1<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nThere\u2019s no doubt about it. Alexander was having Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If we were to read a little bit more of his story we would discover that not only did he wake up with gum<\/p>\n\n\n\n
in his hair and suffer the disappointment of no special toy in his cereal box, he also got scrunched up in<\/p>\n\n\n\n
the middle in the back seat of the car – – and felt carsick – – and when he complained that he felt sick, no<\/p>\n\n\n\n
one even answered. Australia was looking better and better.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is a classic bit of lament – – of crying out against experience of injustice – – and of feeling like no one<\/p>\n\n\n\n
is listening.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Perhaps the most well known prayer of lament is the one we hear Jesus cry out loud on the cross – –<\/p>\n\n\n\n
words excerpted from Psalm 22 :<\/p>\n\n\n\n
1 My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Why are you so far from helping me, from the words of my groaning?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
2 O my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer;<\/p>\n\n\n\n
and by night but find no rest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Message Bible, an approximate paraphrase by Eugene Peterson, reads this way:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
1-2 God, God . . . my God!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Why did you dump me<\/p>\n\n\n\n
miles from nowhere?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Doubled up with pain, I call to God<\/p>\n\n\n\n
all the day long. No answer. Nothing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I keep at it all night, tossing and turning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Like Alexander – – the Psalmist cries out – and complains that no one is listening – – but the Psalmist<\/p>\n\n\n\n
doesn\u2019t have the option of moving to Australia. Each in their own way give voice to despair.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A few months ago, I signed up for a series of podcasts called \u201cHope Portal\u201d – – offered by Krista Tippett<\/p>\n\n\n\n
who hosted the On Being<\/strong> series on NPR for a number of years. The sermon title comes from her guiding<\/p>\n\n\n\nquestion: How do we build an enduring and muscular hope as we move through a time of almost<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\nunbearable pain and injustice?<\/em>2<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n1<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Judith Viorst Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible,No Good, Very Bad Day Simon and<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Schuster, New York, NY. (c) 1972<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Krista Tippett in the introduction to the Hope Portal Series – – words in italics are from her 2<\/p>\n\n\n\n
various comments in the series.of 3 6<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She began the series by naming what we are living with – – simultaneously – – our ecological fragility and<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\nenvironmental degradation – – chaotic weather patterns – – an almost cultivated ignorance of scientific<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\nevidence for climate change. – -and what we may experience as political chaos and dysfunction.<\/em> Her<\/p>\n\n\n\nseries was completed just before the passage of the Great Big Beautiful Bill. That bill might well have<\/p>\n\n\n\n
been included in her litany of the dangerous and traumatic losses we are living with on a daily basis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In conversations with a variety of wisdom teachers, the Hope Portal series invites us to consider this<\/p>\n\n\n\n
reality that: at a very cellular level, we are affected by the pain being inflicted both on the planet and on<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\nus and our fellow human beings. In the some 30 trillion cells in each one of us there is the capacity to<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\nexperience the pain of humankind and the pain of the planet.<\/em> At any moment, at the cellular level – –<\/p>\n\n\n\nhumankind and indeed, this beloved planet, are having a Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day – – –<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sadly, moving to Australia won\u2019t change that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So what are we to do with that amount of pain?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Hope Portal Conversations invite us to understand that the first step is to acknowledge the pain in all<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\nits intractable immensity,<\/em> to look it full in the face.<\/em> We\u2019re invited to sit in our bodies and allow ourselves<\/p>\n\n\n\nto feel the depth of the pain and sorrow going on at a cellular level as we hear the news from Gaza – – as<\/p>\n\n\n\n
we see the flood images coming in from Nepal – – even as we try to understand the pain of a very public<\/p>\n\n\n\n
trial on the front page of the Globe almost every morning. It is a Herculean challenge to even begin to<\/p>\n\n\n\n
integrate in consciousness the far reaching ramifications of legal decisions that permit and legitimize the<\/p>\n\n\n\n
infliction of all kinds of pain across the human spectrum in this country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The scriptures invite and challenge us to sit in these fragile human bodies and feel and acknowledge the<\/p>\n\n\n\n
pain – – and, further, to allow ourselves to grieve and to mourn – – to feel our helplessness against it,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
perhaps in spite of our best efforts at resistance – – even to actually cry out against it all – – even to give<\/p>\n\n\n\n
voice to our doubt that anyone is listening – – -perhaps to give voice to a profoundly reasonable despair<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\nand hopelessness.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\nWhen we choose to embrace a time of lament – – we are taking on a serious and heavy task in a<\/p>\n\n\n\n
profoundly loving service to the planet and to humankind. In some way, the pain of the world needs to be<\/p>\n\n\n\n
given a voice – – and that voice may be ours..<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The awful truth of the matter is, that if we choose to love this world, to love our fellow human beings – – to<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\nlove at all – – we are going to feel pain.<\/em> Profound love and deep pain are two sides of the same coin.<\/p>\n\n\n\nNot long ago, Rev.Cathlin Baker introduced me to a word for the bodily manifestation of feeling the pain<\/p>\n\n\n\n
that is the other side of love. It is the Greek word for “compassion,” often transliterated as<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“splagchnizomai” (splag – ch – niz – o – mai)<\/strong> (\u03c3\u03c0\u03bb\u03b1\u03b3\u03c7\u03bd\u03af\u03b6\u03bf\u03bc\u03b1\u03b9). It is used to describe a deep, visceral<\/p>\n\n\n\nfeeling of pity or mercy. It literally refers to the bowels or inward parts, suggesting a gut-level emotional<\/p>\n\n\n\n
response. It’s the feeling of having one’s “bowels yearn” or feeling deep sympathy for someone’s<\/p>\n\n\n\n
suffering.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I think it is the bodily sort of clenching reaction I feel watching mourners carry white body bags in Gaza<\/p>\n\n\n\n
or seeing the photos of young children lost to the raging flood waters. Splagchnizomai. Splag – ch – niz –<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\no mai.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nBut in the face of all the reasons for despair and what Krista Tippett acknowledges as a profound and<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\nreasonable hopelessness,<\/em> there is also a profound call to the practice of a muscular hope<\/strong>. Hope that is a<\/em>of 4 6<\/p>\n\n\n\nmuscle that can be strengthened and flexed. It is not dreamy wishful thinking or idealism or an optimism<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\nthat believes that everything will be all right in the end.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\nTo quote Krista: \u201cIn the face of the over use and weakening and ruining of words like love and hope, we<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\nare challenged to understand<\/em> hope as an orientation<\/em><\/strong> – –<\/em> as a way of seeing and moving through the<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nworld<\/em><\/strong> – – Hope is a reality based choice, a calling,<\/em> a practice in the face of profound despair<\/em><\/strong> – – Hope<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\nmakes a leap of imagination – – Hope looks at the world full on – – and refuses to accept that things have<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\nto be this way.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\nKrista described Buddhist teacher, Joanna Macy, \u201c(Joanna) embodied a wild love for the world and a<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\nfierce hope that rises irrepressible from that love. She carried and lived an important reminder to us that<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\nwhen we love, we will also know pain, and we will know grief that can feel too awful to bear. When we<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\ntalk about the muscle of hope being reality-based, that means that it does not call us to be brimming with<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\noptimism where that is not warranted. What we\u2019re called to do is<\/em> stay present.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nLamenting crying out, complaining, naming the pain<\/strong> is part of being present.<\/strong> And when you\u2019re present,<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nthere will be grieving to do.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nBut the Psalms also show us a pattern – that the great rhythm of the lament<\/strong> moves from the despair<\/p>\n\n\n\nof \u201cgod, why have you forsaken me\u201d to the rhythms of muscular hope.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Psalm 13<\/strong> gives a glimpse of the rhythm and movement as the Psalmist cries out to the Living One – –<\/p>\n\n\n\nlisten to the first 4 verses:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
How long will you hide your face from me?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
2 How long must I bear pain[a] in my soul<\/p>\n\n\n\n
and have sorrow in my heart all day long?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
How long shall my enemy be exalted over me?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
3 Consider and answer me, O Lord my God!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Give light to my eyes, or I will sleep the sleep of death,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
4 and my enemy will say, \u201cI have prevailed\u201d;<\/p>\n\n\n\n
my foes will rejoice because I am shaken.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And then,<\/strong> as Old Testament scholar, Walter Brueggeman says, \u201cThere is long wait between the end of<\/p>\n\n\n\nverse 4 and the beginning of verse 5.\u201d 3<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Psalmist has cried out in lament – – and sits with the pain – –<\/p>\n\n\n\n
and something happens in the space between verse 4 and verse 5 – – and a new energy is activated as the<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Psalm continues:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
5 But I trusted in your steadfast love;<\/p>\n\n\n\n
my heart shall rejoice in your salvation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
6 I will sing to the Living One because he has dealt bountifully with me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When Jesus entered Jerusalem near the end of his life journey, according to the text, he wept out loud<\/p>\n\n\n\n
with anguish that the city – – the collective and corporate lives of the people – – did not – perhaps could<\/p>\n\n\n\n
not, recognize \u201cthe things that make for peace!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
3<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Walter Brueggemann in The Message of the Psalms:A Theological Commentary Augsburg<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Publishing House Minneapolis (c) 1984 p. 57of 5 6<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On the cross, his anguish and despair is so eloquent – – repeating the themes of lament in Psalm 22 – \u201cMy<\/p>\n\n\n\n
God, why have you forsaken me?\u201d Luke 23:46<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And then there is an exquisite pause – – – – and Jesus utters the most incredible words of trust: Into your<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nhands, I commit my spirit\u2026<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nRichard Rohr in his book THE TEARS OF THINGS shares these thoughts:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I think of two Masai warriors I met in Kenya years ago. They were given permission by their elders to<\/p>\n\n\n\n
show me their \u201ccaves of grief,\u201d where as part of their initiation journey, they had to literally cry for all<\/p>\n\n\n\n
the world – plants, animals, human beings, earth itself – – before they would continue on to manhood.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Imagine! Would that we had such a ritual journey for American politicians, business people, prisoners,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
soldiers and clergy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In my experience, tears have helped me glimpse the big secret that I still only half know – – that<\/p>\n\n\n\n
human beings are really made of love and for love.And we still don\u2019t know it!<\/em><\/strong>We can only cry it. Until<\/p>\n\n\n\na divine form of compassion enters the scene, we do not enjoy the deep alchemy that morphs human rage<\/p>\n\n\n\n
and judgement into holy sadness. (But) you don\u2019t think<\/em><\/strong> yourself into crying. You cry yourself,<\/em><\/strong> if you<\/p>\n\n\n\nwill allow, you cry yourself<\/strong> into daring new ways of thinking and feeling. Because tears are a form of<\/p>\n\n\n\nallowing more than willing, they lend themselves much more easily to the language of spirit. All things<\/p>\n\n\n\n
first and finally deserve tears much more than hatred, fixing, or denial. 4<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The movement in the lament Psalms is from a loud and clear lament to a place of trust and gratitude – – a<\/p>\n\n\n\n
renewed energy. The energy for a muscular hope is found in giving voice to the pain loud and clear – –<\/p>\n\n\n\n
being present to it in all its despair, feeling the cellular discomfort of Splagchnizomai (Splag – chi -niz –<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\no- mai)<\/strong> of roiling in the gut – – Being present – – and then, again quoting Krista Tippett \u201cmaking the<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\nchoice to flex a muscular hope that refuses to accept that things have to be this way – – This is a hope that<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\nunleashes energy, intelligence, and creativity, courage and persistence behind that insistence that things<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\nmust change.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\nThis kind of muscular hope is a virtue – – but it is one that is not meant to be carried alone. We are called<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\nto surround ourselves with others who can carry it when it just gets too hard on our own.\u201d<\/em> When we are<\/p>\n\n\n\ncommitted to this rhythm of lament – gratitude – and the flexing of a muscular hope, strangely,<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\ninterestingly, kind of miraculously (<\/em>and paradoxically), this increases our capacity to love and act in this<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\nworld.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\nAnd what this world need now is not only muscular hope – – but a truly muscular love.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The building of this muscular hope and love requires adequate nourishment. So, perhaps we might come<\/p>\n\n\n\n
to the sacrament this morning understanding it as food and sustenance for the strength we need to keep<\/p>\n\n\n\n
flexing those muscles together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
***************<\/p>\n\n\n\n
4<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Richard Rohr The Tears of Things:Prophetic Wisdom For An Age of Outrage Center for Action<\/p>\n\n\n\n
and Contemplation Inc. Penguin Random House NY (c) 2025 p.100of<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
led worship and preached. A rich service…Sermon “Building a Muscular Hope” below: Building A Muscular Hope Rev. Vicky Hanjian Chilmark September 6, 2026 Psalm 13 Luke 19:41 Mark 15:34 I want to begin with a brief snippet from a children\u2019s book by Judith Viorst – – maybe you have read it to your children or […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9160","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-worship-and-teaching"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chilmarkchurch.org\/service\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9160","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chilmarkchurch.org\/service\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chilmarkchurch.org\/service\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chilmarkchurch.org\/service\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chilmarkchurch.org\/service\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9160"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/chilmarkchurch.org\/service\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9160\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9164,"href":"https:\/\/chilmarkchurch.org\/service\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9160\/revisions\/9164"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chilmarkchurch.org\/service\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9160"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chilmarkchurch.org\/service\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9160"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chilmarkchurch.org\/service\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9160"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}