Advent - Keep Hope Alive!

Keep hope alive! This statement has served - over time – as a mantra of possibility for many. In the context of the Advent season, the statement takes on bold meaning. It is in the message of Advent that we discover the promise that help is on the way, and find encouragement to keep hope alive!

In this season, we remember the hope of the prophet Isaiah who proclaimed:“For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called wonderful, counselor, the mighty God, the everlasting father, the prince of peace (Isaiah 9:6).

In many ways, our days seem to be filled with doom and gloom. Just open the newspaper - political unrest, social dysfunction, economic uncertainty, natural disasters, and community violence, not to mention spiritual demise, abounds. Just last week a young 21 year old man was shot and murdered while walking his dog in the Cherry Hill community of Baltimore.

In the midst of these realities, and uncertainty about the days ahead, the Advent season reminds us that we have to keep hope alive! We are beckoned to remain hopeful in these trying times. Hope is not something that is static, but alive. It may not even be material, but hope helps us to sense how God will be at work in our lives in the future.

Maybe that’s why persons of faith in ages past could sing even in the lowest of times –
My hope is built on nothing less

than Jesus’ blood and righteousness,

I dare not trust the sweetest frame,

but wholly lean on Jesus’ name…

On Christ the solid rock I stand.

All other ground is sinking sand…

We are encouraged today to Keep Hope Alive!

Indeed hope helps us to hold on in trying times.

The song-writer was right –
Time is filled with swift transition

Naught the earth unmoved can stand

Build your HOPE on things eternal.

Hold to God’s unchanging hand!

Invictus

by William Ernest Henley

Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the Pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds and shall find me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll
I am the master of my fate,
I am the captain of my soul.


This is a poem by Brishish poet William Ernest Henley written in 1875. The title means “Unconquered” in Latin. "Invictus" is also the title of the soon to be released movie based on the life of Nelson Mandela, anti-Apartheid and civil rights leader, and former president of South Africa.

Signs of Hope - Dr. Freeman Hrabowski

Congratulations to Dr. Freeman Hrabowski, president of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, who was recently named one of the nation’s “10 Best College Presidents” by Time magazine. Dr. Hrabowski and UMBC have become nationally recognized for steering African-American students toward science, math and engineering — fields in which they have been traditionally under-represented. UMBC is one of the nation's leading sources of African-American Ph.D.s in science and engineering, and almost half of its seniors go immediately to graduate school. He has authored numerous articles and co-authored two books, Beating the Odds and Overcoming the Odds (Oxford University Press), focusing on parenting and high-achieving African American males and females in science.

Nationial Day of Outrage

On Tuesday, 24 November 2009, concerned citizens in over 20 cities gathered to stand together against this nationwide epidemic of violence in urban communities. This effort was led by the reverend Al Sharpton and the National Action Network. To read more, please go to http://www.nationalactionnetwork.net/.

Signs of Hope - The Susanna Wesley House

Another important ministry related to the United Methodist Church in Baltimore is the Susanna Wesley House. Founded in 1919, the mission of Susanna Wesley House, Inc. is to assist women in need and their dependent children; to provide a safe, clean home, and to ensure a viable program for the residents to obtain independent living. To learn more, please go to www.susannawesley.org.

Giving Thanks - Another Leagacy of Lessons

Dr. James Cecil Logan, beloved teacher, preacher, and leader in The United Methodist Church, died on Saturday, October 17, 2009 in Winchester, VA. Dr. Logan was a mentor to many of us. In the time that I've had to reflect upon Dr. Logan's life and his impact on me, I've come to realize how important he was to my intellectual and spiritual development. Dr. Logan was my major professor while I studied at Wesley Theological Seminary (I took six courses with him), and I was priviledged to have served as one of his graduate assistants. Dr. Logan's is a legacy of what it means for the church to be missional and what it means for us to be wholly committed to Christ.

Give Thanks

“In everything give thanks for this is the will of God concerning you.” (1 Thess. 5:18)

In 1 Thessalonians, the apostle Paul was enroute to Rome with a layover in Corinth when he wrote his first letter to the young church at Thessalonica. As a part of his guidance to the Christian believers there, Paul shared with them instructions on giving thanks.

Paul says to the Thessalonian church, “In everything give thanks, for this is the will of God concerning you.” What Paul was saying to the congregation is that the zenith of Christian conduct is to be able to say “thank you.” In everything give thanks, Paul says.

There's the story of a businessman, who one Thanksgiving some years ago , while watching a football game, reflected on his life and thought of all the people who had been influential in helping him become who he was. He decided to write each person a thank-you card telling him or her of his gratitude for their influence on his life.

His fourth grade teacher quickly came to mind for insisting that he and his classmates strive for excellence in every endeavor. She pounded it into her students, be it regarding homework, tests or class projects. So he sent her a thank you note.

One day, just after the New Year, he received a return letter from his former teacher. She apologized for not replying sooner, but stated that his letter took some time getting to her, since she had moved in with her daughter after retiring from teaching grade school for sixty-six years. She told him how thankful she was to have received his card and how it cheered her to find out he had learned so well his lessons in excellence. She went on to say that in her sixty-six years of teaching, this was the first thank-you card she had ever received, and how grateful she was that he had taken the time to remember her.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. shared that the true measure of our character is not how we conduct ourselves in times of comfort and convenience, but how we deal with challenge and controversy.

In all things give thanks, for this is the will of God concerning you. May each of us find reasons to be grateful in the days that are before us.