Hope as Resistance by Rev. Bri-anne Swan

Day 1 of 5: Subversive Hope

But in those days, after that oppression, the sun will be darkened, the moon will not give its light, the stars will be falling from the sky, and the powers that are in the heavens will be shaken.
-Mark 13:24-25 (WEB)

Near the end of The Never Ending Story by Michael Ende, there is a final confrontation between Atreyu, the protagonist, and The Nothing’s henchman, a wolf named G’mork. Atryu demands to know why G’mork is helping The Nothing by taking away people’s hopes and leaving them in despair. He replies, “Because people who have no hopes are easy to control. And whoever has the control has the Power.”

This was true in Roman-Occupied Judea. It is true for us now. It seems we are bombarded from all sides with stories of doom and gloom; the climate crisis, lapses in the ethics of political leadership, ongoing violence, and marginalization of vulnerable people. Newspapers and 24-hour news stations sustain a culture of fear and despair with their glorification of all those things that feed our anxieties.

And while all these corporate sins need to be named and addressed, they are presented as if we’re not able to influence the outcomes. And so we must ask, “Who benefits when we lose all hope?”

There is much work to be done in the world. There is much we must name and call out and confront. But there is also beauty. There is also hope: Hope that there is Something Greater beyond ourselves.

Hope that we can influence our communities for good.

Hope anchored in a story of meek being blessed, tables being tossed, and corruption being defeated.

Hope as an alternative to apathy.

Hope is subversive. The author of the Gospel of Mark writes of a hope so profound that the whole of the heavens shake in anticipation.

We pray for those who, even in the most desperate of times, cry out in defiance of injustice and are sustained by hope — delivered in the vulnerability and the messiness of a very human yet fully holy birth.

Hope as Holy Resistance.

Loving God,
Calling with the wild,
You come to us as a scandal,
You come to us as a child.
Seeking your likeness,
We hope as resistance, in defiance,
Of powers who would have us believe
That we are never, ever enough.
In a world of fake news,
And constant crisis,
We take a moment in quiet contemplation,
To direct our face towards yours,
Setting our sights straight,
We breathe.
We breathe.
One breath in. Another out.
All hope with you.
Amen.

Day 1 of 5: Subversive Hope

Finish reading this 5-day devotional in the app. Find it on the Featured shelf.