Here we are, into the first week in December, the first week of what the Christian Church has traditionally termed the beginning of a new year.

            In the northern hemisphere, we have three different “years.” The calendar year starts January 1. The school year starts in September. And the Christian year starts with the four Sundays before Christmas -- collectively called Advent. The first Sunday is usually about Hope.

            Of course, it’s about hope for the coming of a Saviour, a Messiah, a holy person who will show the world how to live.

            That is, worship attempts to re-live Mary’s pregnancy -- her expectation of a wonderful child who will change the world.

Hoping for what?

            But is that really hope, 20 centuries later? We already know that child was born, and grew up, and set us an example…. And we humans put him to death for upsetting our social applecarts.

            Are we hoping for a different Messiah this time around? Who’ll have a more acceptable message?

            Or are we hoping that we’ll be more receptive this time? That we’ll set aside all our past prejudices and preconceptions and actually let him reshape our priorities?

            From Sunday school onward, churches have offered programs to teach members what to believe. How to act. How to serve. How to give.

            But I have yet to see a program that helps people learn how to hope.

            What is hope, anyway? The Hebrew and Greek words commonly translated as “hope” apparently have two meanings. One is to have confidence, to trust that something with happen. The other is to wait patiently for that something to happen. 

Hope when there’s no hope

            Both translations apply to the season of Advent. But not necessarily apply to life. Not my life, anyway. Because I write this column awaiting my wife’s death. There are no more treatments for the leukemia she has had for the last 12 years. Her time is limited.

            I may be waiting for her death, but I am not hoping for it.

            I also have confidence that the end will come -- indeed, that it will come to everyone, including me -- but that is not hope either.

            I cannot hope for a miracle cure. The miracle has already happened, in the chemotherapies that medical science has developed to treat chronic leukemia. Those treatments gave us 12 years together that we would not have had otherwise.

            And I cannot hang hope on convictions about life after death. Everything we claim to know about a new life beyond cremation is pure hypothesis. No one has come back to tell us about it. Not even Jesus.

            So I cannot presume that Joan is going to “a better place.” But I do know I won’t be in a better place when she’s gone.

            Do prisoners tortured in Syrian jails or Russian gulags have hope? Do people with incurable and untreatable genetic illnesses -- ALS, Alzheimer’s, Huntington’s, Creutzfeldt–Jakob, progeria -- have hope? Does the last member of a species -- an African white rhino, a Galapagos tortoise -- have hope?

            Those are not nice cozy Christmassy thoughts for the first week in Advent. But I’m sure I’m not the only person who has ever had them.

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Copyright © 2019 by Jim Taylor. Non-profit use in congregations and study groups, and links from other blogs, welcomed; all other rights reserved.

                  To comment on this column, write jimt@quixotic.ca

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YOUR TURN

Isabel Gibson liked the idea of conversation as music, rather than just words: “Fascinating.  I'll give it a try for sure, although I don't have your gift or knowledge of music. (JT: Sometimes I try to show off.)

            “Years ago my mother told me she'd heard some of Hitler's speeches on the radio (or maybe in newsreels?) in Calgary before WWII.  Even without understanding a word of German, she could feel the power and emotion of his voice.”

Tom Watson had his own version of the professor whose students pretended to hear things: “Hearing is one of the parts of me that still works. [But] I recall a time a few years ago when Janice went to a free hearing clinic at our drug store. The technician put devices in her ears and then changed the audio frequencies to test the entire range of sound. When finished he said that she was fine except she was unable to hear in the highest frequencies -- for example, mosquitos buzzing or wheat blowing the wind. 

            “Then he invited me to take the test too. My hearing was better than Janice's. I could hear mosquitos buzzing and wheat blowing in the wind.

            “I'm not sure that's any huge advantage! Except that she had to make stuff up in the high range whereas I didn't!”

Ed Olfert had a different take: “You describe the musicality of conversation as a gift. I offer another take. I have lived with hearing issues for many years. I have learned to use lip reading as a major tool in understanding spoken words. With that has come the gift of watching the beauty of expression, ranging from bright and light to heavy and dark. It has brought colour to my attempts to read the world around me.”

John Hatchard reversed my argument that I would rather hear a musical score played, than try to treat that score as black marks on a musical staff. “Just as amazing is the ability of trained musicians to look at the written notation, and actually hear the music as if it were being played. There is a scene in the film Amadeus where Salieri does his with one of Mozart's scores. He is amazed at what he is reading AND hearing.”

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PSALM PARAPHRASE

In this paraphrase of Psalm 72, you might try substituting a phrase such as “Great Mystery” or “Great Wholeness” for the word “God.” See how, or if, it affects your perception. 

1          Let every leader be as just as you are, O God.

2          Let every leader judge the poor properly; the poor need justice even more than the rich. 

3          Even when prosperity piles up like mountains,  let it not bury those who need fair treatment most.

4          Wise leaders will watch out for the weak;  they will protect the poor from the greedy;  they will keep would-be tyrants on a tight leash.

5          As long as the grass grows and the rivers run,  let God be our example.

6          God's justice is as welcome as rain on parched prairie,  as a cold drink on a hot day. 

7          It causes peace and harmony to blossom in arid soil; goodness and mercy will flow from our footsteps.

18        Earth and sky, trees and seas, all resonate to God's goodness. 

19        God promises this, if we follow faithfully in God's way. 

For paraphrases of most of the psalms used by the Revised Common Lectionary, you can order my book Everyday Psalmsfrom Wood Lake Publishing, info@woodlake.com.

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TECHNICAL STUFF

If you want to comment on something, send a message directly to me, jimt@quixotic.ca.

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                  I write a second column each Sunday called Sharp Edges, which tends to be somewhat more cutting about social and justice issues. To sign up for Sharp Edges, write to me directly, jimt@quixotic.ca, or send a note to sharpedges-subscribe@lists.quixotic.ca

                  And for those of you who like poetry, please check my webpage .https://quixotic.ca/My-Poetry I posted some new poetic works there a week or two ago.  If you’d like to receive notifications about new poems, write me at jimt@quixotic.ca,  or subscribe yourself to the list by sending a blank email (no message) to poetry-subscribe@lists.quixotic.ca (If it doesn’t work, please let me know.)

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PROMOTION STUFF

To use the links in this section, you’ll have to insert the necessary symbols. Some spam filters have blocked my posts because they’re suspicious of some of the web links.

                  Wayne Irwin's “Churchweb Canada,” an inexpensive service for any congregation wanting to develop a web presence, with free consultation. http://wwwDOTchurchwebcanadaDOTca He’s also relatively inexpensive!

                  I recommend Isabel Gibson’s thoughtful and well-written blog, wwwDOTtraditionaliconoclastDOTcom. She also has lots of beautiful photos. Especially of birds.

                  Tom Watson writes a weekly blog called “The View from Grandpa Tom’s Balcony” -- ruminations on various subjects, and feedback from Tom’s readers. Write him at tomwatsoATgmailDOTcom (NB that’s “watso” not “watson”)

ALVA WOOD’S ARCHIVE

                  I have acquired (don’t ask how) the complete archive of the late Alva Wood’s collection of satiric and sometimes wildly funny columns about a mythical village’s misadventures. I’ve put them on my website: http://quixotic.ca/Alva-Wood-Archive. You’re welcome to browse. No charge. (Although maybe if I charged a fee, more people would find the archive worth visiting.)