Thursday, October 22, 2009

Daily Office Reflection: Hope

Psalms 37:1-18 * 37:19-42; Ezra 1:1-11; 1 Corinthians 16:1-9; Matthew 12:15-21

Yesterday Jesus made the Pharisees quite angry by his allowing the disciples to pick/eat grain on the Sabbath as well as healing the man in the synagogue of his crippled hand. Today we have Jesus leaving them behind to continue on his work of healing and spreading the good news. And we have Matthew's words that in Jesus' name we will have hope. Remembering this hope exists for all of us is so important. We are surrounded by such beauty and such tragedy, this hope needs to be our ground from which to exist in this world.

In DC there is an increase in teenagers murdering other teenagers. Some of these have been gang related, but many are anonymous, "drive-by", random and are senseless. They are indicative of a far deeper problem and sense of hopelessness: a hopelessness of those who are perpetrating these terrible crimes and a hopelessness in trying to figure out how to address all of these issues.

We need to balance that sense of hopelessness against this promise of hope that we have been given in Jesus. That promise is real and needs to be our center, our solid ground on which to stand, from which all else we do and believe comes. Not easy, but that hope is a lifeline in difficult times.
jfd+

Copyright 2009, The Rev. John F. Dwyer. All Rights Reserved.

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