SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 26 - THOUGHTS OF HOPE
November 26, 2023
Deborah Laforet
Thoughts of Hope with Pflag
Let us pray. May the words from my lips and the meditations of my heart be guided by
your Spirit and be words of wisdom for this day. Amen.
Welcome to Whit Ross from Pflag. Some of you met her as you came in today. Some of
you met her at the Pride festival in June. And maybe some of you know Whit Ross and Taylor
Henderson from other times. I am grateful to Whit for joining us today and willing to share
together some thoughts on hope.
I thought we’d start by each lifting up one aspect of the biblical story that might connect
to our theme of hope. I will start and then Whit will follow. We’ll then we’ll both add some
thoughts on where we see hope today.
The theme I want to lift from the story today is about ‘voice.’ In our story, an angel tells
Zechariah that he and his wife, Elizabeth, will have a child. Zechariah is shocked -
understandably. He says that he is an old man and that his wife is getting on in years, but
because he doesn’t believe, his voice is taken from him.
Can you imagine losing your voice? Zechariah is an old man and has been using his
voice to express himself for decades, but now, for about nine months, he is unable to do so.
Now, as a leader in his community, he may have been someone who did a lot of talking and now,
maybe was someone who needed to sit back and start listening. It could be that he learned a lot
during those nine months of silence, not just about those around him but about himself. Have
you ever experienced a silent retreat? Do you regularly meditate? Some of us experienced a
forced silence during the pandemic. Once we are less busy, and we start talking less, the
thoughts slow down, feelings emerge that have been put on the back burner for a long time. I
like to think this time for Zechariah was helpful and eye-opening.
What about Elizabeth? She has a husband who comes home one day and is unable to
speak. How might you feel if your person, your life partner, came home and wasn’t talking.
Nine months of not talking. Maybe for some of you this would be a blessing, and for some it
would be very difficult. With Elizabeth though I want to focus on the end of the story, when
people ask her what she will name her child. She tells them his name is John. They tell her,
“None of your relatives have that name.” They then turn away from her and start motioning to
Zechariah to find out the name of this child.
Elizabeth may not have had her voice taken by an angel, but she was silenced,
nonetheless, by her community. The name of this child wasn’t up to the mother, but up to the
father. These are the only words Elizabeth speaks in this story with Zechariah and her
community and these words are ignored. We didn’t hear this part of the story today, but it’s with
her relative Mary that we hear from Elizabeth. She tells Mary, “Blessed are you among women,
and blessed is the fruit of your womb.” If you grew up Catholic, these words are very familiar to
you. Ironically, these words, by Elizabeth, are said around the world, every day, in the Catholic
faith, in the Hail Mary prayer.
Whit Ross
My hope lies in our society’s ability to give voice to people. Our past two book studies
have been on two important justices issues in our society: houselessness and sex trafficking.
Last Wednesday someone said that both books were hard to read, but she’s glad she read them.
Now when she walks by someone on the street who is houseless, she thinks differently, with
more understanding and compassion. She also now thinks differently of young people on the
streets who are being commercially sexually exploited. Through these books, we heard the voice
of people on the streets, a voice that is usually ignored and silenced, pushed to the shadows.
The Interfaith Council of Halton is talking about the walkouts happening at schools in
Oakville over the conflict in Israel and Palestine. Students are walking out as a protest against
Israel, some are walking to support friends who are passionate about this. Walkouts are a great
symbol of protest but they don’t encourage talking, and unfortunately, hate crimes are on the rise,
because people are not talking. They are turning from each other and becoming more divided.
The Council will be talking to the schools about bringing students together with people from the
Council - Jewish, Muslim, Christian, Hindu, Ba’hai, and Indigenous faiths - to talk about what is
happening in the Middle East, to reenforce the idea that we can disagree and still have
conversations and treat each other with respect. This is how we will lessen hate crimes against
those who are Jewish, those who are Muslim, those who are trans, those appear to be different.
Mental illness is big concern in our society. Bell made famous their campaign about
mental illness with their “Let’s Talk” day. We live in a culture where it feels like all we do all
day is talk, but often, we’re not talking with meaning, we’re not sharing our stories, we’re not
connecting on a deep level. Healing happens in many different ways, but the ability to share our
truth and have that truth be heard and taken seriously is a very important path to healing, very
important to feeling valued and to mental wellness.
So, when laws are made that force teachers to tell parents something that was shared in
confidence by their child, this causes young people to become silenced. It reduces the number of
safe spaces where they can speak their truth, and increases anxiety, depression, and suicide
ideation.
So, where do I find hope?
I find hope when young people can find spaces where they can speak up and speak out.
I find hope when survivors of trauma find people that will hear and respect their truth.
I find hope when organizations, like the Interfaith Council of Halton or Pflag, create
spaces for people to have conversations that are heard and respected.
I find hope when people who are oppressed and marginalized find platforms where they
can speak truth to power and together discover possibilities for justice.
Whit Ross
Hope isn’t about praying for change and then sitting back to see if these changes will
happen. Hope is about having a vision of a world you want to create and then working towards
it. I think hope needs to be treated as more of a verb than a noun, an action rather than object.
Changes cannot happen if we are waiting for someone else to make them happen. We are the
hope that this word needs. May it be so and thanks be to God. Amen.
Luke 1:5-15a, 18-20, 59-66
(Introduce yourself.)
For the next three weeks, we will read stories of those who were not at the manger with Joseph,
Mary, and Jesus, but who are a part of the Christmas story. Today, I’m reading from the first
chapter of Luke, about Zechariah and Elizabeth, whose son became John the Baptist.
5 In the days of King Herod of Judea, there was a priest named Zechariah, who belonged to the
priestly order of Abijah. His wife was descended from the daughters of Aaron, and her name was
Elizabeth. 6 Both of them were righteous before God, living blamelessly according to all the
commandments and regulations of the Lord. 7 But they had no children because Elizabeth was
barren, and both were getting on in years.
8 Once when [Zechariah] was serving as priest before God during his section’s turn of duty, 9 he
was chosen by lot, according to the custom of the priesthood, to enter the sanctuary of the Lord
to offer incense. 10 Now at the time of the incense offering, the whole assembly of the people
was praying outside. 11 Then there appeared to him an angel of the Lord, standing at the right
side of the altar of incense. 12 When Zechariah saw [the angel], he was terrified, and fear
overwhelmed him. 13 But the angel said to him, “Do not be afraid, Zechariah, for your prayer
has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you will name him John. 14 You
will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth, 15 for he will be great in the sight
of the Lord.
18 Zechariah said to the angel, “How can I know that this will happen? For I am an old man, and
my wife is getting on in years.” 19 The angel replied, “I am Gabriel. I stand in the presence of
God, and I have been sent to speak to you and to bring you this good news. 20 But now, because
you did not believe my words, which will be fulfilled in their time, you will become mute,
unable to speak, until the day these things occur.”
59 On the eighth day they came to circumcise the child, and they were going to name him
Zechariah after his father. 60 But his mother said, “No; he is to be called John.” 61 They said to
her, “None of your relatives has this name.” 62 Then they began motioning to his father to find
out what name he wanted to give him. 63 He asked for a writing tablet and wrote, “His name is
John.” And all of them were amazed. 64 Immediately his mouth was opened and his tongue
freed, and he began to speak, praising God. 65 Fear came over all their neighbours, and all these
things were talked about throughout the entire hill country of Judea. 66 All who heard them
pondered them and said, “What then will this child become?” For indeed the hand of the Lord
was with him.
May the Spirit bring us understanding of our sacred text. Amen.