I had the pleasure of hosting around 150 colleagues from across the ELCA in Columbus last week who are all working to address hunger in their community.
During our time, we visited the Mid-Ohio Food Collective Farm, Church and Community Development for All People, Mid-Ohio Food Collective Fresh Market, and Shepherd’s Corner. Attendees also heard panelists and experts talk about policy, efforts around the globe and locally in our own backyards, and new strategies of collaboration and communications to strengthen our local efforts to end hunger.
But the best part of a conference will always be the side conversations. The work and the stories going on around the country of people bending over backwards to love and serve their neighbors with cooking classes, housing assistance, diaper drives, financial aid, legal assistance and so much more.
It is in these stories that I am reminded of hope.
The book of Revelation in the Christian canon is a writing style called apocalyptic literature. This type of writing is about one thing - hope! It is not about a rapture and upcoming suffering. John wrote the book of Revelation in a world with much chaos and suffering. An empire was oppressing the marginalized, ordering violence against the people, and creating economic devastation in its wake.
The message of the book of Revelation is not about a futuristic suffering that will occur on the earth that will be avoided by those who said the prayer the exact right way and worked hard to have the exact right amount of faith. Revelation is a story that in the midst of the suffering God’s presence is with us (Emmanuel), and that God will accompany us forward.
While John was writing for people 2,000 years ago, and not people today. But if we seek to derive a lesson from this writing it is that we are called to show up despite the harshness of the world. Each day is a struggle for somebody in our community. Yet, the promise is that God’s presence is there. As people of faith, we are called to be the hands and feet of God in the world, showing love to our neighbor and openly accepting that love and care from others.
Right now, there are so many reasons to give up hope. SNAP and medicaid cuts will devastate our neighborhoods. Neighbors have been abducted and deported for doing all their paperwork and working hard in our country. Education is underfunded. Now, our government will no longer provide data on key issues like hunger to help inform us moving forward.
Despite all of these things (and so much more), we have hope. We find joy in knowing that oppression and marginalization will not win out. We know that division and desperation will be buried in the end. We know that the goals of the world for power and wealth and fleeting in the eyes of God. We have a God of abundance who has provided a beautiful world for all of us, including the gift of one another. The vision of the world in the future can be a reality today, and we are called to live that way!
“Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb down the middle of the great street of the city. On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. ”