I am indebted to the the following sermon “I Dream a Church”, Acts 2:42-45 and 4:32-33
by Anne M. Cameron given on November 11, 2007 at Lake Highlands Presbyterian Church.  Her words resounded in me many years ago and I have adopted much from that sermon to create my own vision or dream for the church.

I Dream a Church

(based on Joel 2:28, Matthew 16:13-19)

About halfway through his ministry Jesus questioned the disciples about who people thought he was.  And then after a variety of answers he asked them directly, “But who do you say I am?”

Simon, son of Jonah, answered immediately, “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God” and with that answer, Jesus renames him Cephas or Peter which means “Rock” and declares that upon that Rock he would build a church.  But what really was that church supposed to look like, feel like, be like?  How was this church going to be any different from the religious institutions that had gone before it?  How was this new church supposed to respond to the ways of the world, the teachings of Christ, and the new vision of hope, grace, mercy, and love?

When Jesus was arrested, crucified, and resurrected from the dead, only to leave again, the disciples probably wondered about this new future church even more.  They waited, they prayed, and they dreamed of what the new Church Jesus envisioned would be like.

          Plans didn’t quite go the way they had envisioned them.  Jesus was not seated on the throne of Jerusalem; hailed as king of the Jews.  They were not part of a new government, formed to bring about peace and prosperity for the Jewish nation.   But in spite of the chaos that followed Christ’s death and resurrection, a new dream emerged.  They dreamed of the promised gift of the Spirit, they dreamed of the future and their place in it, and they dreamed about what the continuing presence of Christ might mean for them and their world.

As it shaped the longing of the disciples, God’s Holy Spirit shapes our human longing into a holy longing and our human dreaming into holy dreaming.  As God’s love is poured out upon us our longing and dreaming is brought to perfection by that same Spirit.  To dream is to invite God’s Holy Spirit to enter into our broken lives, wherever we are, in whatever state we find ourselves, and ask for the wings of the Spirit to unfurl in our dreaming.  To dream the Church, to dream the Kingdom, is to invite God’s Holy Spirit into our humanity and shape our dreaming and longing into a Christ-like longing for the reconciliation of the world to God.

I, also, have a dream for the church. 

I dream a church with doors flung wide open, where all who enter meet the living God.  A church with vibrant worship, powerful preaching, and marvelous music.   I dream of a church that transforms broken people into whole people of God.  I dream of a place that is less like a club with a membership, than an ever-widening circle that welcomes everyone.

I dream a church that honors the past, lives into the present, and embraces the future.  Honoring the great cloud of witnesses that have gone before us, their contributions that have made possible our present reality, we give them thanks.  I dream a church that works side beside one another in mission and outreach, in programs and the work of the church.  I dream a church that isn’t afraid of the future, but instead listens to the voices that are emerging as you dream together to shape and mold what your future shall be.

I dream of a Church that has no fear or reservation in making the Gospel of Christ, the story God’s reconciling love, known to a hurting world.  You can start by taking that message with you.  There are hurting people just down the street or around the corner.  Start right here; at home.  And how do you make the gospel known?  You live it; every day.  Work for justice, show compassion, serve others, pour out God’s love and grace on others as it has been poured out on you.  Above all, be forgiving.

I dream of a Church that turns to God again and again in prayer and listens to what the Spirit is saying to the Church.  Do not just pray for yourselves and your family.  Do not just pray for those whom you know, but pray for the stranger.  Pray for our communities.  Pray for your neighbor.  Pray for the people you don’t know well.  Pray for those who have nothing but a glimmer of hope.  Pray for those who have lost even that.  Pray for those who have everything, but God.  Pray for the world around you.  Pray for the things that are happening in society.  In all things, turn to God in prayer.  The more you pray, the more you’ll hear God speak.  So, I pray that you learn how to listen, as well.

I dream a church that challenges the mind, opens the heart, and feeds the soul. A place of learning and inquiry for everyone, from the very smallest to the very eldest.  I dream of dialogue and struggle, of laughter and tears, of growth and maturity.  A church that says “yes” more often than “no.”

                                                     
I dream of a Church in which all the children of God are welcome, and not turned away because of human prejudice or human fear of those who are different.  Embrace the outcast.  Forgive those who have hurt you.  Do not put yourselves in the position of judge, but rather that of a fellow traveler.  We all have more in common than we have differences.  Welcome the orphan and the widow, the single mother, and the struggling dad.  Encourage those who have doubts and are full of questions and fear.  Do not have all the answers, but walk beside them as they discover the answers for themselves.

I dream of a Church that has the courage to stand up to the injustices and prejudices of the world around us, and champion the voice and cause of the dispossessed, the marginalized, and the forgotten.  Taking that one step further:  Don’t just welcome them into your midst, but champion their causes as your own.  Make their life struggles your mission to help end injustice and prejudices.

I dream that God will journey with those who have left the Church, and yes, even abandoned their faith in light of the ways that the Church has hurt so many in our history.  So always be ready to be the voice of reconciliation to those who have been hurt by destructive voices in the past.  Be the one voice that stands out and says, “That wasn’t right.  And I’m here to prove to you that it can be different.”

I dream of a Church of courageous people gathered under the banner of Christ who stand together and say no to the dark forces of this world that would have us believe that our human value is rooted only in what we can buy or what we can sell.  Life isn’t about things.  It’s about people and our relationship with one another.  God created us all in God’s own image.  Be courageous and stand firm in acknowledging the dignity that every human being should be offered.

I dream of a Church that proclaims a resounding “no” to the selfishness within us and around us that leads us to destroy, rather than nurture and care for God’s good creation.  Be more careful of the resources you use and consume.  Be good stewards of the earth’s rich bounty.  We have been given the task of being caretakers of God’s creation, so herald the causes of those who work to protect it.

I dream a church like the 1^st Century Church, a church filled with hospitality and healing, generosity and giving.  A place where needs are met and good things are shared.  Where the lonely find support and wise advice.  Where those struggling with chronic illness find comfort. Where the able-bodied work and play and sit at table alongside those who need more tending.  In my dream of a church, I see a grateful church, a church serving the bread of life and the cup of joy.

And I dream of a Church in which every one of God’s children know and feel the healing and reconciling love of God in Christ, no matter how broken they are, no matter how defeated they are, no matter how sick, depressed or demoralized, I dream that God’s love will be known to any and all in need.  And I dream that we, each and every one of us, can be the people to carry that love to the world.

This is what I dream for the church.  It is what I long for.  What is your dream for the church?  What is your holy longing?  It’s time for men and women, young and old to dream dreams and share their visions that God might shape our collective dreams and our collective visions into the vision of his kingdom.

Thanks be to God, AMEN.

Sermon for Today, 8-19-18 The Wisdom of Solomon

The Wisdom of Solomon

(based on 1 Kings 2:10-12, 3:3-14)

King David has just died and there’s a power struggle for the throne between David’s two sons, Adonijah, son of his wife Haggith, and Solomon, David’s second son to Bathsheba.

Today’s lectionary passage skips over all that messy business worthy of a Game of Thrones episode in 1 Kings chapter two, but let’s just say there’s quite a lot of greed, manipulation, vendettas, and bloodshed – you know, the normal stuff we hear on the news, even today.  But here we jump over to the beginning of chapter 3 where Solomon is trying to do his best as a young, twenty-year-old, rookie king. 

At Gibeon, the Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream and God asked Solomon, "If you could have anything you want, what would it be?"  Rather than answer the question right away, Solomon first praises God for God’s faithfulness to his father David, and he describes his own situation.  He is a young man and he has been given the responsibility of governing a large number of people; and not just any people, but a nation of God’s own choosing.  Therefore, Solomon asks God for an understanding mind in order to judge your people, and to discern between good and evil.”

An understanding mind and the ability to discern what is right and good are qualities essential to good governance, qualities we should pray to find in all our leaders.  It speaks well of this untested, young king that he recognizes the enormous responsibility he has and seeks not material gifts for himself, but gifts of character that will benefit his people.

Therefore, Solomon’s request pleased the Lord. And God said to him,

“Because you have asked this, and have not asked for long life or riches…but for an understanding to discern what is right, I now do according to your word.”  In addition, God even grants Solomon those things which he did not request: riches, honor, fame, and (if he stays faithful to God) long life.  

Blessings abound for this new king; but it is important to note that those material blessings are only secondary to the first granted request.  These blessings only come as an added bonus, but they are not to be confused with the real and primary gift. 

An understanding mind and a discerning spirit or "Wisdom" in the biblical tradition has to do in large part with what Solomon requests: the ability to detect and know the difference between good and evil, the ability to listen well, and to judge rightly.  Solomon's great wisdom is understood as a special gift from God.  But it is given not just to kings, but to all who faithfully seek it.  As in this story, wisdom will reward those who acquire it, but it is not to be sought simply for personal gain.  God-given wisdom is integrally tied to one's life in community so that others may benefit from it.

As an example of Solomon’s wisdom, there is a recorded story of two women who came before the King to have him resolve their quarrel over which of them was the true mother of a baby.  Each had given birth to a baby, but one child had died.  Both women claimed the living child as her own.  When Solomon ruled that they would need to divide the child in two with a sword, one of the women shrieked and declared that she would rather surrender the child than see it killed.  Solomon quickly declared that the woman whose instinct was compassion for the child had clearly demonstrated that she was the true mother and he gave the baby to her.

When Solomon succeeded his father David and was crowned king of Israel, many hoped that that the problems that had plagued David’s reign would at last be over and that the nation of Israel would have a new beginning, a new era for the people of Israel. 

Solomon started well.  His name in Hebrew means peace, and that was most appropriate, for under Solomon’s rule Israel did know great peace and security.  Solomon was the first king of Israel born to a reigning king.  Solomon expanded the city of Jerusalem, built the glorious Temple, and ushered in a Golden Age. 

But then things went terribly wrong.  Solomon, like his father before him, and pretty much every biblical character in Scripture, is a complex character.  Solomon had wisdom and was in his glory as king discerning and judging over the people, but he also had his flaws.  Solomon is like our own leaders, a mixture of good and bad. Actually, Solomon is a lot like all of us, saints and sinners at the same time.  

It is clear that Solomon was very devout in his early years, but as time went by, he was led by his non-Jewish wives into the worship of other gods and idols.

He poured his efforts into building a glorious Jerusalem and a magnificent Temple, but the cost of this construction and a strong military drained his treasury and forced him to tax his people heavily, diminishing their quality of life.

Solomon became materialistic and greedy.  He became obsessed with wealth and extravagant living.  In addition he gathered an enormous personal body guard of twelve thousand horsemen, with all related expenses.

Although he began his reign in quiet humility and a yearning to be a wise ruler, Solomon’s life was soon marked by immorality, idolatry, dishonesty, and intrigue.

The story of Solomon is a tragedy, because, in spite of his closeness to God early in his life, his fame, power, and wealth led him away from any core values.  Jesus once spoke of the danger of gaining the whole world but losing your soul; he very well may have had Solomon in mind.

I think we can learn some important truths from the life of Solomon:

Blessings are from God.  Whether we specifically ask or simply receive, all good things around us have come from heaven above.  We need to live our lives with a sense of God’s Blessings in our lives and always remember that to whomever much has been given, much shall be required.

A faith-relationship with God can easily be compromised; backsliding is always a possibility.  For Solomon his undoing was his success, wealth, and power.  I think there are a lot of people today who are experiencing a similar reality.  As life gets sweeter and richer, the life of faithfulness and compassion can easily begin to atrophy. 

The experience of Solomon shows us that all the wealth and pleasures of this world can be hollow.  Solomon had it all … harems, houses, horses, and gold.  But in the end it brought him no joy.  He died a sad, defeated person, and after his death the Kingdom of Israel split in two, never again to be strong.

In the Book of Ecclesiastes, a work attributed to Solomon, we read words that could easily have been his final testimony on what it meant to have the gift of wisdom, but how easily a person can lose sight of God’s blessings.  This, perhaps, is Solomon’s wisest words for us to hear.

Remember your Creator in the days of your youth, before the days of trouble come and the years approach when you will say, “I find no pleasure in them. … Remember him ~ before the silver cord is severed, or the golden bowl is broken; before the pitcher is shattered at the spring, or the wheel broken at the well, and the dust returns to the ground it came from, and the spirit returns to God who gave it. …  Now all has been heard; here is the conclusion of the matter: Fear God and keep his commandment, for this is the whole duty of each and every one.  God will bring every deed into judgment, including every hidden thing, whether it is good or evil.  AMEN.                                  [Ecclesiastes 12:1, 6-7, 13-14]

August 12, 2018 Sermon - Hearty Bread

Hearty Bread

(based on John 6:35,41-51)

Earlier in John’s gospel, Jesus fed 5000 people with five loaves and two fish.  So, today’s reading and story was supposed to be just another feeding.  That’s why everyone showed up.  But, instead of more bread, they get Jesus and conflict.  These two often go together, Jesus and conflict, between what is and what might be, between our understanding and his understanding, between knowing ABOUT Jesus and really KNOWING him.   

In today’s conflict story, Jesus challenges people to consider what kind of bread they are seeking and eating, perishable or imperishable, then he declares himself to be “the bread of life,” “the living bread that came down from heaven.”  

When I was in Junior High School my mom switched breads on our household.  Actually, she switched up lots of things.  We were no longer drinking regular milk, but skim milk instead.  And we were no longer eating our sandwiches on that white squishy bread, but rather something we all jokingly called, “horse fodder”.  As a kid we ate that famous white Wonder Bread that could be smushed and smashed, balled up into a tight ball of dough.  It absorbed jelly like no tomorrow and sponged up all the liquid in mayo or even the liquid portion of peanut butter, leaving it drier than a Sahara desert, while the bread was nice and moist (oh, as a side note, we didn’t eat mayonnaise either, we had Miracle Whip).

Instead of white wonder bread, we starting eating something more hearty – with lots of wholesome grains in it, so many grains that if you even tried to smash it, you’d cut your hands on the seeds within it.  It was the bread that you actually had to chew, while white Wonder Bread just sort of melted in your mouth.  The website called Fooducate gives each food a schoolhouse rating based on it’s nutritious-ness.  Wonder Bread was given a C- rating while a whole multi-grain bread was given an A rating. 

That’s the difference of what Jesus was offering here in this passage.  Do you really want to continue eating Wonder Bread or would you prefer something that’s more sustainable, something that will fill you up and be good for your body, your soul?

But people don’t like change.  They don’t like to have things be different from what they were, even if it’s better for them.  They like what they used to have, what they used to know.  My dad, sister and I complained every time one of these new sandwiches was put in front of us.  We liked the old bread.  The old sandwiches were gum-able.  These new sandwiches; you actually had to chew!

The Jews began to complain about Jesus. “He didn’t come from heaven.  We know all about him.  He’s Mary and Joseph’s boy.”  They know facts about Jesus but they don’t really know him or where he comes from.  He doesn’t look a thing like the bread they or their ancestors have eaten.  When it comes to bread they don’t expect any more than what their ancestors got, in this case - manna in the wilderness.

Jesus tells them to be quiet and stop complaining. “Your ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died…. I am the living bread that came down from heaven.  Whoever eats of this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”  Jesus offers them a choice, living bread or manna, a wholesome multi-grain bread or wonder bread, life or death.  That is the same choice he sets before us – we can choose the mushy life, that’s only minimally nutritious or we can go for the gusto and have something you really need to get your teeth into and chew!

On the surface the story here seems to be a conflict between Jesus and the Jews.  But in reality, the conflict for the Jews is not so much about Jesus but about their frame of reference, the box they have created for God.  Jesus is challenging them to step outside of the established, comfortable, and familiar context they have created for themselves.  He refuses to be limited by either their understandings or their misunderstandings.  He invites them to live a new life, a larger life, a life that springs from but is not bound by the past or the context they have created for themselves.  He invites them to eat new bread.

When John speaks of the Jews he is not referring to the Jewish people, individually or collectively.  He is referring rather to any person or group who opposes Jesus, who refuses to see and understand the signs, who would separate the gift of bread from the giver of life. The Jews could be anyone who acts in this way.  In this case it just happens to be the religious leaders and authorities of Jesus’ day.

We are not so different from the Jews of Christ’s day.  We too have our own frames of reference.  Sometimes we use our frame of reference to try to contain or control God.  Other times we use it to exclude God.  The problem is not that we have a frame of reference, but that it originates with us rather than with God.

When we live only from our personal frame of reference we live hungry, empty lives.  We work for manna, something unsustainable, rather than opening ourselves to receive the gift of the bread of life, something that has form and substance – really body to it.  No matter how much manna we collect and eat we can never satisfy ourselves.  Manna might fill our bellies, but it leaves our souls grumbling.

Often the things we have done and left undone prevent us from eating the bread of life.  Sometimes our patterns of thinking, believing, the way we see the world, each other, or ourselves convince us there is no other bread and we should just settle for the same old manna or Wonder Bread our ancestors ate in the wilderness or at the kitchen table.  Other times our history, fears, anxieties, guilt, regrets, pain, and losses become so firmly established we are deceived into believing that we are not even hungry.

We are not destined to eat white, squishy, lacking substance and nutritional benefits of White Wonder Bread for the rest of our lives.  Our frame of reference, our past, our history, neither earn us nor keep us from something better for ourselves, something of more value and substance – hearty “horse fodder”, as we called it; but here, the bread of life that Jesus offers.  The living bread has come down from heaven to feed each one of us.  Every moment of every day God invites us to eat this new bread, to step out of the old context into a new way of living and being.

God gives us bread from heaven, knowing that we are hungry.  Our conflicts, our restlessness, our deep longings, our desires to love and be loved are hunger pains by which the Father draws us to his Son; the one who said, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.”  Hearty bread for holy hunger.  Thanks be to God.  

8-5-18 Today's Sermon - Greed

Greed

(based on 2 Samuel 11:26-12:13a, Ephesians 4:1-16)

Every Bible ought to have a warning on its cover:

Some of the stories found within these covers will shock you.  

They will test your faith.

They may even stretch you and challenge you. 

If they aren’t treated carefully, they could possibly hurt you or hurt others.

Therefore, handle the words found here with care and caution.

Even if that warning were on the cover of every Bible, I worry that many people would not heed its warning.  Too many of us look past the troubling stories that we find in the Bible without even second guessing or questioning them.  And we don’t really work through some of the misguided or merely bad interpretations of these difficult texts.  Too many of us ignore passages we don’t like or we just mark them as antiquated tales having little or nothing to do with us, but forgetting that these difficult-to-grasp passages of scripture can teach us an awful lot about God and the paths of faith to which God calls us.

Sometimes, worst of all, we like to sanitize these texts, sort of disinfecting the wounds that they might leave behind, softening their sharp edges.  The problem with this, is that we then limit the power and the struggle that real people who lived these stories both suffered and learned from them.  Particularly, when we try to “fix” their stories, we silence their struggles and muffle their cries.

The story of David and Bathsheba is one such story we have often sought to “fix.”  With today’s text, we entered at the end of the story.  But perhaps we should really hear all of it from the beginning. 

Read Chapter 11

Because of who David was in scripture; God’s chosen king of Israel and the ancestral father of Jesus, we excuse David’s behavior on his rooftop when we imagine him accidentally catching sight of Bathsheba instead of seeing him like a Peeping Tom.  Because labeling him as a Peeping Tom makes him a bad guy.  And since we can’t have him as a bad guy, there must be some other person to blame – there must be some other explanation.  So, our scapegoat becomes Bathsheba for exposing herself to the world, neglecting to consider that she was not an exhibitionist but someone who was simply bathing in privacy on the rooftop of her own home. 

But, historically, we have done this before.  We can go all the way back to Adam and Eve.  Generally, we have always interpreted the story of banishment from the garden of Eden as Eve’s fault.  She ate of the forbidden fruit and then made Adam eat of it, too.  Therefore, it was her fault.  But if you really read the story carefully you’ll see that Eve was tricked and beguiled by the serpent to eat of the fruit while Adam, knowing full well what he was doing (it even says so), took that delicious, forbidden bite.

As we should know by now, there is a cost or a consequence for every sin.  Having eaten from the tree that they were told not to eat, Adam and Eve were banished from the garden, forced to work hard for the earth to produce its bounty.  And in today’s story from 2 Samuel, David must face his consequences when he is confronted by Nathan.  It’s a story that forces us to reflect in particular on the sins of the powerful, the greed that comes with that power, and the wave of grief these sins leave behind.

It is not an antiquated story, no matter how uncomfortable it might make us or want us to switch the blame, pretty it up, or “fix” it.  It’s a story that is played out nearly everyday, right NOW in the news.  The only difference today is that Bathsheba herself has become her own Nathan to accuse the men of their lecherous acts, both subtle and not so subtle towards women. 

Uriah, Bathsheba’s brave husband, is now dead, and Bathsheba can only lament within the confines of a political system that does not allow her to seek justice.  Instead, she must conform to the rules of a political system that use her as a simple pawn in the desires of a powerful, greedy, King.

Perhaps the great king imagined that his crimes would go unnoticed — but just like today, such scandals do not remain a secret for long.  I imagine that the close alignment of Uriah’s death and David’s acquisition of a new wife raised more than a few eyebrows.  But who would confront the king with his crimes?  Who would have the tenacity to accuse the king of such greed.  God has seen the great damage David has done and sends the prophet Nathan to execute justice.

Confronting the powerful requires courage.  Good strategy is helpful too.  So, Nathan shares with David a parable of sorts.  What if a rich man with more lambs than he could count takes the one treasured lamb of a poor man to feed a guest?  Notice how Nathan particularly spends a great deal of time on the great care this poor man takes of his one lamb.  The rich man has everything he could ever want but takes what very little the poor man has.

David reacts to this report with anger, failing to recognize his very public hypocrisy.  He concludes that such a criminal is worthy of death and should reimburse the poor man four times over.  He thus falls into the trap of his own condemnation.  And Nathan can then accuse the powerful king saying, “You are the man!”

Even as David is confronted with his crimes, a question remains: Why did David do this?  Did he really think he could get away with murder? Perhaps he thought he would get away with it.  Perhaps he did this simply because he could.  Perhaps this was a pure exercise of power for power’s sake.  Perhaps he never imagined that he would be confronted by his sins. Perhaps he did not count the death of Uriah and the grief of Bathsheba as prices for which to be accounted.  Maybe David thought there was no price to pay for his greed. 

The powerful often think they are entitled to anything they want.  After all, they deserve it.  The deserve the best, they deserve anything they want.  They deserve the prized possessions of what little others have.

But he was wrong, not because he didn’t expect Nathan’s confrontation but because he was blind to the damage he had already done.  No sin is ever merely personal.  No sin is truly only an offense against God.  Our sin always impinges upon the lives of others.  That is the very essence and definition of sin – something that breaks a relationship, a trust between you and someone else and precisely what makes forgiveness so difficult to experience on either side of the equation.

This story is not about sex or adultery, really.  It’s not really about lust or desire either.  At its core, the story is about greed – a desire for what you cannot or should not have – the unrestrained greed that accompanies the powerful, those who have access to do and to have anything they wish, the will of the powerful to take and consume what belongs to the poorest among us.

When the powerful sin, they leave a wake of destruction.  Individuals are demoralized, families are torn apart, relationships are irreparably damaged and the innocent are harmed – sometimes beyond repair.

The story of David is tragically still too common today. Too often, the crimes of the powerful are the subject of cover-ups, spin and excuses, not justice.

Where is a modern-day Nathan when administrators conspire to protect a football program instead of the lives and psyches of vulnerable young men?  Where is a modern-day Nathan when so-called leaders or politicians of any party break their marriage vows so casually?  Where is a modern-day Nathan when the greed of corporation executives take millions every year, while their workers can barely pay for their healthcare, when the greed of the most powerful consumes more and more leaving others with less and less?

But, here’s the problem:

It is rather simple for us to point fingers to the sins of the great among us.  However, we conveniently forget is that we too are imbedded in webs of sin: economic, political, cultural, even religious.  

Grocery stores lined with thousands of products and produce come at a price.  News that dwells on entertainment and scandal not information comes with a price.  A culture of consumerism and excess comes with a price.  Clergy – whether TV evangelist or local pastor/priest – with unrestrained power and authority comes with a price.  Any spin that spews from the mouths of politicians, political parties, or corporate executives, come at a price.

How will we react when Nathan points an accusatory finger at us? When the prophet declares that our lifestyles, our comfort come at a great price and that this price is paid by the poor and the broken of the world? When Nathan tells us a tale about a rich ruler with much wealth who was willing to take what little the poor peasant had, will we realize that “I am the man”, “I am the woman” who has committed such ghastly sins against my neighbor?

There is no easy way to answer these questions.  We can only hope that with the help of God and bold prophets like Nathan, such injustice might be exposed and brought to an end once and for all.  We hope against hope and yearn for a new day, not out of naiveté or blind faith, but because we hope that Nathan and the God for whom he spoke will always be in our midst.