Someone said to me today, “I love looking at the lights on houses, it always gives me hope for some reason.”
Among the many blessings of Christmas is a childlike sense of hope, hope for a wonderful holiday, hope for a good new year, hope for one of those cars that everyone seems to be receiving if TV commercials are to be believed. The ancient feast upon which Christmas found its home was a celebration of hope that days would not continue to shorten and that the sun would triumph over the night. In fact, one could see the season as the yearly triumph of hope at the end of the reality of the passing year.
I set up a Christmas tree in my apartment today. I thought for a while about skipping it this year. I’m not at home much over the holidays and there will be few friends who would even come by to see it. The communal purpose of the tree is somewhat lost this year; it seemed to be mainly another chore and expense at a time of too much of both.
So why did I do it? I set up a tree as a sign of continuity and a sign of hope. Despite the tumult in the macro and micro worlds, it’s Christmas, so I set up a tree. I will set one up next year again if I and this chaotic planet are still around to do so, God willing. I set up a tree because my Dad and Mom finally, after hinting at it last year, have decided that a tree is just too much trouble. My tree and their tree were ther cornerstones of Christmas, and it isn’t right to have two less trees in the same year. Most importantly, I set up a tree for my own enjoyment and inspiration. I intend to sit in my chair every day of the Christmas season and look at the tree and hope for good things to come for everyone I care about. Events of the past year have demonstrated the utter precariousness of peace, of happiness, of life itself. I’m going to look at the tree and hope for a better world.
This is the Third Sunday of Advent, designated by the church as Gaudete Sunday, with a call to be joyful for the time of Christmas draws near (even though it is still…blessedly…two full weeks away due to the peculiarities of the calendar). I spoke about joy earlier in the week, but today let’s celebrate with hope. It is one of the greatest human capacities to picture a condition better than today and then work to make it happen. Let us have the strength and courage to hope for true goodness in our world and in our selves. President Obama titled his autobiography, The Audacity of Hope, that at times it seems truly outrageous to hope for something better. However, it is a season of impossible things from its inception (pun intended), so let’s hope ourselves and hope our world and honestly, bravely, audaciously believe it will come to be.
As always, I welcome your comments.