A Child of Hope

To us a Child of Hope is born,
to us a Son is given;
Him shall the tribes of earth obey,
Him all the hosts of heaven ---
Him shall the tribes of earth obey, Him all the hosts of heaven.

His name shall be the Prince of Peace,
For evermore adored,
The Wonderful, the Counselor
the great and mighty Lord,
the Wonderful, the Counselor, the great and mighty Lord.

His power, increasing, still shall spread,
His reign no end shall know;
Justice shall guard His throne above,
and peace abound below ---
Justice shall guard His throne above and peace abound below.

Lowell Mason, 1837

based on Isaiah 9: 6-7

I awoke with the haunting words and melody of this hymn of Christmas in my head -- A Child of Hope.

For too many people and for lots and lots of reasons, the birth of children do not signal hope. Instead -- heartache, suffering, hard times and more hard times, anguish....pain.  I know all that we say about Mary, Jesus' mother....but sometimes, I wish I could have been privy to what was going on in her mind when the Angel left, when family members weighed in....what did she see in Joseph's eyes at first...really...when she shared with him her news?

Why did she really need to go and spend three months with her cousin, Elizabeth, John's mother?  Maybe three months was the cooling off period?

I don't know -- we will never know.  But this is for sure:  part of the reason that Jesus is a child of Hope is because regardless of how he was conceived, the questions that surrounded that conception and whatever their families were thinking -- Mary kneeled down and Joseph stepped up.

Mary kneeled down...and Joseph stepped up. 

Mary praised and prayed.

Joseph embraced a life that he didn't create, but one that would be his to shape and nurture.

We still need children to be "of hope" -- not to suffer the soul-branding anguish that comes with facing the lingering questions, doubts, and uncertainties of their circumstances, anguish that often follows them throughout their lives.  That Jesus still suffered the community's gossip, name-calling and constant questioning about his parentage as he grew up even though Joseph embraced him for all to see and bound him to his lineage tells us just vulnerable children are --even this Child -- to adult "name-calling."

Yet...this Child taught us some hopeful things...

--That even young children can be about "their Father's business" -- we should "open our Temples" and embrace their questions.

--That our family bloodlines are not anywhere near as all-encompassing as families united by His blood -- we should be even more willing to make a place within our circle for God's beloved.

--That regardless of the circumstances of our birth...even two thousand years later...He shares with us the One he called "Our Father" -- affirming the declaration of the psalmist who declared that if our earthly mothers and fathers forsake us, He will take us up.

We still need children of Hope -- children who are taught that they are precious, who have names of endearment whispered into their ears, who are embraced by strong men and prayed for by courageous women, whose names are inserted into the community history -- the lineage -- and who are assured without a shadow of doubt, over and over again, that there is One who is stronger than the pull of any of our circumstances.

Kneel down Mary...and step up Joseph....trust God to do the rest.

Promises....promises....promises

The season of Advent -- the four weeks leading up to Christmas Sunday --  is my favorite time of the year.  I usually block out all "Xmas songs" and focus on the songs of Advent -- the songs of waiting, hope, expectation and promise.  Now, of course, I can and do listen to Christmas hymns all year long (much to the 'I'll be darned!!' consternation of my children who must suffer through a car ride with me humming through O Come All Ye Faithful in the middle of June!)

But somehow, my desire to sing the songs of Christmas is soon overwhelmed by the beginning of November and I am anxious for Advent -- to lift a hymn of expectation and hope.  How else will we build up to the real joy and fulfilment of...

"Joy to the world! The Lord is come;
let earth receive her King!
Let every heart prepare Him room
and heaven and nature sing...


No more let sins and sorrows grow,
nor thorns infest the ground!
He comes to make His blessings flow
far as the curse is found..."
(Joy to the World, Isaac Watts, 1719)

...except we walk through the expectant and hopeful strains of 

"O Come, O Come Emmanuel and ransom captive Israel
that mourns in lonely exile here, until the Son of God appear.
Rejoice, rejoice Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel.


O come, Thou Dayspring, come and cheer our spirits by thine advent here.
Disperse the gloomy clouds of night
and death's dark shadows put to flight....

(O Come, O Come Emmauel, ca 1851)

To go right to  "Joy to the World" without the cry for God With Us to "Come!" is like glossing over Good Friday to get to Resurrection Sunday. Where is the meaning in the celebration without a reminder first of what got us there?

Before Halloween, the world turns on the cash register with an eye on a "good" Christmas.  It is the season for business and bottom lines.

Through these songs, I am reminded that the birth of Jesus -- a poor baby who never escaped the earthly "scandal" associated with being a "mamzer" -- a child of questionable parentage-- is the fulfillment of God's promise to break through the heavy silence that engulfs hope after the voices of the Prophets begin to taper off -- to break through with a New Thing! 

I am reminded about the many, many ways people are still suffering. Needlessly. For no reason. And, I am reminded how much the world still needs this Real New Thing...not yuletide, debt and "white Christmas" fantasies.  We are in denial....we think we are okay and that we will be even more okay if we just have a good Christmas.  But, I don't think you can have a "good" Christmas if you don't know what a good Christmas is in the first place.

He comes the prisoners to release

in Satan's bondage held;

the gates of brass before Him burst,

the iron fetters yield. 

He comes the brokenhearted to bind

the bleeding soul to cure, 

and with the treasures of His grace,

to enrich the humble poor.

(Folk Hymn, ca 1755, Hark, The Glad Sound)

Christmas -- the incarnation of the One who has power to ransom our captive hearts, to lead us from exile, to make safe the way that leads to God  -- is the fulfillment of a promise. 

A good Christmas, therefore, is about the celebration of fulfilled promises. It is the celebration of the God who still promises.  It is the honoring of the way in which God can use even us to fulfill promises.

What if we gave a "good Christmas" to God's beloved through our commitment to be used...still...of God to fulfill real promises...

-- That the righteous would not be hungry and God's seed would not be left to beg for bread! Where are the food pantries?  Where are your hungry neighbors and family members? Where are hungry children?  What of the systems that create hungry people?

-- That people who are bound would be free! Where are people struggling against powerful chains? Iron bars and chains, mental chains, emotional chains, spiritual chains, societal chains.......

--  That people whose hearts have been broken will find wholeness! Where are the people whose hearts are in need of binding?   People who are one step away from the precipice? 

They...we...need more than watches, perfume, video games and shiny "whatevers." 

Christmas becomes real when the promises of Advent are fulfilled....when God uses small, average, broken, ordinary people as instruments in God's continuing quest to blot out the space between what is and what ought to be:  

• The space between hunger and the promise of a place at the Welcome Table.

• The space between sickness and the promise of healing.

• The space between loneliness and the promise of deep fellowship.

• The space between despair born from encountering the end of the road and the promise of New Life.

God, use me to keep a promise. Use me to consume someone's sadness and grief with real joy. Come and transform our pain and suffering and death -- not just through some change in our circumstance -- but through the incarnation of Eternal Hope. Jesus, we are depending on You  more than ever to become real flesh....still...to move deep into the troubled neighborhoods of our lives with Your peace.  Amen.

I'm Exhausted....But His Supply is Not!

"My God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus."

Philippians 4:19

When it gets really tough -- what do you really need -- deep down in your soul -- to keep going? To keep moving? To keep working, witnessing and being light, salt and love?

A friend, a fellow co-laborer in the Gospel, called me today and shared with me that he felt like he was running on empty.  He wondered if he needed a vacation or some other kind of change of pace.  When I reflected on how many times I had heard so many of my colleagues express the same kind of exhaustion (and me too!) just within the space of a week, I thought "what do we really need to keep it going?"

I know some of what we may want:  we want for things to be a bit easier, for the schedule to slow down just a bit, for time to play.  We want for folks to "ack right!"

We want a nap!

We want to feel as if we are making headway....sometimes, we just want to stop for a moment and take a breath, and while we are taking that breath, please, please, don't let something "crazy" happen to the movement!

But what do we need?

Every day brings more focus to the incredible odds stacked against us -- the incredible challenges facing the people, the communities for which we fight.  They are always outnumbered, outsmarted, outwitted, outplayed, out-"somethinged"! And we are always working to re-group, lift a new strategy, organize and mobilize more people, lead the people to celebrate the little victories that we too often forget about, and work to bring meaning and definition to the losses.  We carry the weight of "defining" reality -- drawing bold lines around what's really at stake -- and then, pointing people's hearts forward toward hope -- praying that their minds and their bodies follow.

I'm exhausted!

For people who are committed to Kingdom -- what we have is a lifestyle.  Because the world we live in is broken and will be until Jesus comes, the most important thing we can can do is witness against broken-ness.  We can be light in the places where shadows reign.  We can speak truth to power and challenge systems -- and sometimes we can even change systems.  We can give our lives to the battle, and even though the battle is not ours to win or lose -- it is still lonely, painful and exhausting! 

If I am to be exhausted, I want to be spent for Jesus. In fact, though I complain at times about being tired in the work, I have yet to tire of the work.  I could get tired if I was alone, but I echo Paul -- "I labor, striving according to His power, which mightily works within me."  In other words --this is not just me working it out. Not just me.  No lone voice here....nothing special or genius about this life, except it be yielded to Him.

Or -- consider how Charles Spurgeon reflects on exhaustion:

"If by excessive labor, we die before reaching the average age of [man], worn out in the Master's service, then glory be to God, we shall have so much less of earth and so much more of heaven...it is our duty and our privilege to exhaust our lives for Jesus. We are not to be living specimens of [men] in fine preservation, but living sacrifices whose lot is to be consumed."

"We can only produce life in others by the wear and tear of our own being. This is a natural and spiritual law -- that fruit can only come to the seed by its spending and being spent even to self-exhaustion."

Now -- of course, I don't mean that we are to be workaholics. I don't mean that we are to eschew balanced lives.  I certainly don't mean that we are to neglect the care of our selves, our bodies.  That is ridiculous.

But if we are to be exhausted -- then by God's power and grace, we should strive to be exhausted for Him.

If my eyes are to be bleary and tired -- let them be because of a laser focus on God's beloved, God's smallest ones....and not because I have been looking so intently at my own navel.

If my shoulders are to ache, let it be because I found a sister or brother in need of them....and not because I am carrying my own ego, excess or wealth.

If my feet hurt at the end of the day, let it be because I have walked with someone who was lonely and in need of companionship, or because I went in search of someone lost -- and not because I have been stepping on others.

This is what I know: when I am empty God does supply.  I may get anxious sometimes, wondering...when, Lord?...but God does indeed supply.

Water
Respite
Dew
Rest
Peace
Mercy
Grace
Laughter
Inspiration
Friends
Perspective
Unconditional Love

I called my friend back to share with him Philippians 4:19 -- and he just laughed.

He said, "I just read the whole letter again....with each verse, I felt like I was caught up in a song that was modulating upward. With each modulation, I felt lighter, weaker...and if you can believe it, more powerful, stronger at the same time."

I guess that's what he needed.  Of course, my response?

"So, get back to work you slacker!"

Amen.

Calling all Children's Champions to the Floor!

A Children's Defense Fund
 Children's Health 

Stroller Brigade Update!

Millions of child lives depend on what you do today!

These photos were taken at the Children's Defense Fund Champions for Children's Health Stroller Brigade when it came through New York City on November 5, 2009.  Marian Wright Edelman, President of the Children's Defense Fund was joined by some of New York's leaders in the faith -- Dr. Serene Jones (President of Union Theological Seminary), Dr. Dale Irvin (President of New York Theological Seminary), Rev. Calvin Butts, Senior Pastor of the Abyssinian Baptist Church, Dr. James Forbes, Pastor Emeritus of Riverside Church and Founder of Healing for the Nations -- to raise their collective moral voices to demand that children's needs be addressed through this nation's current health reform efforts.

Dr. Manel Silva of the Mount Sinai Adolescent Health Center outlined how 66% of the patients who come through her center do not have health insurance, and how many of these children have been traumatized by community violence, family violence, sexual violence and the like.

Actress Lynn Whitfield, Richard Buery (CEO, Children's Aid Society) and Dr. Drew Giddings (Act for Children) also joined their voices to those refusing to abide with children being left worse off after health reform.

They all came to stand outside of the offices of New York Senators Charles Schumer (D) and Kirsten Gillibrand (D) to say -- thanks for the work you have done, but your work is far from done! Children need Champions for the health on the Senate floor!  

We need to keep putting the pressure on Senators Schumer and Gillibrand and demand that they include affordable, comprehensive and simple children’s health coverage in any health care reform.

 The House of Representatives has just passed a bill that would leave millions of children worse rather than better off after health reform.  The same dangerous outcome looms in the Senate – unless you raise a mighty voice – demanding that all children must be better off after health reform; that the successful Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), New York's Child Health Plus Program, is kept and strengthened in the Senate bill and in the final health reform bill and not killed as the House bill would do to CHIP in 2013.

The voices of so many powerful special interests have been heard in Congress: powerful insurance and drug companies; other business interests; doctors; unions; and many more able to spend many, many millions of dollars on lobbying. Vote-less, powerless children need youto raise your voice for them if their far too invisible health reform needs are to be heard.

Children need your voice today!  

We must stop Congress from eliminating the effective and cost effective Children's Health Insurance Program program and sending millions of children who benefit from this program into a new, untested, and far more expensive Health Insurance Exchange where parents will have to pay more for their children to receive fewer benefits. Why should we sacrifice the health of millions of children to enrich private insurance companies in the Exchange?

What can you do to ensure that millions of children are better rather than worse off in health reform legislation?   

Senator Bob Casey (D-PA) will offer an amendment on the Senate floor to: 

1.  Keep and strengthen the Children’s Health Insurance Program;
2.  Make the Children’s Health Insurance program simple for parents to access;
3.  Guarantee children in the Children’s Health Insurance Program the same comprehensive benefits as children get in Medicaid; and,
4. Provide a health safety net for children in families of four earning $66,150 (300 percent of the federal poverty level) wherever they live in America. We must end the unjust lottery of geography.

 Please call your senators and ask them to support and vote for this amendment!

Speak up today and everyday until the Casey CHIP Children’s amendment is passed by the Senate.

Call:

Senator Schumer at (212) 486-4430

Senator Gillibrand at (212) 688-6262

Tell Senators Schumer and Gillibrand the following: “Hi, my name is [your name] and I’m calling from [your city and state] to tell Senator [your Senator’s name] to co-sponsor and support the children’s amendment Senator Bob Casey will introduce in the health reform debate.  The amendment will improve CHIP, protect millions of children from being worse off after health reform and is cost-effective for children, families and taxpayers.”

If you are not from New York -- Visit www.congressmerge.com to find out the phone numbers for your Senators in their state offices.

Keep contacting your Senators until there is a Senate vote, and until a final bill is enacted that protects rather than hurts children. Call, visit, and email your Senators and get your family, neighbors, and congregation members to do so to!

Millions of child lives depend on what you do today! 

Thank you for being a voice for children.

The Champions for Children's Health Stroller Brigades are Coming!

Unless You Act Today,

Millions of Children Could Be Worse – Rather than Better – Off After Health Reform

Children Need Real Health Reform Now!

WHAT:
On Wednesday, November 4th, the Children’s Defense Fund is organizing a Champions for Children’s Health Stroller Brigade to the Capitol in Washington, D.C. Children, parents, grandparents and champions for children will “stroll” to the Capitol to ensure that millions of uninsured and underinsured children are not left behind in health care reform.

CDF is also announcing that “The Strollers Are Coming” to Congressional districts across the country on November 6th through 8th to demand that Members of Congress stand up for critical changes needed in health care reform to protect our children. So far, stroller brigades are being planned for Arkansas, California, Florida, Louisiana, Montana, New York, North Dakota, Ohio and Texas. Other states may be added.

WHY:
Join us in demanding that Congress and the President support real child health reform that leaves all children better off. We need to tell Congress that it is indefensible for children to be squeezed out of health care reform by powerful lobbyists and insurance companies. If our leaders can bail out irresponsible bankers to the tune of nearly $1 trillion almost overnight, they can afford $10 billion a year for ten years to provide our 8.1 million uninsured and millions more underinsured children a simple, seamless, affordable and accessible health care system. Children need an effective national health safety net now.

Congress must:

• End the bureaucratic barriers that keep 2 out of 3 of the 8 million uninsured children who are already eligible for the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) or Medicaid from actually getting the care they need. A simple, seamless enrollment process like older Americans have forMedicare would ensure our children are cared for and covered.
  

• Guarantee every child access to the full range of child health benefits they need which are now provided to children in Medicaid but not to children in the CHIP or the proposed Exchange. All children’s lives are of equal value.
  

• Eliminate the unjust lottery of geography and provide an affordable national health safety net for all children whose family income is below 300% of the federal poverty line ($66,000 for a family of four). A Mississippi, Montana and North Dakota child is no less valuable than a Massachusetts, New Jersey and New York child.
  

For more information,

please visit www.childrensdefense.org/strollerbrigade

or call Scott Jacobsen at (202) 662-3641.

Let’s Care for All Children by Providing a Comprehensive,

Accessible Child Health System that Works!

Millions of Children’s Lives Hang in the Balance!
You Can Save a Child’s Life by Taking Action Today!

I Have Not Forgotten You....I Have Loved You With An Everlasting Love...

The LORD appeared to us in the past, saying, "I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with loving-kindness."

Jeremiah 31:3

It has taken me almost and a year and a half to write about this fragile little porcelain bell. The picture is not clear, but it is a beautiful bell. It has my name on it, the date I graduated from college (May 1985) on one side with hand-painted rendering of my Alma Mater, Fisk University. On the other side is an equally beautiful rendering of my dormitory, Fisk Jubilee Hall. It has taken me a year and a half to write about it because whenever I hold this bell in my hands -- I am simply overcome. I can barely contain myself to finish a sentence because this little bell is but one physical reminder of the way God drew even me with loving-kindness into God’s circle of care and has loved even me with an everlasting love.


I came home one day in early 2008 feeling like most people feel sometimes -- tired and frustrated. I remember driving around the block a few times, trying to get my head together because I did not want to bring my "stuff" into the house I share with family. (Most days, I fail at that and I am grateful that they just wrap me in their love anyway.) When I walked into the foyer, I saw the package. Quite frankly, I did not think much of it. I am notorious for not reading mail right away. I was not expecting a package and so I did not check to see if my name was on it, and made no move to open it. (There is a sermon in there somewhere!) After a few hours, no one else in my house had opened the package either. (They DID check the name on the package...because expected or not, these little Simpson's love packages...anybody's packages!)

I peeked over at it, almost afraid that it would be for me. When I discovered that this neat little package was for me, I immediately searched for the name of the sender. Who could be sending me something that I was not expecting?

And there it was her name…Linda Pegues Brinkley.

From the recesses of my memory, I saw her face as clear as if she was before me: a member of St. Anselm's Episcopal Church in Nashville, TN -- the congregation that nurtured me while I was in college. St. Anselm’s was a place where dreams were held sacred – even crazy dreams. I always felt like I was entering “another world” whenever I crossed the threshold to go into worship. In this world, my dreams were significant. Linda and the people of St. Anselm’s Episcopal Church made my dreams significant.

I was far away from home and lonely. (We won't even talk about the culture shock of moving from "Brick City" Newark, NJ to "Ya'll take care now, ya hear?" Nashville, TN)

Few of my peers understood or had sympathy with the call that God was burning into my soul at that time. After all, the college years were supposed to be party years, not discerning years, right?

Anybody who has had a call knows that coming to grips with it -- God’s call on your life -- is a lonely, frightening experience.

I was young, but open.

I had never even seen a female minister before and had no absolutely no idea that somehow, agreeing to wrestle with God's call on my life might also be about stepping into arguments about the "worthiness of women" to carry the Word -- an argument God obviously settled long before I was born. Otherwise, why call?

I was clueless about everything except for this one thing: while the verses of scripture would argue against each other about whether I was even worthy of God’s love, I was convicted and convinced that the overarching story of why the Word became flesh in the first place had everything to do with me and people like me. Somehow, I was in the story even if “verses” fought against it. And somehow, I wanted to tell that story over and over again.

Holding this fragile bell in my hand reminds me of my wrestling with God, of seeking refuge and solace among people who were not afraid to create an “otherworldly” space for crazy, young people….it reminds me of what I needed from the adults around me just so that I could make peace with the burning in my soul, so that I could respond to the One who was calling me with an everlasting love.

I called Linda soon after receiving the bell and the sound of her voice washing over me through the telephone was like Baptism…it was "commissioning" all over again, encouragement to go out on behalf of the story.

It was encouragement to dream anew! Crazy dreams, so what!? Dream...

It was a powerful example of how Love travels through years with a ringing reminder -- "I have not forgotten you…I have loved you with an everlasting love."

What can we do with that?