Midweek Faith Lift
December 4, 2019
The Magic of Hope
Rev. Deb Hill-Davis
Here we are at the first Sunday of Advent, the Sunday of Hope! There has been a movement away from Hope, identifying it instead as the Sunday of Faith. Even the Unity Advent booklet, Christmas in My Heart, Christmas in My Hands says that. I used to feel that way too, that it is really all about Faith, one of our 12 spiritual powers, but I have come to appreciate the power of Hope in the human heart as sacred energy and as key to our spiritual unfolding, our spiritual awakening. You can’t hold a newborn infant and not feel a rush of love and hope for the human race. This is the season of celebrating the birth of a baby, the birth of a profound kind of hope for all humankind. What is it in us that births this kind of hope, especially in what feels like a dark and fearful passage in human history?
We begin with a story from the Book of Luke:
Luke 1:26-38
The Birth of Jesus Foretold
26 In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee called Nazareth, 27 to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. 28 And he came to her and said, “Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you.” 29 But she was much perplexed by his words and pondered what sort of greeting this might be. 30 The angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. 31 And now, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will name him Jesus. 32 He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his ancestor David. 33 He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.” 34 Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I am a virgin?” 35 The angel said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be holy; he will be called Son of God. 36 And now, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son; and this is the sixth month for her who was said to be barren. 37 For nothing will be impossible with God.” 38 Then Mary said, “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.” Then the angel departed from her. (NRSV)
So what do we have in this powerful story? Lots of metaphysical symbols for sure! The number 6 shows up repeatedly, which represents two ideas. We know that the Trinity represents the Creative Process, Mind, Idea, Expression. When we put two of them together in two different women, Mary and her cousin Elizabeth, we are truly encountering momentous creation, a profound intersection of the human and the Divine. The fact that it is happening in both Jesus and his cousin, John the Baptist, points to that same reality for each and every one of us. It was not exclusive to Jesus! John the Baptist was also a miracle birth as we too, are each a miracle expression of the ultimate Creative process; manifestations of that Divine Energy of God in human form.
We also have an angel, which we know from our study of the parables, is “a messenger of God; the projection into consciousness of a spiritual idea direct from the Fountainhead….the word of Truth, in which is centered the power of God to overcome all limited beliefs and conditions.” I would call this angel, Gabriel the seed of Hope. Mary is assured that her child, Jesus would make an incredible impact on the world and would bring the awareness of a Kingdom or consciousness that would have no end! How is that for a powerful message to a young girl of 14? Jesus metaphysically is the “I AM identity within humankind” the awareness of the Christ consciousness within us. We call Jesus our Way Shower because as teacher, he literally shows us the way to awaken to our Christ nature.
Mary is described as a virgin and the emphasis here is not a moral issue but one of innocence and purity. She has no ulterior motive in accepting this news. She does not begin to calculate how this might be of benefit to her, how she can spin this into gaining position in the community because of this message about Jesus being on the throne of David. Can you imagine the Instagram or Facebook postings in our world today! No, Mary’s response is to instead question this from the very human perspective of being a virgin and then to accept it with a deep humility. “Let it be with me according to your word.”
On face value, this whole business is preposterous, right? We have a teenage unwed mother who has been visited by an angel who tells her she is pregnant with a boy child who will one day be on the throne of David, one of the greatest Kings Israel ever had. And she responds with incredible humility, and my guess she also had a profound hope that the angel is right and that she will be ok, she is not in a big hot mess! And what does she do, she goes to visit her cousin Elizabeth whose reception assures her that this is all going to be fine, better than fine! And she stays with Elizabeth for 3 months, again, another symbol of the power of the creative process that is happening here with both of them.
So what do we take from this story? We have a profound story of faith that begins in the human energy of hope that we see in this young woman. I want to also share with you the meaning of Faith from Paul’s letter to the Hebrews in the Christian scripture. It goes like this:
Hebrews 11:1-3
The Meaning of Faith
11 Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. 2 Indeed, by faith our ancestors received approval. 3 By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God, so that what is seen was made from things that are not visible. (NRSV)
Clearly, the power of Faith begins in hope, the kind of hope that we see in the story of Mary. Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. What is that kind of hope? How does it look? In our human experience, we hope for many things, right? We hope the power bill won’t be too high! We hope our children will make wise choices, wiser ones than we made! We hope it won’t start to snow before we get home from our Thanksgiving travels. We hope that people will find a way to get along together better, and to communicate with each other rather than fight. We hope that no more children will be killed in school shootings. We hope that peace will prevail on earth and if we are hungry, we hope there will be enough food to eat. If we are little kids, we hope Santa will bring us presents, the ones we put on our list! Big kids can hope for that too.
That is where we begin as humans when we experience hope. And that is a great place to begin in our human journey of hope. If we are on the spiritual path of awakening, we want to go deeper and embrace the kind of Hope that is powerful enough to move us into the power of faith. What kind of hope is that? I think we can take our cue from the story of Mary and begin to understand HOPE as “Heart Open Pure Energy!” Heart Open Pure Energy! That is the essence of HOPE. That is what this story invites us to do; open our hearts and embrace the pure energy of Love that is our inheritance, for we too are born of this God-Love, just like Jesus.
When we consider Hope as Heart Open, Pure Energy it puts the focus right back where it needs to land, right within us. When we encounter and embrace spiritual Hope, we open our hearts and lead with our hearts. We experience the pure energy of love that is Mary who says with humility, “Ok God, whatever you say. I don’t have to understand why I am in this line!” If I am going to embrace the Pure Energy of Hope, I have to let my heart lead, and open to how love is able to transform me. No matter how the “hot mess, teen pregnancy” situation in my life appears, when I am able to embrace it with heart open, pure energy, then I am assured that Faith is right there in my next step.
And that is the real deal here, I embrace my life and circumstances, all of my human self with a heart open to the pure energy of love without guile, without calculation, without asking what’s in it for me, or how do I solve or avoid this. I pray, asking only for knowledge of God’s will for me, and the power to carry it out. That is the 11th step in the 12-Step programs, and one of the most powerfully challenging. We, as humans, never want to give up hope lest we descend into cynicism, fear and chaos. We want to embrace hope as best we can, praying for and leaning into what our Christ-Self, our Godness shows us as the next right step. We don’t have to know how things are going to work out, we just have to know the next right step and take that step.
When we hear a message from that still, small voice within us, our model in Mary is to listen and take heed with all humility and grace. When she heard that Elizabeth was also pregnant, that is where she went for 3 months: to be with and in the presence of another who shared her experience, strength and hope and could accept and love her. That is how we cultivate HOPE- we seek to be in the presence of those who love and accept us just as we are. When we can love and accept ourselves just exactly as we are, warts and all, then we can step into that energy of spiritual Hope: Heart Open, Pure Energy! May it be so! Blessings for the spiritual energy of HOPE for you during this Advent season!
Blessings on the Path,
Rev. Deb