way.

Nanopoblano 2023 Day 12: From the archive – Jesus’ Lineage (#HerToo)
Photo by Ilkauri Scheer on Pexels.com

“Judah fathered Perez and Zerah by Tamar, Perez fathered Hezron, Hezron fathered Aram,

Salmon fathered Boaz by Rahab, Boaz fathered Obed by Ruth, Obed fathered Jesse, and Jesse fathered King David. Then David fathered Solomon by Uriah’s wife [Bathsheba],

and Jacob fathered Joseph the husband of Mary, who gave birth to Jesus who is called the Messiah.”

‭‭Matthew‬ ‭1:3, 5-6, 16‬ ‭HCSB‬‬

http://bible.com/72/mat.1.3,5-6,16.hcsb

There are five women listed in the history of Jesus’ lineage. Each of these women was, essentially powerless to survive or thrive without the influence and protection of men.

Tamar was widowed multiple times by brothers who were obligated to propagate the heir to the first brother she married and was widowed by. Her father-in-law, Judah, was scared his youngest son would die as well if he married her and reneged on the obligation. She took matters into her own hands and tricked Judah into fathering the heir(s) Perez and Zerah, twins.

In Rahab’s story, we learn she is a prostitute. It seems as if her profession is also her identity. Whether she was a temple prostitute or operated independently, it would seem that she was the provider for her family. Prostitutes are subject to the whims and desires of the men they serve and often “choose” that profession as a matter of survival, for one reason or another. It is common for those in the sex industry to be targets of verbal, emotional, and physical abusers.

Ruth was a foreigner, widowed by the son of an Israelite woman who was herself a widow. She opted to follow her mother-in-law from her own homeland to the homeland of her husband’s family, knowing that her status as a widow and that of a foreigner would cause her to, essentially live the rest of her life gleaning the fallen remnants of the harvests.

We don’t fully know her motivations, although we do know she was dedicated to Naomi. The depth of that kind of love and dedication she had toward Naomi, might suggest that her background had contained emotional, if not physical abuse. She chose not to return to the home of her youth and subject herself to the customary requirements of living there until remarriage was arranged.

When she went to glean grain, she was fortunate to wind up in the fields of a good man who placed her under his protection and warned her about going into the fields of others for her personal safety. Meaning, at the very least “street harassment” up to sexual assault.

Uriah’s wife, Bathsheba, was coveted and summoned by the King himself. She had no authority or power to say, “No,” or resist his advances. But what about the fact she was bathing in his eyesight? Doesn’t she bear some personal responsibility for the affair? If one doesn’t have the power to say, “No,” and have that “No” have constructive effect, then one doesn’t have the power to consent.

Mary was a pregnant teenager in a disgraced state where her fiancé had the legal right to “divorce” her because the child wasn’t his. In that society, in that culture, in that period of time, a woman in her situation would surely be subject to taunts and disrespect if not a target for unwanted physical advances. Yes, she was chosen by God and acquiesced to his will, regardless of the consequences. But the consequences would still have been experienced.

These five women were faithful and strong in the midst of cultural norms that said they weren’t important, that they were possessions to be treated however the men in the world around them saw fit, including sexual and relational violence. They were survivors.

Their stories are our stories. Their stories are part of Jesus’ story. He brings our stories into his story as well. He cared for widows, discoursed with foreign women, defended a woman “caught in adultery,” put himself in the hands and care of “fallen” women, and honored his mother who birthed him risking her life and reputation. In these things, he welcomes us into his life.

10/25/17