Today in the Mission Yearbook - Hoping in a better tomorrow

Pandemic blues heighten God’s glory to come

January 3, 2021

The Book of Lamentations begins with these words: How lonely sits the city that once was full of people! How like a widow she has become, she that was great among the nations! She that was a princess among the provinces has become a vassal. She weeps bitterly in the night, with tears on her cheeks; among all her lovers she has no one to comfort her (Lam. 1:1–2a).

Writing for a magazine that comes out six times a year means I have early deadlines. And so, as I wrote this column in mid-April, it struck me that the words in Lamentations could have been written by a journalist reflecting on the COVID-19 pandemic, rather than by an author some 2,600 years ago after the fall of Jerusalem.

With much of our nation having been shut down, our cities — once bustling with so many people — were left eerily deserted. Those hospitalized with COVID-19 sobbed through the night, longing for the touch of their families, who could not come near them. And the economic ramifications have left many of us feeling less secure and the poorest among us even more devastated.

The opening words in Lamentations hit home in a particular way for a friend of mine in Chicago. His octogenarian mother was one of more than 140,000 people infected in New York City. They had to put her on a ventilator and moved her into the intensive care unit. He, of course, was in Chicago, but even if he were in New York City, he would still have been separated from her. His consolation mostly came from the rosary beads he knew she was holding — a comfort when no one was there to physically hold her.

Their story is one of countless others in the path of the pandemic. The hopelessness and helplessness, though, particularly hit the poor among us — those who are more likely to have complicating health issues, those who do not have access to adequate medical care, and those whose jobs do not permit them to work from home. Studies from the Economic Policy Institute, for instance, showed that only one in six Hispanics/Latinxs in America and only one in five African Americans could work from home.

Daunting times we are in, yet Romans 8:12–25 gives us words of hope. In Romans, Paul tells us that God addresses our fear by adopting us as children (v. 15). He reminds us that God has been working to free the whole creation from the bondage of corruption (v. 21). He seeks to give us perspective by reminding us that “the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory about to be revealed to us” (v. 18).

Yet it is difficult to picture these promises from an isolated room in the ICU or when you are unsure if the job that puts bread on your table today will supply provision tomorrow.

Even on our best days, it is hard to see these promises coming true. It is hard to find hope. But hope we must find. And in our despair, Paul reminds us that “hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what is seen? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience” (vv. 24–25).

Let us patiently wait, prayerfully hope and courageously take the steps we are called to take to help transform the world into one that is just for all. Where health care is available to all, the homeless have a place to shelter in health and in sickness, and those who never have the luxury of working from home are given all the provisions they need to remain safe. And while we wait for our faith to become sight, may the Spirit give us eyes to see God’s work among us, adopting us as children, liberating us from bondage and revealing glory to us.

Chip Hardwick, Interim Executive, Synod of the Covenant

Let us join in prayer for: 

PC(USA) Agencies’ Staff
Zenia Baker, Presbyterian Foundation
Cheryl Barnes, Presbyterian Mission Agency

Let us pray:

For those within this world who are in need, Lord, hear our prayer. For those who work to ensure that all may eat, Lord, hear our prayer. That all would have enough, Lord, stir your people to action. Amen.

Using our resources wisely and creatively to change the world

Sowing the seeds of hope to reap a harvest of joy

By W. Tali Hairston | Presbyterians Today

Romans 8 describes a world groaning and lamenting for its redemption. Not only Creation, the writer says, but we ourselves groan waiting for redemption of our bodies. The good news is that the Spirit of God intercedes, for nothing can separate us from the love of God.

Our world continues groaning. Yet events embedded in political unrest, a pandemic and protests viewed through the lens of Romans 8, have become instructive for me. In engaging the hard places of life, accepting the ways in which the Spirit of God lovingly intercedes is deeply important. In my experience in ministry, though, we seem to stop at God’s loving embrace and not allow the loving intercession of the Spirit. This Spirit is the water in the desert leading us to hopeful actions that disrupt the groaning and lament of hopelessness.

Romans 8 inspires me whenever I experience paralysis and exhaustion from the overwhelming realities of our conflicted world. For me to stay present to the intercession of the Spirit and connected to the love of God means that I accept moments of hopelessness. Why? In the middle of all the profound theological questions of Romans 8 is a powerful revelation about hope. The text actually reads “for in this hope we were saved,” which requires an awareness of hopelessness.

Everything the Spirit is doing is designed to create hope in the world. Amid perilous and provocative times, the Spirit intercedes with hope. But hope is not simply a feeling word. Hope is an active waiting for what we do not have.

So, how is the Spirit interceding and producing hope-filled actions? This is where the story turns. The investment of our time, talent and treasure in these moments says a lot about whether we stopped at God’s loving embrace, but didn’t allow hope-filled actions to arise.

I have wrestled with this in my own life over the last six months. The groaning and lament in my neighborhood and city are overwhelming. Ministry calls me to be present to the suffering of people, to mourn with those who mourn. Additionally, I am personally lamenting the divisions, pain, confusion and fears of my own children. To be hopeful now seems as far as the east is from the west, or dare I say, the far right and far left. Who can be full of hope now? There are days I sit with pastors over Zoom, and the idea of hope feels unproductive. At times hope appears light as a feather, lacking relevance. How is the Holy Spirit going to invade this space? How are we to be people of hope now? Similar to Israel’s prayer as it entered Babylon, I wonder, “How can we sing in a strange land?”

Psalm 126:6, which says, “Those who go out weeping, bearing the seed for sowing, shall come home with shouts of joy, carrying their sheaves,” provides a way of thinking about hope and how we use our time, talent and treasure.

Let me provide some context. Instead of using the last remaining seed from the harvest for food, the sower would go weeping, sowing the seed hoping for a future harvest, as there was no guarantee. The promise from God is that our seeds of hope will bring shouts of joy because hope does not disappoint, for the love of God has been poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit (Romans 5:5). We are reminded that seeds of hope will always bring a harvest of joy amid the groaning and lament.

What an opportunity we have right now in our ongoing divisive cultural and political context to sow seeds of hope that can bring about joy in the midst of weeping. What do these “seeds” look like? Examples include purchasing from businesses owned by those impacted by COVID-19 or buying children’s books from authors of color to use to school our kids from home. Our congregation sowed seeds of educational opportunities, engaging in conversations with the local Wi-Fi service provider to ensure that young people in our community schools were able to continue their studies.

There are many ideas and strategies of how to invest one’s time, talent and treasure as a seed of hope. We are all now being encouraged to be the kind of people who are seed-bearing sowers of hope in this groaning world.

W. Tali Hairston is a PC(USA) pastor and director of community organizing, advocacy and development at Seattle Presbytery. Hairston was the founding director of the John M. Perkins Center for Reconciliation, Leadership Training, and Community Development at Seattle Pacific University.

Today in the Mission Yearbook - Scripture in a time of pandemic: It’s where to find hope

Union Presbyterian Seminary President Brian Blount has hope because ‘I’ve read to the end of The Book’

August 11, 2020

The Rev. Dr. Brian Blount is president of Union Presbyterian Seminary, with campuses in Richmond, Va. and Charlotte, N.C. (Contributed photo)

When asked how the current pandemic changes the way he interprets Scripture, the Rev. Dr. Brian K. Blount speaks of hope in the midst of struggle.

The question of theodicy — divine goodness in the presence of evil — comes to mind, he said, citing the Old Testament trials of Job.

He is also reminded of his recent experience as a guest lecturer in an Introduction to New Testament class at Union Presbyterian Seminary, where he serves as president. The students were discussing the book of Revelation.

Blount was teaching about the Christian belief that God is sovereign even in times like this, even when the world seems out of control.

“Last week I was telling the students, that’s the question in the book of Revelation: ‘If God is God, why are God’s people being persecuted by the Romans? How does that happen? And how do you witness in the midst of all that?’”

Blount calls Job and early Christians “models of faithfulness in the midst of the question.”

“This is why, I think, it’s important that there is no rapture in Book of Revelation. John doesn’t want his people to think that the expectation for them and their witnessing is to be raptured out of the tribulations in life. The expectation for them is to be a model of witnessing in the midst of tribulation,” he explained.

“If you can witness that God is in control when it looks like God isn’t in control, there you are demonstrating a faithfulness that other people will stand up and notice.”

Blount shared his views during a recent Facebook Live interview with the Rev. Dr. Lee Hinson-Hasty, senior director of the Theological Education Fund at the Presbyterian Foundation.

In this time of pandemic, Blount is focusing on nurturing and caring for the community he serves at Union Presbyterian Seminary, he said.

The author of “Invasion of the Dead: Preaching Resurrection,” Blount said the opportunity to be in the classroom discussing Revelation in this midst of the world’s health crisis was exciting.

So how does he suggest followers of Christ, who believe that God is sovereign and in control, witness to that during this difficult time?

He’d like for the church to reclaim the notion of the apocalypse from popular culture, he said, adding that he read a lot of popular culture apocalyptic materials and saw zombie movies prior to writing “Invasion of the Dead.”

The constant thread in the popular culture apocalyptic world is fear and hopelessness, even in heroic moments, he said. The heroic moments are islands in an ocean of despair.

“In the New Testament there is despair, hopelessness, but those are the islands. The real ocean is the hopefulness that is coming,” Blount said. “This hopefulness is built from God’s invasion in Jesus. And then I think we become conduits of that invasion in the way we replicate Jesus’ ministry in our own lives.”

In so doing, Christians bring into the present God’s future intent, one of wholeness and community, looking out for those less powerful and less privileged.

If Christians emulate that, they become apocalyptic themselves, Blount said, revelatory apocalyptic, not end of time apocalyptic.

Blount makes the case that “the signal place that God makes that invitation is not in the cross, although that is key moment, but it is in the resurrection. Because the resurrection redeems the cross. It claims life over death and that the life is a promise for all of us. The hopefulness of New Testament apocalyptic can counter the pessimism and despair of cultural apocalyptic.”

When asked about his hopefulness, Blount responded, “I’ve read to the end of The Book [the Bible]. There is a great hope I am promised at the end of the book. In my best moments, I feel it. It has been bred in me. While there is difficulty in the middle of the book, there is hope in the end. There is a promise in that. God can and does break through in the present, just like God did with Jesus.”

Sally Scherer for the Presbyterian Foundation; Writer and Communications Consultant based in Lexington, Kentucky; Member, Elder and Choir Member at Second Presbyterian Church

Let us join in prayer for: 

PC(USA) Agencies’ Staff
Melanie Komp, Presbyterian Foundation
Luciano Kovacs, Presbyterian Mission Agency

Let us pray:

Most loving and compassionate God, may your comforting presence and abundance of grace be on our service providers, churches and communities who have suffered immense loss from natural and human-made disasters. Amen.

Today in the Mission Yearbook - A ‘pie for breakfast’ event becomes a moment for hope and redemption

A community puts aside differences to come together

May 11, 2020

For this country pastor, spring means Town Meeting Day is here.

A Vermont tradition since 1762, Town Meeting Day is where residents in sleepy hamlets and frozen-in-time villages throw on their boots and trudge through the mud (or sometimes a foot or more of snow) to get to schools or village offices to speak for or against proposed policies, budgets, prospective town clerks and supervisors, and then to vote.

I’ve always been intrigued with Town Meeting Day. Why call it a “meeting” when really no one is there to have deep discussions? Just like church parking lot conversations, meetings have already taken place inside musty general stores and, of course, in the most popular gathering place — the rural post office. Still, Vermonters will discuss, debate, disagree and hopefully cast votes that will benefit the many who are struggling in the Green Mountain state.

While running errands and out on pastoral calls, I see the “Vote for…” signs hanging from dilapidated porches or stuck into the ground near mailboxes. Many of these signs are written in marker on poster board and stapled to a wooden stick. These are simple signs, yet not so simple issues. Vermont, like many places in our country, is struggling with families moving out because of the lack of jobs, the inability to get high-speed internet that prevents businesses from moving in, farms closures and the rampant use of opioids. And don’t even get me going on the state of our churches. I’ve never held onto the promise of resurrection so tightly as I do now as a rural pastor. Those who idealize country living for its simplicity fail to see it is anything but simple. There was one recent Town Meeting Day that proved just that.

The vote was about merging rural schools into larger districts to save money and resources. Those for the merger cited that rural schools couldn’t continue as is with the number of children and funding shrinking. Those against the merger supported the tax increases that would keep the current school system in place. I would like to tell you that there was a resolution, but sadly, the school debate has seen no clear winners or losers. The issue is complex and ongoing.

Still, as the sun went down on that particular Town Meeting Day, I was thinking about the vote that was asking us to change, and how scary that change can be. But no matter how unsettling, doesn’t change give us a chance to see how God can take our dashed dreams, failed attempts and deflated hope and make something wonderful out of it all? Can we see beyond winners and losers and focus on bringing people together in way that moves everyone forward?

When I moonlighted as a reporter at a local paper, I interviewed a woman in one of Vermont’s hamlets that had been dotted with “No to school merger” signs. She was planning a “pie for breakfast” event the weekend after Town Meeting Day. After asking her the important question of what flavor of pies would be served, I asked why she was doing this. Her answer was “to bring the community back together.”

“We are still to be a neighbor to one another, and what better way to remember that than to gather over homemade pies for breakfast?” she said.

Without realizing it, she was capturing hope and redemption.

I couldn’t stop thinking how Vermonters would be doing something very holy when breaking into the flaky pie crusts with their forks. For in the breaking of the pie crusts, they were in fact inviting the spirit of unity to fill the room. And, I believe, the Spirit of God was with them in a powerful and healing way that Saturday morning.

Votes might get contentious as change can be hard but fear not. God’s steadfast love changes not.

Donna Frischknecht Jackson, Editor, Presbyterians Today

Let us join in prayer for: 

PC(USA) Agencies’ Staff
T.P. Coleman, Administrative Services Group (A Corp)
Heather Colletto, Board of Pensions

Let us pray:

Gracious God, we thank you for the witness of the church. We ask that your mighty hand would uphold them and guide them as they seek to serve you. In the name of Jesus. Amen.