Choose Hope

Romans 15:7-13

There is a hymn that is very special to me which is connected to my experience of both officiating my first funeral as clergy and that funeral being my father's; whose death I was also grieving. It's set to a celtic tune named, simply, RESIGNATION. The text of this hymn is Isaac Watt's paraphrase of Psalm 23: "My Shepherd Will Supply My Need."]

See, Psalm 23 is just one of those passage of scripture that seems to just belong in a funeral! It is a pastoral psalm that praises the providence of God who "brings my wandering spirit back when I forsake His ways." When my dad died and I put together the funeral, I needed to incorporate Psalm 23 into the service in the way I needed it.

So I sang it a capella.

I'm surprised I made it through the song, actually. And after that moment, being the choir director and amateur composer that I am, I wanted to set the hymn to be sung in harmony by my choir for the All-Saints service of that year at my church—where my dad's name would be read aloud—to commemorate his passing and for me to offer something up in my own grief.

So I did just that, and was blessed by my conducting mentor who allowed me to conduct the Chamber Choir of my alma mater as they sang my piece. Here is a video of it being sung in the church I used to serve in Dallas.

Now, I am not preaching on this Psalm this Sunday. Rather, I am preaching from Paul’s letter to the christian church in Rome where he says, among other things, to "abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit." This Sunday is when we are observing All-Saints/All-Souls day--a solemn day where we honor those saints who have passed on into the embrace of the Almighty in the past year.

When we lose someone and are in the midst of deep grief, I think that is the moment where hope feels the most real—when we can grasp onto it. Hope that in the midst of loss, things will be well; that, bidden or not bidden, God is present; that suffering and death do not have the final word.

Grief and loss are times when we can truly experience a depth of humanity in ourselves that turns hope not just into an idle feeling, but into a rock in the midst of tumult and an energy that helps us keep moving when grief overwhelms.

Hope is POWERFUL! We are a people of hope! And our story is one where a divine hope overcame even death. Hope is all-inclusive, and we have a chance these days when surrounded by so much despairing reality to invite others into our story of hope as well!

So, saying all of that, I now invite YOU to bring someone with you this Sunday to church, so that they can join in the story of hope we are telling as an outpost of hope on the corner of 14th and Brentwood!