My friends, in this day and age when it seems that the only answer to conflict around our beautiful world is war and the taking of human life, as opposed to the much harder work of communication and negotiation—give and take, coming to solutions, while maybe not perfect, are, at the least—just, in some ways, for all involved; I lift up the “hope” reflected in this weekend’s Scripture readings.  I will get to that in a bit. 

   In order that we might see the need for hope, based on faith, in the “best angels” around us, which someone said to me recently, I would like to name more of the seemingly “hopeless” words and actions that came to me this week.

• Without saying much by way of explanation, let me just lift up the U.S. House of Representatives and their apparent lack of leadership in being able to choose someone “to speak” justly for all of them.
• With heavy heart, I lift up the example of an innocent 6-year-old boy in Chicago, an Arab American, stabbed 26 times by his deranged land-lord for what cause? —fear, revenge? This makes as much sense as our Church saying that every beautiful baby born into this world comes with the stain of sin.  With regard to the first boy mentioned, as our president said in an address to the nation, and I paraphrase—revenge is never, ever right.
• And a final example, and then I will move on to more hope-filled ones: I saw a copy of our diocesan paper the other day and read that Bishop Barron, in heading to the Synod in Rome this month, went with a “concern.”  While acknowledging the “continental” hopes of those who answered the surveys in preparation, wanting more “welcome” for those who feel “alienated” from the Church, the bishop basically said, pastorally, it is “legitimate” that the Church be concerned, but at the end of the day, law always trumps love. And because I think it important for you to know how cut and dried, the bishop looks at this matter, here are his exact words: “But if the estrangement is caused by a deep disconnect between what the Church legitimately demands and the manner in which someone is living, then the needful thing is for that person to change his attitude.” Funny thing, my read of Scripture tells me that our brother Jesus came to say just the opposite—while we respect the law, which is almost never played out in people’s lives in black and white ways, but in hues of gray, love is always, always, the better choice. 

A final note is that “the very real hope” of our bishop that the “pastoral and properly theological dimensions will be a key work of the Synod,” is based on the Bible, the theological tradition, and the natural moral law.  To that I would say, as did theologian, Sister Sandra Schneiders, “the Bible was written by men, about men, and for men,” and theological tradition and natural moral order was constructed and put in place by men as well, seemingly inspired by a male God, so I wouldn’t depend on “voiceless” women or others on the fringes being treated very fairly or justly in all of that. 

   Before going on then, to what is more hopeful, let’s see first what the Scriptures have to say:  Isaiah, Paul, and Jesus—prophets all, speak to “hope” in different ways.  Isaiah reminds the people that throughout history, they have been known to be the “chosen” of God. With the completion of this “First” testament and the “Second” with Jesus, we come to know that we all,  each of us is “chosen” and should consider all others, regardless of age, color, gender, sexual expression—whatever, “God’s chosen” too.  With that in mind, it is interesting to think of both the Israelis and the Palestinians praying to the same God, to quote Isaiah, on behalf of God, “I am your God, there is no other.” 

   Paul says it a bit differently, “You are proving your faith by your actions, laboring in love and showing constancy in your hope in Jesus.”  If I might revert back to Bishop Barron’s “concern”—with regard to Paul’s words here—it would seem that the bishop does not have much hope that the Spirit “is continually renewing the face of the earth,” and may be calling us to a broader view than theological tradition.

   And finally, Jesus says in Matthew’s gospel for today, “Give to Caesar [what is his], give to God what is God’s.”   I will leave you to find the meaning for this one in your own lives.  In simple parlance though, for myself, I would say that Jesus’ words are about “showing up” and showing God’s love. 

   With that, I will end with two examples that give me hope in our troubled world:

• You may be aware of writer, speaker, Michael Perry—he’s a favorite of ours and one of his programs was on this past week on PBS. Suffice it to say, he came from a family of two loving and generous parents who not only cared for their own three sons, but took in many foster children, some of which they adopted, and always, for the most part, these were children few others wanted.  So Michael learned “generosity” and care for others, throughout his growing years watching his mom and dad, and other adults in action.  One story that he shared was about his 4^th grade teacher, a man who gave him a lesson to live by.  It seems that in this 4^th grade class of boys and girls, there was a girl whom, for whatever reason, was picked on and teased by the others, Michael included, he shared.  One day the teacher asked for a volunteer to go next door and help with a project. Everyone but the girl who was teased raised their hands. The teacher looked at her and said, “Why don’t you go!”     After she left, the teacher closed the door and spoke to the children.  “I want you all to know that when I asked for a volunteer, all of you raised your hands, except for her. She would not volunteer because of the merciless way that you always tease her about everything.  Michael said that he has never forgotten that story, that it was basically, a teaching moment. It’s good to remember, I think, the effect we can have on others.
• And finally, a story about a man I think most of you know who completed his life’s journey this past week—Dave Palmquist.  He was a naturalist for many years and opened up for many of us the wonders of our earth through plants and birds and all.  Dave had fought cancer for several years, and when his wife, Kathy asked where should she look for him in the night sky, as they always enjoyed looking at the stars together, he answered, “Look toward Orion.”  I read Kathy’s Facebook post out loud to Robert and when I finished, he said, “Do you want to hear something neat?  Sure, I said! “This morning, I went out in the dark, and looked up to see Venus, something I don’t regularly do, and do you know what I saw? Orion was right overhead, usually seen only in the winter sky!

   Both stories give me great hope friends—for I will always hold onto, and look forward to seeing the best from us humans, always, no matter what the present time might pre-sent!  Amen?  Amen!