June 15, 2008
Fifth Sunday After Pentecost
Father’s Day and Juneteenth
Pastor Anita C. Hill

Hope Bearers

Romans 5:1-11 and Matthew 9:35-10:15

Grace and peace to you from God, our Creator, Christ, and Holy Spirit. Amen.

Viktor Frankl, a holocaust survivor and author of Man’s Search for Meaning, tells this story about the way hope sustains life. He writes of the numbing weeks of the winter of 1944; the gray days, the cold sameness of every dreary morning in the camps.

Then, the whisper of hope came to the concentration camp that the Allies had landed at Normandy and that the tide of the war had turned. They told each other: “By Christmas we will be released!”

The workers went out to the same awful labor, but their hearts were lighter so it seemed a little easier. They had the same slop to eat, but each bite was a countdown to freedom. Forgiveness came a little easier because hope of a future held them.

Fewer people died in those months. Even the weakest among them clung to life. But when Christmas 1944 came and went and they were not freed, the people began to die. The work remained the same; the conditions were the same. There was no new sickness running through the camp. People died because their hope had died.

Hope is at the heart of today’s scripture readings. Hope is the promise of God brought to life in Jesus Christ. Hope is the promise of the people with Moses to live as God has commanded. Hope is how God has reconciled with humanity through Jesus Christ despite our inability to live up to our promises. Hope is the message of the disciples of Jesus who go out with Jesus’ power to heal and to bring compassion on the suffering. Hope is a central part of our faith.

Today we recognize the roles of fathers, men and boys as bearers of hope in the world. It’s also the Sunday nearest Juneteenth, the date the slaves were finally freed in Texas several years after the Civil War had ended.

Can you imagine that same hope in the hearts of slaves during the Civil War? How hope for freedom and faith in God was all they had to cling to?

Last week, there was an incident of racial slur coupled with death threats at a high school in St. Francis, MN. It directly affects the relatives of one of our congregation families. It is unthinkable that racial division still holds forth, when it is so apparent that multicultural life is so rich and possible and brings the hopeful promise of a future in Minnesota as it does in the rest of our country and the world.

How do we as individuals and we as a community of faith embody hope in such a time as this? It’s about being Christ in the world and about seeing Christ in the world. I’ve been thinking about some examples of that hope embodied.

One hope bearer is Steve Winfield, a man who has for more than 30 years been about the kind of support and hope building that recognizes young athletes of color in St. Paul as they prepare for college. Last Sunday evening at the Annual Winfield Awards banquet, eight young people represented hope on the stage at the Crown Plaza Hotel. Hope for a future for themselves and for our community. Judge David Higgs brought words of hope telling them to set their sights on their goals and never to let anyone tell them they are not good enough to reach them.

Another bearer of hope is Steve Eiken, who just rescheduled the baptism of his daughter for September. Lillie’s baptism had been scheduled last winter, but was canceled because terrible weather kept her God-parent uncle from being present.

I thought of the pastor who I call my “father in the faith,” Gordon Ward, who taught me Lutheran theology. He walked with me through a divorce and helped me understand the immense depth of God’s grace and hope for me as a child of God even as I came out 35 years ago. Pastor Gordon grew up in South Carolina and was the first pastor I heard preach about how racism affects us all, whatever our skin color, whatever our station in life.

My own Dad was one who brought hope and healing when he called me after I’d had a rough time, offering to “fly up there this morning if you need me.”

When I was a child, my Grandpa lived with us after he’d had a stroke. I’d hear him praying: “Have mercy.” Or “Mercy, mercy.” He brought his hope to God and helped define God for me as gracious and loving.

Who are the people who have been hope givers for you? Who are the ones who have mentored your life and faith?

Yesterday, two candidates for the VIBE Urban Youth Ministry Director position told stories of their hope-bearers.

A woman from Africa told of a man who worked with her father. He quietly enrolled her for school, paying her tuition and school needs. She said it was tough being 11 years old in class with the kindergartners because she could not read. It was her younger brother who taught her numbers and the alphabet and started her on the path to reading. Today, she has a PhD from Emory University. This man and her brother brought her hope and possibility

Another candidate, when asked his heroes, included his 4 ½ year old son because he “teaches me abut God and about loving life every day.” His son is a hope bearer for him.

Ours is a world where people are increasingly separate from each other and in need of hope. St. Paul speaks of hope which does not disappoint us “because God’s love has been poured into our hearts.” (Romans 5:5) We were sinners, but Jesus Christ has made us friends and family.

Jesus brought hope, healing, and wholeness wherever he went. People needed that so much that Jesus commissioned the disciples to be hope bearers with his own authority and power. He told them to look for hospitality wherever they went as signs of hope in the world.

Through Christ, we are reconciled to God and become hope bearers in the world. On this Father’s Day, on this day when we remember the plight of those who’ve been denied freedom, let us remember that Jesus not only calls us brothers and sisters. Jesus sends us out with power to embody hope and reconciliation to others.

Whether you are a father, a mentor, a brother, a friend; whether you are a mother, an aunt, a sister; whether you are a person of color or not; whether you are 11 years old or nearing 100 years old, you are a bearer of hope to the world. You are called to be a reconciler in the places where people are hurting today. You are blessed. You are loved. You bring hope. Amen.