"Hope is the cure for now, until we get a real one."

Texts:
Isaiah 9:1 - 7
Three selections from the book, "The Faces of AIDS", June 2001


1. "Teresa" Place of origin: Central America. Currently lives in the Chicago, Illinois Metropolitan area.

"I am sharing my story because some people are just finding out they are HIV-Positive. If they read something about somebody, it gives them hope, and they understand it better. You can think, 'I am the only one in the world with this problem,' and that's not really true."

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2. Nile, age 13

You can't get AIDS from being a friend.
Not from a hug or a pencil or even a pen.
So why won't anyone let him play?
"That kid has AIDS," my friend responds,
"So you see, there's nothing more to say."

So that's the problem that shuns this boy.
That is the reason he can't touch the toy.
This is crazy, it has to end. You can't get
AIDS from being a friend.

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3. a camper from Camp Heartland (a camp for kids with HIV/AIDS)
"At Camp Heartland, I've realized that hope is the cure for now, until we get a real one."

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We anticipate the celebration of the birth of Jesus, our Christ. Mary's agreement to become pregnant with the Messiah speaks of the hope she had for the future of her people and her family. She did not refuse the angel who had come in the name of the Divine. She embraced the challenge and lived in the hope of the promise, the hope of the future.

The anonymous camper at Camp Heartland has a similar hope. This camper believes there will be a cure, and the hope in that cure becomes the cure for now.

For Teresa the hope is in sharing her story. She is offering hope in the telling of her story. It is like the gospel writers sharing the "Good News", and Isaiah proclaiming a promise that there will be no more gloom and that a child will be born who has authority to establish endless peace, and justice with righteousness.

"Hope is the cure for now, until we get a real one." As Christians, the real cure that we await this season is the birth of Jesus. In this baby we anticipate the proclaimed promise of Isaiah to be realized. But in fact, this is a ritual of remembering for us. The child Jesus was born and lived and healed and did wonders. It is a ritual that helps us remember our role as followers of Jesus. We are the voice, the body, the house of the realm that Jesus proclaimed ... that Jesus taught.

The work continues and it's easy to get bogged down in the work. It's easy to identify with the work instead of with the hope and the promise. When the angel visited Mary, the message was one of the future. Still, she had to carry the child within her body and then raise the child. There was work to do. I think it was the hope in the Angel's words that sustained her.

I think it is hope that can also sustain us. We have the good news of God's love to proclaim. We are pregnant with a future. What is the promise that you have heard that gives you hope? What is the proclamation that you heard that gives you hope? The young camper at Camp Heartland believes that there will be a cure for AIDS. Teresa believes telling her story will bring hope. Isaiah believes there will be never-ending peace because of a child yet to be born. Mary believes the child she carries in her body is the Messiah her people need. What these people believe about a better future gives them the cure of hope for today.

Hope is powerful! It can give you strength. It can sustain you. Hope can give you a smile ... a joy. It can reach out to you so that you can reach out to yourself and to others. Hope inspires us to act for the change we believe in.

What is your hope? What inspires you to act? What is your cure for now as you wait for the revealing of future change?

My hope is that adults can unlearn hate and prejudice and that children and grandchildren will grow up expressing love for all people of all ilks. My hope is that solidarity today will result in communities tomorrow. My hope is in the Beloved Community. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. expanded on the notion of Josiah Royce's Beloved Community. According to the King Center website,

"Dr. King's Beloved Community is a global vision, in which all people can share in the wealth of the earth. In the Beloved Community, poverty, hunger and homelessness will not be tolerated because international standards of human decency will not allow it. Racism and all forms of discrimination, bigotry and prejudice will be replaced by an all-inclusive spirit of sisterhood and brotherhood. In the Beloved Community, international disputes will be resolved by peaceful conflict-resolution and reconciliation of adversaries, instead of military power. Love and trust will triumph over fear and hatred. Peace with justice will prevail over war and military conflict.

Dr. King's Beloved Community was not devoid of interpersonal, group or international conflict. Instead he recognized that conflict was an inevitable part of human experience. But he believed that conflicts could be resolved peacefully and adversaries could be reconciled through a mutual, determined commitment to nonviolence. No conflict, he believed, need erupt in violence. And all conflicts in The Beloved Community should end with reconciliation of adversaries cooperating together in a spirit of friendship and goodwill." http://www.thekingcenter.org/prog/bc/index.html

If I were to distill my hope in a couple of words, those words would be Beloved Community. That's what I have heard proclaimed, that's what I believe in for the future. The Beloved Community is a manifestation of the Realm of Heaven that Jesus proclaimed. It is how I interpret what Isaiah proclaimed. It is the cure for tomorrow. My hope for the Beloved Community is my cure for today until it is manifested in all its glory.

What is your hope? I want us to spend a few minutes writing down our hopes. I brought this little Christmas tree. Over the course of Advent we are going to decorate this tree with our ideas about Hope, Love, Joy, and Peace. It will be our Advent Tree. Think about what you believe, the promises that you hang on to, the future that you envision and then think about the hope that is the cure for now until the real cure comes.