Today at St Oswald’s, on this Pentecost Sunday, we sang a familiar worship song, 'My hope is built on nothing less,' (Cornerstone). This Hillsong rendition is a rewrite of an original hymn by Edward Mote in 1834.
I was amused and pleased because this
song had been buzzing in my head since Tuesday last, and it certainly is a great
song to have as ear worm!
Last week I was invited to say something about my birthday (16th May) and invited to share
something about what kept me ‘alive’ and what gave me 'hope.'
Well, of course my Christian
faith gives me hope, and I was able to say that very clearly. And when speaking
of hope to Christians in a Christian context I have often explained what hope
is my using an acronym, HOPE - Holding Onto Past
Experience. For surely this is what we
see written in the Scriptures. The Israelites rehearsed and remembered their
past, told in story and song. Remembering God’s faithfulness in the past gave
them courage for the present and hope for the future.
This is picked up in the life,
death and resurrection of Jesus. No more so than in the Eucharist, which is
about remembering, 'do this in rememberance of me.' Recalling that Jesus gives ‘strength for
today and a bright hope tomorrow’, to quote another hymn. (From ‘Great is thy
faithfulness’ which was one of the hymns we had at our wedding 44 years ago. A
hymn that has continued to pop up over those years, serving as good reminder of
God’s faithfulness throughout the years)
However, I have been chewing over a comment I heard recently, ‘how can you have hope if all your past experiences have been rubbish.’ This has left me wondering just where do people find their hope outside of God. I have been trying to think hard about my life before I became a Christian and thinking about what gave me hope then. But there is nothing I can think of apart from being more optimistic by nature.
Before I became a Christian I think I might have said a whimsical phrase that I have on a mug, “Everything will be okay in the end. If it’s not okay, it’s not the end.” This has been attributed to John Lennon. It is an okay quote, and I know it has inspired and continues to inspire many people.
However, for me it has the
ring of optimism about it, which is okay to a point.
As a Christian I have come to
lean upon a simple quote from Mother Juian on Norwich.
“All shall be well, and all
manner of thing shall be well.”
Julian of Norwich, (1342-c.1416) whose influence has grown steadily across the centuries, is now regarded as one of the most significant Christian mystics of the Middle Ages. She wrote Revelations of Divine Love, the earliest surviving book in the English language written by a woman. At the heart of her vision was a radical and tender truth: that divine love is the ultimate reality, holding all of creation together, even in the midst of suffering.
I find this quote to be more
meaningful and grounded in divine love of the one who sang all creation into
being and by whose Spirit continues to animate and sustain the cosmos.
The importance of hope is
well explained and explored in a seminal book by Viktor E. Frankl Man's
Search for Meaning. First published in 1946, it is a memoir and psychological
exploration by Frankl, chronicling his experiences as a prisoner in Nazi
concentration camps during World War II and introducing his psychotherapeutic
approach called logotherapy.
I think it is one of those books that everyone should read at some time.
Some of this links in with a book I am reading currently which I have mentioned before. ‘The Devil You Know: Encounters in Forensic Psychiatry’ by Gwen Adshead and Eileen Horne.
One of Britain’s leading
forensic psychiatrists, Dr Gwen Adshead, shares the eye-opening insights that
she has gained providing therapy to countless violent criminals and calls for
greater compassion and shared humanity in the face of complex and emotive
psychological issues.
One of the common factors in
therapy sessions is to try and get the patient back to their early and formative
years.
For as it now well
recognised, it is those early years that can lead to a person to develop from
childhood into a dysfunctional adult.
‘How do have hope when all
your past experiences have been rubbish.’
How would you answer that question, are you even able to answer that question.
I am still struggling to find
an answer. But one thing is certain that life without hope soon leads to
despair and can lead to death. That was one of Victor Frankl’s observations in
the Concentration Camp. He said that he saw the light of hope go out of men’s eyes
and knew that within days they would be dead.
I got close to that once.
When I was living in London and a set of circumstances and a letter I had received
sent me into a deep despair. During the night I went out for a walk and found
myself by the river Thames, along the Embankment. I looked at the dark swirling
waters and the steps going down into the inky blackness. The thought did cross
my mind to step down into the river and let all the pain and despair and my life
be carried away into oblivion. Fortunately,
I was a Christian and fortunately it wasn’t anything other than a moment of
thought. Even so, it was a scary moment.
Romans 15:13: "May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit."
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