Hope — the practice of hope

For a video version of the sermon, scroll to the end

I started talking about the spiritual practice
of the Baptismal Covenant last week,
and I am going to carry on with that —

but with it’s connotations
more than it’s denotations.
By which I mean,
rather than ticking down the list
and picking through the tartar
between every literal word of those promises,
I am going to pull at its pieces
and themes
and wisdom
like pulling apart Monkey bread.

To begin, I cannot say enough
about the practice of hope.
Hope is something we have to practice
so that it is strong enough in us
that when we need it most
we have it as a resource
for ourselves and others.

Name something powerful,
something essential to the human spirit
that is more primary than hope?
Love?
Imagine a love without hope.
Love is empowered by hope.

Courage?
Even where courage
drives a human being toward sacrifice,
it is the burning coal of hope
that makes any sacrifice seem worth it.

Hope.
There is no such thing
as a hopeless spiritual community,
nor a spiritual agent of God’s love
who is without hope.

Whenever I talk about hope,
I feel compelled to distinguish it from wishful thinking.
Because in the popular culture
hope has been turned into wishful thinking.
Hope,
in the secularized
and the economized world,
is mostly self-interested,
self-centered,
and about acquiring something desired.
”Out there” hope is what we wish for,
whether or not that wish is grounded in reality
or appropriate to the situation.

Authentic hope is not outcome-based,
it is process-focused.
Authentic hope lives one step, even one moment
at a time.
It cares about and gives attention to the means
of traveling toward the horizon
because it knows the end is beyond our control.
Authentic hope is not grounded
in an outcome that is good for us personally,
but rather, whatever is of God.

Authentic hope
remains conscious of the fact
that whatever the outcome —
even if it is not good for us personally —
will have the sacred written on it.

The consequence of practicing
the five promises of the Baptismal Covenant,
is a grounding and rootedness in authentic hope.

For example, the first promise
is to continue in the wisdom and community
that began around a table
that Jesus hosted.

I told you, connotation not denotation.

Hope as it is practiced “out there”
in the culture of economics,
would say that the hope of any church
must be to grow,
get big, build a huge church building,

have mega programs
to attract people and contributions
and get them all to be adherents
of a particular doctrine and dogma.
By the nature of that hope
we can see where so much of the Christianity
and churches have gone wrong.

To continue in the wisdom and community
that began around a table
that Jesus hosted,
has nothing to do with numbers or income
and everything to do
with the invitation made
and the hospitality offered —
the invitation made and the hospitality offered.
You see, process-focused not outcome driven.

For example, we cannot make our spiritual community
racially, ethnically, gender or age diverse.
You cannot “make” diversity.
But, we can pay attention to how inclusive we are
to those who do walk in,
and we can pay attention to how inclusive
our hospitality is
when we gather
and by what we do
and don’t do.
The outcome is not ours to control
but the process is.

The table fellowship Jesus hosted
led to his death
but continued and became
something world-wide and continuous over time.

Even he did not control the outcome,
only the process.

This may rub some of you the wrong way
but much of what we know and see as Christianity
in our world, and including The Episcopal Church,
is Capitalist Christianity.

That is not so much a dig against Capitalism
as it is a prophetic critique of a Christianity
that has become about outcomes,
personal rewards,
and success
as measured by people, money, and buildings.

While the so-called “Prosperity Gospel”
that preaches the right faith
will lead to material benefits
is the most grotesque example of Capitalist Christianity,
any theology based upon personal salvation
as the central goal of religious practice
is the same thing.

Buddhism has the concept of the Bodhisattva
who refrains from enlightenment
until all creatures have become enlightened.
Jesus was a Bodhisattva —
he accepted personal death
so that the rest of us
could figure out how we are supposed to live.
Imagine the Gospel
if Jesus had said, “Heck no!”
when they came to put him on the cross,
and flew off
leaving shocked dumb-faced soldiers
holding the cross.

But that is not what happened.
Something about accepting death on the cross
as the victim of state sponsored violence —
capital punishment —
was the practice of hope for Jesus.

That is not to say
that we can only practice hope
via self-destruction,
but it does hint that authentic hope
does not hinge
on our personal outcomes.

I have already made this more complicated
than it needs to be.

The first promise of our baptism
is to continue in the wisdom and community
that began around a table
that Jesus hosted. Period.

Just continue exploring the wisdom,
continue nurturing community,
continue gathering around an open table
in the ways Jesus did,
and be expectant.

Hope. That is, know
that if we are doing it faithfully and authentically,
then somewhere,
for somebody or somebodies,
somehow,
someway
the kingdom comes on earth
as it is in heaven.
Don’t look to grow.
Don’t look to create the biggest bestest ministry in town.
Don’t try to have the most beautiful liturgy.
Don’t build the most elegant music program.
Don’t insist on getting the so-called influencers and social elite,
or conversely, attracting the most magnificent diversity.
Just continue exploring the wisdom,
continue nurturing community,
continue gathering around an open table
in the ways Jesus did,
and be expectant.

The expectancy is not for a particular outcome
but that God is working through us
to do whatever it is God will do.

There is the hope.
Hope is not in our outcome.
Hope is not in our control.
Hope is not something we even know to desire.
Hope is that God is working through us
to do whatever it is God will do.
So we keep on.

We keep on and do
what we know to do:
continue in the wisdom and community
that began around a table
that Jesus hosted.

It is so,
it is so, so…opposite wishful thinking
and capitalist religion.

Now there are four other promises
inherent in our baptisms,
and I’ll get to those in a similar way
over the next few weeks, but it begins here:
Just continue exploring the wisdom,
continue nurturing community,
continue gathering around an open table
in the ways Jesus did.

Clearly, this is not something you and I
can do by ourselves.
It is not a solo practice.
At its most basic,
Christian spiritual practice is communal.

The practice of hope is a community practice.
Baptismal practice is not about personal salvation,
it is about community
gathering around an open table
and exploring the gift of our wisdom.

Huh, turns out we need each other to do this thing.