[This is the exact text of the sermon. So there are a few things that make more sense when heard live or when you go to my church, but I am leaving it this way rather than editing it more. - MV]
Before I start saying what I want to say, I wanted to give a thank you and acknowledgement to my friend, mentor, and one of my spiritual daddies, Brian G. Murphy who, along with Fr. Shannon T L Kearns, is the co-host and co-creator of the Queer Theology podcast. About a week and a half ago, he recorded some thoughts about how we can survive and thrive in this time. Much of the framing and structure underlying my thoughts today comes from what he said. I will make sure a link to that episode goes out in the Communique tomorrow.
Also, as we discovered last week, there is a lot of fear about the future right now. So I want to thank Pastor Kari and Linda for giving us the opportunity to name our fears. I found it to be powerful and when I named my fears and heard others naming theirs, it made the fears seem a little smaller. They are still there, don’t get me wrong, but naming them seemed to help a little. And when I talked about the opportunity on social media, someone said it was “Pastoring done right!”
Let's get started now.
“Let us keep firm in the hope we profess, because the One who made the promise is faithful. Let us always think of how we can stimulate each other to love and good works. Don’t stay away from meetings of the community, as some do, but encourage one another; and do this all the more as you see the Day drawing near.” - Hebrews 10:23-24
Hello everyone. Welcome and well come to Christ the Servant today, the twenty-sixth Sunday after Pentecost, or (using the liturgical calendar I grew up with) the thirty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time. Next week, we will be celebrating the Reign of Christ Sunday, which is the last Sunday of the liturgical year. After that, we will be celebrating Advent, that time when we prepare for the coming of the Christ child. It is meant to be a time of anticipation and of hope for the future.
I say all that because what I want to talk about this week is hope and taking some time shortly before Advent, a season about hope, to talk about it seems eminently appropriate. Hope, which can seem so small and fragile, actually is probably one of the toughest things around. And I’m not talking about pie-in-the-sky hope or wishful thinking. I am talking about something grounded, something that is almost tangible. Much of my basic theological understanding comes from the teachings of the Catholic Church. So, my thoughts about hope are tied to teachings from the Catholic Catechism, which says, "There are three theological virtues: faith, hope, and charity.” These “are the foundation of Christian moral activity; they animate it and give it its special character. They inform and give life to all the moral virtues. They are infused by God into the souls of the faithful to make them capable of acting as his children…They are the pledge of the presence and action of the Holy Spirit in the faculties of the human being." (CCC 1813)
After Christ died, the disciples hid away, huddled together, because they were afraid. In a post on Instagram posted shortly after the election, Reverend Jes Kast talked about how the time when the disciples were hidden away was a liminal time, a time after fear manifested itself but before hope sprung forth. We can find this liminalness repeating itself throughout history.
Think of Africans who were captured and brought across the Atlantic Ocean and sold as slaves in the Americas.
Think of the women who were working to bring equality to our nation for more than 100 years.
Think of the queer people of the 1950s and 60s who had to use silent signals to let people know who they were because if their identity became public, they might be fired and blacklisted.
And there are more examples I could give. But in each of these examples, the group being marginalized resisted and gave each other hope. The enslaved Africans sang spirituals about freedom and liberation and God’s Love. Women marched in the face of threats and violence. Queer people, led by drag queens and trans women, rioted at the Stonewall Inn in New York City and marched in Pride protests.
Hope isn’t only found in these bigger actions. Hope can also be found in small acts of kindness and love. Since the election, I have seen trans people on social media sharing tips with each other about how to survive and thrive. People who are looking to change their names are given help so fast, it almost makes your head spin. People who are dismayed at the results are sharing their pain and fears and supporting each other.
As Harvey Milk, a queer activist and member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors who was assassinated in 1978, said, “You have to give them hope. Hope for a better world, hope for a better tomorrow, hope for a better place to come to if the pressures at home are too great. Hope that all will be all right. Without hope, not only are the gays, but the blacks, the seniors, the handicapped, the ‘us-es.’ The ‘us-es’ will give up.” Forming communities allows us to share hope with each other and also allows us to work together for our collective liberation. As Audre Lorde; a writer, professor, philosopher, intersectional feminist, poet and civil rights activist; said, “Without community, there is no liberation.” And listen to these pearls of wisdom from Bayard Rustin, a gay man who was a civil rights activist and an advisor to Martin Luther King, Jr. who led King towards wholly embracing non-violence: “The proof that one truly believes is in action.” and “You have to join every other movement for the freedom of people.”
Coming back to what the Catholic Church says, Hope is “the theological virtue by which we desire the kingdom of heaven and eternal life as our happiness, placing our trust in Christ’s promises and relying not on our own strength, but on the help of the grace of the Holy Spirit.” (CCC 1817) While I can appreciate this definition, I think it is too narrow. It is looking at the kingdom of heaven as something that is at some point in the future. But I believe that we are creating the Kindom here on this earth right now. All of our actions and words are working to create God’s Kindom in the here and now. And Hope is how we continue to work to establish this Kindom. Hope is what gives us the vision we need to imagine a new future and work for it. Hope is what picks us up and keeps us moving on, even when we might be weary and burdened. Hope is what gives us that spark to keep fighting for justice even in the face of odds that seem overwhelming.
In another sermon a few years ago, I talked about how God’s Love is a foundation for what I believe and something I can cling to at all times. Hope is also a part of that foundation. I believe that all humans have a better nature, a nature that is aligned with the Love of God. Even in the face of everything, I believe this. I believe that humans are, at their core, good and loving people who were created in the image and likeness of God. They don’t always act like it, but that core is there. Having this belief gives me hope that someday we might bend the moral arc of the universe toward justice.
This Wednesday is Trans Day of Remembrance, when we remember the members of the trans community who have been killed in the last year. Every year, the community gathers across the globe and names people who have been lost. And sometimes, we cannot name them, because there was one final act of violence in which the person was deadnamed or misgendered in death. But we carry on, knowing that those who came before us have helped pave the way to make things just a little bit better than they were, giving us that hope even when things are looking bleaker and bleaker.
There’s an influencer who goes by the name mattxiv who wrote this: “For the next four years, we will hold each other. We will love one another more than they could ever hate us. We will celebrate every win, no matter how small. We will throw parties when our trans friends announce their new names. Every Sunday is Pride Month. We will drive each other to abortion appointments. We will be each other’s shoulders to cry on. We will get dressed up just to order in, wear glitter and lashes just because, take road trips to places Fox News does not reach. We will find specks of joy in every little crevice life offers it. We, and only we, will carry each other through to the other side.”
Please don’t think I am saying this is going to be easy, because it ain’t gonna be. It’s gonna be hard work, it’s gonna be tiring, it’s gonna be exhausting. And we may or may not see the results we want to see. As the saying goes, “It’s a marathon, not a sprint.” We need to be in this for the long haul, no matter who is in power. And if we don’t have hope, I don’t know if we can continue on. So, I want to shamelessly steal from Pastor Kari and Linda and ask you to share with us all: What gives you Hope to continue on in the struggle for justice?
[Pause for a few minutes to allow people to share]
Thank you everyone for sharing the things that give you hope. As we come to the end of what I have to say, I want to quote a part of a reflection Brian G. Murphy wrote for Holy Saturday and resent to Sanctuary Collective for this time:
“I do not know what tomorrow holds but I do know this: I am so glad to be huddled in the upper room with you right now, scared and supporting each other. And I cannot wait to burst out tomorrow full of unstoppable hope that love wins and that even the world’s most powerful empire cannot defeat us.”
This also reminds me of another quote from Audre Lorde: "You need to reach down and touch the thing that’s boiling inside of you and make it somehow useful." We need to use whatever is inside of us, whatever provides us with that spark of inspiration and energy to work with others to provide hope for other people. As Harvey Milk said: “Hope will never be silent.” Neither can we be silent if we are looking to work for our collective liberation and looking to provide hope to inspire others to do the work as well.
Hope is eternal. Hope is a gift that has been given to us by God so that we can imagine a new world and work to make that new world real. Hope gives us strength and courage and conviction. Hope helps to energize us and keep us going. So please my siblings, find hope and hold onto it. Seize it in your hands and never let it go. It may be tempting to give up, but we need to continue on so that we can create a new and better world: the Kindom of God.
Let us pray:
Divine Parent, we thank you for the Gift of Hope. Please help each of us to find that Hope You have placed within us and use it to help bring Your Kindom into being. May we be a support for each other as we continue in the holy work of bringing Your Justice into the world. Help us to not only feel Hope, but to know it and make it a part of ourselves. These times are hard, but we have Hope that things can get better.
In Your Holy Name. Amen.
And let the church say, AMEN!