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Every fall, I plant daffodil bulbs. It’s a bit irrational. At least half are eaten by the squirrels and bunnies that populate my gardens in the cold winter months, finding shelter beneath my bushes. They are grateful for the food I leave them. I plant anyway. As the sun sets earlier and earlier each night and the mornings are so cold I clutch the blankets around me in bed, my heart hopes for a spring filled with abundant yellow daffodils. I can’t help it; every fall I buy bags of bulbs in hope that a few will be spared and push upward as the first days of spring warm the earth. Hope is often irrational. It is not measured or calculated or planned. It springs from a deep desire in our hearts. Barack Obama declared in his famous stump speech, “There is nothing false about hope.” Nothing can be false that heartens us and gives us courage. Hope can’t be proven or measured, but hope is true. There is another irrational woman living in the Roseland neighborhood of Chicago. Her name is Diane Latiker. In a neighborhood where some would never dare venture and most would lock their car doors as they passed through, Diane opened her home. She has become an activist mother who simply invited the neighborhood youth into her life. In a neighborhood plagued by gun violence, she decided she needed to make it clear to the youth around her that they had lives worth living. In a run-down stretch of Chicago's South Michigan Avenue, Diane created a memorial out of foot-high paving stones. Each of the 574 stones has a name to honor the young people who have died from street violence. But Diane hoped for more. She imagined a basketball court free from drugs and crime. A donor came forward to build it. Now youth find her basketball court and then find her. One such youth commented, “When I'm around Miss Diane I feel safe." Diane Latiker admits she was a bit naive when she began, but she was not short on hope. Some would say such hope is futile. Gang violence stills plagues Chicago. Diane adds stones to her memorial on a regular basis. But young people show up to her basketball court daily and find her. Irrational? Perhaps. Futile? Never. There was another irrational woman in a small town of Nazareth. She was without any social standing in her community; she was young and poor and unmarried. Yet she said yes to God’s daring plan for the world. Some historians suggest she was the victim of sexual violence at the hands of a Roman solider. This seems plausible and, if anything, magnifies the beauty of Mary’s hope. Against all odds, Mary nurtured that hope growing inside of her. She hoped for a new social order in which the powerful would be brought down from their thrones and the hungry would be filled (Luke 1). Some would argue that such hope is futile: corrupt power and desperate hunger are a reality that must be accepted. Yet Mary hoped for more. She hoped for a world where Roman soldiers did not terrorize communities, landowners did not exploit workers, and all bellies were full. Irrational? Perhaps. Futile? Never. This 1st Sunday of Advent the candle of hope will be lit across the globe, even in Paris. Hope is a risky business. Although it is irrational to some, there is and never will be anything false about hope, hope that heartens us and gives us courage and helps us to imagine a more just and generous world. Hope springs from deep within us and changes everything—one flower, one Chicago youth, one small forgotten Roman territory at a time. Hope is true. Learn more about Diane Latiker
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Abby HenrichRev. Abigail A Henrich (ehm!) is an ordained minister who earned her stripes at Princeton Theological Seminary and Colgate University. That said, Abby is really a mother-pastor-spouse who lives in a kinetic state of chaos as she moves from her many vocations: folding laundry, preaching, returning phone calls, sorting lunch boxes, answering e-mails, and occasionally thinking deep thoughts in the shower. Unabashedly she is a progressive Christian who believes some shaking up has got to happen in the church. Categories
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March 2024
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