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So, so the last one and again, I had to follow Claudia. So just to recap, uh the theme has been uh premeditated, indifference, facing injustice with the power of Hope. Lecture one's

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title was What In The World? I think I forgot to tell you Lecture Two's title, which was How In The World. And our final lecture Hope In The World because I know some of you didn't

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hear the song very well and some not at all . We began with um a song called Praise sung by one of the Mayan sisters. Don't be discouraged . Joy comes in the morning know that God is

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nigh, stand still and look up. God is going to show up. He is standing by, there's healing for your sorrow, healing, for your pain, healing, for your spirit. There's shelter

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from the rain. Lord send the healing for this . We know there is a bomb in Gilead for there's a bomb in Gilead for there's a bomb in Gilead to heal the soul, healing for your soul

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. So we have moved from lament to doing our first works over to this morning. Finally hope today's final lecture. Hope in the world is a way of talking about healing for the soul or perhaps better

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put healing for our souls. The road to undoing our polarization, I believe, takes a committed community lament and individuals doing our first works over. We often turn to love and faith to help us on

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the way. However of late, I have been leaning into the power of hope for. I'm very mindful that the search for and also living out of a deep engagement of our faith that leads to justice

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and love can often bring about doubts and fits and starts of second guessing because it conjures up the ghosts , the terrors in our lives that come as dancing specters, haunting goblins, moaning trolls who remind us

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again and again, that we are far too human to try to do this life all by ourselves. But I tend to think that doubt can be a good thing because doubt is often the sign that we

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are seeking yearning, chasing belief, not just a belief in a divine something, but a belief that God loves us. God rocks us. God cares for us and God does not leave us even when

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we feel abandoned and alone, even when we think the task before us is too large or complex for us to handle for it. Is there particularly there just as we have reached as deeply into doubt that

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we believe that it is the only thing that will quench our thirst, that God comes to us and we begin to hope. But doubt does not let things come so easily. Most times because to doubt

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often means we have opened our eyes, hearts, minds, souls, and very spirits. And now see and feel and touch the smell, the joy and the agony of living in the great fractures of

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creation. And this can seem as though we are looked locked into intractable conflicts for eternity. This is the irony of doubt in our yearning for belief for genuine and deep healing. We often walk far away

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from it as we try to come home to it . Healing. That is we often live into the small and narrow spaces of life that stunt our growth and demand far too little of us because far too

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little is expected of us or far too little is what we find to be. Oh, so comfortable . It just may be then that doubt is not a force outside of us or a sign of our

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natural depravity or hopeless sinfulness. Doubt may just be one more place in the fabric of the universe. One more way to signal this restless journey. We are on one more sign that Emmaus is not the

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end of the journey, but it's beginning to doubt I think is to believe, to see a vision , a purpose, a reality, a sense of a more caring world that offers so much for us

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that it is good and righteous and just that we do not believe we can reach or attain it or are even good enough for it. You see, I don't think doubt is the end product on the

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assembly line of our lives and creation. No, I think that it is simply a part of the journey, part of the way in which we come to know God's way in our lives with a richness

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that ripens and deepens a richness that often disquiets us when we listen and perhaps participate in the demonization of others. Be it along racial gender, sexual orientation , class, religious age ability lines and more.

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But this only happens if we allow ourselves to completely succumb to doubt and the status quo to lament and to do one's first works over faces our doubts and to see doubt as one of the natural marks of

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our humanity, to not categorize doubt as a sign of moral failing. But to learn the lessons we can find if we accept the fullness of our humanity in those moments of doubt. That moment, when

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we realize that we cannot do this life alone, that we are caught in H Richard Ne's web of creation. And this friends is a magnificent web that is woven with the tensile threads of creation unfolding into

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creation as we breathe in and out as a testament to God's grace, being alive in our living and being and doing, oh the brilliant places we can go if we see our doubt as a mark of

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grace. If we allow it to welcome us into a soul deep relationship with ourselves and with a God who never lets us go and never lets us down morning by morning and day by day. Yes,

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I am asking us to consider a paradigm shift about doubt because the complexity of balancing mercy and justice, forgiveness and accountability, freedom and responsibility, justice and reconciliation are to make our collective heads spin. It

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is challenging and it is natural to wonder if we are up to the task. I argue that it's here, that doubt can guide us as we shift our view of it to being a guide through tough

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and challenging times rather than a signal that we should stop, give up or give into the large task of living our faith, deeply friends. We do not follow Jesus's model when we try to quash doubt

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he was unperturbed by it, but did show signs of getting irritated from time to time. He encouraged questions and welcomed the earnest Doubter. He was the consummate storyteller because his parables encouraged questions. He knew

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his way around the classroom as his teaching aimed to disrupt the familiar in people's worlds and neatly packaged views of God. And so instead of only living our lives by a doubt that tells us we can't do

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what is unrealistic to believe what is impossible. The doubt I am arguing for is an invitation to take all that negative stuff that we've learned. So well , from doubt and turn it into an invitation to

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what we might be able to do what we can do. What is possible if we put our mind and will to it. Yes, I am arguing . That doubt can be a gateway into belief.

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A belief that is forged on the hard work we do to live our faith rather than have it handed to us in cliff notes, how to manuals or sermon aids from the web. Doubt, earnest and

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soul, deep searching can lead us into a commitment that changes our lives each day as we move from experience to story to discipleship, to testimony to faith . And then we begin again and again, recognizing

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that the path to a justice that is more than just us demands that we live as fully as we can into our humanness. And we wed our doubts with a sturdy hope that helps us take hard looks

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at the world around us. We do that introspective work that is also spiritual work to help us know who we are and whose we are not seeking perfection , but cherishing our is. And we learn le

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le and we learned from lament to do our first works over to help us to practice the pause of constructive uncertainty. Pay attention, acknowledge, understand, search, execute repeat. We explore awkwardness and discomfort

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. We do not do this work as solitary souls . We must build relationships that may become communities that are supportive of the tasks and mission before us. This is where hope becomes doubt, twin that guides

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us and carries us beyond the what has been, what is to what can be this I believe is the power of hope in the world when facing injustice . When we live our lives without hope, far

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too many of us become beggars at the table of religions that sanction our own destruction. And we find ourselves content to live out the weary drama of an outdated carousel of momentary ecstasies. And some of us

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think this is holy as you may have realized over our time, together, premeditated, indifference is shaped and maintained by our unwillingness to welcome one another into each other's lives fully. While recognizing that there will

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always be more to know about ourselves and one another that we will fail and succeed, be brilliant and quite dull, magnanimous and misery in short, be human. But the goal here is not, I'm

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gonna say it again, attaining perfection or live a riskless life. It is that we seek a thoroughgoing humanity that marks us as followers of a restless God who wants more for creation. Then we have helped

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shape thus far. Yes, love and faith are very much in the mix. But I think hope keeps us connected to our humanity and our values and our world as well. We hope to live into

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the next generation and we expect God's judgment and God's salvation in this world. And it is right smack dab in the midst of this rich hope that I find a space for us to talk about what might

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be some of the textures of this calling each in each calling to each of us to be some of as people of God. Some of what we engage it is this mix that we find the wellsprings of

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dismantling, premeditated, indifference to engage the pastoral and the prophetic vision that hope places in us in a tension between our present social order and the coming day of the Lord. It is rooted in history and

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grounded in today and provides us for a calling of care that can be, must be a standing ground for the transformation of society. It's new heaven and new earth and who we will be as new people

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. This is a soul deep and wish filled conviction that our current circumstances where far too many of us live in whirlpools of catastrophe are not ultimately definitive or inevitable. The very nature of engaging this prophetic and

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pastoral vision means that we must refuse to accept or tolerate injustice and faithlessness masquerading as piety. The hope we must seek for the common good does not delight or support the status quo for this often does not

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reflect the will of God, but is the architecture built from our own stiff necks. No, this hope is rooted in our biblical faith in our lives and in our future as we work with God.

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For a world of peace and wholeness as we model and live, a radical, as radical advocates for a justice of sustenance and concreteness. Yes, this is a search for justice that stares down evil,

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reject re rejects its inevitability and chooses life over extension extinction. Friends. I'm urging us this morning and beyond to let doubt lead us to hope that leads us to justice. That is a salvation that embraces

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all of humanity so that we are transformed body and spirit, individuals and society, persons and cosmos, time and eternity into that reconciled community that celebrates the rich diversities that make up God's creation. Like the

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character Ya from Julie Dash's wonderful movie, Daughters of the Dust. We must remember. There's going to be all kinds of roads in life to take. Let's not be afraid to take them. We deserve

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them because we're all good women. Do you, do you understand who you are and what you have become with the daughters of those old dusty things nana carries in her tin. Can we carry too many

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scars from the past? We wear our scars like armor for protection. Our mother's scars, our sister's scars, our daughter's scars, thick, hard ugly scars so that no one can pass through to ever

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hurt us again. Let's live our lives without living in the fold of old wounds. What a powerful cry of hope. What a wonderful place to begin to living out the prophetic and pastoral vision for the

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models of hope we must have. Yes, this is a difficult or demanding task, but we must have dreams that can be more powerful than the nightmares , possibilities, more radical than the realities. And

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I hope that does more than cling to a wish or wish on a star or sit by the side of the road, picking and sucking its teeth after dining on a meal of disaster and violence. That

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is our lives. We live in a challenge that should compel us to sing out in a shout that is brimming with hope. It is not the hope of Pandora's box or Aristotle's naive youth or Goethe's happiness

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or Camus myth know our song of hope must be unequivocal and unambiguous. It is a hope that is found within the pages of scripture. It is enduring and pervasive. It is positive. It is the

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divine power of life. It is the expectation of a justice filled future established on God's promise and supported by our ever evolving and deepening trust in God. Hope does not empty out our lives. It is

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eternal life of all grudges, creatures who are brought to this place through God's justice and love. No , this hope is one that pulls the promise of the future into the present and places the present into

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the dawn of a future that is on the rim . Bones of glory. We must live out of a hope that lets folk know that justice and peace means something and are more than homiletical or theological rhetorical

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ruffles and flourishes. Hope must be more than a leaning crutch when times are tough, genuine hope is a catalyst for ornery acts of justice making and love keeping and reconciling ourselves to one another. Through lament

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and through our doing our first works over again and again, using doubt as guides rather than a GPS that has gone amok. None of us can hide from any of the ISMs obscene war making the economy

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, natural disasters and then turn into government that then turn into government obscene governmental neglect and cronyism, global warming and climate change, ghosting and bashing and trolling media and politicians reducing all of us to sound bites

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that are then spent sinning spinning into our airwaves as facts that really are nothing more than cannon fodder for perpetuating ignorance, hatred and terrorism. We must refuse to live our lives in the past tense. The

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sad what ifs the dead end? Mays the rootless and fruitless could bes justice making is something we do as people of faith every day in the everydayness of listening closely when folks talk or don't talk to hear

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what they are saying in the everydayness of taking some time however short or long to refresh ourselves through prayer and meditation in the everydayness of speaking to folks. And it actually meaning whatever it is that's coming out

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of our minds, mouths in the everydayness of being a presence in people's lives in the everydayness of sharing a meal in the everydayness of facing heartache and disappointment in the everydayness of joy and laughter in the everydayness

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of facing people who may expect us to lead them somewhere or at least point them in the right direction and walk with them in the everydayness of blending head and heart in the everydayness of getting up and trying

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one more time to get living right. So embrace your doubts, be comforted by hope and live your lives as citadels of faith and justice every day, which means we live our lives from our heart even

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if it's broken or bruised because we believe and live with every ounce of whatever being we have. That loving the world in all creation is a good thing . Living this love will get us to lives of

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deep spirit and spirituality. Living this life, love will get us to justice. Living this love will take us outside of the folds of old wounds that make us perform postmodern mil minstrel shows of wickedness.

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Living this love means creating communities that are torch, lights of the goodness of creation made up of folks like Miss Rosie across the street. Cousin Willie Mae down by the Duke House, Mister Press over at

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the barbershop. Mr Butler who taught generations of Children to love math and science through counting rhymes and counting games and took you fishing on Saturday mornings where you promptly caught nothing. What gets got up doing the

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electric slide or Texas two step or Irish step step dance or just plain shimming in the spirit is when we refuse to accept indifference as passion, lazy platitudes , as vibrant faith, moaning skepticism, as committed

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witness trifling cliches as vibrant spirituality, arrogant disdain as a world filling love. So as I start to do the final stuff of this set of lectures, five more pages to go with big print because I'm

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old. I just want you to understand this is 16 point print. And I think I'm gonna have to go to 18. Pretty soon as I have tried to say in these presentations, it is very

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possible to face and dismantle injustice and that kind of injustice that is built on building the them versus us . Polarization requires that we must turn to the power of hope in our lives and in creation itself,

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we have to live out our lives standing on the promises we must live in a radical hope that never accepts someone else's definition of wholeness as you've heard me say already, particularly if they're the only ones benefiting

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from it. We must believe in hope that is powerful, enables us to press on when we feel like giving up. It enables us to draw strength from the future to live in a somewhat and sometimes

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discouraging present. It makes it possible for us to see the world, not only as it is, but as it can be, hope can move us to new places and turn us into a new person

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. We often look at struggle as a sign of discord and turmoil rather than realize that our faith demands from us, seasons of struggle and moments of glory . Hope gives us the ability to recognize that no

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event in our lives, whatever its character can imprison us, we must refuse to scale down our aspirations to the level of the facts in our present situation . Because God is always calling us to move beyond

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the present to shape and mold a better tomorrow. I invite all of us to embrace the healing that rests in God's hands that offers each of us as we said, as God offers to each of us

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, as we set off on the journey of taking our taking on our premeditated indifference. We can rise up from the waters of justice and inhumanity and shout about a God who is better than butter. We

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can rise up from torment and taunting and tell people about a God who just does it. We can rise up and take up our bells and our pianos and our organs and tell the nations about our God

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who reaches out and touches everyone, our God who out Grecians, the formula out plurals. The lady out bakes the shake out cuisines. The lean out phones the eye out lax is the X. Let's

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live our lives, living and singing songs of hope songs that lift the spirit songs which demand a commitment songs which offer hope, which are wrapped with love . We must let folks know what it is like

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to live and sing the songs of hope without hesitation . Even though we may be faltering, we just keep going because it's a good thing to face in to the power of love and justice and hope.

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Instead of hoarding them in our hearts, stifling them with our minds and instead open our mouths and hearts and souls and proclaim God's word instead of a wheezing , premeditated, indifference. Oh, we've got to

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see, we may sing our songs in fear at times and we may sing them off key sometimes. But we sing these songs of hope, sing them even when the times of life are failing sing.

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When you feel like running sing, when the gift of giving means we must still give some more. Seeing when the candle has almost gone out sing when you're wrapped up, tied up, tangled up,

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sing in the midst of joy and laughter sing, using your heart and soul sing, using your witness , your hope, your love, your faith sing , holding on to the watch light sing, making

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a joyful noise unto the Lord s no matter how young you are singing, no matter how old you are seeing whether you're sis straight black queer trans non barry or just hanging out sing, refusing to live

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lives of hatred and fear sing. Even when they try to dress up lying by calling it post truth because a lie is a lie is a lie, is a lie, sing because you know, the

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next generation is watching what you do. And the older generation has entrusted us with a gift of caring for this world sing. When folks tell you, you have no gift for singing, sing, even

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when somebody has taken away the sheet music. See , because you've got a song inside of you and you just have to let it go. Don't be discouraged. Toy comes in the morning know that God

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is nigh, stand still and look up. God is going to show up, the creator is standing