Esperanza/Hope Changes Everything

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I learned from Environmental Justice Activist Joanna Macy that Active Hope  is something we do rather than have. It involves being clear about what we hope for and then playing our role in the process of moving in that direction. She calls this time the Great Turning and teaches us that the journey of finding, and offering, our unique contribution to the Great Turning helps us to discover new strengths, open to a wider network of allies and experience a deepening of our aliveness. She says that when our responses are guided by the intention to act for the healing of our world, the mess we’re in not only becomes easier to face, our lives also become more meaningful and satisfying. (1)  I believe that these teachings about active hope can also be applied to the healing of our nation, to healing the heart of Democracy, and that they are not just limited to environmental justice, but include every aspect of our lives: we are experiencing a Great Turning on so many levels! How do we understand and experience hope? Is it just wishful thinking? 

Some years ago I heard a well known colleague preach about hope. He reminded us that in English, to hope is to expect, to await something good. In Spanish, the word for hope is esperanza which comes from the verb esperar, to wait in apprehension of something good or evil. This definition then includes the element of fear.  While my colleague stated that he did not have a problem with a hope in God; He “found it problematic to hope that all things will work out for the best. History and personal experience shows that it seldom does. Good Christians with plenty of hope in God’s protection die in horrible accidents, experience financial collapse, and lose all that is dear – just like non-Christians. Bad things do happen – and happen often – to good people. Claiming hope, as protection from evil becomes somewhat naïve.” He continues by stating that  history is full of stories of evil vanquishing good, brutality crushing peace. We presently live in a world that is not getting better for the global marginalized, rather, due to the widening wealth gap, getting worse. And he asks: What role then is played by religious hope? Is it the opiate Marx claims it to be? 

And then he stops me in my tracks when he asserts that Hope, as a statement of unfounded belief, serves an important middle-class purpose. That “All too often, hope becomes an excuse not to deal with the reality of injustice and that for far too many who are on the margins of society, there is no hope…The disenfranchised have no option but to continue their struggle for justice regardless of the odds against them. They continue the struggle, if not for themselves, for their progeny.” Now as someone who was unchurched for almost two decades, who grew up with Liberation Theology and Marxist understandings of human suffering and human rights, I can grasp these stements and can follow this line of thinking…I might theoretically come to the same conclusions…but as a survivor, as a working class queer immigrant, the idea of hope being naive or serving a middle class purpose just doesn’t reflect my own experience, or that of the people, the people on the margins, who choose hope despite the devastating realities, who nurture hope, despite being beaten down over and over again, who activate hope as a collective resistance, who pratice hope while in bondage, and who celebrate hope when we bend the arc of the universe, even if just a little bit closer to justice…It is not a naive or anemic kind of hope, it is not a wishful thinking hope, but a hope born out of broken chains, an active hope that requires mind, body and spirit, an embodied hope htat is not a thing we have, but the things we do individually and together as a community. I don’t think anyone who was involved in the great turning that resulted in a new dawn for our nation, this new administration, would say that our hope was wishful thinking or served middle class interests…Our hope might have been raggedy, frayed at the seams, at times almost impossible to even imagine…and yet, every time we did something, no matter how small, we activated hope. And in the process, we changed…everything changed… Once we have experienced this collective activation of hope, things cannot remain the same. Yes, it is true that the struggle continues, that the systems that produce poverty and oppression do not magically disappear, but it is also true that hope changes everything…

Joanna Macy teaches us that “when following the path of an inspiring vision, we are likely to encounter the voice dismissing what we hope for as unnecessary or impractical. The greater the gap between present reality and what we would like to have happen, the louder this voice will be…But when we dare to believe our vision is possible, and dare also to act on this belief, extraordinary changes can take place.” And as Nelson Mandela once said of changes like this: “It always seems impossible until it is done.” Joanna recognizes that in the face of ongoing injustice and suffering it is easy to get discouraged and difficult to sustain the belief that what we hope for is possible. It is painful to keep hold of a vision if we don’t believe we can make meaningful progress toward it.  She writes that there are two ways of looking at change: Continuous change-which happens incrementally at a steady, predictable rate, over many decades — and discontinuous change: Sudden shifts that surprise us; structures that appear as fixed and solid as the Berlin Wall can collapse or be dismantled in a very short time. An understanding of discontinuous change opens up a genuine sense of possibility.” When we see with new eyes, we recognize how every action has significance, how the bigger story of the Great Turning is made up of countless smaller stories of communities, campaigns, and personal actions.

We are at the threshold of a new dawn and Moving forward we might ask ourselves: 1. What do we most want to do for the healing of our own wounds and our nation’s wounds? 2. What resources, inner and outer, do we have that will help us do this? 3. What might we need to learn, develop, or obtain? 4. What obstacles might we encounter? And how will we overcome these obstacles?  What step can we take in the next week, no matter how small — that will move us toward this goal? When we dare to believe that what we hope for is possible, we can dare to act. 

But how do we keep the fire of commitment burning bright for the long haul? We are used to talking about long term financial sustainability, or sustainability with respect to the environment, but we seldom consider our personal sustainability being right at the heart of what we do. We need to rest, to create opportunities to feel and share joy, to pause and take a gladness inventory, check in with ourselves about where we are investing our time and energy and making sure it is still a source of joy, not something that is sapping our energies and feeling like a burden. When I was searching for music for this service I was thinking about Pete Seger. I wondered, what would he say about these times? And then I found Emma’s Revolution Sing People Sing. Singing is one way to activate hope, to embody hope, and to share hope. Pete modeled for us what it is to be a lifetime activist, a catalyst for hope, an agent of change, transforming the impossible into possibility. At a time when the Hudson river in New York was terribly polluted, Pete would gather people by the river and sing them into hope giving them a vision that another river was possible. That movement created active hope, nourished people’s enthusiasm, and resulted in the Hudson river experiencing great transformations and becoming once again healthy and life sustaining. Music is renewable energy! So is our hope: if we see it as valuable, then we become more interested in how we can nourish, renew, and restore this precious resource. 

Another valuable teaching from Joanna Macy is the notion of expanding our understanding of the term activist. She says that the practice of Active Hope involves being an activist for what we hope for in the world and that activist means anyone who is active for a purpose bigger than personal gain. In this context, activism goes beyond campaigning and protest. We are more effective when acting from our strengths and enthusiasm. Active Hope requires enthusiasm and having our heart in the process. 

Beloveds, we are on the threshold of a new era. Changes are happening that once were hard to imagine. You have been working diligently to make changes that will strengthen this congregation on many different levels. The staff, the Board, the Ministerial Search Committee, the various committees, and the congregation at large have all been working hard to make change possible. This is not magical thinking. This is not the result of being naive. This active hope has been nourished by each and every one of you. You have weathered many storms and faced difficult challenges in the recent past, in the midst of a pandemic. My hope and my prayer is that Active Hope, Esperanza, will continue to be our guiding light,  our compass, and daily practice. Let us step through the threshold with enthusiasm, with grateful and joyful hearts as we climb the next hill, as we greet the new dawn. I will close my remarks with  an excerpt from Amanda Gorman’s prophetic words:

“And yet the dawn is ours…

Even as we grieved, we grew

even as we hurt, we hoped

 even as we tired, we tried…

We did not feel prepared to be the heirs

of such a terrifying hour

but within it we found the power

to author a new chapter

To offer hope and laughter to ourselves

When day comes we step out of the shade,

aflame and unafraid

The new dawn blooms as we free it

For there is always light,

if only we’re brave enough to see it

If only we’re brave enough to be it” 

Amen/Blessed Be/Ashe

 Active Hope: How to Face the Mess We’re in without Going Crazy, Joanna Macy & Chris Johnstone, New World Library, 2012.

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