Hope

Some of you might have seen the four Advent signs Hope, Peace, Joy, and Love that appeared briefly each week in the final month of 2020, a world-changing year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The signs were fragile, subject to the effects of weather. The wind and rain made the colours run, the paper came unstuck, and they fell over a few times. Hope particularly took a battering.

The signs are no longer at the front of the church yet they sparked some thoughts about entering this New Year 2021. We have been through significant upheavals of thought and emotion, and perhaps like the Advent signs as silent sentinels feel a bit worn down by the current climactic changes. We hear daily in the news of lockdowns, more deaths, despair as people grieve and lose loved ones and even their livelihoods. What can help to lift our spirits? Perhaps we might also have wondered about the future; what would it be like in our church? community? and world?

Some years ago, the Victorian-Tasmanian Synod of the Uniting Church focused on the opening words of an Affirmation of Faith which still stays with me and is worth remembering:

Faithful is God, who has called us, and who will not fail us.
Faithful is Jesus Christ, who gathers us into a community of hope;
to worship God with wonder and praise,
to witness to God’s love in word and deed,
to seek God’s justice in the world.

These words are still a source of great comfort, reminding us that while there are dramatic changes around us which speak of fragility and the fleeting nature of human edifices, there are deeper, more solid things to draw on – the faithfulness of God and the continuing gathered community. And how privileged we are to be able to gather and worship with wonder and praise. Then, if, and when, we are feeling a bit weathered, we might draw deeply on a different version of good news.

In 2021 I invite you to meditate on the above Affirmation that calls us to remember: God is faithful, present, and will not fail us. There are new possibilities that will emerge in 2021. Our task is to be living signs that witness to God’s love in word and deed.

A Blessed New Year to all.
Reverend Lynette Dungan