H is for Hope.
Given all that troubles us in this collective national moment, I hear a lot of us asking, in one way or another… where is hope? Is there any hope for hope? And yet. This fall, we see hope steadily being nurtured here among us through the First Parish in Lincoln, in ways big and small. Here are just a few hope sightings from this past week in this spunky, growing, small-town community church of ours that are worth celebrating:
- Hope showed up in full force at Monday’s Special Congregational Meeting, in a spirited update and discussion of our Opening Doors Campaign (you can watch the recording here!). We opened in prayer to “God, our help in ages past, our hope for years to come,” and ended with an encouraging 95% affirmative vote in favor of moving forward with our “right-sized” design concept for the Parish House renovations. What a bold and faithful step toward our bright collective future!
- Earlier that day, Hope gathered at a shady table outside Twisted Tree Café to dig deeper into that great zinger of a question: “And which of you by worrying can add a single hour to your span of life?” (Matthew 6:27). From political despair to chaotic family situations to job searches, Hope sustained us with quiet curiosity as we reflected on releasing control while still harnessing our power.
- Hope pulled up in a packed carpool of at least 30 FPL folks to the Bearing Witness Standout at the ICE Office and Detention Center behind the Burlington Mall. Hope moved through our songs and prayers showing love and support for immigrants, laments of the cruel and unconstitutional actions of our government, and a palpable peace and commitment to nonviolence, made all the more poignant after a horrific attack at an ICE field office in Dallas that very morning.
- And Hope snuck in quietly, cradled and blinking, a days-old newborn in the corner of our second Children’s Choir rehearsal, as his big sisters twirled in wonder, singing: “This pretty planet spinning through space, you’re a garden, you’re a harbor, you’re a holy place.”
The writer-activist Rebecca Solnit describes hope this way: “Hope is not a lottery ticket you can sit on the sofa and clutch, feeling lucky. It is an axe you break down doors with in an emergency. To hope is to give yourself to the future – and that commitment to the future is what makes the present inhabitable.”
Thank you for all the ways you keep hope alive, day by precious day.
Yours in hope,
Kit and Nate
P.S. Hope also happens to be one of two words (“Hearth and Hope”) we have chosen for our newest worship experiment here at the First Parish in Lincoln, a casual service of story and song, which we are piloting as a one-off (for now!)… coming up soon on Sunday evening, Oct 19. Read more below! We’d love to see you there, and have you invite someone who might be looking for a hope (or a church) like ours.
