Reclaiming Hope

When I left my job at Trinity I hastily packed all of my things up in whatever box or bag I could find.  Those boxes and bags sat in my home office and eventually made the move to the new house.  Slowly I have begun to put things away and sort through the stuff.  This past week I ran across the mug that sat in my office and was my “go to” mug for coffee.  It is like the perfect mug.  Perfect size, a little extra room to allow for proper amounts of milk or cream but sturdy and good.  It’s a brown mug with a pink inside.  On the mug, scrawled in pink is a butterfly and the word “hope”.  Admittedly, when I saw the mug I took a sharp breath in.  Not being at Trinity and the way all of it unfolded is still a fresh wound.  I considered giving the mug to charity.  Maybe someone could love it as much as I did.  Maybe I could just pack it away again.  I took a deep breath and knew what I had to do.  I washed that mug and it’s now my at home “go to” mug.  

This mug is more than a mug.  Well, I mean it is a mug.  I actually bought it from Cokesbury (RIP) on clearance.  But the mug represents so much more to me.  You see, I decided that no one gets to make me hide my hope.  No one gets to make me donate my hope to a thrift store.  No one gets me to put my hope down, that is of course, unless I let them.  Of course this whole incident has made me think about the first week of advent.  Hope.  That four letter word.  Hope is at the heart of advent, really.  When we are little we hope for the latest and greatest toy.  Some adults still spend advent hoping for the latest and greatest toy.  Even the first Christmas (which did not take place in the winter) was chock full of hope.  As one of my favorite Christmas songs says “a thrill of hope, the weary world rejoices”.  Hope is thrilling.  And rightfully so.  Have you looked around lately?  Have you read any news lately?  The weary world, indeed!  As Mary sings in the Magnificat, we have hope that one day all of the systems of oppression will be dismantled.  That the lowly will be raised up and the rich will be sent away empty.  A child will lead us.  We have this hope because of a baby born in a stable (but not in December).  

It’s easy to get discouraged. Again, have you read the news lately?  So hold on to hope in your heart.  And I will continue to hold hope in my heart and in my hand.  And drink some coffee from it.  Advent is upon us, the season of waiting and hoping.  May you hope boldly.  Don’t give it away to the thrift store and don’t pack it away.  Keep it on display. That, my friends, is what a weary world needs right now.