A DOSE OF HOPE

 

Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;

Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world.

 

W. B. Yeats wrote these words a hundred years ago and it seems each generation feels the same about the times in which they live! The poem continues:

 

The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere

The ceremony of innocence is drowned; 

The best lack all conviction, while the worst

Are full of passionate intensity.

 

That fits our time, we say; only today I heard these sentiments applied to our country and the speaker added they could be said of the whole world. There are good reasons why someone might lose all hope as they see wars and famines, droughts and floods, migrations and abuse. Each generation thinks their parents’ generation has made a mess of things and they will do better.

 

Advent is the season of hope. The varied images of Isaiah flood into out consciousness. ‘Every mountain shall be levelled, every valley filled and all humankind will see the salvation of God.’ Are these all false promises, fake news? Our faith tells us the opposite. God is at work. We may not see the results but we are on the way – despite appearances - to build a better world. Take just one event in the twentieth century: the Declaration of Human Rights in 1948. Much work has been done – and continues – to realise this ideal.

 

A friend sent me the first of the BBC Reith lectures this week. The speaker, Dr Gwen Adshead, spends her life in studying violence. She is able to help victims and perpetrators of violence to understand and she is helping us all to move beyond blanket punishment, like imprisonment, to building new relationships and harmony in the community. When we talk about ‘seeing the salvation of God’ we are not talking about God sending an angel from heaven to restore a broken bond between people, we are talking about people like Adshead – and they are many like her working quietly day in and day out – who painstakingly pick up the broken pieces and make something new.  

 

Remember, the cry of Advent is above all, ‘Rejoice in the Lord always’. We are on the way and, like seamen navigating the oceans, we do not see ‘the distant scene; one step enough for me’ (J. H. Newman, 1801-90). ‘I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for welfare, not for evil (Jer 29:11). So can we see this time as one where we all receive a ‘dose of hope.’                                                                                                                       8 Dec 2024.        Advent 2C               Bar 5:1-9                Phil 1:4…11            Lk 3:1-6